ECONOMY
Latin America considers fund
The Union of South American Nations has proposed establishing a fund to serve as a regional response to international financial crises, Argentinian Minister of Economy Amado Boudou said on Friday. The fund could draw from monetary reserves or central banks from countries in the region, which manage about US$500 billion, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. The funds would possibly be an extension of the Latin-American Reserve Funds (FLAR), which already serves as an assistance mechanism to its seven-member countries in case of financial turmoil. Created in 1978, FLAR brings together Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The two largest economies in the region, Brazil and Argentina, could increase the funds’ effectiveness if they decide to join.
TECHNOLOGY
Hacker claims new tricks
A mobile security expert says he has found new ways for hackers to attack phones running Google Inc’s Android operating system. Riley Hassell, who caused a stir when he called off an appearance at a hacker’s conference last week, said he and colleague Shane Macaulay decided not to lay out their research at the gathering for fear criminals would use it to attack Android phones. He said in an interview he identified more than a dozen widely used Android applications that make the phones vulnerable to attack. “App developers frequently fail to follow security guidelines and write applications properly,” he said. “Some apps expose themselves to outside contact. If these apps are vulnerable, then an attacker can remotely compromise that app and potentially the phone using something as simple as a text message.” He declined to identify those apps, saying he fears hackers might exploit the vulnerabilities. Google spokesman Jay Nancarrow said Android security experts discussed the research with Hassell and did not believe he had uncovered problems with Android.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda to build Mexico plant
Japanese automaker Honda announced plans on Friday to build a new plant in Mexico that will employ 3,200 people and build fuel-efficient subcompact vehicles for the Mexican, US and Canadian markets. Honda will invest US$800 million to build the plant, which is expected to begin operations in 2014 and will have the capacity to build 200,000 vehicles a year. “With growing demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, this plant will increase Honda’s ability to meet customer needs for subcompact vehicles from within North America,” said Tetsuo Iwamura, chief operating officer for Honda’s North America Region.
MINING
Union, negotiators to meet
South Africa’s mine workers union was to again meet negotiators at Impala Platinum yesterday in a bid to avert a wage strike that could hurt the world’s second-largest producer and curb growth in an already stagnant economy. The talks add to a wave of disputes that have already disrupted operations in the mining and fuel sectors. South Africa’s “strike season” is already expected to intensify when at least 145,000 municipal workers walk off the job tomorrow, disrupting garbage collection and other services in major cities. The National Union of Mineworkers, seeking a 14 percent raise for its 26,000 workers at Implats, has been discussing a revised, but as yet undisclosed offer from Implats. It has rejected the company’s previous offer of between 7.5 percent and 8 percent.
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
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
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