INVESTMENT
Ministry outlines totals
Thirty firms and 17 individuals have applied to repatriate NT$21.38 billion (US$703.2 million) since a repatriation bill took effect on Aug. 15, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. As of Friday, about NT$15.75 billion had been approved, while NT$4.14 billion had been repatriated, the ministry said. The bill provides for a preferential tax rate of 4 percent in the first year and 5 percent in the second year if the pledged investment materializes within a certain time. The ministry has estimated capital inflows of NT$133.3 billion in the program’s first year.
CHIPMAKERS
Nanya revenue shrinks
DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said that revenue last month shrank 9.58 percent to NT$4.52 billion, the lowest since June, compared with NT$5 billion in September. The company last month said that it expected prices to stabilize this quarter due to improving demand for almost all segments, from PCs and consumer electronics to servers, as well as lower inventory at major chip suppliers. On an annual basis, revenue plunged 32.76 percent from NT$6.73 billion. In the first 10 months, cumulative revenue fell 42 percent to NT$43.13 billion from NT$74.49 billion in the same period last year.
CHIPMAKERS
CHPT sales reach NT$353m
Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co (CHPT, 中華精測), which provides wafer and chip testing services, on Sunday posted NT$353.65 million in revenue for last month, up 42.58 percent from NT$248.04 million in October last year. Revenue on a monthly basis declined about 10 percent from a record NT$392.46 million in September. The company last month said that it would benefit from faster-than-expected 5G technology deployment worldwide, which should prevent the company from reporting its first-ever annual decline in revenue. Cumulative revenue in the first 10 months fell 2.62 percent to NT$2.73 billion from NT$2.81 billion in the same period last year.
COMPUTERS
Advantech EPS hits record
Advantech Co (研華), the world’s largest industrial computer manufacturer, reported record earnings per share (EPS) of NT$3.06 for last quarter, lifting EPS for the first three quarters to NT$8.08. Net profit in the third quarter jumped 25.1 percent annually to NT$2.14 billion, while revenue expanded 16.37 percent to NT$14.38 billion. Gross margin grew 0.67 percentage points to 39.61 percent, the company said on Friday. As the company continues to build up its presence in the Internet-of-Things market and the US-China trade dispute has had a limited impact on its business, net profit in the first three quarters grew 25.61 percent annually to NT$5.65 billion and revenue increased 11.82 percent to NT$40.66 billion. Gross margin was 38.94 percent.
PERIPHERALS
Primax income surges
Audio and PC peripherals maker Primax Electronics Ltd (致伸) reported net income of NT$764 million for last quarter, or earnings per share of NT$1.72, up 15 percent annually to the highest in its history. Operating income grew 65.6 percent year-on-year to NT$1.21 billion, while revenue rose 29 percent to NT$25.29 billion, both also records as the company continues to ride on a growth trend in the audio industry, Primax said in a statement last week. Gross margin and operating margin were stronger than expected at 11.9 percent and 4.8 percent respectively for last quarter.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to