ELECTRONICS
Asustek sets ‘ZenTalk’ date
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday said it is to convene its annual “ZenTalk” conference in Taipei on Aug. 26 to showcase its upcoming flagship handset, the ZenFone 4, and its augmented reality (AR) smartphone, the ZenFone AR, to consumers. It is the third consecutive year the company has hosted the conference in the city, as part of the firm’s strategy to promote its smartphones and create a closer relationship with its consumers. Asustek said a “high-ranking” executive would personally introduce the features of the new products and dine with the participants. Asustek has not yet sent out invitations to the ZenFone 4 product launch after the company reportedly postponed it from the end of this month to the middle of next month.
TECHNOLOGY
Kinsus net income plunges
Kinsus Interconnect Technology Corp (景碩科技), a silicon substrate manufacturing arm of Pegatron Corp (和碩), yesterday reported net income of NT$63.39 million (US$2.09 million) for last quarter, down from the NT$603.32 million it made in the same period last year. Earnings per share were NT$0.14, compared with last year’s NT$1.35. The result brought the company’s combined net profit for the first half to NT$199.94 million, down from NT$1.11 billion last year, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company has not yet set a date for its investors’ conference, at which it plans to announce its outlook for the remainder of this year.
ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai in India talks
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is in talks with a major industrial group in India to introduce low-end mobile phones in the nation, according to an Indian media report. The Economic Times reported over the weekend that Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), has entered into negotiations with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to make low-priced mobile phones under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” initiative. The report said that Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom subsidiary of RIL, is planning to launch dual SIM mobile phones costing between US$23 and US$25. The report said that the mobile phones would be equipped with 2G and 4G SIM card slots and are expected to use chips designed by China’s Spreadtrum Communications Inc (展訊).
SHIPBUILDERS
CSBC Corp delivers vessel
CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船) yesterday said that TS Lines Co (德翔海運) has taken delivery of a 1,800 twenty-foot equivalent unit Bangkok-max vessel that it was commissioned to design and build. Despite a downturn in the global cargo shipping sector, TS Lines is committed to updating its fleet and the company has three more of the vessels on order, CSBC Corp said. The new vessel is 25 percent more fuel efficient than vessels built 10 years ago, the shipbuilder said.
ECONOMY
M1B grows 4.43 percent
M1B money supply, which refers to cash and cash equivalents, grew 4.43 percent year-on-year last month, faster than the broader gauge M2 — M1B, savings deposits, time savings deposits and foreign currency deposits — which grew 3.71 percent, the central bank said yesterday. As M1B is often linked to liquidity available for stock investments, the trend might reflect an upturn in investor confidence, as the two measures displayed a so-called “golden cross,” the bank said.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
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