Innolux Corp (群創), the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, yesterday reported weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue after a sharp drop in revenue last month due to a decline in prices of PC and TV panels and a fall in shipments.
Last quarter’s revenue declined 6.39 percent to NT$93.76 billion (US$3 billion), from NT$100.16 billion in the previous quarter — a steeper fall than the company estimated and worse than Credit Suisse Group AG analyst Jerry Su’s (蘇厚合) estimate of a 2 percent contraction.
Last month, sales dropped 3.33 percent to NT$30.16 billion from May’s NT$31.2 billion, the company said in a statement.
The firm’s sales of PC and TV panels last month decreased by 6.6 percent to 10.11 million units from 10.82 million in May.
Shipments for the second quarter dropped about 2 percent to 31 million units from 31.64 million in the previous quarter, the firm said.
Su said sluggish PC demand was the main reason behind the LCD industry’s weakness.
Credit Suisse expects global PC shipments to drop 7 percent annually this year, more than its previous estimate of a 4 percent decline, because of weak consumer demand amid foreign exchange volatility.
Soft demand for PCs and monitors, coupled with continuous inventory digestion, could continue to weigh on the panel business in the second half of this year, Su said.
However, Su said Innolux would be better positioned in the market than AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), as Innolux has a more diverse range of TV products, a better customer portfolio, lower IT exposure and a healthier inventory level.
Innolux also said that the European Commission had overruled an appeal filed by the company against a fine imposed in anti-trust investigations in 2013.
Innolux shares yesterday rose 3.72 percent to NT$13.95 and AUO shares advanced 1.18 percent to NT$12.85 in Taipei trading.
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