MACAU
Gambling revenue up
Gambling revenue last month rose on back of solid demand from Chinese betters keen to play in the country’s only legal casino hub. Revenue rose 2.8 percent to 22 billion patacas (US$2.73 billion), Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau figures showed yesterday. That compares with analysts’ expectations of 3 to 10 percent growth. Last month marked the 26th consecutive month of gains, after plunging to five-year lows due to lean economic growth and a widespread crackdown on corruption starting in 2014.
JAPAN
Manufacturer sentiment down
Sentiment among large manufacturers dipped two points to 19, a key quarterly economic survey by the Bank of Japan showed yesterday, as worries grow about global trade tensions. The Tankan survey marked the third straight quarter of decline. The survey, long seen as an important indicator of the state of the world’s third-largest economy, looks at the difference between companies surveyed that have a “favorable” outlook and those with an “unfavorable” outlook. The manufacturers surveyed include automakers and electronics companies that are mainstays of the nation’s economy. The latest results show optimists outnumber pessimists, but the gap is shrinking.
AUTOMAKERS
Aston Martin tightens offer
Luxury automaker Aston Martin Holdings (UK) Ltd yesterday said its stock market share offer had been fully subscribed after it tightened and slightly lowered its price range to between £18.50 to £20 per share. The company, famed for making the sports car driven by fictional secret agent James Bond, is selling about 25 percent of its stock in the first initial public offering by a British automaker for decades. Aston Martin initially set a range of between £17.50 to £22.50 per share. The books were now covered at the tighter range and it expected to close them at midday London time today, the company said.
CHINA
Tax exemption widened
The government has widened income tax exemption on reinvested profits for foreign firms, the Ministry of Finance said on Sunday. The ministry in December last year said that it would temporarily exempt foreign firms from paying provisional income tax on profits they reinvest in the country. However, such policies only covered investment into sectors encouraged by the government. The scope of the tax exemption has been expanded to all sectors where foreign investment is not prohibited, the ministry said. The tax exemption expansion is retroactive from Jan. 1, which means firms that have paid taxes this year are to be refunded.
SAUDI ARABIA
Public spending to increase
The kingdom plans to increase spending next year more than initially forecast as authorities take advantage of higher oil prices to spur economic growth and reduce unemployment. Public spending is expected to reach 1.106 trillion riyals (US$295 billion) next year, 100 billion riyals more than the government had projected last year, Minister of Finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan said on Sunday. Authorities expect spending to rise to 1.170 trillion riyals by 2021, he said, citing initial estimates. The government expects GDP to expand 2.1 percent this year after contracting 0.9 percent last year. However, growth would stay below 2.5 percent through 2021, estimates have shown.
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