AUTOMAKERS
Jose Munoz leaves Nissan
Nissan Motor Co chief performance officer Jose Munoz, who took a leave of absence a week ago, has resigned, the first high-profile departure at the Japanese automaker publicly acknowledged as related to the arrest of former chairman Carlos Ghosn. Munoz said in a statement on LinkedIn yesterday that he made the decision after serious thinking, because the company was “involved in matters that have and will continue to divert its focus,” referring to Ghosn’s case. Nissan confirmed the resignation, effective immediately.
CHINA
Premier explains tax cuts
Tax cuts for smaller companies are mainly intended to support employment and ensure economic stability, Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) was quoted as saying in a statement posted to the government’s Web site yesterday. The State Council, or cabinet, anounced on Wednesday that it would further reduce taxes for smaller companies.
AVIATION
Vietnamese carrier launches
Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways, after repeated delays, is to start commercial flights on Wednesday, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The carrier set minimum ticket prices at 149,000 dong (US$6.39) each. The carrier would initially operate 37 domestic routes, the company said in a separate statement. Bamboo Airways would also launch international flights to Asian countries this year, starting with Japan, Korea and Singapore, it said.
TOURISM
Portugal mulls Brexit plan
Portugal wants to exempt British tourists, a major revenue source, from entry visa requirements if Britain crashes out of the EU without a negotiated deal, Lisbon said on Friday. “We are working ... on creating obstacle-free corridors that will allow fluidity for British citizens entering the national territory” at airports, Portuguese Minister of the Interior Eduardo Cabrita told reporters. About 2.6 million British tourists fly into Portugal every year, and many retire there. Lisbon has urged Britons living in Portugal to register at their town halls before March 29, the day Britain is due to leave the European bloc.
BANKING
BNP to shut trading arm
BNP Paribas SA, the biggest French bank, is shuttering its 2.5 billion euro (US$2.87 billion) proprietary trading arm, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Opera Trading Capital division of the lender, which makes risky bets with shareholders’ funds, struggled to make a profit last year amid market volatility, one of the people said. BNP Paribas has told its employees and begun informing prime brokers and counterparties about the plan, the people said.
INTERNET
German HuffPost to close
The German version of the news and views Web site HuffPost is shutting down. German publisher BurdaForward on Friday said that HuffPost Deutschland would cease operations on March 31. BurdaForward had licensed the German version of the site in 2013, running its news and revenue streams. The firm said it was ending its cooperation with HuffPost “because the partners are now pursuing different business strategies.”
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is