CHIPMAKERS
Inotera buys equipment
DRAM chipmaker Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) yesterday said it has bought a batch of equipment from parent company Micron Technology Inc for NT$411 million (US$12.5 million), according to a company statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Inotera said it would use the equipment to produce memory chips. The chipmaker is scheduled to convert all of its production capacity to 20-nanometer chips by the second quarter of next year.
COMPONENTS
Ichia sales continue to fall
Keypad producer Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) yesterday reported that its sales last month declined by 6 percent sequentially from NT$598 million to NT$563 million, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The reduced figure represents an annual decline of 32 percent from NT$830 milllion. In the first 11 months of this year, revenue plunged by 34.29 percent to NT$6.88 billion, compared with NT$1.05 billion in the same period last year.
POWER SUPPLIES
Delta eyes efficient solutions
Power supply unit producer Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said that improving energy efficiency remains the most economical path toward reducing carbon emissions and mitigating the impacts of climate change, ahead of the company’s participation at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. The nation’s top power supply producer said that its industry-leading technologies have achieved a conversion efficiency of 98.7 percent for its photovoltaic inverters and 97.5 percent for telecom power supplies. Between 2010 and last year, the company’s power management products have yielded 14.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, equivalent to about 7.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, it said. The company is to introduce its plans to integrate a wide portfolio of energy-efficient solutions and expertise in constructing green buildings in Paris next week.
LIFE INSURERS
Shin Kong to buy UK asset
Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), the main subsidiary and biggest profit source of Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), said it plans to buy an office building in London for ￡135.15 million (US$203.73 million), the company said in a statement released on Monday. This is the first overseas property investment made by the insurance company, it said. The insurer is to purchase 40 Gracechurch, a seven-story building with 5,871m2 of floor space, which it expects to yield investment returns of more than 4 percent annually. The purchase has been approved by the Financial Supervisory Commission.
ELECTRONICS
BungBungame sponsors 101
Taipei 101 yesterday announced that local technology company BungBungame Inc (戲智科技) has agreed to sponsor the skyscraper’s annual fireworks show this year. The announcement came after a search that started in June for a suitable sponsor willing to put up NT$45 million to cover the cost of the skyscraper’s 11th annual fireworks show to welcome in the new year. Themed “Nature is Future,” the display is being designed to show images of fish and plants to raise environmental awareness. At 238 seconds, it is to be the longest performance since the skyscraper’s formal inauguration on Dec. 31, 2004, according to the building’s administration. BungBungame was established in 2008 as a software developer and has created several apps for devices across the Android, iOS and Windows platforms.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
Japan approved ￥631.5 billion (US$3.97 billion) in additional subsidies to hasten Rapidus Corp’s entry into the high-stakes artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaking arena, ramping up support for a project widely regarded as a long shot. The capital is intended to bankroll Rapidus’ work for information technology firm Fujitsu Ltd, one of the initial customers that Tokyo hopes would get the signature endeavor off the ground. The new money raises the fees and investments that the government is injecting into the start-up to ￥2.6 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year to March next year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and
The founder of Chinese property giant Evergrande Group (恆大集團) has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery, a court said yesterday, the latest blow for what was once the country’s leading developer. Evergrande’s rise was propelled by decades of rapid urbanization and rising living standards, but in 2020, its access to credit dramatically narrowed when the government introduced curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation. The company defaulted in 2021 after struggling to repay creditors. Founder Xu Jiayin (許家印), 67, known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, was reportedly held by police in 2023, with Evergrande saying he had been subjected to
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