SEMICONDUCTORS
Lead times up by four days
Chip delivery times lengthened again last month, dashing hopes that the end of shortages that have hammered many industries is finally in sight. The lead times — a closely watched gap between when a semiconductor is ordered and when it is delivered — increased by four days to about 22.3 weeks last month compared with October, research by Susquehanna Financial Group showed. That lag marks the longest wait time since the firm began tracking the data in 2017. The results are a setback for industries that need more of the electronic components.
TOURISM
TUI books hefty net loss
TUI AG, the world’s largest tourism operator, on Wednesday said that the spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 was having an impact on bookings, as it reported a hefty net loss. The German group, which runs its business year from October to September, booked a net loss of 2.48 billion euros (US$2.81 billion) for the past 12 months. However, demand had recovered quickly with its offerings “almost fully booked” from October through this month, TUI CEO Fritz Joussen said in a statement.
BRAZIL
Benchmark rate raised
The central bank on Wednesday increased its benchmark interest rate by 150 basis points for the second straight time, seeking to fight surging inflation even as Latin America’s biggest economy is stuck in recession. The increase, the seventh straight, was in line with analysts’ expectations. It brought the Selic rate to 9.25 percent, the highest since the middle of 2017. The decision was made unanimously by the nine members of the bank’s monetary policy committee, which said in a statement that it expected “another adjustment of the same magnitude” when it ends its next meeting on Feb. 2 next year.
FINANCE
Better CEO apologizes
The chief executive officer of Better Mortgage Corp has apologized for his manner of handling layoffs at the company, after a video of him firing 900 people last week via a Zoom call went viral on social media. Better CEO Vishal Garg, who has come under intense criticism after the Softbank Group Corp-backed company laid off about 9 percent of its workforce through the video call, said that he had “blundered the execution” of communicating the layoffs. “I realize that the way I communicated this news made a difficult situation worse,” Garg said. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in New York, Better offers mortgage and insurance products to homeowners through its online platform.
CONGLOMERATES
Keppel’s SPH bid approved
Keppel Corp shareholders yesterday approved the company’s bid to acquire a Singaporean media and property group. More than 98 percent of its shareholders present at a meeting voted for the deal, Keppel said in a statement. Keppel, which is linked to Temasek Holdings Pte, has said that its offer to acquire Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Ltd is final and a “win-win” proposition for both firms. Keppel is locked in a battle with a consortium backed by a Singapore hotel tycoon and units of investment giant Temasek to buy SPH. The proposal by Cuscaden Peak Pte values SPH at S$3.9 billion (US$2.9 billion), higher than Keppel’s offer. SPH has described Cuscaden’s bid as superior and is urging shareholders to vote for it.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
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