SEMICONDUCTORS
PMI mulling sale
Precision Motion Industries Inc (PMI, 銀泰科技), whose components are used in semiconductor equipment, is exploring a sale that could value the Taiwanese company at more than US$1 billion, people familiar with the matter said. PMI is working with a financial adviser on the potential deal, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The company has attracted interest from private-equity firms and other industrial companies, one of the people said. Any deal would add to the US$4.5 billion of announced acquisitions of Taiwanese companies this year, compared with US$3.9 billion during the same period last year, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. In July, a consortium led by KKR & Co agreed to acquire Taipei-based LCY Chemical Corp (李長榮化工) in a deal valued at NT$47.8 billion (US$1.6 billion). Deliberations on any sale of Taichung-based PMI are at an early stage, and the company could still decide against a deal, the people said. PMI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
ELECTRONICS
Largan shares fall 1.68%
Shares in smartphone lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) jolted yesterday as the company hinted at poorer-than-expected demand from some of its clients. The company has not ruled out a dip in revenue for this month. The stock yesterday fell 1.68 percent to NT$3,800 in Taipei trading. Analysts also voice concerns about the company, a key supplier to Apple Inc, as the high price of newly launched OLED iPhones could drive consumers toward cheaper or older models, which are not equipped with the company’s most advanced lenses. The stock also tumbled by the maximum 10 percent limit on Tuesday, as investors were spooked by a massive stake transfer by the company’s founding family. Largan later clarified that the transfer of 6.09 million shares is part of the Lin (林) family’s long-term financial plan to ensure sustainable development, and the move would not affect its day-to-day operations.
RESTAURANTS
A Cut plans French outing
A Cut Steakhouse at the Ambassador Hotel (國賓大飯店) is to team up with France’s iconic restaurant La Pyramide to offer special seven-course meals priced at NT$8,000 per set next month, the hotelier said. The gastronomic event from Oct. 25 to Oct. 27 reflects the steakhouse’s belief that there is ample demand for fine dining among local foodies as evidenced by a decade-high number of guests in the first half of the year, it said. The steakhouse’s cooking staff are to visit France this month to learn from La Pyramide so that they can wow local customers next month, it said.
INSURANCE
Allianz signs Olympic deal
Allianz SE is to join the Olympic Partner Program in 2021 to provide insurance solutions for Olympic teams and athletes. Allianz said it is to work with the International Olympic Committee to support the Olympic movement with the ambition of providing insurance solutions to national Olympic committees around the world, as well as their Olympic teams and athletes. The support will include existing products, such as fleet and property and casualty insurance, but also insurance solutions for future products and services driven by technological changes, the firm said. The partnership is to run from 2021 through to 2028.
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