ELECTRONICS
Smartphone sales up 10.5%
Smartphone sales in Taiwan rose 10.5 percent to 672,000 units last month from September, mainly on the launch of Apple Inc’s new iPhone 11 series, industry statistics showed on Friday last week. Apple remained the top seller, with a 37.5 percent share of the local market, the data showed. Samsung Electronics Co came in second, with a 19.4 percent share, followed by Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀) with 10.6 percent, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) with 5.3 percent, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為) with 4.3 percent and HTC Corp (宏達電) with 4.1 percent.
BANKING
Lending rates increase
The nation’s five major state-run banks last month saw their average lending rates rise to 1.431 percent, up 0.041 percentage points from 1.39 percent in September, which the central bank on Friday last week attributed to higher costs associated with corporate loans for working capital. The five lenders are Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and First Commercial Bank (第一銀行).
TEXTILES
HK firm to list in Taiwan
TST Group Holding Ltd (冠星集團控股) is to become the only spun fabrics provider for sports brands to be publicly traded in Taiwan after listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange late next month. The Hong Kong-based firm has capacity of 1133.98 tonnes per month in Bavet, Cambodia, and outsources 62 percent of its total capacity to China. TST Group’s public subscription price was set at NT$158. The public subscription period is today through Wednesday, while a public lottery is to be held on Friday, the stock exchange said on Thursday 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