Plans to merge automakers Renault SA and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) NV could re-emerge, despite the breakdown of negotiations last week, French Minister of Transport Elisabeth Borne said yesterday, joining a chorus of French officials hoping the deal could be revived.
Asked if talks between the two companies were over, Borne told BFM TV: “I think it is not closed.”
Borne’s comments follow similar remarks by French Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire, who also said he felt that a merger between France’s Renault and Italian-US FCA remained a “good opportunity.”
PARIS BLAMED
Last week, FCA pulled out of US$35 billion merger talks with Renault, with both companies blaming the French government.
France has a 15 percent stake in Renault and the collapse of the talks deprived the companies of an opportunity to create the world’s third-biggest automaker with 5 billion euro (US$5.6 billion) in promised annual synergies.
Separately, FCA on Monday said that it would develop self-driving systems for its commercial vehicles in partnership with Aurora Innovation, a tech start-up led by a former Google auto executive.
Under the partnership, Aurora is to supply a self-driving platform that comprises the hardware, software, and data services that aim for “level 4” autonomy, which can navigate without human intervention.
“As part of FCA’s autonomous vehicle strategy, we will continue to work with strategic partners to address the needs of customers in a rapidly changing industry,” FCA chief executive Mike Manley said.
“Aurora brings a unique skillset combined with advanced and purposeful technology that complements and enhances our approach to self-driving,” he said.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts