HONG KONG
Economy enters recession
The territory in the third quarter slid into recession for the first time in a decade, weighed down by increasingly violent anti-government protests and a protracted US-China trade dispute. The economy shrank 3.2 percent in the July-to-September quarter from the preceding period, contracting for a second straight quarter and meeting the technical definition of a recession, preliminary government data released yesterday showed. From a year earlier, GDP contracted 2.9 percent. The readings were the weakest for the territory since the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.
BANKING
Protests hinder Fubon plan
Fubon Financial Holding Co’s (富邦金控) plan to sell its Hong Kong banking business is stalling as protests in the territory hamper talks and undermine the unit’s valuation, people with knowledge of the matter said. Negotiations with potential buyers, mostly from China, have slowed in the past few months and it would probably take longer to reach a deal, the people said. Fubon operates 20 branches and a securities services center in Hong Kong, its Web site showed. A representative for Taipei-based Fubon said that the firm does not comment on market speculation.
E-COMMERCE
Alibaba mulls smaller debut
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) is deciding between launching a sharply reduced US$10 billion Hong Kong share sale this month or delaying the deal until next year as global uncertainty mounts, people familiar with the matter said. China’s largest company is weighing its options for the territory’s biggest first-time sale of stock since 2010, but the window for pulling off its mega-deal this year is closing fast. It must proceed with a required listing hearing — either after its earnings report today or the Nov. 11 Singles’ Day shopping prmotion — or risk postponing a deal altogether until next year, the sources said. Alibaba is reluctant to drag things out, as uncertainty mounts around US-China tensions and the global macroeconomic outlook, they added.
PETROLEUM
CPC disciplines employees
Three employees of CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) have been disciplined over an incident on Tuesday last week in which a Tigerair Taiwan Ltd (台灣虎航) airplane was damaged during refueling at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, CPC said on Wednesday. The state-run oil refiner said that it has given two employees a major and two minor demerits, and a manager one demerit, saying that they failed to follow standard operating procedure during the refueling. Human negligence was the cause of the damage, CPC said, adding that it has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Economic Affairs to improve its service.
ARCHITECTURE
Taipei 101 awarded honor
Taipei 101, the capital’s iconic landmark and a hot tourist destination, has been selected as one of the world’s most influential tall buildings of the past 50 years. The management of Taipei 101, which was the world’s tallest building from 2004 to 2010, said in a statement on Wednesday that it was awarded the honor by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat for its sustainable skyscraper development, which has made it a global icon and has set a worldwide precedent in the field. It is the first such honor that the council has awarded in 50 years, the statement said.
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