BLOCKCHAIN
HTC making enabled phone
HTC Corp (宏達電) has announced plans to launch its first blockchain-enabled phone, Exodus. “Our vision is to expand the blockchain ecosystem by creating the world’s first phone dedicated to decentralized applications and security,” HTC said on its Web site. Exodus would support a number of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, and come with its own universal wallet and advanced security features, DigiTimes reported yesterday. Other details such as the phone’s specifications, price and launch date remain unknown.
TELECOMS
Line to keep NT$499 plan
Line Mobile Corp yesterday said it would continue to offer its flat-rate plan for NT$499 (US$16.69) a month, even though the nation’s major telecoms stopped offering similar packages on Tuesday. Line Mobile, a subsidiary of social media firm Line Corp, offers a 12-month service contract for unlimited full-speed Internet for a minimum of NT$499 per month, rather than the 30 months offered by the top three telecoms. Line Mobile launched the service in Taiwan on April 24 on Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd’s (遠傳電信) 4G network.
ELECTRONICS
Ta-i profit skyrockets 431%
Chip resistor supplier Ta-i Technology Co (大毅) yesterday reported that net profit last month increased 430.77 percent year-on-year to NT$69 million, as revenue surged 43.51 percent to NT$442 million from the same period a year earlier. Earnings per share increased 406.6 percent annually to NT$0.37, Ta-i said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Ta-i released the results at the request of the exchange regulator due to an unusual spike in its stock price in recent sessions. Its shares yesterday fell 4.89 percent to NT$79.8, but have risen more than 8 percent this week.
FOREX
Yuan deposits down 1.91%
Yuan deposits held by domestic banks, including negotiable certificates of deposit, at the end of last month edged down 1.91 percent to 315.56 billion yuan (US$49.48 billion), the central bank said on Tuesday. Yuan deposits held by banks’ domestic units totaled 285.77 billion yuan, a monthly decrease of 2.01 percent, the bank said, adding that holdings by banks’ offshore units decreased 0.89 percent to 29.79 billion yuan.
INVESTMENT
Index cut to cause outflow
A move by global index provider MSCI Inc to cut Taiwan’s weighting in its major indices is expected to lead to a foreign fund outflow of more than NT$24.2 billion, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Tuesday. However, Securities and Futures Bureau Director-General Chou Hui-mei (周惠美) downplayed the significance of the expected outflow, saying that it would account for only 0.17 percent of the market capitalization owned by foreign institutional investors in Taiwan.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Wafer shipments up 7.9%
Global silicon wafer shipments last quarter increased 7.9 percent from a year earlier in terms of surface area, the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) said on Tuesday in a news release. According to SMG’s analysis, total silicon wafer area shipments were 3,084 million square inches, up from the 2,858 million square inches shipped a year earlier. “Global silicon wafer shipment volumes started the year at historic levels,” SEMI Taiwan president Terry Tsao (曹世綸) said in the statement.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
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