ELECTRONICS
Phone boosts HTC revenue
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday reported consolidated revenue of NT$6.89 billion (US$225.2 million) for last month, rising 8.38 percent from a year earlier and 52.1 percent from the previous month on back of increasing sales of its latest HTC U11 flagship handset. Last month’s revenue was the highest level since December last year, company data showed. In the first six months of the year, HTC’s revenue totaled NT$30.67 billion, down 18.96 percent from a year earlier, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
PANEL MAKERS
AUO posts NT$28.57bn
LCD panel maker AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) yesterday reported revenue of NT$28.57 billion for last month, up 4 percent annually and 1.8 percent monthly, as increasing shipments of small panels offset the decline in large panel shipments. AUO said shipments of large panels for televisions and PCs fell 1.3 percent from the previous month to 9.03 million units, while those of small panels rose 3.1 percent to 13.15 million units. In the second quarter of the year, revenue totaled NT$84.41 billion, up 5.4 percent annually, but down 4.7 percent quarterly, AUO said.
ELECTRONICS
Brinno revenue hits record
Brinno Inc (邑錡), which designs and produces photography equipment, last month saw its monthly revenue increase by a double-digit percentage for the 10th month in a row, thanks to robust performance in its brand-name and design manufacturing businesses. The company yesterday reported record-high revenue of NT$63.21 million for last month, up 88 percent annually. In the second quarter of the year, revenue doubled to NT$174 million from a year earlier, the company said in a press release.
CHIPMAKERS
Epistar revenue up 6.25%
Epistar Corp (晶電), the nation’s largest LED chipmaker, yesterday said increased orders for blue-and-white LED chips used in lighting products boosted last month’s revenue to the highest level since April last year. Revenue was NT$2.24 billion, up 6.25 percent from a year earlier and 1.09 percent from the previous month, Epistar said in a statement. Revenue in the April-to-June period totaled NT$6.64 billion, up 15.86 percent from the previous quarter and the highest in the past nine quarters, the company said.
OPTICAL SENSORS
Controllers help PixArt
Hsinchu-based chip image sensor maker PixArt Imaging Inc (原相科技) yesterday said revenue last quarter grew 17.36 percent from the previous quarter to NT$1.295 billion on rising demand for optical sensors used in video game console controllers. Meanwhile, Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠), which supplies chips that control flat-panel displays, and Parade Technologies Ltd (譜瑞), a leading display and interface chip supplier, both saw revenue for last quarter increase by 8.12 percent and 10.55 percent to NT$11.81 billion and NT$2.599 billion from the previous quarter respectively.
FINANCE
Cathay offers Android Pay
Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行) has become the latest local lender to work with Google to offer Android Pay digital wallet services. The company made the announcement yesterday at a promotional event in Taipei, unveiling several other perks for consumers available until the end of this year.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
A new worry has been rippling across the stock market lately: Entire businesses, not just their employees, might be thrown out of work. While most economists say fears of an artificial intelligence (AI) job apocalypse are overblown, seismic shifts have happened in the past after big tech breakthroughs. The IT revolution of the 1990s led to a surge in productivity that sped up the US economy for several years. It also rendered companies or even industries largely redundant — from travel agents and stockbrokers to classified advertising and newspapers, or video rental stores. Economists expect AI would deliver higher productivity,
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