ELECTRONICS
Samsung to invest in AI
Samsung Electronics Co and its affiliated companies plan to spend 25 trillion won (US$22 billion) over the next three years on artificial intelligence (AI), auto components and other businesses. The company yesterday said that it would spend the money to hire artificial intelligence researchers to be a global player in next-generation telecoms technology and to boost its presence in electronics components for cars.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Bitcoin below US$6,500
Cryptocurrencies slumped yesterday, with bitcoin tumbling below US$6,500 for the first time since last month, after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) postponed a decision on whether to allow the listing of an exchange-traded fund backed by the largest digital currency. Bitcoin retreated as much as 6.1 percent to US$6,457 at 12:43pm in Hong Kong, the lowest since July 16, according to consolidated Bloomberg pricing. The SEC has until Sept. 30 to “approve or disapprove, or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove” a proposed rule change from Cboe Global Markets Inc that would allow the listing of a fund from VanEck Associates Corp and SolidX Partners Inc to list, the regulator said in a statement.
UNITED KINGDOM
Starting wages climb
Starting salaries last month rose steeply as employers struggled to fill job openings amid the lowest unemployment since the 1970s, a report published yesterday showed. Vacancies soared, but a shortage of candidates meant firms added permanent staff at the weakest pace since October last year, according to IHS Markit and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. Pay rates increased across the board, with a summer heat wave boosting demand for temporary shop workers. The private sector remains eager to hire, even as Brexit and rising global trade tensions weigh on sentiment.
INTERNET
Bytedance eyes US investors
Beijing Bytedance Technology Co Ltd (北京字節跳動科技) the start-up behind hit Chinese news aggregator Jinri Toutiao (今日頭條), is seeking to raise as much as US$3 billion in a funding round that is mostly targeting US investors, a person familiar with the matter said. The fast-growing company held meetings with potential investors for a financing that could value Bytedance at as much as US$75 billion, the person said. The figure would make Bytedance the world’s most valuable start-up. The Beijing-based company has branched out to include a fast-growing short video clip service called Douyin (抖音), known as Tik Tok abroad, with 500 million monthly active users.
LOGISTICS
Vinalines gears up for IPO
Vietnam National Shipping Lines, a state-owned shipping firm, is seeking to raise about 4.89 trillion dong (US$210 million) from an initial public offering (IPO) next month, bookrunner Saigon Securities Inc said yesterday. The company, better known as Vinalines, is to auction 488.82 million shares, or a 34.8 percent stake, at a price of 10,000 dong a piece at the Hanoi Stock Exchange on Sept. 5, Saigon Securities said in a filing. The IPO is part of Vietnam’s broader privatization program to increase the efficiency and performance of state-owned firms, and to fill government coffers as public debt nears the mandated ceiling of 65 percent of its GDP.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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