ELECTRONICS
Samsung to invest in AI
Samsung Electronics Co and its affiliated companies plan to spend 25 trillion won (US$22 billion) over the next three years on artificial intelligence (AI), auto components and other businesses. The company yesterday said that it would spend the money to hire artificial intelligence researchers to be a global player in next-generation telecoms technology and to boost its presence in electronics components for cars.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Bitcoin below US$6,500
Cryptocurrencies slumped yesterday, with bitcoin tumbling below US$6,500 for the first time since last month, after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) postponed a decision on whether to allow the listing of an exchange-traded fund backed by the largest digital currency. Bitcoin retreated as much as 6.1 percent to US$6,457 at 12:43pm in Hong Kong, the lowest since July 16, according to consolidated Bloomberg pricing. The SEC has until Sept. 30 to “approve or disapprove, or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove” a proposed rule change from Cboe Global Markets Inc that would allow the listing of a fund from VanEck Associates Corp and SolidX Partners Inc to list, the regulator said in a statement.
UNITED KINGDOM
Starting wages climb
Starting salaries last month rose steeply as employers struggled to fill job openings amid the lowest unemployment since the 1970s, a report published yesterday showed. Vacancies soared, but a shortage of candidates meant firms added permanent staff at the weakest pace since October last year, according to IHS Markit and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. Pay rates increased across the board, with a summer heat wave boosting demand for temporary shop workers. The private sector remains eager to hire, even as Brexit and rising global trade tensions weigh on sentiment.
INTERNET
Bytedance eyes US investors
Beijing Bytedance Technology Co Ltd (北京字節跳動科技) the start-up behind hit Chinese news aggregator Jinri Toutiao (今日頭條), is seeking to raise as much as US$3 billion in a funding round that is mostly targeting US investors, a person familiar with the matter said. The fast-growing company held meetings with potential investors for a financing that could value Bytedance at as much as US$75 billion, the person said. The figure would make Bytedance the world’s most valuable start-up. The Beijing-based company has branched out to include a fast-growing short video clip service called Douyin (抖音), known as Tik Tok abroad, with 500 million monthly active users.
LOGISTICS
Vinalines gears up for IPO
Vietnam National Shipping Lines, a state-owned shipping firm, is seeking to raise about 4.89 trillion dong (US$210 million) from an initial public offering (IPO) next month, bookrunner Saigon Securities Inc said yesterday. The company, better known as Vinalines, is to auction 488.82 million shares, or a 34.8 percent stake, at a price of 10,000 dong a piece at the Hanoi Stock Exchange on Sept. 5, Saigon Securities said in a filing. The IPO is part of Vietnam’s broader privatization program to increase the efficiency and performance of state-owned firms, and to fill government coffers as public debt nears the mandated ceiling of 65 percent of its GDP.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
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