CHIPMAKING
Inotera shares surge
Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) shares yesterday jumped 9.89 percent after Micron Technology Inc chief financial officer Ernie Maddock said the delay in the company’s acquisition of the Taiwanese chipmaker has nothing to do with “the ability of Micron to obtain financing.” During the NASDAQ 34th Investor Program Conference in London on Thursday, Maddock said Micron is still working with Inotera to address issues that will allow the completion of the deal as quickly as possible. On June 8, Micron announced that it would not be able to complete the transaction in the middle of next month as originally planned.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Book-to-bill ratio slips
The book-to-bill ratio for North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers, such as Applied Materials Inc, decreased to 1.09 last month from 1.1 in April, statistics released by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) showed. A ratio of 1.09 means that US$109 worth of orders were received for every US$100 of product billed in the month. It was the sixth consecutive month that the ratio was greater than one, which implies a more optimistic outlook. “Bookings and billings for new semiconductor equipment continue to improve,” SEMI Taiwan president Terry Tsao (曹世綸) said in a statement. “The data are consistent with higher spending expectations for the second half of the year.”
NETWORKING
Accton sales beat estimates
Accton Technology Corp (智邦科技), which is a major beneficiary of rising whitebox switch adoption and switch speed migration, yesterday said its business fared well in the second quarter of this year, after cumulative sales for April and last month came in ahead of its earlier guidance. The computer networking equipment maker is expecting further improvement in the second half of the year, despite macroeconomic uncertainties, chairman Lee Yen-sung (李炎松) said at the firm’s annual general meeting in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區). Total sales for the first five months of the year hit NT$10.38 billion, up 18.29 percent from a year earlier, company data showed.
TECHNOLOGY
GlobalWafers to buy division
Topsil Semiconductor Materials A/S shareholders yesterday agreed to sell a silicon wafer division of the Copenhagen-based company to Taiwan’s GlobalWafers Co Ltd (環球晶圓) for 355 million kroner (US$53.77 million), GlobalWafers said in a statement. After closing the deal by the end of this month, GlobalWafers hopes to expand its presence in Europe and expects the transaction to add float-zone wafers to its current product portfolios, as well as to consolidate its global position within the silicon wafer industry.
STOCK MARKET
Stocks ‘underweight’: UBS
Swiss Bank UBS AG yesterday issued an “underweight” rating for Taiwanese stocks, as the slowing pace of expansion in the markets for smartphones and PCs would no longer prop up the nation’s technology-focused industries. “Taiwanese stocks will be burdened by the high basis set during boom times of the past, while it remains unclear whether emerging segments, such as virtual reality and the Internet of Things, can replace the lost momentum,” UBS wealth management executive director Hyde Chen (陳彥甫) said at a news conference, adding that more than 60 percent of listed companies on the Taiwan Stock Exchange operate in the technology sector.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six