The price of computer memory chips lost momentum this quarter as price increases slowed for the first time in several quarters, a Taipei-based market researcher said yesterday.
Prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips began sliding recently on sagging demand due to supply constraints for Intel Corp's central processing units (CPUs), the DRAMeXchange said in its latest report.
The supply crunch drove down the spot price for benchmark DDR2 computer memory chips to US$5.5 per unit last week, and the decline could extend to the contract market, according to DRAMeXchange.
"We expect contract prices ... to remain flat in the second half of November, [compared with the first half]," DRAMeXchange said in a weekly report issued yesterday after the local stock market closed.
The researcher added that recent price hikes began to slow in the middle of last month.
The contract price for DDR2 chips rose slightly by 1.02 percent to US$5.75 in the first half of this month, according to its statistics.
Taiwan's DRAM chip suppliers, led by Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), negotiate with computer firms on chip prices twice monthly.
For the fourth quarter, DRAM-eXchange said DRAM prices would remain stable because of a shortage of central processors and an inventory buildup ahead of the Christmas shopping season.
The CPU shortage would slow the growth rate of global motherboard shipments this quarter, DRAMeXchange said, as the quarterly increase would reach as high as 15 percent rather than the previous estimate of 18 percent.
But shares in Taiwan's three major DRAM suppliers, led by Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (
Memory chipmakers around the world are raising funds amid expectations of an increased demand for DRAM chips in light of Microsoft's plan to sell its new Vista operating system to corporate clients this month.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to