COMPUTERS
Elpida Memory shares fall
Shares in Elpida Memory Inc, the Japanese computer chipmaker being reorganized with government support, fell in Tokyo trading after the Asahi Shimbun said the firm could seek a delay in repaying public funds. Elpida, the nation’s largest maker of DRAM chips, dropped 5.1 percent to close at ￥351, the biggest fall since Dec. 19. The company, whose shares have tumbled 63 percent this year, declined to comment in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg News. Elpida received ￥30 billion (US$386 million) of public funds through the state-run Development Bank of Japan to restructure its business, in addition to ￥100 billion in loans from private banks.
AVIATION
Lion plans private service
The Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air, which announced the world’s biggest-ever commercial aircraft order last month, plans to launch a private jet service by the middle of next year, the company said yesterday. Lion Air is negotiating a deal for four, nine-seater jets with US-based Hawker Beechcraft, which builds special-mission, business and trainer aircraft, Lion Air spokesman Edward Sirait said.
VIETNAM
GDP growth slows
The nation’s GDP grew at a slower pace this year than a year ago amid doubling inflation and a trade deficit. The General Statistics Office said yesterday that the country’s economy had maintained “reasonable” growth of 5.9 percent, despite global and domestic economic turbulence. Economic growth was 6.8 percent last year. Inflation doubled to 18.6 percent this year from 9.2 percent a year earlier and the trade deficit stood at US$9.5 billion, down from US$12.6 billion from a year ago.
ITALY
Business confidence falls
The business confidence index fell this month after rising last month, Rome-based national statistics institute Istat said in a statement yesterday, after a tough Christmas season for the retail sector. The index was at 92.5 points, the lowest since December 2009, from a revised 94. The mood among executives mirrors consumer pessimism as Prime Minister Mario Monti implements a 30 billion euro (US$39 billion) package of spending cuts and tax increases. Consumer confidence this month fell to the lowest in 16 years and the economy shrank in the third quarter.
ENTERTAINMENT
Disney may buy out UTV
Walt Disney Co offered to buy the shares of India’s UTV Software Communications Ltd it does not own starting on Jan. 16. Disney offered to buy the stock from retail shareholders for between 835.03 rupees and 1,000 rupees, according to an advertisement in the Economic Times newspaper on Wednesday. The offer will close on Jan. 20. Disney already owns 50.44 percent of UTV.
COMPUTERS
Apple archives at Stanford
Historians who want to understand the rise of Apple Inc will find a treasure trove of clues in Stanford University’s Silicon Valley Archives. Stanford is home to the world’s largest collection of Apple-related historical artifacts, most of which the consumer electronics company donated to the university in 1997. Stanford’s Apple Collection takes up more than 183m of shelf space and includes photos, computer blueprints, user manuals, software, hardware, magazine ads, TV commercials, company T-shirts and pins, and handwritten financial records.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
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