US-CHINA TRADE
US’ Kudlow says deal ‘closer’
US President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said that the US and China are “closer and closer” to a trade deal, and that top-tier officials would be talking again this week via “a lot of teleconferencing.” Kudlow made the remarks on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. “We’ve made great progress on IP theft. We’ve made good progress on the forced transfer of technology,” Kudlow said. The Chinese have acknowledged their problems, which was a big hurdle, and “what wasn’t on the table, is on the table,” he said.
AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai denies Tencent deal
Hyundai Motor Co on Sunday denied a report that it had signed a preliminary deal with Chinese technology firm Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) to develop software for driverless vehicles. Hyundai’s comments come a day after South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper cited unnamed industry sources as saying that the two companies planned to conduct joint research and development on safety and security systems for self-driving cars. Hyundai said that its cooperation with the Chinese tech giant was focused on infotainment.
CHINA
Foreign-currency funds rise
Foreign-currency holdings rose for a fifth month as lower government bond yields in developed markets lifted valuations. Reserves increased by US$8.58 billion to US$3.0988 trillion last month, the People’s Bank of China said on Sunday. The reading compares with US$3.09 trillion from the previous month. The stockpile increased on price gains of financial assets last month, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in a statement.
EGYPT
Most fuel subsidies to end
Subsidies on most fuels are on track to end by June 15 as part of a reform program led by the IMF, the Washington-based body said on Saturday. Cairo secured a US$12 billion, three-year loan package from the IMF in 2016. Egyptian authorities “remain committed” to ending subsidies granted to limit prices at the pump, the IMF said in a new report. The prices of liquefied petroleum gas, and fuels used in bakeries and for electricity generation would not be affected, it added.
AIRLINES
Etihad eyes loan for planes
Etihad Airways PJSC is seeking a loan of about US$600 million to help make initial payments for airplanes, people familiar with the matter said. Abu Dhabi’s state-owned carrier is arranging the loan on its own and has reached out to banks that might be willing to provide the unsecured facility with maturity of one or two years, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. A spokesman for Etihad Airways said that the company does not comment on rumors or speculation.
ENERGY
Carlyle to buy Cepsa stake
Carlyle Group LP plans to buy a stake valued at as much as US$4.8 billion in Cepsa from Mubadala Investment Co, about six months after the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund shelved plans to list the Spanish oil refiner. Carlyle would acquire 30 to 40 percent of Cepsa, valuing the company at US$12 billion, a statement said. Mubadala would remain the majority shareholder and the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
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
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
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