FOOD
Belgium knew about eggs
German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt on Saturday expressed concern about news that Belgian authorities first learned about the possible contamination of eggs with an insecticide in June, a month before the issue became public. Schmidt plans to call his Belgian counterpart today to discuss the current situation and “particularly the new information,” a ministry spokesman said. Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarkets in Germany and the Netherlands in a widening scandal over possible contamination by the insecticide fipronil. Discount supermarket chain Aldi said it was withdrawing all eggs from sale at its stores in Germany as a precaution.
EGYPT
Price hikes announced
Egypt’s official state news agency MENA on Friday reported that the governor of Cairo had announced a 50 percent increase in transportation fares, a day after the government increased fees for drinking water and sewage. The agency quoted Cairo Governor Atef Abdel-Hamid as saying the increase amounts to half an Egyptian pound (US$0.03) for buses and it would go into effect on Friday. The daily el-Shorouk reported fares for short rides increased from 1 pound to 1.5 pounds. Egypt is taking steps to reform its economy, including flotation of the currency and cutting subsidies.
AVIATION
Rockwell Collins coveted
Jet engine manufacturer United Technologies Corp is weighing an acquisition of aviation equipment supplier Rockwell Collins Inc, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that would potentially rank among the largest ever in the aerospace industry. Rockwell Collins, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has a market value of US$19.3 billion, raising the prospect that a transaction would top United Technologies’ own US$18 billion purchase of Goodrich Corp in 2012. While United Technologies makes a variety of aircraft parts, Rockwell Collins specializes in products that would complement its lineup: avionics and aircraft interiors. Its top competitors include Honeywell International Inc and France’s Safran SA.
MINING
Miner sits on giant diamond
Nearly two years after unearthing a tennis-ball-sized 1,109-carat rough diamond, Canada’s Lucara Diamond Corp is considering forming a partnership to sell the stone if it still does not have a deal in the next six to eight weeks. Lucara, which failed to sell the world’s largest uncut stone at Sotheby’s auction house in June last year, continues to receive offers, chief executive William Lamb said on Friday. The Vancouver-based miner is mulling “one or two” options for an outright sale, but such bids have failed to meet financial scrutiny in the past, Lamb said. Lucara’s board regularly discusses how best to capitalize on the diamond, he said.
START-UPS
Blue Apron moves facility
Blue Apron Holdings Inc is closing a New Jersey facility and moving 1,270 jobs to a bigger site opening in the state later this year. More than half of the employees at the Jersey City facility have decided to move to Linden, New Jersey, a company spokeswoman said on Friday. According to a public notice, the original fulfillment center is to close by October. Workers notified on Friday of the changes will still have the opportunity to relocate to the new warehouse, the spokeswoman said. The 1,270 affected employees represent about 24 percent of the company’s workforce.
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