United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) yesterday reported its weakest quarterly net profit in three years, which it attributed to a prolonged inventory correction.However, the company said it expects wafer shipments to grow about 3 percent this quarter as demand from communication and computer segme
The nation’s securities account balance, a gauge of retail investors’ confidence in local equities, rose to its highest level last month, as the TAIEX rallied 1,327.68 points — or 7 percent — in the month, data released by the central bank showed yesterday.The securities account balance increased fo
The potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is “infinite” and it is therefore hard to estimate what its market value could rise to, evidenced by the huge range of predictions — US$200 billion to US$7 trillion — made by various institutions, Qualcomm Technologies Inc vice president S.T.
The EU yesterday announced a probe into China’s medical devices market, prompting an immediate accusation from Beijing that the bloc was engaging in “protectionism.”Brussels fears China is favoring its own suppliers when it comes to the procurement of medical devices. The EU’s official administrativ
FUTURE PLANS: Tesla said it would continue to pursue a ‘revolutionary’ manufacturing strategy on a ‘robotaxi product,’ but analysts expressed skepticism about the venture
Tesla Inc on Tuesday reported a big drop in quarterly profits amid an increasingly cutthroat electric vehicle (EV) market, but shares rallied as CEO Elon Musk pledged to accelerate plans for more affordable EVs.Tesla reported profits of US$1.1 billion, down 55 percent year-on-year on revenue of US$2
SK Hynix Inc plans to spend about US$14.6 billion building a new memorychip complex in South Korea, preparing to meet rapidly growing demand for semiconductors employed in artificial intelligence (AI) development.The company intends to set aside an initial 5.3 trillion won (US$3.9 billion) to begin
Visitors inspect a firefighting robot during the Secutech trade show at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center's Hall 1 yesterday. The international security exhibition opened yesterday and runs until tomorrow.
PICKUP: The economics ministry expects manufacturing output to improve quarterly for the rest of the year, buoyed by demand for chips and other electronic components
Industrial production rose 6.01 percent year-on-year last quarter, snapping six quarters of losses, due to robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices, high-performance computing (HPC) applications and data centers, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.Manufacturing output, whi
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its operations were not affected by a spate of strong earthquakes that were centered in eastern Taiwan and shook much of the nation early yesterday morning.In a statement, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said that soon after the
Taiwan’s economic activity last month continued to gain support from demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, but some manufacturing industries remained weak while momentum in the service sector slowed, an electricity consumption survey by the Taiwan Research Institute showed yesterday.
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month b
US companies are wary about investing in China because of policy unpredictability, a business group said, as Beijing struggles to attract foreign funds to boost its economy.“The inconsistency in policy over time and the discrepancy between stated policies and their implementation has led to a cautio
GROWTH TRACK: AI would be the major driving force behind the increase in non-recurring engineering revenue, the ASIC designer said
Application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday raised its projected revenue contribution from artificial intelligence (AI) related business to a high single digit this year, driven by robust demand for advanced 2.5D packaging technology, and expects gr
Chinese universities and research institutes recently obtained high-end Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips through resellers, despite the US widening a ban last year on the sale of such technology to China. A Reuters review of hundreds of tender documents shows 10 Chinese entities acquir
ENCOURAGING: The electronics segment saw first rise in orders last quarter, while the optoelectronics segment recorded its third consecutive quarterly growth, data show
Export orders in the first quarter contracted 2.1 percent annually, the slowest rate in five quarters, to US$133.32 billion, benefiting from growing demand for emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) chips and servers, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Performanc
REVERSAL: Wang Yao-ting said he would leave his fate to the next administration, despite calls for his resignation, adding that outages were due to transmission problems
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) president Wang Yao-ting (王耀庭) on Monday said he would remain in his role despite tendering his resignation at the weekend, following power supply issues on Monday last week and a string of power outages in Taoyuan during the week.Wang told a news conference that he wou
The unemployment rate last month edged down 0.01 percentage points from the previous month to 3.38 percent, the lowest figure for March in 24 years, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.The figure was also 0.18 percentage points lower than a year earlie
Yield Microelectronics Corp (億而得) yesterday said it would debut on the Taipei Exchange (TPEX) next month at the earliest, as it aims to raise funds for expansion plans.The Hsinchu-based silicon intellectual property developer focuses on developing multi-time programmable embedded non-volatile memory
PX Mart Co (全聯實業) has been fined NT$20 million (US$612,820) by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) for failing to observe a condition set by the commission in 2022 for the approval of its merger with hypermarket chain operator RT-Mart International Ltd (大潤發), the commission said yesterday.When the merge
Hong Kong investment bankers could face more job cuts as the slowdown in China deals persists and employers look to trim highly compensated staff, Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Francis Chan (陳永富) said.An estimated 200 Hong Kong bankers lost their jobs in the past year, Chan wrote in a report