CHIPMAKERS
Qualcomm defends lawsuits
Qualcomm chief executive Steve Mollenkopf on Monday said the chipmaker’s legal war with Apple Inc is about defending its business model, but predicted an eventual out-of-court settlement. Mollenkopf said the two tech giants will eventually “move on to greener pastures.” He said his company works on “core technologies” that are likely to be implemented years later, suggesting that is why it faces numerous legal disputes.
GERMANY
Investor confidence drops
Investor confidence dropped for a second month this month, according to the ZEW Center for European Economic Research. Its index of expectations, which aims to predict economic developments six months ahead, slid to 17.5 from 18.6 in June. However, the DAX is picking up again after sliding last month, and the Bundesbank says it expects “lively” manufacturing and employment growth to ensure a continued robust expansion. ZEW president Achim Wambach said the center remains optimistic about the prospects for the nation’s economy. ZEW’s gauge for current conditions in the eurozone climbed to 28.7 from 20.5, the report showed.
ENERGY
Firms’ recommendations cut
Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp had their recommendations cut at Wolfe Research as the outlook for oil prices deteriorates. Exxon was lowered to the underperform from peerperform, while Chevron was downgraded to peerperform from outperform, Wolfe analysts said in separate reports on Monday. Apache Corp, Hess Corp and ConocoPhillips were also downgraded, with Occidental Petroleum Corp the only outlier to get its rating increased among oil and gas producers. Oil prices have languished below US$50 a barrel in New York since May as rising US production and stubbornly high stockpiles put into question the ability of the OPEC and its allies to bring the market back to balance.
TURKEY
Growth likely to fall short
The nation’s economic growth this year will fall slightly short of the government’s forecast, a Reuters poll found, suggesting not all investor concerns following an April referendum giving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers have eased. While growth forecasts are better than they were three months ago — alongside a rising stock market and a more stable lira — projected growth rates are still well below half the expected inflation rate, suggesting not all is well.
MINING
Rio Tinto eyes Canada
Rio Tinto Group’s pursuit of new diamond output to tap rising demand in Asia is focusing on a project in the Canadian forest. The world’s second-biggest miner yesterday added the Fort a la Corne joint venture, about 60km east of Prince Albert in Saskatchewan, to its published list of advanced projects after striking a deal last month to take as much as a 60 percent stake. The venture’s Star-Orion South project holds an estimated diamond resource of 55.4 million carats and has potential development costs of about C$2.5 billion (US$2 billion), according to 2015 filings by developer, Saskatoon-based Shore Gold Inc. The ore accounted for about 41 percent of revenue last year, while diamonds generated about 2 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Global diamond jewelry demand hit US$80 billion last year on higher employment and wage growth, De Beers Group last month said in a report.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six