TECHNOLOGY
E Ink loses in final quarter
E-paper display supplier E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技) yesterday said it lost NT$60 million (US$2.06 million) in the final quarter of last year, because of losses of NT$516.14 million from discontinued operations. For the whole of last year, net profit attributable to the parent company was NT$2.08 billion, up 8.96 percent annually, with earnings per share of NT$1.85, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. E Ink’s board has proposed a cash dividend distribution of NT$1.65 per share, equivalent to a yield of 3.37 percent based on yesterday’s closing price of NT$48.9.
SOLAR ENERGY
Giga Solar approves payout
Giga Solar Materials Corp (碩禾電子) yesterday said its board had approved a cash dividend of NT$5 per share, but would not offer bonuses to employees or compensate board directors, as it reported a net loss of NT$209 million last year, the first loss since the photovoltaic conductive paste maker was listed on the over-the-counter market in 2010.
STEELMAKERS
China Steel offers raises
China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s largest steelmaker, on Wednesday announced its board had approved a pay raise of 3.5 percent for employees. The hike, which is to take effect on Monday, is the highest increase in seven years. The board also proposed paying a NT$1.4 cash dividend for each preferred share and a NT$0.88 cash dividend for each common share, the firm said. The board also agreed to appoint China Steel Chemical Corp (中碳) chairman Lin Horng-nan (林弘男) as the firm’s new president, replacing Liu Jih-gang (劉季剛) who is retiring.
CHIP HANG-UP: Surging memorychip prices would deal a blow to smartphone sales this year, potentially hindering one of MediaTek’s biggest sources of revenue MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip designer, yesterday said its new artificial intelligence (AI) chips used in data centers are to account for 20 percent of its total revenue next year, as cloud service providers race to deploy AI infrastructure to meet voracious demand. MediaTek is believed to be developing tensor processing units for Google, which are used in AI applications. While it did not confirm such reports, MediaTek said its new application-specific IC (ASIC) business would be a new growth engine for the company. It again hiked its forecast for the addressable ASIC market to US$70 billion by 2028, compared
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
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