Starting next year, Patagonia Inc’s wetsuits are not just going to be recycled — they are to be reincarnated. At the company’s “Wetsuit Forge” repair and design center, a few blocks from the beach in Ventura, California, a first-of-its-kind wetsuit is draped over a table. The suit looks and feels li
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below.Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” i
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said
Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year.The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterat
The rate of businesses in the US using artificial intelligence (AI) is still relatively small, but it is growing rapidly, with firms in information technology, and in places such as Colorado and Washington, leading the way, a new paper from US Census Bureau researchers said.Overall use of AI tools b
FEES DISCUSSIONS: Migrant worker groups called for direct recruitment, without going through brokers, but others at the meeting advocated a dual approach
Most of the participants in a Ministry of Labor meeting on Thursday discussing the recruitment of Indian migrant workers to alleviate Taiwan’s labor shortage have agreed that the manufacturing sector should be the first industry to start recruiting.Migrant worker groups, employer representatives, la
Forecasters expect a monthly report on US employment to show strong job growth continued last month, even as wage pressures kept moderating.The figures, which were to be published yesterday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, were expected to show that employers boosted payrolls by 240,000 last mo
Apple Inc shares yesterday jumped in premarket trading after the company posted stronger-than-expected sales last quarter and predicted a return to growth in the current period, sparking optimism that a slowdown is easing.Although revenue fell 4.3 percent to US$90.8 billion in the first quarter, tha
People yesterday walk in a market in Hualien a month after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the county. The Taiwan Foundation for Disaster Relief on Sunday said that donations for earthquake relief had reached approximately NT$1.4 billion.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion
Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices.Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three p
Taiwan’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month increased 1.5 points to reach 49.4, as new business orders and industrial output returned to growth mode and most firms are upbeat about their business ahead, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) s
Almost all of the central bank’s board members favored a rate hike of 0.125 percentage points to rein in inflation expectations that might run wayward after scheduled electricity tariff increases last month, the minutes of the quarterly board meeting in March showed yesterday.One board member who su
HEAVYWEIGHT: TSMC is the TAIEX’s most heavily weighted stock and has accounted for more than 30 percent of the board’s total turnover for 45 trading sessions in a row
US investors would be prohibited from trading TAIEX futures by the US securities regulator from as early as July 29 due to a classification of the TAIEX as a so-called “narrow-based security index,” the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said on Tuesday.The heavy weighting of contract chipmaker
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Co (台達電) yesterday said that revenue this quarter would be higher than last quarter, partly due to fewer working days.The company’s operations in the first half of the year are also expected to be better than the same period last year, o
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) yesterday raised its global economic growth forecast this year, driven by strong performances in the US and emerging countries while Europe lags behind.The world economy is expected to expand by 3.1 percent this year, up from a previo
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump.Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company s
People pose for a selfie as a plane flies over Binjiang Street near Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) yesterday.
INFLATION WATCH: A rate hike in March would help keep inflation at 2.16 percent this year, although a weak currency and higher electricity rates are an issue, S&P said
Moody’s Ratings and S&P Global Ratings have reaffirmed Taiwan’s sovereign credit ratings at “As3” and “AA+” respectively with a stable outlook on the back of high income and wealth levels, a strong institutional framework and robust external positions.The affirmations came as Taiwan’s economy is gai
RIDING AI WAVE: : Most of its NT$15bn capital budget would be spent on packaging technologies used in AI and HPC chips and advanced testing technology, it said
Chip testing and packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (PTI, 力成科技) plans to increase this year’s capital expenditure by 50 percent to expand capacity to meet growing demand for advanced memorychips used in artificial intelligence (AI) products.The company proposed to spend NT$15 billio
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech.Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indone
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, on Tuesday gave a lukewarm revenue forecast for the current period, weighed down by lackluster demand for chips used in video game hardware.Second-quarter revenue would be approximately US$5.7 billion, the company sai