EQUITIES
TSMC boosts TAIEX
The TAIEX yesterday reversed earlier losses and closed slightly higher as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) gained and stabilized the broader market, dealers said. The TAIEX ended the day up 48.83 points, or 0.27 percent, at 18,288.21. Turnover totaled NT$302.773 billion (US$10.94 billion), with foreign institutional investors buying a net NT$2.23 billion of shares on the main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. TSMC rose 1.24 percent to close at NT$651. Its gains contributed more than 65 points to the TAIEX, and boosted the electronics index by 0.08 percent and the semiconductor subindex by 0.42 percent. “It is possible that foreign institutional investors stood on the buy side for TSMC,” Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺) said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC to issue green bonds
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is to issue NT$5.4 billion in green bonds to fund green building construction and other eco-friendly projects, the firm said last week. The NT$5.4 billion in green bonds, the firm’s first unsecured corporate bond sale this year, would comprise two tranches — a five-year NT$2.1 billion tranche with a coupon rate of 0.63 percent, and a seven-year NT$3.3 billion tranche carrying a coupon rate of 0.72 percent, TSMC said. Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) would be the depository institution for the green bonds, while Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) would serve as the underwriter of the debt, the firm said. TSMC has not yet released a timetable for the sale.
HOSPITALITY
FDC revenue rises 35%
FDC International Hotels Corp (FDC, 雲品國際), which runs the Palais de Chine Hotel (君品酒店) in Taipei and the Fleur de Chine Hotel (雲品溫泉酒店) in Nantou County, on Monday reported that its revenue last month increased 35 percent from November to NT$211 million, as COVID-19 infections dwindled and people felt more comfortable dining and gathering. However, the figure still represented a 5 percent decline from a year earlier, as the negative effects of a virus outbreak in Taiwan last year lingered, it added. Overall revenue for last year fell 21 percent to NT$1.45 billion, it said. Meanwhile, Formosa International Hotels Group (晶華酒店集團), which operates the Regent Taipei (台北晶華酒店), reported revenue of NT$547 million for last month, a 21.05 percent increase from November, but a 5.18 percent decline from a year earlier. For the whole of last year, revenue dropped 9.18 percent annually to NT$4.93 billion.
ELECTRONICS
Chroma ATE to close agency
Chroma ATE Inc (致茂電子), which provides electronic test and measurement solutions for commercial, automotive, military and government industries, yesterday said that its board of directors has agreed to terminate the agency business operated by its subsidiary Chroma New Material Corp (日茂新材料), effective March 31. The subsidiary, established in 2006, is Nippon Micrometal Corp’s local distribution agency for bonding wires and micro solder balls for semiconductor packaging. Its purchase from Nippon Micrometal cost NT$2.4 billion in 2020, Chroma ATE said in a regulatory filing. In 2020, the subsidiary contributed 16 percent and 1 percent to the parent firm’s consolidated revenue and net profit respectively, the filing said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to