STOCKS
Industry drives revenue jump
Companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and Taipei Exchange saw their combined revenue last month increase 10.1 percent year-on-year on a consolidated basis, driven mainly by firms in the steel, chemicals, and oil and gas industries, the TWSE reported on Friday. Listed companies posted NT$2.99 trillion (US$99.1 billion) in revenue last month, the exchange said. However, the figure dropped 1.69 percent from a record level of NT$3.04 trillion in September. Aggregate sales for all listed companies totaled NT$26.22 trillion in the first 10 months of the year, up 5.38 percent from a year earlier, the exchange said.
AUTOMOTIVE
Primax invests in Belfast
Computer and handset peripherals maker Primax Electronics Ltd (致伸) on Friday said it had signed an agreement to acquire a 37 percent stake in Belfast Holdings (Cayman) for US$48.1 million. Primax said that it would become the largest single investor in the automotive electronic systems supplier, allowing the company to use its precision manufacturing capabilities and technology edge to expand into the automotive electronics market. Belfast’s main products include electric power-steering systems, adaptive front-lighting systems and other subsystems for electric cars and autonomous driving.
BANKING
Citibank chair retiring
Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) on Friday said chairman Victor Kuan (管國霖) has decided to retire next year after leading the company over the past seven years. Citi country officer Paulus Mok (莫兆鴻) will take over Kuan’s position on Jan. 1, the company said. The changes still need to be approved by the company’s board and local regulator, the company added.
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