ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai sales up on year
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), which is a major assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, reported monthly sales of NT$280.02 billion (US$8.87 billion) last month, up 7.44 percent from the previous year. The monthly figure dropped 41.41 percent from January’s NT$396 billion. Consolidated revenue reached to a new record of NT$676.02 billion in the first two months of this year, according to a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which assembles Apple Inc’s latest products the Apple Watch and the 12-inch MacBook, yesterday reported a 20.64 percent annual decline in sales to NT$55.01 billion for last month. Revenue also contracted 21.54 percent from NT$70.12 billion in January. The company’s consolidated revenue totaled NT$125.14 billion in the first two months of this year, down 11.47 percent from the previous year.
CHIPMAKERS
TSMC predicts bumper year
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that in the wake of a reduced number of working days last month, its sales fell 28.1 percent from January. The decline had been widely anticipated due to the first quarter being the slow season for the global semiconductor industry. Last month, TSMC’s consolidated sales totaled NT$62.65 billion, down from NT$87.12 billion in January. Last month’s figure was the lowest since June last year, when the chipmaker’s sales stood at NT$60.34 billion. However, with demand for mobile devices on the rise, last month’s sales grew 33.8 percent from the previous year and were the highest for month on record.
ELECTRONICS
Apple tops phone sales list
Apple Inc ranked as the top smartphone seller in the nation in terms of both sales volume and value for the fourth consecutive month in January, thanks to strong demand for its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models, according to statistics released yesterday by industry sources. A total of 798,000 smartphones were sold in January, up 1 percent from a month earlier, and Apple took a 24.6 percent share, the figures showed. HTC Corp (宏達電) was in second place with an 18.1 percent share by sales volume, while Samsung Electronics Co ranked third with a 13.3 percent share. Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) was fourth with 12.6 percent, while Sony Mobile was fifth with 8.4 percent.
RETAIL
H&M plans more stores
Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M), a Swedish fast-fashion brand which opened its first shop in the nation last month, yesterday said that it plans to open another three stores in the second half of the year — in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung. H&M, founded in 1947, has more than 3,500 stores in 55 markets worldwide.
TELECOMS
CHT sees profit rise 3.4%
Chunhgwa Telecom Co (CHT, 中華電信) yesterday said its net profit grew 3.4 percent to NT$3.74 billion last month, compared with NT$3.61 billion in the same period last year. Revenue increased 4.3 percent to NT$19.09 billion from NT$18.29 billion a year ago. In the first two months, net profit rose 3.3 percent annually to NT$7.3 billion, accounting for 19 percent of the company’s forecast of NT$37.5 billion in net profit for this year. Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) said net profit reached NT$1.15 billion last month on revenue of NT$9.47 billion. Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信) posted NT$994 million in net profit for last month.
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
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
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