BANKING
Yuan deposits at six-year low
Chinese yuan deposits held by banks operating in Taiwan last month fell to the lowest level in more than six years as the currency’s slumping interest rates made it less attractive, the central bank said on Friday. The balance of yuan deposits totaled 246.01 billion yuan (US$34.64 billion), down about 6.11 billion yuan from the end of March, central bank data showed. That is the lowest level since February 2014, when yuan deposits totaled 247.05 billion yuan. The decline in yuan deposits came after institutional investors allocated yuan-denominated funds to investments, or as payments for purchases, central bank Department of Foreign Exchange specialist Chen Wan-ning (陳婉寧) said, adding that retail investors also moved their deposits to buy yuan-denominated insurance policies.
ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai aids Japan, Israel AI
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has teamed up with semiconductor firms in Japan and Israel to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) image solution. In a statement on Wednesday, Hon Hai said that it has formed a partnership with Japan-headquartered system-on-chip solution provider Socionext Inc and Israel-based AI chip designer Hailo to launch next-generation AI processing solutions for video analytics. The results would be used in diverse segments, such as smart cities, smart medical care and smart retail development, as well as the industrial Internet of Things, Hon Hai said, adding that it is combining its high-density, fan-less and edge computing solution — BOXiedge — with Socionext’s high-efficiency parallel processor — the SynQuacer SC2A11 — and Hailo’s deep learning processor — the Hailo-8 — in the development.
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents would supplant smartphones as the center of people’s digital lives, fundamentally reshaping personal devices and driving a major computing upgrade cycle, Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon said yesterday. In his keynote speech for this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei, Amon said that the rise of "agentic AI" — AI systems capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks autonomously — would transform how people interact with technology across phones, PCs, vehicles and wearable devices. Describing the technology as the next major evolution in computing, Amon said that "2026 is the year of agents.” For decades, smartphones have sat
The average pay to employees by ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) was the highest among the companies listed on the local main board last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) ranked seventh, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said on Monday. Data compiled by the exchange showed ASE Technology, the world’s largest chip packaging and testing services provider, paid its employees an average of NT$6.28 million (US$199,746) last year, up 40 percent from a year earlier. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and the most profitable company in Taiwan, paid its employees NT$4.09 million on average, up
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