AUTOMAKERS
Tesla to build ‘Gigafactory 3’
Tesla Inc is getting ready to break ground on its factory and chief executive officer Elon Musk cannot wait to visit. “Looking forward to visiting soon for the groundbreaking of Gigafactory Shanghai,” Musk tweeted yesterday. He did not provide a date for the visit. The Chinese plant — dubbed “Gigafactory 3” — would be the biggest foreign-invested manufacturing project in Shanghai. The US company has secured more than 81 hectares of land for the factory, which is expected to cost several billion dollars to build.
VIDEO GAMES
China ends licensing freeze
China has approved 80 video game titles in the first batch of licenses granted by the media regulator after the end of a nine-month freeze. The games were mostly local titles and did not include any from Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) or Netease Inc (網易). The notice of approvals was posted online by the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. The suspension stemmed from Beijing’s campaign to combat gaming addiction and a reshuffle of regulators.
RUSSIA
Ukrainian imports banned
The government on Saturday announced a ban on dozens of imported products from Ukraine in its latest economic sanctions targeting Kiev. The products to be banned included chocolate, wheat and beer as well as sunflower oil, bread, jam, children’s diapers and wine, the government said in a statement. The ban would come into force immediately, it said, adding that it was imposed due to “unfriendly acts by Ukraine” since the outbreak of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
INTERNET
Google lawsuit dropped
A lawsuit filed against Google by users who said that the world’s largest search engine breached their privacy by using facial recognition technology was dismissed by a judge on Saturday. US District Judge Edmond E. Chang in Chicago cited a lack of “concrete injuries.” The suit, initially filed in March 2016, said that the firm allegedly collected biometric data from photographs using facial recognition software, running afoul of an Illinois law against using a person’s image without permission.
TELECOMS
Verizon users retain ESPN
Subscribers of Verizon Communications Inc can continue to watch ESPN, ABC and other channels owned by Walt Disney Co after the two companies announced a deal over programming fees. “Verizon and the Walt Disney Co have reached a broad-based distribution agreement,” the telecommunications giant and the entertainment company said in a joint statement on Sunday. Details would be released in the coming days, it added. Without an agreement before yesterday’s deadline, Verizon’s FIOS network would have stopped carrying Disney channels.
EGYPT
New capital expansion stalls
Talks between the government and the Dubai-based Emaar Properties PJSC to develop a 607 hectare plot in the new administrative capital have stalled, underscoring officials’ struggle to involve top-tier foreign companies in the mega project. “The negotiations have stopped,” Ahmed Zaki Abdeen, head of Administrative Capital for Urban Development, the firm created to oversee the project, said on Sunday. China Fortune Land Development Co (華夏幸福) early last month pulled out from a US$20 billion development in the new capital.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure