STOCK MARKETS
Shares break 10,000
Local shares continued momentum from the previous two sessions to close higher yesterday, breaching 10,000 points for the first time since Dec. 5. The TAIEX closed up 43.72 points, or 0.44 percent, at 10,013.33, on turnover of NT$92.609 billion (US$3.01 billion). Foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$6.21 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The market closed higher than the quarterly moving average of 9,770 points and the monthly moving average of 9,746 points, analysts said, adding that if turnover increases, the market is expected to continue rising until it closes for the Lunar New Year holiday tomorrow.
CHIPMAKERS
MediaTek to invest in fund
Mobile phone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday received approval from the Investment Commission to invest US$44.9 million in a Chinese investment arm and new technology fund. The company’s investment caught the attention of commission members yesterday, as it is unusual for a chipmaker to tap into the fund industry. MediaTek would attempt to gain a clearer picture of trends in global technology by investing in Chinese technology start-ups, a move considered acceptable, commission spokesperson Huang Ho-ting (黃荷婷) said. The commission would monitor whether MediaTek’s Chinese investments adversely affect Taiwan, Huang said.
AUTOPARTS
Actron to ship MOSFETs
Actron Technology Corp (朋程), an automotive electronic diode supplier, is expected to start shipping high-efficiency diodes, ultra-high-efficiency diodes and automotive MOSFETs this year, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing Actron chairman Lu Ming-kuang (盧明光). MOSFETs are transistors that can change conductivity with the amount of applied voltage, and can be used to amplify or switch electronic signals. Actron revenue is forecast to increase by 10 percent this year from last year and annual revenue could increase to NT$10 billion in five years, the paper quoted Lu as saying. Revenue last year fell 2.03 percent year-on-year to NT$3.59 billion.
ELECTRONICS
Pegatron hosts pricey ‘weiya’
Key iPhone assembler Pegatron Corp (和碩) allocated more than NT$90 million to reward the 7,500 employees who attended its annual year-end banquet, or weiya (尾牙), on Sunday, with those who did not win any of the major prizes still receiving a NT$12,000 cash prize. This year’s top prize was a car worth NT$800,000, which was won by Pegatron chairman Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), while there were a number of cash prizes, including 10 each for NT$200,000, NT$250,000 and NT$300,000, as well as 30 for NT$100,000. The company reported consolidated revenue of NT$1.34 trillion last year, the fifth consecutive year revenue has passed NT$1 trillion.
ECONOMY
M1B grows 5.69%
Last month’s M1B — a measure of the money in circulation — grew 5.69 percent year-on-year, accelerating from a 5.09 percent increase in November, while M2 — which includes the M1B, time deposits, foreign-currency deposits and mutual funds — saw annual growth slow to 3.07 percent from 3.09 percent due to the outflow of net foreign capital, the central bank said in a statement on Thursday last week. Last year, the average annual growth rate was 5.32 percent for M1B and 3.52 percent for M2, the central bank said.
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
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”