Intel Corp, the world's biggest computer chipmaker, will probably narrow its revenue forecast during an update on first-quarter results later today as orders stabilize, investors said.
Intel in January predicted US$6.5 billion to US$7 billion in sales and may trim the bottom off that range, shareholders and analysts said. Lehman Brothers analyst Dan Niles said the company will call for US$6.7 billion to US$7 billion, and Merrill Lynch & Co's Joe Osha expects revenue of US$6.82 billion.
Personal-computer demand in Asia has improved, and the chipmaker is winning a higher percentage of its sales from more expensive processors for laptops and server computers that run Web sites, investors said. Dell Computer Corp has said sales this quarter will increase, another sign demand has stabilized.
"The market certainly didn't fall off a cliff after Christmas," said Jane Snorek, who helps manage US$38 billion at US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, which owns Intel shares.
Analysts expect Santa Clara, California-based Intel to have a first-quarter profit before some costs of US$0.12 a share on sales of US$6.75 billion, the average estimate in a Thomson First Call survey. Net income was US$0.14, with sales at US$6.78 billion, in the year-earlier period.
Intel shares rose US$0.36 to US$16.98 on the Nasdaq Stock Market yesterday. They dropped 50 percent last year, compared with a 45 percent slide in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
Dell, the world's second-largest PC maker, in February said fourth-quarter sales rose 21 percent and revenue this period would increase more than analysts predicted. Smaller PC makers, such as "white box" companies that sell unbranded machines, are also showing improvement, Snorek said.
PC sales started slipping in the second half of 2000 and fell 4.2 percent in 2001, the first decline since 1985, according to market researcher IDC. Sales rose 1.5 percent last year.
A narrower forecast range at Intel "gives people a sense things are tracking better than they assumed," said Joe Basset, who helps manage US$40 billion at Banc One Investment Advisors, which holds Intel shares.
Rising sales at companies that make power cords and PC parts indicate that demand is higher than most analysts predicted seven weeks ago, said Karl Kroeker, who helps manage about US$230 billion at Banc of America Capital Management, which owns Intel shares.
Notebook sales have beaten analyst expectations, and desktop orders are in line with estimates, he said.
Intel is due to start selling its Centrino chip package for laptops on Wednesday. Centrino, which includes a processor that extends a system's battery life and chips that connect to wireless networks, will probably account for 200,000 of the 5.7 million mobile chips that Intel will sell this quarter, Kroeker said.
A higher proportion of sales from laptops and servers may boost Intel's gross margin, the percentage of sales left after subtracting manufacturing costs. Intel predicted a margin of 50 percent "plus or minus a couple points" this quarter.
The company may be reluctant to boost that estimate now, investors said. Clients are objecting to Intel's plans to increase by as much as 40 percent the price for flash memory used in cell phones, Basset said. The possibility the US will go to war also is hurting orders, he said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”