Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday revised upward its financial forecast for this quarter, citing rising demand for 28-nanometer chips and customers’ need to restock.
Revenue is to increase 0.82 percent to NT$147 billion (US$4.84 billion) this quarter, compared with NT$145.81 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, bucking the usual downtrend in the slow season, TSMC said.
Two months ago, TSMC projected that revenue was set to fall by between 5.36 and 6.7 percent sequentially to between NT$136 billion and NT$138 billion, citing seasonally weak demand in the first quarter and the supply chain’s inventory digestion.
“The uptick to the first-quarter guidance comes mainly from an increase in demand for our 28-nanometer wafers and from customers restocking their inventories,” TSMC spokesperson Lora Ho (何麗梅) said in a statement.
TSMC expects ist gross margin to rise to 47 percent this quarter from 44.5 percent last quarter, compared with the previous estimate ranging from 44.5 to 46.5 percent.
It expects operating margin to jump from 32.8 percent to to 35 percent, beating its previous estimate of between 32 and 34 percent.
“The first-quarter upside is a perhaps a good prelude to what is already anticipated will be a strong year,” Ho said.
TSMC chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) in January said the chipmaker’s revenue would grow by double-digit percentage points this year on the back of strong demand for mid-and-low-end smartphones and its growth would outpace the 10 percent annual expansion forecast for the industry as a whole.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure