Two local trade groups yesterday called for stable power supply to meet a fast pickup in demand from artificial intelligence (AI) devices and applications.
The Third Wednesday Club (三三會) and the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC, 工商協進會) raised the issue ahead of an electricity price review committee meeting convened by the Ministry of Economic Affairs tomorrow to discuss electricity rates.
Lin Por-fong (林伯豐), chairman of the Third Wednesday Club whose membership is limited to the top 100 firms in individual sectors, said policymakers should adopt an incremental and fair approach when setting new electricity rates.
Photo: CNA
In the past, the ministry had spared most households and small businesses from rate hikes and made big industrial and commercial facilities bear the brunt, Lin said.
Lin disagreed. “All should share the responsibility of keeping unprofitable Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) afloat,” he said.
Taipower last year incurred NT$198.5 billion (US$6.22 billion) of losses with cumulated losses soaring to NT$382.6 billion.
Taipower could have eased its losses by raising the share of more affordable nuclear power and policymakers should do so to ensure stable power supply and prices, Lin said.
In addition, the government should extend the services of the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) and the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春), he said.
Stable and affordable power supply is critical to local technology firms, which are heavy electricity users but play a key role in driving Taiwan’s GDP growth, he added.
CNAIC chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮) said in a separate venue that the government should seriously evaluate if Taiwan has sufficient energy to meet fast-growing demand from local tech firms involved in the supply of AI chips, servers and other devices.
The nation needs to be prepared since AI applications are expected to mushroom in the coming few years, Wu said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the