GAMING
Sony invests in Discord
The Sony Group has said that it has invested in chat app Discord and is looking to get it into the PlayStation next year. Sony Interactive Entertainment made a “minority investment” in the platform with more than 140 million monthly users, many of them gaming enthusiasts, Sony Interactive Entertainment chief executive officer Jim Ryan said. The news followed reports that Discord had terminated acquisition talks with Xbox producer Microsoft, while other firms expressed interest in partnering with the service.
INVESTMENTS
Berkshire names successor
Berkshire Hathaway Inc plans to name Greg Abel as chief executive when the conglomerate’s longtime chief, Warren Buffett, eventually exits, CNBC reported on Monday. Buffett, 90, confirmed the plan to the business network after Berkshire’s annual meeting over the weekend. “The directors are in agreement that if something were to happen to me tonight, it would be Greg who’d take over tomorrow morning,” Buffett told CNBC. Abel, 59, is vice chairman of Berkshire’s non-insurance operations.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Infineon runs at ‘full speed’
First-quarter results at German semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies AG were boosted by strong demand, but it said that bottlenecks continue to plague a manufacturing supply chain that is running at “full speed.” Sales in the first quarter hit 2.7 billion euros (US$3.25 billion), compared with the average analyst estimate of 2.69 billion euros. Previous guidance from Infineon placed second-quarter revenue between 2.5 billion euros and 2.8 billion euros, while third-quarter revenue is expected to be between 2.6 billion euros and 2.9 billion euros.
APPAREL
Under Armour fixes charges
US athletic apparel company Under Armour Inc on Monday agreed to pay US$9 million to settle charges by US financial regulators that it misled investors about its revenues. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that for six quarters from the third quarter of 2015 through 2016, Under Armour inflated sales to meet analysts’ expectations. Under Armour said the settlement resolves the charges, while “the company neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s charges,” it said in a statement.
RIDE-HAILING
Bolt unveils car-sharing pilot
Bolt Technology OU, which competes with Uber Technologies Inc in Europe and Africa, would launch a car-sharing project in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, chief executive officer Markus Villig said. If the pilot proves successful, Bolt would quickly expand it to other cities, as it has done with its food delivery service, which operates in 20 countries, Villig said, adding that 500 cars would initially be leased.
ELECTRONICS
Samsung widow’s stake leaps
Hong Ra-hee, the wife of the late Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee, boosted her fortune to more than US$7 billion after receiving billions of dollars in stocks in the much-awaited transfer of her husband’s assets. Hong, 75, inherited about 83 million shares in Samsung Electronics Co, making her the largest individual shareholder in the tech giant with a 2.3 percent stake, a filing last week said. Hong is the richest woman in South Korea, with a net worth of US$7.4 billion as of Monday’s stock market close, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed.
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
ELECTRONICS: Strong growth in cloud services and smart consumer electronics offset computing declines, helping the company to maintain sales momentum, Hon Hai said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday announced that its sales for last month rose 10 percent year-on-year, driven by strong growth in cloud and networking products amid the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company, also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), reported consolidated sales of NT$540.24 billion (US$18.67 billion) for the month, the highest ever for the period, and a 10.09 percent increase from a year earlier, although it was down 12.26 percent from the previous month. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said its cloud
STABLE RESULTS: Despite June’s lower consolidated revenue, second-quarter sales still reached a record high, driven by demand for chips for AI applications Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$263.71 billion (US$9.02 billion) for last month, its second-lowest monthly result this year. The world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement that its revenue last month only fared better than the NT$260.01 billion posted in February. Last month’s figure rose 26.9 percent from a year earlier, but slumped 17.7 percent from May, the company said. However, second-quarter revenue reached NT$933.8 billion, a record high for a single quarter, company data showed. The figure represented growth of 11.26 percent from the first quarter and 38.6 percent from a year earlier. Previously, TSMC said that
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