■REAL ESTATE
Cathay buys Neihu building
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), Taiwan’s biggest life insurer, bought a building in Neihu Technology Park (內湖科技園區) for NT$3 billion (US$96 million), its second property investment in Taipei this year. Cathay Life paid NT$410,000 per ping (3.3m²) for the headquarters of Gala Television Corp (八大電視), the Taipei-based insurer said in a stock exchange filing through parent Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the country’s biggest financial services company by market value, yesterday. The value per ping was a record for Neihu District, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday. Cathay Life won a tender for 2,629m² of land in downtown Taipei with a NT$2.39 billion bid last month.
■BANKING
Taishin sues Chiu Yi
Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), whose shareholders include billionaire George Soros, has filed civil and criminal charges against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) for alleging its 2005 bid for Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) was illegal. Complaints of libel and obstruction of credit were filed on Friday with the Taipei District Court, Taishin said in a stock exchange filing after market closed on Friday. The company denies all allegations made by Chiu, it said in the statement. Taishin is seeking a public apology from Chiu, the Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing Lin Keh-hsiao (林克孝), president of the Taipei-based financial company.
■INVESTMENT
Park draws NT$1.8bn
Total investment in the Kaohsiung Software Technology Park (高雄軟體科技園區) as of this month reached nearly NT$1.8 billion (US$57.19 million), the Export Processing Zone Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday. A spokesman for the administration said the investment came from 56 approved investors who have decided to set up shop in the software park, and that the amount represented a substantial increase from the NT$12.2 billion recorded in June. Of the accumulated total of NT$1.8 million, NT$713 million was invested in the first eight months of this year by 23 companies, the spokesman said.
■SPONSORSHIP
NBA inks deal with Tsingtao
The National Basketball Association signed a multiyear sponsorship agreement with Tsingtao Brewery Co (青島啤酒) in which China’s largest brewer will fund sports and dance competitions related to the league in the world’s most populous nation. Tsingtao, China’s biggest beer company by sales, will sponsor a nationwide search for an NBA China Dance Team, help finance basketball tours in the country and assist in an All-Star Game balloting system, the NBA said in a statement yesterday. Terms weren’t disclosed.
■AVIATION
Boeing may not rebid
US aerospace giant Boeing said on Friday it may exit the rebidding for a US$35 billion contract to build US Air Force aerial refueling tankers unless allowed more time to rework its proposal. The Department of Defense was forced in June to rebid the contract after congressional auditors found flaws in the air force’s decision to award it to Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), parent of Airbus. The Pentagon contract is for 179 aircraft, the initial phase of a fleet replacement project worth some US$100 billion over the next 30 years.
US SANCTIONS: The Taiwan tech giant has ended all shipments to China-based Sophgo Technologies after one of their chips was discovered in a Huawei phone Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) after a chip it made was found on a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) artificial intelligence (AI) processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product. Sophgo said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that it was in compliance with all laws
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
TECH TITANS: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple again on Friday after becoming the world’s largest company for a short period in June, as Microsoft fell to third place Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been
Two scoops of pistachio, one of corruption. For years holidaymakers have guzzled Sicilian gelato at famous parlors in Palermo, unaware that the booming businesses were controlled by organized crime. The fraud was a textbook case for detectives trained to sniff out dirty money, but even with three mobster classics — a suspicious bankruptcy, a front man and a scheming “Godfather” — it took years for investigators to shut the operation down. The Brioscia brand, made up of two ice cream parlors, was thriving at the end of the 2010s, attracting locals and foreign visitors alike with its glittering gold stars on travel
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