INTERNET
Braintree aims to use bitcoin
EBay Inc’s Braintree unit, one of its electronic-payments businesses, is exploring ways to support bitcoin payments, a person with knowledge of the discussions said. Braintree, which works with online and mobile-only startups so that people can easily pay for goods and services, has held discussions with bitcoin payment-service provider Coinbase Inc, said the person, who asked not to be identified because talks are ongoing and an agreement hasn’t been signed. The Wall Street Journal reported the negotiations on Thursday. “We do believe that bitcoin will play an important role in payments in the future but we have nothing to announce,” a spokeswoman for Ebay Jennifer Hakes wrote in an e-mail on Friday. EBay, which also operates PayPal, would join other merchants in accepting bitcoin. Dell Inc began accepting bitcoins for computers in July. Dish Networks Corp, Overstock.com Inc and Expedia Inc also accept the virtual currency.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford recalls 160,000 cars
Ford is recalling about 160,000 Focus ST hatchbacks and Escape crossovers from last year and this year’s model years because the turbocharged, 2 liter, 4 cylinder engine could lose power or stall, the automaker said on Friday. The action includes about 133,000 vehicles in the US and 25,000 in Canada. The connections for the engine wiring harness might have been “insufficiently compressed,” a spokeswoman for Ford Kelli Felker said in an e-mail. The defect could lead to drivability problems, including the engine stalling without warning. Felker said the automaker was not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the problem. The action by Ford follows a number of recalls related to stalling.
MACROECONOMICS
Fitch raises Ireland rating
Fitch Ratings Ltd on Friday revised Ireland’s sovereign credit rating up a notch to “A-” citing an “employment-led recovery” with a healthier banking system. Fitch is the second of the big three rating agencies to pull Ireland’s rating up from “BBB+” to “A-” and thus higher into investment grade territory. In June Standard & Poor’s was the first to do so, citing the eurozone member’s improved domestic prospects. However while Standard & Poor’s gave Ireland’s economy a positive outlook Fitch was more cautious, giving it a stable outlook. Irish unemployment fell again last month to a fresh five-year low, as the economy continues to recover.
INTERNET
Google to buy Jetpac
Google Inc is buying Jetpac Inc, a software developer for analyzing digital pictures, as it seeks to organize the world’s information and deliver it alongside advertisements on desktops and mobile phones. Jetpac Inc uses information gleaned from photos on social media Web sites, such as Facebook Inc’s Instagram service, to create city guides. By analyzing pictures of food, decor and people, Jetpac’s software offers insights into cities. The terms of the acquisition, disclosed on Jetpac’s Web site yesterday, were not disclosed. Earlier this month, it said it was acquiring smartphone-messaging app Emu and video-creation service Directr Inc, bolstering its mobile and advertising capabilities. The company more than tripled spending on deals in the first half of the year to US$4.2 billion, according to a filing last month.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
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
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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