Local memory chipmaker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) yesterday said it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Japan’s top memory company, Elpida Memory Inc, to supply memory chips for PCs, game consoles and digital TVs that handle massive graphic processing.
Under the terms of the MOU, Winbond will also secure next-generation technology from Tokyo-based Elpida to manufacture graphics double-data-rate (GDDR) memory chips and other special memory chips, company spokesman Wilson Wen (溫萬壽) said by telephone.
“Elpida will become our new technology source after our partner Qimonda AG stopped developing and providing next-generation GDDR technology,” Wen said.
Winbond hopes to make GDDR chips using more advanced technologies than the 70-nanometer and 65-nanometer technologies from Qimonda that it is using in a pilot run, he said.
“More importantly, we will be allowed to make our own-brand GDDR chips using Elpida’s technology in the future, which will bring extra business for us,” Wen said.
The partnership with Elpida will help Winbond expand into new and less volatile businesses from its standard PC memory business — commodity dynamic random access memory (DRAM) — which accounted for one-third of its NT$5.69 billion (US$176 million) in revenues last quarter.
GDDR chips, which are incorporated into graphic cards, are designed to handle demanding graphic processing at high speeds.
From the first quarter of next year, Winbond will supply a small volume of GDDR chips to Elpida, Wen said.
In a rarely seen move, Winbond raised NT$5.2 billion (up from an earlier estimate of NT$3.1 billion), or 68 percent of its capital spending for this year, to partly fund the purchase of new equipment for manufacturing GDDR chips.
Elpida’s partnership with Winbond came after the Japanese chipmaker inked an agreement with local DRAM chipmaker ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) last week to outsource production of the latest generation of mass-market memory chips, known as DDR3, on its technologies.
Winbond shares surged 6.15 percent yesterday to close at NT$7.25, out-performing the benchmark TAIEX’s nearly 1 percent rise.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RESHAPING COMMERCE: Major industrialized economies accepted 15 percent duties on their products, while charges on items from Mexico, Canada and China are even bigger US President Donald Trump has unveiled a slew of new tariffs that boosted the average US rate on goods from across the world, forging ahead with his turbulent effort to reshape international commerce. The baseline rates for many trading partners remain unchanged at 10 percent from the duties Trump imposed in April, easing the worst fears of investors after the president had previously said they could double. Yet his move to raise tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35 percent threatens to inject fresh tensions into an already strained relationship, while nations such as Switzerland and New Zealand also saw increased
RSS