TOURISM
New Zealand to levy tax
New Zealand’s Labour-led government said on Friday it plans to impose a tax on most international visitors to fund infrastructure and ease strains on the South Pacific nation’s booming tourist sector. The new tax of up to NZ$35 (US$24.29) per person is to start halfway next year — in the middle of the official “China New Zealand Year of Tourism” — and is expected to provide an extra NZ$57 million to NZ$80 million each year to fund conservation and infrastructure.
GERMANY
Growth forecast tempered
The central bank yesterday said that it had sharply downgraded its economic growth forecast for this year, but grew more optimistic for next year, saying that the present boom should continue although the danger of a trade war is rising. For next year, the Bundesbank upgraded its growth outlook by 0.2 percentage points, to 1.9 percent, while it slightly raised its 2020 forecast to 1.6 percent.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Softbank to fund Indian solar
Japan’s Softbank Group Corp is planning to invest between US$60 billion and US$100 billion in a solar power project in India as the firm looks to expand its interests into various sectors, an NHK report said yesterday. The public broadcaster said that the massive investment in India would be funded jointly by Softbank and Saudi Arabia, which have already partnered to create the Vision Fund investment vehicle. NHK said the deal would likely be announced by Softbank and the Indian government after details are finalized, without giving a timeline.
TECHNOLOGY
Google buys Dutch land
Alphabet Inc’s Google bought 70 hectares of land in the Netherlands as it explores options for constructing more data centers across Europe. The company on Thursday said it is still considering whether to build on the site in the province of North Holland, but that a decision will be made soon. Google already owns a datacenter in the Eemshaven port in the province of Groningen and earlier this year announced that it would invest 500 million euros (US$577.8 million) to expand it, after initially spending 600 million euros.
SEMICONDUCTORS
China approves NXP merger
Qualcomm Inc’s US$43 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV has been approved by Chinese regulators, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. The stocks rallied in extended trading. Clearance from China would remove the final regulatory hurdle for the purchase, which has been pending for more than 18 months. The decision by Chinese regulators will allow the transaction to be completed ahead of a July deadline set by NXP, which has said it would abandon the deal if it was not approved by then.
TRANSPORTAION
Musk wins Chicago project
The Boring Co, founded by Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk, has been selected to build a high-speed underground transportation system that it said would whisk passengers from downtown Chicago to O’Hare International Airport in mere minutes. Each electric vehicle in the proposed tunnel system is to carry eight to 16 people and travel at speeds of 200 to 240kph, the company said on Thursday. Boring said that it would fund the project in its entirety, and plans to collect ticket and advertising revenue.
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