CHINA
Goldman cuts GDP forecast
Goldman Sachs Group Inc cut its economic growth forecast sharply for next year, predicting Beijing will stick to its stringent “zero COVID-19” policies through at least the first quarter of next year. GDP is likely to increase 4.5 percent next year, down from a previous projection of 5.3 percent, Goldman economists wrote in a report. There was no change to the prediction of a 3 percent expansion this year. On the property market, Goldman said Beijing’s mantra of “housing is for living in, not for speculation” is unlikely to change after the Chinese Communist Party’s congress next month. Major easing of property restrictions is unlikely, the economists said.
BANKING
Lender to split unit
Credit Suisse Group AG has drawn up plans to split its investment bank in three, the Financial Times reported yesterday, as the Swiss lender attempts to emerge from three years of relentless scandals. Under proposals to the board, the bank is looking to sell profitable units such as its securitized products business to prevent a damaging capital raise, the report said, citing people familiar with the plans. The proposals could see the investment bank split into three parts: the group’s advisory business, which might be spun off at a later point; a “bad bank” to hold high-risk assets that would be wound down; and the rest of the business.
TECHNOLOGY
UK to probe cloud services
The UK yesterday said it would investigate competition in cloud services, a market dominated by the “hyperscalers” Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc’s Google, which together account for about 81 percent of revenue. Communications regulator Ofcom also said that it would examine other digital markets over the next year, including messaging services such as WhatsApp, FaceTime and Zoom, and connected televisions and smart speakers. It said if it concluded the cloud market was not working well, it could recommend policy changes, take enforcement action or ask the competition regulator to investigate.
TECHNOLOGY
Kittyhawk to close down
Kittyhawk, the air-taxi company backed by billionaire Google cofounder Larry Page, is set to shut down, dealing a setback to the long-elusive dream of developing flying cars. “We have made the decision to wind down Kittyhawk,” the company said on Twitter. “We’re still working on the details of what’s next.” The company’s technology is expected to live on in the form of its Wisk Aero joint venture with Boeing Co. Wisk’s operations would not be affected by Kittyhawk’s shutdown, Boeing said on Wednesday. The Wisk venture with Boeing was formed in 2019.
TECHNOLOGY
Meta fined for breach
A US jury on Wednesday ordered Meta Platforms Inc to pay US$174.5 million for breaching livestreaming patents developed by a US Army veteran seeking to fix shortcomings in battlefield communications. A trial in Texas federal court ended with jurors deciding that “live” features at Facebook and Instagram used technology patented by Voxer, a company cofounded by Tom Katis, legal documents showed. “We believe the evidence at trial demonstrated that Meta did not infringe Voxer’s patents,” a company spokesperson said in response to an inquiry. “We intend to seek further relief, including filing an appeal.”
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