Taiwan's largest laptop computer manufacturer, Quanta Computer Inc (
During the weekend, the company's CEO Barry Lam (
"The investment figure will be around NT$4 billion to NT$5 billion for the research building and the associated software," Quanta spokesman Jason Lin (
Local media have speculated that up to 5,000 engineers will find jobs at the facility, which is expected to open in the fall of next year.
The facility will develop new consumer products, possibly including the latest advanced flat-screen televisions.
"I think the new research facility will be developing multimedia consumer products," said Martha Chen (
Another analyst agreed.
"It looks like Quanta is shooting for the LCD monitor and LCD TV market," said Debbie Wu (
"Quanta used to have only one 3.5G fab which they used only to feed in to their notebook business, but with their 5G fab now on-line, it looks like they plan to make LCD monitors and TVs as well," she said.
Fifth-generation, or 5G, flat-panel plants are currently the most efficient in the industry, producing bigger quantities of larger panels than older 4G and 3G technologies.
Quanta is well-placed to make LCD TVs. The company's flat-panel unit, Quanta Display Inc (
To make the flat-screen TVs and monitors, Quanta Display is planning to spend NT$110 billion constructing a new flat-panel factory in Northern Taiwan, Lin confirmed yesterday.
Quanta Display is surveying suitable sites in Taoyuan, but it is unclear whether the new facility will use the current leading fifth-generation, or 5G, technology, or whether it will make the jump to 6G or 7G technology.
With each new generation technology, the flat-panel industry moves to larger panels and a more efficient production process, thereby saving costs and increasing output.
"Right now Quanta Display has a 5G fab," Lin said. "The new fab will be a next generation plant."
Lin could not confirm how many new employees the plan will require, or when it would be completed, but analysts say the new plant won't be needed for at least 12 months.
"As Quanta's 5G plant just went on-line last month, I don't expect the next-generation plant to open before the second quarter of next year," Yuanta's Wu said.
Some in the industry have talked about leapfrogging the next generation to catch up with rivals in South Korea who are six months to a year ahead of the Taiwanese.
"The Taiwanese know they have to invest a lot of money in the new technology," Wu said. With one new flat-panel production line costing between NT$30 billion and NT$40 billion, Quanta's planned investment would fund three new production lines.
In the first four months this year, Quanta has seen its sales rocket almost 65 percent from the same period last year. From January to last month, the company made NT$75.8 billion in revenue, compared to NT$46 billion last year.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day