TAXATION
US, India reach tax deal
The US on Wednesday said it had reached a deal to lift never-implemented levies on India in exchange for the easing of its tax targeting international tech firms. India is among countries that had imposed a tax on foreign digital services, which earned Washington’s ire since it considers such levies an unfair attack on US tech giants. The US Department of Treasury said in a statement that India would instead follow a minimum tax deal reached last month by 140 countries under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. That agreement would see the imposition of a 15 percent minimum corporate tax worldwide and is expected to come into effect in 2023.
ENVIRONMENT
China eyes methane control
China will look into methane emissions in key industries, including coal mining, agriculture and petroleum, and publish a nationwide methane emission control action plan, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment told a news briefing yesterday. China’s methane emissions were 55.29 million tonnes in 2014, accounting for 10.4 percent of total greenhouse gases emission in the nation, the latest official data showed. The energy sector contributed 45 percent of the methane discharge, while agriculture accounted for 40 percent. The ministry said it would roll out thorough research on China’s methane emission control situation and set effective emission reduction measures.
ENERGY
IEA head appeals to OPEC
International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol on Wednesday called on OPEC and its allies to take measures to help bring oil prices down to reasonable levels. “I very much hope to see in the next meeting or meetings they ... make the necessary steps in order to comfort the global oil markets and help bring the prices down at reasonable levels,” Birol told reporters. He also took aim at Russia over gas. “Russia can easily increase exports to Europe about 15 percent ... and significantly comfort the European gas markets,” Birol said.
MEXICO
Woman to head central bank
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday nominated Deputy Minister of Finance Victoria Rodriguez as the next Bank of Mexico governor, the first woman to head the central bank. The announcement came a day after former minister of finance Arturo Herrera said Lopez Obrador had withdrawn his candidacy for the post, unsettling financial markets. “For the first time, a woman will be heading the Bank of Mexico,” Lopez Obrador told reporters, saying the nomination, which requires approval by the senate, was part of efforts to promote gender equality. As deputy finance minister, Rodriguez “has acted with great responsibility so as not to spend just to spend,” he added.
AIRLINES
Cathay to slash HK flights
Cathay Pacific yesterday said it would slash passenger flights into Hong Kong next month as the territory’s strict travel curbs continue to keep international travelers away at a time when rivals are seeing their prospects improve. As the peak holiday season approaches, the airline will convert about one-third of flights bound for Hong Kong to handle cargo, the South China Morning Post reported, citing company sources.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
AI TALENT: No financial details were released about the deal, in which top Groq executives, including its CEO, would join Nvidia to help advance the technology Nvidia Corp has agreed to a licensing deal with artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Groq, furthering its investments in companies connected to the AI boom and gaining the right to add a new type of technology to its products. The world’s largest publicly traded company has paid for the right to use Groq’s technology and is to integrate its chip design into future products. Some of the start-up’s executives are leaving to join Nvidia to help with that effort, the companies said. Groq would continue as an independent company with a new chief executive, it said on Wednesday in a post on its Web
CHINA RIVAL: The chips are positioned to compete with Nvidia’s Hopper and Blackwell products and would enable clusters connecting more than 100,000 chips Moore Threads Technology Co (摩爾線程) introduced a new generation of chips aimed at reducing artificial intelligence (AI) developers’ dependence on Nvidia Corp’s hardware, just weeks after pulling off one of the most successful Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs) in years. “These products will significantly enhance world-class computing speed and capabilities that all developers aspire to,” Moore Threads CEO Zhang Jianzhong (張建中), a former Nvidia executive, said on Saturday at a company event in Beijing. “We hope they can meet the needs of more developers in China so that you no longer need to wait for advanced foreign products.” Chinese chipmakers are in
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