■ TECHNOLOGY
Gates aids Israeli firms
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates on Wednesday signed a US$1.4-million agreement with Israel to encourage Israeli start-up companies and pledged to connect tens of thousands of Israeli children to the Internet, Israeli media reported. "It's no exaggeration to say that the kind of innovation going on in Israel is critical to the future of the technology business," Gates, who is on a brief visit to Israel, told a news conference in Tel Aviv with Acting Israeli Finance Minister Ehud Olmert. "So many great companies have been started here," he said, adding Israel had been "fairly unique," along with the US, in creating new products, patents and copyrighted software. Gates also said the vibrant local high-tech sector will play an important role in the global marketplace and pledged to strengthen cooperation with the country.
■ TECHNOLOGY
Data transfer record set
A Japanese company has developed technology to transmit a two-hour movie in 0.5 seconds, the world's fastest speed achieved with fiber-optic cables in the field, it said yesterday. Kansai Electric used fiber-optic cables on power-transmitting steel towers to achieve the speed of one terabit per second, which is more than 100 times faster than inter-city data transmissions currently in use, a spokesman said. The company, Japan's second-largest power supplier, has not decided when to put the technology into practical use but said it was possible that it would come in 2010 or later, he said.
■ TECHNOLOGY
Volkswagen to sell IT unit
Volkswagen, Europe's biggest car maker, has put its IT services unit Gedas up for sale and entrusted French bank Lazard with the auction, the Financial Times Deutschland reported yesterday, quoting "well-informed sources." Already a number of potential buyers had expressed interest in Gedas and submitted non-binding offers, the newspaper said. Among the possible bidders were Deutsche Telekom's IT unit T-Systems, IBM, EDS, British private equity firm Apax, an unnamed Indian IT group and US services provider ACS, FT Deutschland said. The newspaper said bids ranged between 250 million and 500 million euros (US$302-605 million). Gedas had annual sales of 567 million euros last year and employed a workforce of 4,900.
■ REAL ESTATE
HK retail rents top in Asia
Hong Kong has the highest retail rents in Asia and the world's second-highest after New York, overtaking the prestigious Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris, a study said yesterday. Retail rents in the Causeway Bay shopping district on Hong Kong Island rose 90 percent to US$11,653 per square meter in the 12 months to June, according to a study by property consultant Cushman and Wakefield Healey and Baker. Fifth Avenue in New York, meanwhile, remained the world's most expensive retail district at US$13,993 per square meter, while Paris' Avenue des Champs Elysees came third at US$8,024, according to the study that looked at 237 shopping locations across 47 countries. New Bond Street in London remained in fourth place at US$6,753, while Ginza in Tokyo made a jump from its ninth place ranking last year to fifth, at US$5,578.
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER: In Germany, the sector would be developed around Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s plant, and extend to Poland and the Czech Republic The Executive Yuan’s economic diplomacy task force has approved programs aimed at bolstering the nation’s chip diplomacy with Japan and European nations. The task force in its first meeting had its operational mechanism and organizational structure confirmed, with Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) the convener, and Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) and Minister Without Portfolio Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) the deputy conveners. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) would be the convener of the task force’s strategy group in charge of policy planning for economic diplomacy. The meeting was attended by the heads of the National Development Council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the
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