TELECOMS
CHT income hits a high
Chunghwa Telecom Co (CHT, 中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom, yesterday said its net income last month expanded to a 12-month high at NT$4.09 billion (US$129 million), due to lower costs. Last month’s net profit grew 21.5 percent from NT$3.37 billion from the same month last year. Operating expenses shrank 4.6 percent to NT$13.85 billion last month from NT$14.52 billion the previous year. In the first seven months, net income rose 6 percent year-on-year to NT$25.64 billion from NT$24.18 billion, accounting for 68 percent of the company’s forecast of NT$37.5 billion total net income this year. Revenue rose 1.2 percent to NT$18.66 billion last month from NT$18.43 billion the previous year.
TELEVISIONS
TrendForce cuts forecast
Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) yesterday cut its worldwide TV shipments forecast to 220 million units this year, from a previous estimate of 223 million units, given weaker-than-expected demand due to the faltering economies in China and Europe. The latest projection means a slower annual growth rate of 1.74 percent from the 3.46 percent estimated earlier, the researcher said in a report. The revision came after global TV shipments last quarter fell short of expectations. Shipments dropped 6.4 percent sequentially to 48.25 million units last quarter from 51.57 million units in the first quarter. Shipments of China’s six major brands were down 12.3 percent quarter-on-quarter.
COMPUTERS
Asustek, Acer disappoint
Local PC makers Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) and Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday both reported double-digit percentage monthly and annual declines in sales last month due to weak demand for notebooks. Asustek’s revenue dropped 14 percent annually and 17.05 percent month-on-month to NT$34.57 billion last month, which the firm attributed to a product transition period for both its notebook and smartphone products. In the first seven months of the year, Asustek’s revenue totaled NT$254.84 billion, down 0.3 percent from NT$255.72 billion the previous year, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Asustek is scheduled to hold an investors’ conference to offer a business guidance for this quarter at its headquarters in Taipei this afternoon. Acer’s revenue plummeted 32.78 percent annually and 36.44 percent month-on-month to NT$16.88 billion last month, marking the company’s second-lowest sales performance this year. Acer’s cumulative sales in the first seven months of this year plunged 20.83 percent to NT$145.03 billion from NT$183.19 billion last year. Acer chief executive Jason Chen (陳俊聖) in June told shareholders that he expects the company’s business performance to be better in the second half of this year than in the first half because of seasonal demand and replacement demand following the launch of Windows 10. In a separate statement yesterday, Acer said it was the top seller of notebooks powered by Google Inc’s Chrome operating system in the US in the second quarter across the commercial, distribution and retail channels. Citing data from market researcher NPD Group, Acer said that its US Chromebook market share in the commercial channel expanded to 47 percent in June, making it a dominant player in the category. The company said its Chromebook share in the US distribution and retail channels also performed well in the second quarter, reaching about 30 percent in June in each of the channels to rank as the largest supplier.
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