TIRES
Firm sponsors United
Federal Corp (泰豐輪胎) has signed a three-year sponsorship deal with England’s Manchester United Football Club under which the Taiwan-based car tire maker will be the world-renowned soccer team’s sole tire sponsor in the Russian and Taiwanese markets. Federal Corp is the first Taiwanese company to sign a sponsorship contract with the Premier League club. The firm provides an extensive range of ultra-high performance, high performance, passenger car and SUV tires. It is also the first Taiwanese maker to develop semi-slick tires. Federal said it will collaborate with the soccer club in launching various promotional activities in Russia and Taiwan in the coming years to further enhance its brand recognition.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Cancer drug trial advances
Local drug maker PharmaEngine Inc (智擎生技) and its US partner Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc have reached a 405-patient enrolment goal in the global phase three study of its new drug PEP02 (MM-398) for pancreatic cancer, the firm said on Wednesday. PharmaEngine said it will file for drug permits in the US, Europe and Taiwan at the end of this year. The company is expected to receive US$75 million from Merrimack next year before the drug can be sold in these markets, and another US$130 million in milestone payments over the next three years, if sales of the drug can reach certain targets, analysts said.
AI SPLURGE: The four major US tech companies have lost more than US$950 billion in value since releasing earnings and outlooks, while equipment makers were gaining Four of the biggest US technology companies together have forecast capital expenditures that would reach about US$650 billion this year — a flood of cash earmarked for new data centers and all the gear within them. The spending planned by Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp, all in pursuit of dominance in the still-nascent market for artificial intelligence (AI) tools, is a boom without a parallel this century. Each of the companies’ estimates for this year is expected either near or surpass their budgets for the past three years combined. They would set a high-watermark for capital spending
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Bank of America Corp nearly doubled its forecast for the nation’s economic growth this year, adding to a slew of upgrades even after a rip-roaring last year propelled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI). The firm lifted its projection to 8 percent from 4.5 percent on “relentless global demand” for the hardware that Taiwanese companies make, according to a note dated yesterday by analysts including Xiaoqing Pi (皮曉青). Taiwan’s GDP expanded 8.63 percent last year, the fastest pace since 2010. The increase “reflects our sustained optimism over Taiwan’s technology driven expansion and is reinforced by several recent developments,” including a more stable currency,
COLLABORATION: Taiwan and the US could jointly find solutions to weaknesses in supply chain resilience for critical materials, focusing on mining and initial refinement Taiwan is likely to purchase rare earths from the US in the future, and is also in talks with Australia and Canada to strengthen global rare earth supply chain security, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Taiwan and the US last month concluded the sixth Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue, during which both sides signed a joint statement endorsing the principles of the Pax Silica Declaration, pledging to deepen cooperation in areas including critical minerals. At the time, Kung said the two sides would establish working groups to advance cooperation in areas including artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, critical materials and
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