LENSES
Largan revenue rises 20%
Largan Precision Co (大立光), the nation’s largest camera lens supplier, yesterday posted annual growth of 20 percent in revenue to NT$3.62 billion (US$119.2 million) for last month. The result brought the firm’s accumulative revenue to NT$10.8 billion in the first three months of this year, surging 30.66 percent year-on-year from NT$8.27 billion in the same period last year, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said. However, the quarterly revenue represented a 31 percent sequential decline from the previous quarter’s NT$15.72 billion, due to the start of the traditional slow season for consumer electronics. Largan said as the second quarter of the year is still the slow season, it foresees revenue this month to be flattish or down from last month.
CASINGS
Catcher revenue drops
Catcher Technology Co (可成科技), which supplies metal casings for Apple Inc’s iPhones, iPads and Macbooks, yesterday said its revenue last month dropped 22.8 percent annually to NT$4.97 billion, but rose 4.8 percent from the prior month’s NT$4.75 billion. Combined sales in the January-to-March period were NT$14.58 billion, representing a 13.4 percent annual contraction and a 39.3 percent quarterly decline, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
STOCK MARKETS
TAIEX closes above 9,900
Shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange rose 1.41 percent to end the day above the 9,900-point mark yesterday on the back of strong performances by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract electronics maker and a key Apple supplier, and companies in the supply chain of US electric vehicle maker Tesla, dealers said. The TAIEX rose 137.96 points, or 1.41 percent, ending the day at 9,949.48 on turnover of NT$124.076 billion. Hon Hai, which reported record-breaking annual and quarterly profits in fourth-quarter financial results filed on Friday with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, led an upturn throughout the session, dealers said. Hon Hai shares rose 7.69 percent to close at NT$98, with 170 million shares exchanged on turnover of NT$16.5 billion. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the local market, added NT$4 to close at NT$193.
CONTACT LENSES
Pegavision revenue rises
Pegatron Corp’s (和碩) contact lens subsidiary Pegavision Corp (晶碩) yesterday reported revenue of NT$164.18 million for last month, surging 50.41 percent from last year’s NT$109.15 million and 5.12 percent from the previous month’s NT$156.18 million. Pegavision’s accumulated sales reached NT$489.59 million in the first three months of this year, up 37.73 percent from the same period a year earlier, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said. Pegavision attributed the strong growth in combined revenue to significant increases in orders last month compared with the same period last year.
BANKING
EnTie unveils branches plan
EnTie Commercial Bank (安泰銀行) yesterday said it has finalized plans to cut the number of its branches from 54 to 50, with the closures to begin next month. In an effort to adapt to a rise in online financial services, the company is to merge eight mini branches into four full-service branches in and around Taipei, it said in a statement.
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