FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Falling euro hits reserves
The nation’s foreign-exchange reserves were US$435.263 billion last month, representing a decrease of US$1.463 billion from the previous month, the central bank said yesterday. In a statement posted on its Web site, the central bank attributed the decline to the depreciation of the euro and other major currencies against the US dollar. The drop more than subdued the returns the central bank earned from its management of the reserves, it added.
ELECTRONICS
HTC Corp revenue declines
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday reported an 8.66 percent year-on-year decline in revenue to NT$8.17 billion (US$259.59 million) last month. The result represented a 12.43 percent decline from the previous month’s NT$9.33 billion, even though the company, which serves as the contract manufacturer of Google’s Pixel smartphones, started shipping the devices last month. Combined revenue totaled NT$64.08 billion in the first 10 months of this year, a 38.9 percent decline from a year earlier, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. HTC’s revenue this quarter is forecast to rise 14 percent year-on-year and 32 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$29 billion, Daiwa Capital Markets said in a note on Tuesday last week.
ELECTRONICS
Everlight posts higher profit
Everlight Electronics Co (億光) shares yesterday rose 1.64 percent to close at NT$46.35 a day after the company reported growth in net profit for last quarter. Everlight, the nation’s largest LED chip packaging and lighting product supplier, posted NT$464.28 million in net income last quarter, a 12.14 percent year-on-year and a 4.09 percent quarter-on-quarter increase, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Analysts attributed Everlight’s earnings growth to the rising revenue contribution from the flash used in the cameras of Android smartphones. Increasing shipments of lighting products used in virtual reality headsets also boosted growth, analysts said.
AUDIO COMPONENTS
Merry posts record sales
Audio component maker Merry Electronics Co (美律) yesterday reported record sales of NT$1.95 billion for last month, lifting the company’s cumulative sales in the first 10 months of this year to NT$12.83 billion, an increase of 28.15 percent year-on-year. Last week, the company posted solid results for last quarter, with net profit of NT$916 million, or earnings per share of NT$5.01, mainly because of gains from the one-off disposal of a 51 percent stake in its manufacturing plant in Suzhou, China. Sales for this quarter are expected to decline by about 4 percent from last quarter’s NT$4.93 billion, with gross margin and operating margin both lower due to the smaller stake in the Suzhou plant, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said in a note.
ENTERTAINMENT
Pili’s net profit slumps
Leading puppet show producer Pili International Multimedia Co (霹靂國際多媒體) yesterday posted NT$27.05 million in net profit for last quarter, or earnings per share of NT$0.59, a 45.68 percent decline from the previous year. In the first three quarters of this year, Pili’s net profit fell 0.55 percent year-on-year to NT$106 million, or earnings per share of NT$2.39, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. This quarter, the firm said it expects revenue contribution from DVD sales in Japan and the licensing of its shows to Chinese TV networks.
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
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
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