TECHNOLOGY
Chi Mei Material profit up
Chi Mei Material Technology Corp (奇美材料), a supplier of LCD polarizers to panel maker Innolux Corp (群創光電), yesterday reported that net profit jumped 52 percent to NT$2.45 billion last year, or NT$4.98 per share, despite an 11.5 percent drop in revenue to NT$17.85 billion. In a separate filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Chi Mei Material said the board had approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$0.5 per common share and a stock dividend of 5 percent. The company also said in another filing that it plans to invest US$73.5 million in collaboration with two Chinese organizations to form a joint venture in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, to make polarizers. It will hold 49 percent of the new venture, which will have an initial capital of US$150 million.
CAMERAS
DSC sales to remain weak
Digital still camera (DSC) shipments by Taiwanese contract makers will continue their downward spiral this quarter, as vendors struggle to counter the growing use of smartphone cameras, a local market research firm said. First-quarter shipments of Taiwan-made digital cameras are expected to drop 18.8 percent sequentially and 51.6 percent from a year ago to 2.76 million units, Digitimes Research said in a recent note. “The rise of smartphones has continued to erode global demand for digital cameras,” it said, adding that sales have been poor even during peak seasons.
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
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],”