ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), Taiwan's third-largest maker of computer memory chips, yesterday said it would spend US$2.5 billion in building a new advanced plant to meet future demand for bigger memory storage following the launch of Microsoft Corp's Vista operating system.
The new plant would be ProMOS' third 12-inch plant and is set to start mass production by the end of next year at the earliest. It will cut chips from 12-inch diameter silicon wafers.
The large 12-inch wafers can yield more than twice as many chips as the standard 8-inch variety, helping chipmakers save production costs and offer competitively priced products.
PHOTO: OU SU-MEI, TAIPEI TIMES
"We believe [Microsoft's] Vista operating system will boost demand for memory chips next year," ProMOS spokesman Ben Tseng (曾邦助) told reporters on the sidelines of the groundbreaking ceremony for the new plant in Taichung.
Tseng said feedback from customers indicated that Vista-enabled computers, expected to hit the market next quarter, would be equipped with roughly 35 percent more memory space, compared with computers sold in the first quarter of this year.
For this year, sales of semiconductors around the globe would grow faster than expected, by nearly 8 percent, to US$255.7 billion from US$237 billion last year, researcher iSuppli Corp projected yesterday.
Sales of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips would also jump by 8 percent this year, iSuppli said yesterday without giving further details.
"We believe the growth in demand next year will outpace the capacity expansion plans outlined by DRAM manufacturers to date," Tseng said.
To fund the capacity expansion, ProMOS planned to resume fund-raising projects abroad and at home later this year, chairman Chen Min-liang (陳民良) told reporters.
In the middle of last month ProMOS suspended the issuance of global depositary receipts (GDRs). The issuance, comprised of a maximum 1 billion common shares, would obtain around NT$11.9 billion (US$367.4 million) in proceeds based on the chipmaker's closing price of NT$11.9 yesterday.
In addition to the GDR issuance, ProMOS was also in talks with banks for a NT$10 billion in syndicated loan to be granted in the second half of this year, Chen said.
To cash in on future demand, bigger rival Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (
ProMOS posted a 47 percent growth in revenues to NT$11.65 billion for the second quarter, compared with NT$7.91 billion in the first quarter.
"The second quarter was not as slow as expected," Tseng said. "We believe the second half will be even better as PC demand will return to normal with 5 to 6 percent growth year-on-year."
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],”