Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation's third-largest mobile operator, projected yesterday that third-quarter pre-tax profits would grow 17.4 percent at a quarterly rate to NT$5.67 billion (US$173.1 million) due to an increase in subscribers and gains from asset sales.
Net income would also increase to NT$1.03 per share from NT$0.93 in the second quarter, according to a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
According to the statement, Taiwan Mobile plans to sell 100 million shares in rival Chunghwa Telecom (
The company generated NT$485 million by selling Chunhgwa Telecom shares on the local stock market earlier this month.
Revenues would also expand nearly 4 percent to NT$12.51 billion during this quarter from last quarter, according to the statement.
On the local bourse, Taiwan Mobile shares dropped 0.33 percent to NT$29.9 yesterday.
Separately, Daniel Tsai (
Under this law, the chairpersons and presidents of financial holding firms cannot serve simultaneously as chairpersons or presidents of non-financial businesses. The regulation took effect on Jan. 1, but company chiefs are allowed to finish their current tenures.
In the statement, the telecommunications firm said it held a meeting yesterday and elected Richard Tsai (蔡明興), vice chairman of Fubon Financial and Daniel Tsai's younger brother, as its new chairman.
The board elected Daniel Tsai as its new vice chairman, according to the statement.
Daniel Tsai was not the only business heavyweight whose position as chairman of both a financial holding company and a non-financial enterprise contravened the new law.
While those affected have been given a grace period of up to three years to comply, critics have argued that the new requirement will only lead to a phenomenon of "figurehead" chairpersons being installed at the helm of family-run businesses.
Among those affected by the new legislation are Eugene Wu (吳東進), who heads both Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) and Great Taipei Gas Corp (大台北瓦斯); Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松), who chairs Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) and four non-financial businesses; and Lin Ming-cheng (林明成), who leads Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) and four non-financial entities.
ASML Holding NV’s new advanced chip machines have a daunting price tag, said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), one of the Dutch company’s biggest clients. “The cost is very high,” TSMC senior vice president Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, referring to ASML’s latest system known as high-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV). “I like the high-NA EUV’s capability, but I don’t like the sticker price,” Zhang said. ASML’s new chip machine can imprint semiconductors with lines that are just 8 nanometers thick — 1.7 times smaller than the previous generation. The machines cost 350 million euros (US$378 million)
Apple Inc has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the start-up’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence (AI) features to its devices, people familiar with the matter said. The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc’s Google about licensing its Gemini chatbot. Those discussions have not led to an agreement, but are ongoing. An OpenAI
INSATIABLE: Almost all AI innovators are working with the chipmaker to address the rapidly growing AI-related demand for energy-efficient computing power, the CEO said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported about 60 percent annual growth in revenue for last month, benefiting from rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications. Revenue last month expanded to NT$236.02 billion (US$7.28 billion), compared with NT$147.9 billion in April last year, the second-highest level in company history, TSMC said in a statement. On a monthly basis, revenue surged 20.9 percent, from NT$195.21 billion in March. As AI-related applications continue to show strong growth, TSMC expects revenue to expand about 27.6 percent year-on-year during the current quarter to between US$19.6 billion and US$20.4 billion. That would
‘FULL SUPPORT’: Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said he hopes more companies would settle in the prefecture to create an area similar to Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park The newly elected governor of Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture said he is ready to ensure wide-ranging support to woo Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build its third Japanese chip factory there. Concerns of groundwater shortages when TSMC’s two plants begin operations in the prefecture’s Kikuyo have spurred discussions about the possibility of tapping unused dam water, Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said in an interview on Saturday. While Kimura said talks about a third plant have yet to occur, Bloomberg had reported TSMC is already considering its third Japanese fab — also in Kumamoto — which would make more advanced chips. “We are