HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday blamed its expanding quarterly losses, which grew to NT$2.6 billion (US$84.18 million) last quarter, on the lack of traction for its new blockchain phone and virtual reality (VR) headsets.
It lost NT$3.1 billion in the third quarter of last year, while it posted losses of NT$2.1 billion for the second quarter of this year.
The smartphone maker has been locked in a spiral of quarterly losses for about three years, except for the first quarter of this year, when it booked net profit of NT$21.1 billion after selling its handset manufacturing team to Alphabet Inc’s Google for US$1.1 billion.
HTC is still struggling to return to the black, although its operating losses narrowed to NT$2.8 billion last quarter.
It posted operating losses of NT$3.4 billion for the second quarter and NT$3.3 billion a year earlier, company data showed.
Its operating margin dipped to minus-68.9 percent last quarter from minus-50.7 percent in the second quarter, compared with minus-20.9 percent in the third quarter of last year.
Its gross margin improved for a second straight quarter to 4.7 percent from 2.7 percent in the second quarter, but was still down from 10 percent in the same period last year.
Revenue plunged to NT$4 billion from NT$6.8 billion in the previous quarter and NT$15.7 billion a year earlier.
HTC said it would continue to invest in research and development as well as on expanding its VR ecosystem.
It launched the mid-range HTC U12 life last month and is to start shipping its first blockchain phone Exodus 1 next month.
HTC is accepting pre-orders for the Exodus 1 in cryptocurrencies only, at the price of 0.15 bitcoins, or 4.78 ethers.
Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned. A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash. However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety. “Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
OUTLOOK: Pat Gelsinger said he did not expect the heavy AI infrastructure investments by the major cloud service providers to cause an AI bubble to burst soon Building a resilient energy supply chain is crucial for Taiwan to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology and grow its economy, former Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger said yesterday. Gelsinger, now a general partner at the US venture capital firm Playground Global LLC, was asked at a news conference in Taipei about his views on Taiwan’s hardware development and growing concern over an AI bubble. “Today, the greatest issue in Taiwan isn’t even in the software or in architecture. It is energy,” Gelsinger said. “You are not in the position to have a resilient energy supply chain, and that,
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