■ Unaxis to invest US$30 million
Unaxis Holding AG, Europe's third-largest maker of semiconductor-production equipment, said it will invest NT$1 billion (US$30 million) in a Taiwanese unit that will assemble machinery to make materials for flat-panel displays used in computers and televisions.
The project in Chunan is the largest by Unaxis in the country, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
■ ASE buys NEC unit
Advanced Semiconductor Engin-eering Inc (日月光), the world's second-largest chip packager, said it expects US$165 million in sales during the next 12 months from its purchase of an NEC Electronics Corp unit.
Advanced Semiconductor completed the purchase of NEC's IC packaging and testing division, the Kaohsiung-based company said in a statement. Advanced Semiconductor agreed to buy NEC's operations for about US$40 million.
■ Chi Mei may snub China
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美) may consider investing elsewhere if it is not welcome in China, after state-run media recently branded its chairman Hsu Wen-lung (許文龍) "persona non grata" for his perceived support for Taiwan's independence, according to a Chinese-language newspaper in Taipei.
In an interview with the paper, Hsu said "Chi Mei will consider investing in Vietnam and other countries where labor costs are lower," if China does not welcome the company.
"What Beijing is doing may have a negative effect on Chi Mei's chemical plant in China in the near term but it may also undermine other firms' interest to invest there," Hsu
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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