Intel Corp’s chief executive said on Tuesday that chip orders have been “a little better than we expected” so far in the second quarter, a sign that semiconductor sales are slowly improving.
“A lot depends on June,” Paul Otellini said on Tuesday at an analyst conference at the company’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California. “So far, so good.”
Otellini said he stood by his remark last month that personal computer sales had “bottomed out” and were recovering from their worst slump in six years.
He said he was convinced things are returning to normal in seasonal patterns and that Intel’s results had been “so far, so good” in the second quarter.
The first and second quarters are typically the toughest for chip makers, since holidays and back-to-school are bigger PC-buying seasons.
Otellini didn’t offer more detailed guidance on Tuesday. Intel predicted in its quarterly earnings report last month that second-quarter sales would be about the same as the first quarter’s.
First-quarter revenue was US$7.1 billion, down 26 percent from the same period last year.
While corporations have put off replacing their PCs, demand from consumers “has held up reasonably well,” Sean Maloney, head of Intel’s sales and marketing, said on Tuesday.
Intel sees an opportunity to sell more server chips as companies replace older machines, he said. There is no “unhealthy” buildup of unsold parts, Maloney said.
“We are at some kind of a new base — we’ve seen things stabilize,” he said. “We’ve seen a return to confidence in some areas.”
One thing Otellini didn’t mention in his speech was the possibility of a huge antitrust fine in Europe for Intel’s allegedly abusive behavior toward Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc.
A EU fine against Intel was expected to be announced yesterday.
European regulators have accused Intel of illegally thwarting AMD’s business by offering big rebates to computer-makers and retailers to avoid AMD’s products and selling its server chips below the cost of making them. Intel has denied the allegations and maintained its practices are legal.
In a response to a question, Otellini later said he wouldn’t comment on “rumors” about a possible European fine.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS