■ Shares down sharply
Shares closed sharply lower yesterday, falling 2.02 percent on heavy profit-taking by foreign investors after recent gains, dealers said.
The TAIEX lost 153.56 points to finish at 7,458.56, on turnover of NT$126.41 billion (US$4.0 billion).
Stock decliners outnumbered gainers 1,035 to 236, with 127 stocks unchanged.
■ High Tech to launches buyback
High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電), the world's largest maker of handsets running Microsoft Corp's operating system, yesterday said it planned to launch a maximum NT$4 billion share buyback over the next 45 days.
That marked the first share buyback the company has embarked upon in the last three years.
HTC said it planned to repurchase 5 million shares, or 1.15 percent of its total shares outstanding, at a price between NT$601 and NT$800 each, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
■ EVA introduces text service
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), Taiwan's second largest airline, announced yesterday that passengers flying on the company's Airbus 330-200 and Boeing 777-300ER jets will be able to send and receive text messages.
The text message service is integrated into the inflight entertainment system that allows passengers to send messages to e-mail accounts or cellphone numbers at US$1.50 per message, the carrier said in a statement yesterday.
Return messages will also cost US$1.50 to read, EVA Airways said.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
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