INTERNET
Airbnb extends fundraising
Airbnb Inc authorized the sale of an additional US$153 million in equity, bringing the size of its current fundraising effort to about US$1 billion. The financing values the home-rental start-up at about US$30 billion, people familiar with the matter have said. The additional equity was disclosed in a securities filing on Friday, according to research firm CB Insights. Airbnb declined to comment. Airbnb has sold at least US$556 million in shares as part of the recent fundraising, according to a regulatory filing in September.
INVESTMENT
US fund manager charged
US federal prosecutors said a New Jersey investment manager ran a Ponzi scheme to steal US$5.3 million from investors from one fund he ran to pay investors in another. Prosecutors said 57-year-old Vincent Falci, of Middletown, was charged on Friday with wire fraud and securities fraud. They said he lost most of the original investors’ money in risky ventures, such as day trading and real estate. They allege he also siphoned US$500,000 for himself and his family. Falci was released on US$250,000 bond after making an initial court appearance on Friday.
DEFENSE INDUSTRY
Italy to retry executives
Italy’s highest court on Friday ordered a re-trial of former top executives at defense group Leonardo Finmeccanica SpA over allegations of bribery in a 2010 contract to provide a dozen helicopters to the Indian government. In April a Milan appeals court sentenced former Finmeccanica chief executive officer Giuseppe Orsi to four-and-a-half years in prison for corruption and falsifying invoices, while Bruno Spagnolini, former head of the group’s helicopter unit AgustaWestland, was sentenced to four years in jail over the 560 million euro (US$585.28 million) contract. The two executives launched an appeal and they would now have to be tried again in front of Milan’s appeals court.
MACROECONOMICS
Peru hikes inflation outlook
Peru’s central bank on Friday raised its inflation outlook to 3.3 percent this year from 3 percent, citing a drought-induced spike in food prices that could delay its goal of bringing inflation to 2 percent by as much as a year. The central bank had predicted inflation would slow to 3 percent this year before cooling to 2 percent next year in its last quarterly report in September. However, higher food prices as a drought grips rice and potato farming regions prompted the bank to raise its inflation forecast to 2.3 percent next year, which would mark the first year that inflation falls within its 1 to 3 percent target range since 2013.
MACROECONOMICS
Sri Lanka secures loans
Sri Lanka has secured US$1.34 billion in loans from the World Bank to boost the cash-strapped island’s economy over the next three years, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Finance said on Saturday. The loans would be at concessionary rates and repayments spread out over 15 years, the ministry said in a statement. The new government, which came to power in January last year, also secured a US$1.5 billion bailout from the IMF in June after facing a balance of payments crisis.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
Nvidia is to open a quantum computing research lab in Boston, where it plans to collaborate with scientists from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Thursday. Huang made the announcement at Nvidia’s annual software developer conference in San Jose, California, where the company held a day of events focused on quantum computing. Nvidia added the program after Huang in January said that useful quantum computers are 20 years away, comments that he sought to walk back on Thursday while joined onstage by executives from quantum computing firms. “This is the first event in history
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