US chipmaker Qualcomm Inc plans to invest NT$63 billion (US$1.97 billion) to build a new display fab in Taiwan to provide energy-saving color flat panels for electronic devices like e-readers next year to compete with existing e-paper suppliers, a government official said yesterday.
The investment is the second step taken by Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, a display arm of Qualcomm, to expand capacity in Taiwan after launching its display joint venture — Sollink Inc (高強光電) — with local electronic component maker Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co (正崴) last year.
COLOR DISPLAYS
“Qualcomm MEMS expects to crank out the first batch [of color displays for e-readers] in the second half of next year,” Northern Taiwan Science Park Administration director-general Randy Yen (顏宗明) told reporters on the sidelines of a media briefing.
Qualcomm MEMS plans to build a fifth-generation (5G) plant at the end of this year on a 5.1-hectare plot leased from the government, according to the investment proposal submitted to the science park administration.
The planned fab will be able to process a maximum of 50,000 sheets of mother glasses a month, using its Mirasol technology, the science park said.
As it does not use backlight as a light source, a Mirasol display consumes 40 percent less energy than a comparable LCD display, Qualcomm MEMS said last year.
In November last year, the company showcased its 5.7-inch color displays for e-readers in London.
Taiwan’s E Ink Holdings Inc (元太) currently commands more than 90 percent of the global market for e-paper displays, which are used mostly in e-readers such as the Kindle series from online bookstore Amazon.
Qualcomm MEMS now supplies Mirasol displays from a 4.5G plant via Sollink in Longtan Township (龍潭), Taoyuan County.
It has shipped those displays to smartphone and handheld device makers such as local firm Cal-Comp Electronics (Thailand) Pub Co Ltd (泰金寶).
SCIENCE PARKS
Yesterday, the nation’s three science park administrations raised their revenue forecast from companies operating in the parks to a record-high NT$2.3 trillion this year, from the NT$1.9 trillion estimated in February.
That would represent about 46 percent growth from NT$1.58 trillion in revenues last year when the global financial crisis hurt electronics consumption.
In the first half, these science parks generated total revenue of NT$1.52 trillion, with 91.3 percent of the revenue coming from semiconductor and optoelectronics companies, the National Science Council’s tallies showed.
The improving global economy has helped boost demand for electronics such as chips and LCDs and the growth momentum would carry into next two quarters, according to council.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six