While Apple Inc’s Taiwanese suppliers yesterday mourned Steve Jobs’ death, they were also digesting the latest news and its impact on the market. Share prices closed mixed yesterday after falling on Wednesday owing to disappointment over the iPhone 4S launch.
Analysts said the selling yesterday was triggered by worries about Apple losing its creative drive without Jobs, as well as fears over its business continuity.
There were also concerns that Apple would depart from Jobs’ strategies and engage in price competition to woo consumers, a move that could affect suppliers’ profitability.
Taiwanese firms have to strengthen their synergy and brainstorm for the next “IT” thing after the departure of Jobs, said Chris Hung (洪春暉), deputy director of the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (產業情報研究所).
The Taiwanese supply chain relied much on Apple’s innovations for business growth in the past and it now faces an uncertain future if makers fail to come up with their own innovations, Hung said.
The death of Jobs, who created a paradigm shift in the PC market with the introduction of the iPod, iPhone and iPad, could mean a slowdown of fresh ideas in the tech industry and Taiwanese firms should join forces to brainstorm for the next move, he said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) praised Jobs as a true hero who made the world a better place.
“The world has lost a true hero and I have lost a friend whose dedication to his company, his customers and our industry is reflected in the fact that he continued to work while dealing with such a devastating illness,” Gou said in a statement.
Shares of Hon Hai, which assembles iPads and iPhones, rose 3.55 percent to NT$67.60 yesterday after declining 1.89 percent on Wednesday. Another system assembler, Pegatron Corp (和碩), also saw its shares surge 4.03 percent to NT$28.40 following a fall of 3.7 percent the previous day.
Pegatron said Apple’s supply chain would remain unchanged over the next few years.
“I think the supply chain will remain stable in the following two or three years,” Pegatron chief financial officer Charles Lin (林秋炭) said by telephone. “Jobs’ health problems had been a long-term issue, and Apple would have been well-prepared for the worst.”
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which makes Apple’s Macbooks, said it does not expect orders to be affected by Jobs’ death. Its shares rose 2.05 percent to NT$59.70.
Shares of case makers Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準) and Catcher Technology Co (可成) advanced 2.79 percent and 3.51 percent to NT$99.50 and NT$177 respectively.
Touch-panel makers Wintek Corp (勝華) and Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電) saw their shares rise 6.99 percent and 1.21 percent to NT$24.50 and NT$12.55 respectively, but TPK Holding Co’s (宸鴻) fell 2.17 percent to NT$542.
Camera-lens makers Largan Precision Co (大立光) slumped 2.15 percent to NT$638 and Genius Electronic Optical Co (玉晶光) dived 4.82 percent to NT$197.50. Connector maker Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co (正崴) also closed down 2.22 percent to NT$61.60 and battery pack supplier Simplo Technology Co (新普) fell 3.32 percent to NT$174.50.
Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) said the effect of Jobs’ death on the local market was expected to be limited and any impact on share prices was likely to be short-lived.
Additional reporting by Lisa Wang and CNA
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
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
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