Gigabyte Technology Co (技嘉), the world’s second-largest motherboard maker, yesterday said operations are likely slow this quarter, but the launch of new products is expected to boost sales from the second half of this year.
Shipments of its motherboards and graphics cards are expected to decline this quarter, the company said.
“The April-to-June quarter is traditionally the softest quarter of the year... We expect the second half of this year to drive the company’s operation, on the back of new products launched by a partner,” Gigabyte vice president of gaming product sales and marketing Eddie Lin (林英宇) told reporters on the sidelines of a gaming event in Taipei.
GAMES GRAPHICS
The company expects the combined shipments of its motherboards and graphic cards to fall by between 5 and 10 percent this quarter from the first quarter, said a second Gigybate employee, who declined to be named.
Overall this year motherboard shipments, which accounted for 61 percent of the firm’s total revenues of NT$50.82 billion (US$1.57 billion) last year, are expected to be flattish from last year’s 17 million units, Lin said.
Graphic cards shipments, which contributed 13 percent of the firm’s total sales last year, are likely to grow from last year’s 3.3 million units, thanks to new product launches and improving demand from emerging markets, Lin said.
Lin said the worldwide graphic-cards market, including Gigabyte, was affected by weak demand in emerging markets last year, mainly because of volatile currency exchanges, especially in eastern Europe, Russia and Brazil.
Lin said the company has noticed recovering demand from emerging markets since the beginning of this year and expects the situation to improve.
As part of efforts to support demand for the firm’s graphics cards, Lin said Gigabyte’s gaming product business unit has hosted events for gamers and sponsored professional teams in a bid to create closer relationships with gamers worldwide.
Lin said the rising virtual reality industry would also help boost demand for higher-end graphics cards in the long-term.
Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧), on March 23, forecast Gigabyte revenues would drop this quarter by 5.47 percent to NT$12.61 billion from last quarter’s estimated sales of NT$13.34 billion.
“Overall, we expect a muted first half of this year for Gigabte due to a lack of new central processing unit launches by its key partner, Intel Corp,” Yuanta analyst Calvin Wei (魏建發) said in the note.
Wei said Gigabyte’s revenues are likely to pick up significantly at the end of next quarter or the beginning of the fourth quarter when Intel launches its next central processing unit.
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],”