MINING
Falling prices hit BHP
Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton yesterday reported a 29.5 percent slump in net profit to US$10.88 billion in the year to June, due to slowing global growth and commodity price volatility. The world’s biggest miner said lower prices for its key resources, including a 17 percent dive in iron ore, wiped US$8.9 billion from underlying earnings of US$28.4 billion. BHP said it had managed to cut costs by US$2.7 billion in the year ended June 30, but that was more than offset by the significant fall in commodity prices.
GERMANY
Property firms outline deal
German real-estate giant Deutsche Wohnen yesterday outlined a 1.75 billion euro (US$2.3 billion) takeover offer for rival company GSW. The two companies will have a combined real-estate portfolio of 8.5 billion euros. Under the terms of the deal, Deutsche Wohnen will offer 51 of its own shares for 20 shares in GSW. Upon completion, GSW shareholders will hold a 43 percent stake in the combined entity.
FINANCE
JPMorgan under scrutiny
US authorities are probing whether banking giant JPMorgan Chase manipulated US energy markets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said the US Department of Justice recently decided to take a closer look at the bank’s energy practices as it was wrapping up a US$410 million settlement linked to allegations it had manipulated power prices in California and the midwest. The Journal said it was unclear whether the investigation is civil or criminal and noted that its sources said the probe was still in its early stages.
AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai set for strikes
Hyundai Motor Co’s labor union said 46,000 workers are to stage four hours of strike action over two days this week. Union spokesman Kwon Oh-il said yesterday that working-level talks with Hyundai management had seen little progress. The union demanded increased wage and benefit deals during three months of annual negotiations, but the talks collapsed and the union voted to strike. Another round of talks with management is scheduled for tomorrow. South Korea’s largest automaker estimates it will lose about 2,100 vehicles worth 43.5 billion won (US$39 million) from the union’s four-hour strike and refusal to work overtime.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple to launch new iPhones
Apple Inc has asked its Taiwan-based supplier to begin shipping two new versions of the iPhone next month, including a lower-cost model, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The Journal, citing unnamed sources, said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the parent company of Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) in China, was readying both a standard iPhone with new upgrades and a less expensive model with fewer features.
COMMODITIES
Glencore profits suffer
Commodities trader Glencore Xstrata PLC reported a 39 percent drop in half-year profits as it booked a US$7.6 billion write-down of assets following the merger of Glencore and Xstrata this year. The company, which supplies raw materials around the world and operates mines, plants and warehouses, said its net income slid to US$2.04 billion from US$3.36 billion a year earlier.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
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
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
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.
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