ELECTRONICS
HTC forms VR alliance
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday announced at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai that it has formed a virtual reality (VR) alliance with 28 global investment firms, aiming to provide US$10 billion to VR content developers around the world. The Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance is targeted to help foster long-term growth in the VR industry through sharing and investing in both technology and content creators, HTC said. Among the investment firms are Sequoia Capital (紅杉資本) and Matrix Partners (經緯中國). Last week, HTC chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) said the company in April launched a US$100 million accelerator program for VR start-ups in Taipei, Beijing and San Francisco.
IC DESIGNERS
MediaTek joins 5G center
Handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it has joined a 5G innovation center created by China Mobile Ltd (中國移動) in a bid to secure a better position in China’s 5G market. The two companies will collaborate in facilitating the standardization of 5G technology and developing an ecosystem, products and application platforms together, MediaTek said in a statement. The Taiwanese firm said it aims to become one of the world’s first 5G chip suppliers in 2020.
SECURITY
Domestic sector eyes growth
Only 0.7 percent of homes in Taiwan are equipped with modern security systems, compared with 3 to 4 percent in Japan and 2 to 3 percent in South Korea, implying ample room for the domestic security service sector’s growth, Macquarie Capital Securities Ltd’s Taiwan branch said in a report released yesterday. The rising penetration rate in the residential sector, fueled by an aging population and growing demand in the smart home segment, will drive long-term growth for the sector, the brokerage said. As brand reputation and service quality are most critical to gain market share in the residential market, Taiwan Secom Co (中興保全) — the largest player in Taiwan with more than 50 percent market share — should be among the best performers in the sector, Macquarie said.
ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
Vice minister appointed
The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday appointed Intellectual Property Office Director-General Wang Mei-hua (王美花) to be its vice minister, citing her expertise in law and skills in communication and leadership. The ministry said Wang will supervise affairs of the Bureau of Foreign Trade, the Intellectual Property Office and the Department of Commerce after she takes the position next month. One of the priorities awaiting Wang would be supervising the drafting of an amendment to the Company Act (公司法) in an effort to improve Taiwan’s environment for start-ups, said a ministry official who is familiar with the matter.
INTERNET
Chinese censor replaced
China is replacing its top Internet regulator and censor, Lu Wei (魯煒), who had become the face of the government’s increasingly complicated dealings with foreign technology companies. Xinhua news agency yesterday reported that Lu would be replaced by his deputy, Xu Lin (徐麟), in implementing Beijing’s policies concerning the Internet, including overseeing social media and negotiating with technology firms that want to do business in China. The outspoken and gregarious Lu spent years defending China’s censorship policies and restrictions on foreign social media platforms as a matter of national security.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
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