JAPAN
Management goal unmet
Women held an average 7.7 percent of executive positions at major companies as of last month, suggesting the government’s latest target of 10 percent by this year would not be met, a survey by the Yomiuri Shimbun found. The figure has risen from 4.9 percent in a 2016 survey and 6.1 percent in 2018, the newspaper said yesterday. The percentage of women in management positions was 9.9 percent this year — rising from 7 percent in 2016 and 8.5 percent in 2018 — but far short of a 2003 government target of 30 percent by this year.
BANKING
HSBC mulls US retail exit
HSBC Holdings PLC is considering an exit from US retail banking, the Financial Times said on Saturday. In the coming weeks, senior managers are to outline the plan to the bank’s board, the newspaper said, citing two unidentified people familiar with the matter. They are also likely to suggest reducing investment banking activities to concentrate on international clients, with a focus on Asia and the Middle East. A full exit from the US is no longer being considered. No final decision on the retail business has been made. An HSBC spokesman declined to comment on the report.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla plans wider roll out
Tesla Inc chief executive Elon Musk on Friday said that there would probably be a wider roll-out of a new “Full Self Driving” software update in two weeks. Tesla last month released a beta, or test version, of what it calls a “Full Self Driving” software upgrade to an undisclosed number of “expert, careful” drivers. “Probably going to a wider beta in 2 weeks,” Musk wrote on Twitter, in a reply to a user asking if the software would be available in Minnesota.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”