A stronger-than expected earnings report on Thursday lifted Intel Corp shares as investors looked past a troubling computer chip flaw weighing on the US tech giant.
Intel shares climbed more than 4 percent to US$47.13 in after-market trades that followed release of its earnings figures, despite its warning of lawsuits, claims and negative publicity from security vulnerabilities, including recently disclosed Spectre and Meltdown flaws.
For the fourth quarter, Intel posted a loss of US$700 million due to about US$5.4 billion being set aside to pay taxes on repatriation of profits from overseas.
Intel reported record revenue of US$17.1 billion in the final three months of last year, and said its annual revenue hit an unprecedented high of US$62.8 billion.
“2017 was a record year for Intel with record fourth-quarter results driven by strong growth of our data-centric businesses,” chief executive Brian Krzanich said.
Intel estimated that revenue this quarter would be about IS$15 billion, and for this year to total about US$65 billion.
Krzanich also said new chips being developed would fix the vulnerabilities disclosed for its current products — flaws which have raised concerns because they are in hardware instead of software.
“We are working to incorporate silicon-based changes to future products that will directly address the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities in hardware,” Krzanich said during a call with analysts.
The products “will start appearing later this year,” he said.
Intel early this week called for a halt in deployment some patches for a troubling vulnerability in its computer chips because they could cause “unpredictable” problems in affected devices.
Intel posted a list of chip models that could be tripped up by the patch, meant to prevent hackers from taking advantage of so-called Meltdown and Spectre flaws to steal data.
“They may introduce higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior,” Intel data center group executive vice president Navin Shenoy said in an online post.
Intel and other computing giants are facing inquiries from lawmakers and regulators about the disclosure of the chip flaw.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by