INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
IEK forecasts 9% growth
The production value of the nation’s IC packaging and testing sector is expected to grow more than 9 percent this year from a year earlier on the back of the rising popularity of smartphones and tablets, a research report said yesterday. The output of the nation’s IC packaging and testing businesses is expected to total NT$429.5 billion (US$14.32 billion) this year, up 9.1 percent from last year, the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK) said in the report. IEK analyst Chen Ling-chun (陳玲君) said the institute has high hopes that the output could even grow 10 percent in the best-case scenario, because prices of gold and copper, two major raw materials for the IC packaging and testing sector, have fallen sharply recently, while the New Taiwan dollar’s depreciation could also help local companies to secure orders.
ELECTRONICS
HTC shuffles management
Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said Jack Yang (楊偉國) had become president of the company’s South Asia operations, while Sirpa Ikola would serve as a new senior director of marketing for South Asia. Prior to joining HTC Corp, Yang served as Apple Inc’s former head of iPhone and iPad sales in Southeast Asia, while Ikola was the former head of Nokia Oyj’s smart devices business in Southeast Asia.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is