Technology firms have fourished amid the COVID-19 pandemic and increased demand for office space, a trend that might continue, Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (JLL) said yesterday.
The top 25 technology firms in the US hired 600,000 more workers between the second quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of last year, lifting their payroll to 1 million and creating demand for 430,000 ping (1.42km2) of office space over the same period, the international property broker said.
The phenomenon could continue, making large Grade A office a focal point in the leasing market, JLL said.
JLL Taiwan managing director Tony Chao (趙正義) shared the same observation for Taiwan, home to the world’s largest suppliers of electronic components used in smartphones, laptops, TVs and vehicles, as well as artificial intelligence and Internet of Things applications.
Technology titans such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Alphabet Inc and Line Corp last year increased their office space in Taipei’s Neihu (內湖) and Nangang (南港) districts, as well as in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) by 4,000 to 5,000 ping, accounting for 65 percent of the overall take-up, Chao said.
Aside from growing demand, the trend has to do with a limited supply of Grade A offices in Taipei, he said.
Technology companies have benefited from the global health crisis, as it has forced companies and organizations to speed up digital transformation and embrace remote work and schooling, he said.
Companies are likely to seek to attract and retain talent by upgrading their working environment in the post-COVID-19 era, making new office buildings more popular, Chao said, adding that technology firms with expansion needs would have no choice but relocate to locations that are not central.
The vacancy rate has dropped to historical lows in central business districts, Chao added.
SECOND-RATE: Models distilled from US products do not perform the same as the original and undo measures that ensure the systems are neutral, the US’ cable said The US Department of State has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it said are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek (深度求索), to steal intellectual property from US AI labs, according to a diplomatic cable. The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about “concerns over adversaries’ extraction and distillation of US AI models.” Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones to lower the costs of training a powerful new
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have repeatedly hit new highs, but an equity analyst said the stock’s valuation remains within a reasonable range and any pullback would likely be technical. The contract chipmaker’s historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has ranged between 20 and 30, Cathay Futures Consultant Co (國泰證期) analyst Tsai Ming-han (蔡明翰) told Central News Agency. With market consensus projecting that TSMC would post earnings per share of about NT$100 (US$3.17) this year, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and the stock currently trading at a P/E ratio of below 25, Tsai said the valuation
The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has triggered a seismic reshuffling of global equity markets, with Taiwan and South Korea muscling past European nations one by one. With its stock market now valued at nearly US$4.3 trillion, Taiwan surpassed the UK, Europe’s biggest market, earlier this month, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. South Korea is about US$140 billion away from doing the same. The tech-heavy Asian markets have shot past Germany and France in the past seven months. The shift is largely down to massive gains in shares of three companies that provide essential hardware for AI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電),
The US Department of Commerce last week ordered multiple chip equipment companies to halt shipments of certain tools to China’s second-largest chipmaker, Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (華虹半導體), its latest action to slow the country’s development of advanced chips, two people familiar with the matter said. The department sent letters to at least a handful of companies informing them of restrictions on tools and other materials destined for two Hua Hong facilities US officials believe make China’s most sophisticated chips, the people said. Top US chip equipment companies Lam Research Corp, Applied Materials Inc and KLA Corp, each of which has significant
RSS