■ Electronics
Hon Hai head selling shares
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) is seeking to sell 7 million of his shares in the nation's largest electronics exporter, according to stock exchange data. Gou, the nation's second-richest person, on Friday applied to the Taiwan Stock Exchange to sell the shares on the spot market, based on statistics published on the stock exchange's Web site. No details were disclosed on the selling price. The proposed sale will be worth NT$1.61 billion (US$51 million), based on Hon Hai's NT$229.50 closing share price on Friday. Shares of Hon Hai have risen 28 percent this year compared with a 13 percent gain in the nation's benchmark TAIEX in the same period. Gou holds 635 million Hon Hai shares, according to the exchange statistics. That's worth NT$146 billion based on Friday's closing share price. Gou is selling Hon Hai shares to raise money to pay taxes, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday, without saying where it got the information. Gou last applied to sell 80 million Hon Hai shares in July 2004, the Taipei-based newspaper said.
■ Technology
Chinese robot gets personal
China has manufactured its first "personal robot" that can provide services at home and, among other skills, log on to the Internet and tell its owners the news and weather, Xinhua news agency said on Friday. Liangliang (亮亮), standing at about 80cm, is able to walk and navigate obstacles at ease, as well as perform tasks as instructed by humans. Its developer, the Shenyang-based Xinsong Automation Co, affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the robot cold "provide services of education, entertainment and security" and act as a personal assistant, Xinhua said. "In the presentation debut, a staffer sent a mobile phone short message to the robot inquiring about the situations at home and, in two minutes, Liangliang replied with a message: temperature 22oC and everything normal at home," Xinhua said.
■ Retail
Exxon to sell Borneo outlets
Exxon Mobil plans to sell 28 retail service stations operated by its Malaysian subsidiary on Borneo island to a local company, a news report said yesterday. The oil giant, which has operated in Malaysia for more than 100 years, will continue to run the hundreds of other service stations it owns across the Southeast Asian nation, the Star newspaper said. ExxonMobil Borneo Sdn Bhd, an Exxon subsidiary, has accepted an offer from TCH Enterprise Sdn Bhd to buy its retail service stations and operate them as an Esso-branded distributor, the Star quoted a spokesman as saying. The report did not say why Exxon was selling the stations or the sale price, and the group could not be reached for comment yesterday.
■ Beverages
Pepsi settles with water rival
PepsiCo Inc has agreed to change the look of its SoBe Life Water drink to settle a lawsuit brought by a company which promotes itself as a pioneering nutrient-enhanced water maker, it was announced on Friday. Energy Brands, which does business as Glaceau, had sued PepsiCo, the parent of the beverage maker Pepsi Cola, saying the look of the SoBe Life Water product was vastly similar to its own Vitaminwater brand. In the lawsuit, Energy Brands said PepsiCo launched its product with similar ingredients, color, sweetener type and calorie content only after first trying to acquire the Vitaminwater brand earlier this year.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
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