FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Reserves rise US$562m
Taiwan’s foreign-exchange reserves amounted to US$460.44 billion as of the end of last month, an increase of US$562 million from a month earlier, the central bank said yesterday. The bank attributed the gain to returns from its foreign-exchange reserves management. The market value of securities and New Taiwan dollar-based deposits held by foreign investors reached US$394.3 billion last month, equivalent to 86 percent of the overall foreign-exchange reserves, it said. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) on Thursday said ample liquidity and foreign-exchange reserves would help the nation emerge unscathed from any financial market tumult as in the past.
CHIPMAKERS
Toshiba settles dispute
Memorychip maker Marconix International Co (旺宏電子) yesterday said Toshiba Corp has agreed to pay US$40 million to settle a series of patent infringement lawsuits in Taiwan and Japan. The companies on Thursday also signed a memorandum of understanding to cross-license 30 patents, Macronix said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Last year, Marconix lodged a patent lawsuit against Toshiba and its subsidiaries, as well as its local partner Phison Electronics Corp (群聯). Before that, Toshiba had filed a complaint accusing Marconix of illegally using its patents.
CAMERA LENSES
Largan posts flat sales
Smartphone camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) yesterday reported that sales last month were nearly flat from August and grew slightly from the same month last year, despite investors’ concerns about weakening demand in the final quarter of the year. Consolidated sales were NT$5.52 billion (US$179 million) last month, the company said in a statement. Sales from July to last month totaled NT$16.35 billion, 33.03 percent higher than the previous quarter and in line with market expectations. For the year to date, the company’s cumulative sales were NT$37.51 billion, up 1.26 percent compared with the same period last year, company data showed.
CIRCUIT BOARDS
Unimicron shares fall 2.61%
Shares of printed circuit board maker Unimicron Technology Corp (欣興) yesterday fell 2.61 percent, despite its implementation of a share buyback scheme. The company plans to repurchase 50 million shares on the open market from yesterday to Dec. 4 at about NT$14 to NT$29 per share, the company said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing on Thursday. The repurchased shares would account for as much as a 3.32 percent stake in Unimicron, the company said. Unimicron shares yesterday closed at NT$18.65 in Taipei trading, having risen 14.42 percent this year. The firm reported sales of NT$7.38 billion in first eight months of the year, up 20.59 percent year-on-year.
HARNESS MAKERS
BizLink sales at US$61.49m
Wire harness maker BizLink Holding Inc (貿聯) yesterday said that its sales last month increased 18.66 percent year-on-year, but fell 7.3 percent month-on-month to US$61.49 million. The company is an exclusive harness supplier to US electric car maker Tesla Inc and has entered the supply chains of Europe’s high-end appliance brands after completing the acquisition of Leoni AG’s electrical appliance assembly business in May last year. In the first nine months of the year, BizLink’s consolidated sales were US$523.74 million, up 52.94 percent from the same period last year.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
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