VIRTUAL REALITY
StarVR cancels share sale
Acer Inc’s (宏碁) virtual reality (VR) venture has dropped a plan to raise NT$540 million (US$17.65 million) through the issuance of 6 million new shares, a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing released on Friday showed. StarVR Corp (宏星技術) does not think it needs to raise funds after considering its operational and financial conditions, as well as the current capital market, Acer said. StarVR is to focus in the short term on the high-end commercial market of the VR gear segment, after deploying some of its gear in gaming zones at theme parks and shopping malls, said Acer, which holds a 63.25 percent stake in the company.
MANUFACTURING
Business mood weakens
The manufacturing sector showed weakening business sentiment last month at a time of lingering trade friction between the US and China, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) said on Friday. The downbeat mood also reflected slower sales of smartphones and chips used for cryptocurrency mining, the institute said. The composite index for the sector fell 0.95 points from a month earlier to 100.52, it said.
INTERNET
Oath to set up R&D in Taiwan
Oath Inc, which owns digital content subdivisions AOL and Yahoo, on Friday announced that it would set up a research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan. The center would set trends for new products, optimize the user experience locally, and connect local and global markets, Oath media engineering department vice president Kelly Hirano said. The firm is expected to recruit about 100 artificial intelligence engineers, programmers, product designers and product managers this quarter.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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