ECONOMY
Trust in economy rises
People’s confidence in Taiwan’s economy rebounded this month in the wake of a truce in the trade dispute between the US and China reached at the G20 summit late last month, Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) said. Citing a survey conducted from July 1 to 7, Cathay Financial said that although 35.4 percent of respondents thought the local economy was doing worse than six months earlier, 23.6 percent thought it had improved, an increase from minus-20.1 to minus-11.9 in the optimism index, Cathay Financial said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC to recruit 3,000
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said that it would hire more than 3,000 people by the end of this year as part of its efforts to develop high-end technology. TSMC said in a statement on Friday that the recruitment campaign would be launched in Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan. The median salary of the company’s global payroll, excluding retirement payments and allowances, hit about NT$1.58 million (US$50,820) last year, while the median wage of non-manager employees in Taiwan was NT$2.009 million, TSMC said.
FOOD AND BEVERAGE
Yummy Town names head
Yummy Town Holdings Corp (雅茗天地集團), which operates the Happy Lemon (快樂檸檬) bubble tea brand, on Friday said that its board of directors approved the appointment of chief operating officer Chang Miao-ling (張妙苓) as president, from Aug. 1. Chang is to replace Susan Lu (盧小慧), who tendered her resignation due to personal reasons, the company said. Chang, who joined the firm in August 2016 from McDonald’s Restaurants (Taiwan) Co, also resigned from the board, the company 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],”