■ Computers
ProMOS invests in China
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德), the country's second-largest maker of memory chips, signed an investment agreement with the authorities of Chongqing in central China to build a semiconductor plant. The factory will manufacture chips from silicon wafers measuring 8 inches in diameter, the Hsinchu-based company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. There was no information about the investment amount or production capacity. The company, together with Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶), Taiwan's largest memory-chip maker, and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光), last month received approval from the government to set up operations in China.
■ Currency
Yuan under pressure to rise
The Chinese yuan will continue to face pressure to rise this year due to an expanding trade surplus, an official from the country's foreign-exchange regulator said. "As China's surplus of international payment, a majority of which is made up of rising trade surplus, is likely to sustain this year, market expectation for the renminbi to rise further will remain throughout this year," Xie Hemin (謝和民), deputy director of the current account department at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said at a trade conference in Beijing yesterday. The yuan rose 0.31 percent to close at 7.7739 against the US dollar in Shanghai on Friday. It has risen 6.3 percent since a fixed exchange rate of 8.30 to the US dollar ended in July 2005.
■ Internet
Another library joins project
Google announced on Friday that another major US college library had joined its controversial project to put the world's books online. The more than one million written works at the University of Texas library in the city of Austin will be converted to digital format and added to Google Books Library Project. The university's collection includes rare books and manuscripts from early Latin American history, Google said. The Google Book Search project was initiated in 2004. Google has partnerships with the New York Public Library and major universities to add their collections to its virtual book shelves.
■ Trade
Business leaders call for FTA
Powerful US and Japanese business leaders called on Friday for a free-trade agreement to link the world's two largest economies. After day-long talks in New York, the US Business Roundtable organization and Japan's Keidanren group also pledged to work together on taking advantage of China's rapid growth, and on climate change. The groups said their proposed "Economic Partnership Agreement" held "tremendous potential" for the US and Japanese economies, and urged their governments to start negotiations as soon as possible.
■ Finance
Citigroup's Q4 profits drop
Citigroup announced a 26 percent drop in its latest quarterly profits on Friday, attributing the earnings slowdown to a one-time gain a year ago and the scaling back of its Japanese operations. However, Citigroup -- one of the world's largest financial institutions -- still posted hefty fourth-quarter net profits of US$5.13 billion, more than the combined profits of Merrill Lynch, Apple and American Airlines. Citigroup reported earnings per share of US$1.03, US$0.02 better than most Wall Street analysts had anticipated.
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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