INDIA
August sets inflation record
Inflation climbed to its highest in more than a year as prices of food and manufactured goods surged, reinforcing the case for another rate hike tomorrow despite weakening growth and a worsening global outlook. The wholesale price index rose 9.78 percent last month, higher than the 9.22 percent recorded for July, the Department of Commerce said in a statement in New Delhi yesterday. The Reserve Bank of India has raised interest rates 11 times in 18 months, but inflation remains at more than twice its comfort level. The bank’s inflation comfort zone is 4 percent to 4.5 percent.
CHIPMAKING
Intel, Google team up
Intel on Tuesday announced that it has teamed with Google to tailor chips to get top performance out of smartphones powered by the Internet giant’s Android software. The alliance with the world’s largest computer chipmaker came as Google ramped up its push into the hot smartphone market with a deal to buy Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion. The joint effort by Google and Intel is aimed at quickly bringing to market a family of Atom processors that will drive Android smartphones, Intel chief executive Paul Otellini said.
INVESTMENT
GE wants to buy back shares
General Electric Co says it is offering to pay US$3.3 billion to buy back preferred shares bought by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc during the depths of the financial crisis. GE said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it has mailed its offer to Berkshire, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska. The US$3.3 billion price for the shares includes a 10 percent premium. GE, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, is also offering to pay accrued and unpaid dividends through the redemption date of Oct. 17. Berkshire invested US$3 billion in GE in October 2008. The move amounted to a huge vote of confidence in the iconic company that had been battered by the financial meltdown.
AUTOMOBILES
Toyota up to speed in US
Toyota Motor Corp resumed full production at all North American plants this week and said it will expand US output of small engines as Japan’s largest automaker works to boost sales slowed by a March earthquake. As of this week, “all plants and suppliers in North America are at full speed, and most are working overtime,” Steve St Angelo, executive vice president for North American engineering and manufacturing, told reporters on Tuesday in Torrance, California. “Our parts problems are now behind us.”
Toyota will also add production of four-cylinder engines at its plant in Huntsville, Alabama, he said. The company will hire 240 more workers at the factory, he said.
CLOTHING
Japan’s Fast moving quickly
Japan’s Fast Retailing, the operator of cheap-chic clothing chain Uniqlo, yesterday said it aimed to open 200 to 300 stores per year worldwide as part of efforts to ramp up its global presence. The company also said it aimed to boost its sales to ￥1.7 trillion (US$22 billion) by 2015, a two-fold jump from ￥836 billion it projected for the year to last month. The company will open its two largest outlets in the world in New York next month. The company currently operates stores in New York’s Soho district, London, Paris, Shanghai and Taipei, in addition to Japan, where Fast Retailing has 840 outlets.
Contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) yesterday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Polar Semiconductor LLC to collaborate on the production of 8-inch wafers in the US. The collaboration aims to strengthen 8-inch wafer manufacturing in the US amid Washington’s efforts to increase onshore manufacturing of semiconductors, contribute to supply chain resilience against shifting geopolitical dynamics, and ensure a secure domestic supply of power semiconductors critical to automotive, electric grids, robotic manufacturing and data centers, the companies said in a joint statement. Under the MOU, Polar and UMC will identify devices for Polar to manufacture at
TECH TITANS: Amazon’s latest chip joins Google in competing for the 90 percent market share held by Nvidia, which claims it is ‘a generation ahead of the industry’ Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday launched its in-house-built Trainium3 artificial intelligence (AI) chip, marking a significant push to compete with Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market for AI computing power. The move intensifies competition in the AI chip market, where Nvidia dominates with an estimated 80 to 90 percent market share for products used in training large language models that power the likes of ChatGPT. Google last week caused tremors in the industry when it was reported that Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc would employ Google AI chips in data centers, signaling new competition for Nvidia. This followed the release last month of
Two companies wholly owned by the daughter of the founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Monday reported to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that they would dispose of all of the Hon Hai shares they hold. In filings with the exchange, Hong Wei Investment Co (鋐維) said it would sell the 2.771 million Hon Hai shares it holds and Frontier Investment Corp (承鋒投資) said it would sell its 2.409 million Hon Hai shares from tomorrow until Jan. 3 next year. The two companies are wholly owned and chaired by Shirley Gou (郭曉玲), the eldest daughter of Hon Hai founder Terry
TARIFF TALKS: The US secretary of commerce is eyeing more than US$300 billion in investments and said Taiwan would train US workers, but Taipei has denied the latter US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said the US is expecting a large investment pledge from Taiwan in trade talks, while President William Lai (賴清德) listed areas that need improvement in order for projects to be completed. “We’re in the midst of discussions,” Lutnick said on Wednesday. “But the fact is, this administration’s goal is to bring semiconductor manufacturing to America.” Lai on Wednesday said Taiwan is supportive of US President Donald Trump’s goal of reindustrializing the US, including efforts to ramp up semiconductor production. Such a goal would require the US to reduce its reliance on Taiwan as a key source
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