Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), the world’s biggest NOR flash memorychip supplier, yesterday said its board of directors has approved new capital expenditure of NT$14.2 billion (US$459.25 million) to boost high-end chip capacity to meet customers’ demand.
Macronix did not give a timeframe for the proposed capital expenditure.
The figure is more than double this year’s budget of NT$5.8 billion for new manufacturing equipment.
The proposal aims to “increase high-end 12-inch capacity and to boost research and development,” the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
“Generally speaking, low-quality and low-density [NOR flash chips] will continue to be under pressure from an oversupply. However, high-quality and high-density [chips] will be in short supply for the rest of the year,” Macronix chairman Miin Wu (吳敏求) told reporters last month.
Macronix mostly supplies high-end and high-quality NOR flash chips.
Since the beginning of this year, the Hsinchu-based company has faced difficulty meeting customers’ demand.
Macronix in July said that its factories were working at full capacity and that it plans to upgrade its technologies to increase output.
Growing demand for NOR flash chips used in industrial, automotive and medical devices also had squeezed its capacity, it added.
Macronix last month saw its revenue climb to the highest in 11 months to NT$3.75 billion, thanks to rising demand and chip prices.
That brought the company’s third-quarter revenue to NT$10.04 billion, up 13 percent from NT$8.88 billion in the second quarter, company data showed.
The chipmaker is scheduled to hold an investors’ conference tomorrow to provide its latest business outlook and last quarter’s financial results.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure