Powerchip ups Epida investment
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), the nation's largest memory-chip maker, will invest an extra NT$5 billion (US$152 million) in its venture with Elpida Memory Inc.
Powerchip, based in Hsinchu, bought 312.5 million preferred shares of Rexchip Electronics Co yesterday at NT$16 per share, the company said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing.
Rexchip last month borrowed NT$39 billion from banks to expand capacity of plants making memory chips from wafers measuring 12 inches (30cm) in diameter. Tokyo-based Elpida and Powerchip announced the ¥1.6 trillion (US$13.8 billion) memory-chip venture on Dec. 7.
Macronix to delist from NASDAQ
Taiwanese chipmaker Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) yesterday said it planned to file for terminating the trading of its shares on the US's tech-heavy NASDAQ to save costs.
Macronix expected its 1.6 million American Depositary Receipt (ADR) to be de-listed from NASDAQ on Oct. 29 at the earliest.
The Hsinchu-based chipmaker said its ADR holders can choose to sell their holdings before the deadline, or their holdings will be converted into common shares traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Macronix said it did not have any plans to list its shares on any other overseas markets in the short run.
FPC hits 15-year high
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), the world's second-largest maker of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, rose to the highest in at least 15 years in Taipei trading on expectations sales will climb.
The stock advanced 3 percent to close at NT$88.5, the highest since at least 1992. The benchmark TAIEX gained 1.36 percent.
"Fourth-quarter sales should be quite good compared with the year earlier," said Jason Lin, a Taipei-based analyst at SinoPac Securities Corp (永豐金證券), who has a "hold" rating on the stock.
Formosa Plastics, based in Taipei, reported an 18 percent gain in January to August sales, according to filings the company made with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Customers may increase purchases of Formosa Plastics' products to take advantage of current lower costs, Lin said. Rising oil costs may push chemical prices higher in the longer term, he said.
Infineon cuts Qimonda stake
Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's second-biggest semiconductor maker, cut its stake in memory unit Qimonda AG to 78.6 percent to bolster cash reserves.
The German technology company sold 25 million Qimonda American depositary receipts for US$10.92 each for a total of US$273 million, it said in a statement yesterday. Infineon, which is based near Munich, said that total doesn't include an option to sell an additional 3.75 million shares, which would reduce the stake to 77.5 percent.
NT gains on dollar
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday gained NT$0.113 against the US dollar after the central bank announced on Thursday to increase its benchmark interest rate by 12.5 basis points.
The NT dollar closed at NT$32.953 on the Taipei Forex Inc, up from NT$33.066 the previous day, with a turnover of US$1.193 billion.
NT$100 billion Q4 bonds set
The government plans to sell NT$130 billion (US$3.9 billion) worth of bonds in the fourth quarter to help fund spending, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement posted on its Web site yesterday.
The amount is compared to NT$105 billion the government sold in the same period last year.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
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