■ Mattel defends Barbies
US toy maker Mattel Inc reassured consumers that its staple Barbie dolls are safe and will not cause health defects, according to a statement released by Mattel Taiwan Corp yesterday. The statement is in response to a report by China's Xinhua news agency which cited a German ecology magazine as saying that among 30 toys examined by the magazine, 24 contained phthalates, including Barbie. Phthalates are chemicals added to soften plastic vinyl, and will cause damage to liver and testes and trigger reproductive effects and even cancer if one exposes to the substance for a long term above maximum contaminant level. Barbie and other toys made by Mattel were found to contain phthalates, but the company announced that it began introducing organically-derived material that does not contain phthalates for use in every Mattel product line in December 1999. Mattel said its products were strictly monitored and passed examinations of Corporate Product Integrity, US Consumer Product Safety, Commission Health Canada and other international certification institutions, the statement said.
■ NT dollar gains ground
The NT dollar strengthened for a third day. The currency edged up NT$0.032 to NT$33.461 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. Overseas funds bought a net NT$17.97 billion (US$536.6 million) of Taiwanese stocks last month before purchasing a net NT$2.99 billion this month through yesterday, according to the stock exchange.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
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
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
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