The FBI will assist Singapore police in a probe into the death of a US research engineer in the Asian city-state.
Singaporean police have asked Shane Todd’s family to share any evidence they may have related to his death, they said, adding that the family could also hand the evidence over to the FBI if they are uncomfortable dealing with Singaporean investigators.
“As there has so far been no response to this request, [the] Singapore Police Force has sought the FBI’s assistance to engage the family and for [the] FBI to examine the evidence,” the police said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Todd worked at the Institute of Microelectronics (IME), a research unit of the Singaporean state-run Agency for Science, Technology and Research.
Media outlets, including the Financial Times, have reported that Todd’s family suggested that his death may be connected to a project the institute was working on with China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
“The Singaporean authorities have requested FBI assistance regarding the death of Shane Todd,” said Eric Watnik, spokesman for the US embassy in Singapore, in an e-mailed statement. “The FBI will comply with the request.”
The probe will continue to be led by Singaporean police, whose request is focused on issues within the US, Watnik said.
“[The] Institute of Microelectronics approached Huawei on one occasion to cooperate with them in the GaN [gallium nitride] field, but we decided not to accept and consequently do not have any cooperation with IME related to GaN,” Huawei said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Huawei’s research relates only to civil and commercial uses of telecommunications technology, not military uses, the firm said.
The Institute of Microelectronics did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the probe into Todd’s death.
Both the institute and Todd were not involved in any classified research project, the institute said on Feb. 19. The institute did not go beyond preliminary talks with Huawei on pursuing a commercial project and has never worked with the Chinese company on gallium nitride amplifiers, it said at the time.
The US embassy on Feb. 16 said that while the FBI is following the case closely, it must be invited by a foreign government before it can handle any investigations overseas.
The US offered the FBI’s assistance to Singapore in the probe of Todd’s death and has engaged in “frequent discussion” with the city-state’s government regarding the case, the embassy said at the time.
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,
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.
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
RSS