BANKING
Construction loans inch up
Construction loans last month totaled NT$1.668 trillion (US$54.94 billion), an increase of 0.36 percent, or NT$6 billion, from NT$1.662 trillion the previous month, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. The increase reflected a mild improvement in business confidence on the part of developers and builders, the statement said. Similarly, mortgage loans last month totaled NT$6.483 billion, a gain of 0.59 percent from a month earlier, it said, suggesting a mild rebound in property buying interest.
CHIPMAKERS
Nanya sells Micron shares
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s biggest DRAM chipmaker, yesterday said it sold about 382,537 shares of Micron Technology Inc for US$12.25 million. Nanya Technology booked US$5.63 million in gains from the share disposal, a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. After the sale, Nanya Technology holds a 4.07 percent share of the US memorychip giant. Nanya Technology booked about NT$4.8 billion in revenue from selling Micron shares last quarter.
CHIPMAKERS
SPIL’s profit doubles
Chip packager and tester Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (SPIL, 矽品精密) yesterday said net profit more than doubled to NT$2.16 billion last quarter, compared with NT$997 million in the first quarter. SPIL attributed the strong growth to nonoperating gains of NT$1.08 billion, with a net gain of NT$721 million from fair-value exchange of financial liabilities and NT$108 million in foreign-exchange gains. Gross margin dropped from 19.2 percent in the first quarter to 18.4 percent last quarter. On an annual basis, last quarter’s net profit sank 23 percent from NT$2.81 billion. Gross margin was 23.5 percent in the second quarter of last year.
SOLAR
India launches investigation
India has initiated an anti-dumping investigation on solar cell manufacturers, the Bureau of Foreign Trade said on its Web site yesterday. The probe is to look into whether imports of solar cells from Taiwan, China and Malaysia have damaged the solar industry in India from 2013 to last year, the statement said. Solar cell imports from Taiwan were worth US$51.45 million last year, taking up 1.79 percent of India’s total solar cell imports, according to customs statistics. The bureau, which is in charge of international trade policy, called on local manufacturers to cooperate with the government in preparing for future investigations.
STOCK MARKETS
TAIEX closes slightly higher
The TAIEX yesterday closed slightly higher as large-cap stocks generally stayed in the doldrums, except for smartphone camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光), which gained more than 2 percent, lending support to the broader market, dealers said. Market sentiment remained cautious as investors continued to keep a close eye on the US’ efforts to institute tax reforms and economic stimulus measures amid controversy over alleged Russian interference in last year’s US presidential election, dealers said. In addition, investors preferred to remain on the sidelines ahead of a US Federal Reserve policymaking meeting that was scheduled to start later in the day, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 1.87 points, or 0.02 percent, at 10,463.15. Turnover totaled NT$92.16 billion during the session.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to