CHIPMAKERS
Toshiba profit improves
Struggling Japanese engineering firm Toshiba Corp yesterday reported improved full-year net profit thanks to the sale of its chip business, but said that operating profit was sharply down. In the year that ended in March, net profit jumped 26 percent to ¥1.01 trillion (US$9 billion), chiefly because of “profit from completion of the sale of the Memory business,” Toshiba said in a statement. Operating profit dropped 58.9 percent to ¥35.4 billion, partly due to restructuring costs, on sales of ¥3.69 trillion, down 6.4 percent.
NORWAY
Economic growth slows
Economic growth in western Europe’s largest exporter of oil and gas slowed more than forecast in the first quarter, sending a warning to policymakers preparing for a third interest rate increase next month. GDP, which excludes oil and shipping, expanded 0.3 percent in the quarter, Statistics Norway said yesterday. That was down from a revised 1.1 percent in the previous quarter. Overall GDP growth, which includes oil and gas production and shipping, shrank 0.1 percent in the quarter.
NORWAY
Exchange sale approved
The government yesterday cleared the way for European operator Euronext to take over the Oslo Stock Exchange by giving the green light to both it and its US rival NASDAQ. Euronext, which has been in a protracted battle with NASDAQ for the stock exchange since the start of the year, quickly welcomed the move, announcing that it would acquire 100 percent of the bourse by the end of next month. The European operator has already secured the support of 53.4 percent of the Oslo exchange’s shareholders.
PAKISTAN
IMF deal advances
The IMF on Sunday said that it has reached a preliminary agreement with the nation for a US$6 billion bailout over the next three years to finance sweeping economic reforms. IMF envoy Ernesto Ramirez Rigo said that the two sides have reached a “staff-level agreement” subject to approval by the IMF management and the executive board. Islamabad had initially sought an US$8 billion bailout to address a long-running fiscal crisis and has held months of talks with the international lender.
SKINCARE
Drunk Elephant deal mulled
Consumer goods giant Unilever PLC is considering a US$1 billion offer for US skincare brand Drunk Elephant, the Sunday Telegraph reported. Drunk Elephant, founded in 2012 by Texan mother-of-four Tiffany Masterson and which makes skincare products with natural, nontoxic ingredients, in January hired investment banks to explore a sale, the Wall Street Journal reported. Unilever declined to comment to the Sunday Telegraph on the potential offer.
GERMANY
Thyssenkrupp deal reached
Management and labor leaders at Thyssenkrupp AG have agreed on a way forward after the industrial conglomerate announced a fresh restructuring drive that could lead to the loss of 6,000 jobs. Agreement was reached in talks between management and workers yesterday on recognizing the need for radical action, while ensuring fair treatment of employees at the Essen-based group, both sides said. Thyssenkrupp chief executive officer Guido Kerkhoff announced the overhaul on Friday last week.
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