SEMICONDUCTORS
Silergy sales hit record high
Silergy Corp (矽力杰), a power management chip designer, yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$731 million (US$24.28 million) for last month, up 21.91 percent annually and 3.16 percent monthly, marking the highest monthly sales in its history. Despite overall weakness in China’s smartphone and consumer markets in the first half of this year, Silergy said it has managed to post decent growth in sales, driven by new product launches and market share gains. From January to last month, total revenue increased 30.64 percent to NT$3.274 billion from the same period last year, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
TECHNOLOGY
Synnex sales grow 9.81%
Synnex Technology International Corp (聯強國際) yesterday said consolidated sales for last month rose 9.81 percent from April to NT$25.91 billion, even though last month’s sales showed a decline of 4.87 percent from a year earlier. Cumulative sales in the first five months of the year dropped 4.09 percent year-on-year to NT$125.8 billion, dragged down by appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar, according to Synnex, Asia’s largest distributor of technology products and electronics components. Weakness in sales of the company’s major businesses, such as information technology products, consumer electronics and semiconductor components, also contributed to the overall decline, Synnex said.
CHIPMAKERS
Chang to receive NT$875m
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) is expected to pocket NT$875 million in cash dividends issued by the company after shareholders on Thursday approved a dividend of NT$7 per share. Chang owns 125 million TSMC shares, or a 0.48 percent stake. The National Development Fund of the Executive Yuan, one of the top 10 TSMC shareholders with about 1.65 billion shares, or a 6.38 percent stake, is expected to receive NT$11.58 billion in cash dividends. However, the majority of cash dividends are to go to foreign institutional investors, who hold an aggregate 80 percent stake in TSMC.
AIRLINES
Jenny Tsao to lead Mandarin
Mandarin Airlines Ltd (華信航空) yesterday said its board has elected Jenny Tsao (曹志芬) as its president, replacing Roger Han (韓梁中). The personnel change, which took effect yesterday, made Tsao, 45, the carrier’s first female president in its 26 years of operation. Tsao, previously a vice president of passenger marketing at China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), joined CAL in 2002. Mandarin is a CAL subsidiary focusing on regional and domestic flights. Han is to be appointed to lead CAL’s European operations, as well as the carrier’s office in the Netherlands, Mandarin Airlines said.
TRANSPORTATION
Ofo to raise funds: sources
Chinese bicycle rental start-up Ofo Inc (共享單車) is aiming to raise new funds through a valuation of about US$3 billion, people familiar with the deal said. The company is seeking about US$500 million, one of the people said. The latest round of fundraising comes just months after it secured at least US$450 million from ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing (滴滴出行), Jack Ma’s (馬雲) Ant Financial Services Group (螞蟻金服), DST Global and other investors. Before the current round, Ofo had amassed at least US$650 million in funding and obtained an estimated valuation of more than US$2 billion.
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],”