MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s top handset chip designer, saw its ranking among the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies rise four notches in the first half of the year thanks to strong revenue growth of 33 percent, according to a report released on Saturday by market researcher IC Insights.
MeidaTek climbed to No. 18 from No. 22 a year ago, after its revenue grew to US$1.93 billion in the six-month period ending in June from US$1.46 billion a year ago, according to IC Insights.
MediaTek was among the top 10 best performers over the past two quarters, trailing only Qualcomm Inc and SK Hynix, which posted annual revenue growth of 37 percent and 38 percent to US$8.14 billion and US$6.1 billion respectively in the first half, the report said.
MediaTek’s revenue is expected to grow 27 percent to NT$126.27 billion (US$4.21 billion) this year, compared with NT$99.26 billion last year, as it benefits from rising Chinese demand for low-end smartphones, Credit Suisse said.
During the first two quarters, the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies saw their revenues rise by 4 percent to US$110.45 billion from US$105.87 billion in the same period last year, IC Insights said.
Taiwan’s No. 2 contract chipmaker, United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), also saw its ranking rise one notch to No. 19 in the first six months, from No. 20 a year earlier, after its revenue increased 6 percent annually to US$1.91 billion from US$1.8 billion, IC Insights said.
The world’s top three semiconductor companies, Intel Corp, Samsung Electronics Co and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), kept their leading positions. Samsung and TSMC grew their revenue by 4 percent and 23 percent annually respectively, while Intel saw revenue fall 4 percent, according to IC Insight’s tally.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day