SMARTPHONES
Google to close factory
Google Inc’s Motorola Mobility handset unit said it will close its Texas factory by the end of this year, barely a year after it opened as the first smartphone factory in the US. Sales of its flagship phone, the Moto X, have been weak, and the costs of running the plant are too high to keep operations going, Motorola Mobility spokesman Will Moss said. Singapore-based international contract electronics manufacturer Flextronics Ltd operates the plant. The Texas factory has allowed Google to stamp the phone with “Made in the US,” although assembly is just the last step in the manufacturing process and accounts for relatively little of the cost of a smartphone. The cost largely lies in the chips, battery and display, most of which come from Asian factories. The factory employs about 700 workers, who assemble the Moto X smartphones for the US market, Moss said.
COMPUTERS
Apple boss to get US$1m
Apple Inc’s new chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, is the million-dollar man. Maestri, who took the position on Thursday, will receive an annual salary of US$1 million, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. He was also awarded 6,337 restricted stock units that will vest through 2018 and are worth US$4 million based on Apple’s closing price of US$633. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, had said in March that Peter Oppenheimer would step down and be succeeded by Maestri. The change is part of several executive shifts at the world’s most valuable company, which also recently brought on board former Burberry Group PLC CEO Angela Ahrendts to run retail.
FINANCE
IMF grants Greece aid
The IMF released US$4.6 billion in aid to Greece on Friday, after a year-long delay to ensure Athens was meeting targets set by bailout lenders. The IMF said the Greek government had surpassed targets on closing its budget gap, but warned of a number of challenges still facing the country in fully stabilizing its finances and returning to sustainable growth. The disbursement followed the release at the end of April by the Eurogroup of 6.3 billion euros (US$8.6 billion) in rescue program support to Greece, in a firm nod to its progress in cleaning up its finances and narrowing its budget deficit. The IMF funds are part of a four-year joint package worth a total of US$235 billion to rescue the sinking Greek economy.
BANKING
Los Angeles seeks damages
Los Angeles filed suit on Friday against JPMorgan Chase, saying that the US bank pushed minorities into higher-risk loans that they could not afford, helping trigger the foreclosure crisis. The city is trying to recover damages for decreased tax revenues, arguing that the rash of foreclosures caused property values to drop, and for the extra money it spent on city services because of the foreclosures. “LA continues to suffer from the foreclosure crisis — from blight in our neighborhoods to diminished revenue for basic city services,” Los Angeles attorney Mike Feuer said in a statement. “We’re fighting to hold those we allege are responsible to account.” The “mortgage discrimination,” in effect since 2004, imposed “different terms or conditions on a discriminatory and legally prohibited basis,” according to the lawsuit filed in federal court.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
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