Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) yesterday said that net profit last quarter soared 86 percent quarter-on-quarter, driven by strong demand from its top client, Nintendo Co, and stabilizing chip prices.
Chip prices have been in a downward spiral since the third quarter of last year amid sluggish demand, partly due to a trade spat between the US and China, the memorychip maker said.
Net profit jumped to NT$264 million (US$8.49 million) in the quarter that ended on June 30, compared with NT$142 million in the first quarter, it said, adding that gross margin improved from 25 percent to 27 percent in the period.
Revenue from its read-only memory (ROM) chips showed the fastest growth of 75 percent, thanks to rising demand from Nintendo following the launch of new Nintendo Switch game consoles.
ROM chips accounted for 29 percent of Macronix’s total revenue of NT$7.5 billion last quarter, while revenue from NAND flash memory chips contributed 63 percent, it said.
Net profit tumbled 86 percent from NT$2.07 billion a year earlier due to price declines, it said.
Macronix holds a bullish outlook for the current quarter, saying that a seasonal uptick would boost all of its business segments, including NAND flash memory, ROM chips and foundry services.
“The third quarter is usually a peak season for Macronix. We are pretty optimistic about our business in the second half,” Macronix president Lu Chih-yuan (盧志遠) said. “We have seen strong demand for all of our products, which has led to stabilized prices and increases in shipments.”
Commenting on investors’ concern over its inventory totaling a massive NT$18.87 billion last quarter, Lu said that a large portion was built in preparation for customer demand in the peak season.
Most of the prepared goods would be shipped in the second half, he said.
Macronix aims to keep inventory at a healthy level of NT$10 billion, he added.
Gross margin is likely to improve further this quarter, given falling inventory and stable chip prices, Lu said.
Macronix said that it plans to spend NT$14 billion on capital expenditure this year, mostly on technology upgrades, rather than capacity expansion.
The chipmaker said that it plans to migrate almost all of its NAND flash memory chips from 36-nanometer to 19-nanometer technology, while NOR flash memory chips would be made on a more advanced 55-nanometer process, instead of 75-nanometer technology used currently.
Macronix plans to complete the development of its first 192-layer 3D NAND memory chips next year, Lu said.
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],”