SEMICONDUCTORS
Intel sells US$1bn in notes
Intel Corp sold US$1 billion worth of notes in Taiwan, marking the world’s biggest chipmaker’s first US dollar-denominated bond sale in the nation. The 30-year notes pay a 4.9 percent coupon, according to a US filing. It is Taiwan’s third-largest offer in the currency to date, after US telecommunications firm AT&T Inc issued US$2.6 billion of securities in February and US$1.3 billion of bonds in November last year. Intel tapped the global bond market this month for US$7 billion to finance part of its US$16.7 billion takeover of Altera Corp. Foreign companies have flocked to Taiwan to issue US dollar debentures in the past two years, taking advantage of the nation’s flush liquidity. Such issuance has already hit US$18.4 billion this year, compared with US$20.4 billion for the whole of last year, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行), MasterLink Securities Corp (元富證券) and Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) were the arranging banks.
TELECOMS
HTC to invest in WEVR
Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said it is to invest nearly US$10 million in the US-based virtual-reality, open-platform company WEVR Inc as part of an effort to develop its non-smartphone business. HTC said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that the investment is to be carried out via subsidiary HTC (BVI) Corp to acquire 15 percent, or 1.73 million shares, of WEVR. The smartphone maker in March unveiled its first virtual-reality headset, the HTC Vive, at the Mobile World Congress in Spain. Company chairperson Cher Wang (王雪紅) told shareholders last month that the firm is to accelerate its acquisition of new business opportunities in the face of rising competition in the smartphone industry.
SOFTWARE
Ministry denies app claim
The Ministry of Economic Affairs on Tuesday denied that Juiker — an instant messaging app developed by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and transferred to Loft Technology Co (源思科技) — was funded by Chinese money. The ministry’s remarks came after the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said that Loft Technology chairman Dai Wei-heng (戴偉衡) was a major investor in a Chinese company, which could cause a serious information security leak, as most government officials use Juiker to communicate with each other. The Investment Commission said in a statement that its preliminary investigation shows that none of Loft Technology’s capital comes from Chinese investors, adding that all of the company’s shareholders are Taiwanese.
SCIENCE PARKS
Park’s revenue increases
The combined revenue of factories in central Taiwan science parks rose to NT$522.1 billion (US$16.6 billion) last year, setting a record high, Central Taiwan Science Park administration director-general Wayne Wang (王永壯) said on Monday in a ceremony marking the 12th anniversary of the agency’s establishment. The agency has parks in Taichung’s Houli District (后里), Changhua’s Huwei District (虎尾), one under construction in Yunlin’s Erlin District (二林) and the Advanced Research Park in Nantou (南投), which combined occupy 1,708 hectares. As 92 percent of the land available in the developed parks has already been rented, the supply of standard factory buildings in the parks is unable to meet the demand, according to the administration.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
COLLABORATION: The operations center shows the close partnership between Taiwan and Japan in the field of semiconductors, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Tokyo Electron Ltd, Asia’s biggest semiconductor equipment supplier, yesterday launched a NT$2 billion (US$61.5 million) operations center in Tainan as it aims to expand capacity and meet growing demand. Its new Taiwan Operations Center is expected to help customers release their products faster, boost production efficiency and shorten equipment repair time in a cost-effective way, the company said. The center is about a five-minute drive from the factories of its major customers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) advanced 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer fabs. The operations center would have about 1,000 employees when it is fully utilized, the company
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