ELECTRONICS
Apple mulled new modems
Apple Inc considered tapping Samsung Electronics Co and MediaTek Inc (聯發科), along with existing vendor Intel Corp, to supply modem chips for this year’s iPhones, according to testimony by an Apple executive in the US Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust proceedings against Qualcomm on Friday. Apple relied on Qualcomm as the sole supplier of the chips from 2011 to 2016, but split the business between Intel and Qualcomm in 2016. The company last year moved solely to Intel for its newest phones, but has also considered MediaTek and Samsung to supply the 5G chips, Apple supply chain executive Tony Blevins said.
TELECOMS
MOU for 5G progress inked
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) on Thursday said it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Korea 5G Forum to form a strategic partnership for 5G development. The Korea 5G Forum is composed of major South Korean companies including Korea Telecom Co, Samsung Electronics Co and LG Electronics Co, as well as China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
INVESTMENT
Investors in OTC falls in Q4
The number of investors who traded more than NT$100 million (US$3.25 million) in equities on the over-the-counter (OTC) market in the fourth quarter of last year dropped by 275 to 3,001 from a quarter earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Thursday, citing Taipei Exchange tallies. The decrease in the number of OTC investors reflected equity price volatility in the market, which saw the OTC market index decline 7.52 percent in the fourth quarter, the commission said.
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
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San