TSMC to buy back shares
The board of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, has approved a US$1 billion share buyback plan.
TSMC planned to repurchase a maximum of 500 million common shares at prices ranging from NT$48.25 to NT$100.5 per share from the open market from May 14 to July 13, a company statement said. The chipmaker will then cancel the repurchased shares.
“This buyback program by TSMC is part of the fourth phase of a multi-phase plan and Philips intends to continue participating in this program,” said TSMC spokesperson and chief financial officer Lora Ho (何麗梅). “It has been, and still is, Philips’ intention not to sell TSMC shares other than during the period of a TSMC buyback program.”
Philips holds approximately 5 percent of TSMC common shares, with a market value of approximately US$2.8 billion.
TSMC and Philips agreed in March last year to a multi-phased plan to facilitate an orderly exit by Philips from its holdings in TSMC. The first three phases of the plan were completed last year.
The board of directors also approved capital appropriation of US$995 million to expand its Fab 12 and increase advanced process capacity.
Mosel to triple cell capacity
Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽) yesterday said it planned to more than triple its solar cell capacity to 200 megawatts within a year to meet fast-growing demand amid rising oil prices and awareness of environmental protection.
Phasing out its computer memory chip business, Mosel held a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday for its second solar cell plant in northern Taiwan. Currently, Mosel operates two production lines in Hsinchu with an annual capacity of 60 megawatts.
The new plant is scheduled to join the operation by year’s end with small volume output, Mosel said.
Mosel holds owns 13 percent of the nation’s third-largest computer memory chipmaker, ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技).
Last month, Mosel’s board approved a plan to sell around 228.75 million common shares overseas and at home to fund the expansion. Mosel may raise NT$6.4 billion from the share offering based on its closing price of NT$28.15 yesterday.
Wal-Mart may trail estimates
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer, posted a higher first-quarter profit and forecast second-quarter earnings that may trail analyst estimates as consumers strained by gasoline prices slowed spending.
Sales at stores open for at least a year may be unchanged in the three months through July, the retailer said yesterday.
“There are still uncertainties about the rest of the year,” a Wal-Mart spokesman said in a recorded call.
Net income increased 6.9 percent to US$3.02 billion, or US$0.76 a share, from US$2.83 billion, or US$0.68, a year earlier, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said in a statement. Profit beat estimates by US$0.01. Revenue for the three months through April 30 rose 10 percent to US$95.3 billion.
Second-quarter profit would be between US$0.78 and US$0.81 a share, Wal-Mart said. The retailer said it was “difficult to quantify” the impact of tax-rebate payments. Twenty analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated an average profit of US$0.81.
NT dollar declines
The NT dollar declined against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, down NT$0.023 to close at NT$30.873.
A total of US$1.145 billion changed hands during the day’s trading.
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
EXPORT GROWTH: The AI boom has shortened chip cycles to just one year, putting pressure on chipmakers to accelerate development and expand packaging capacity Developing a localized supply chain for advanced packaging equipment is critical for keeping pace with customers’ increasingly shrinking time-to-market cycles for new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday. Spurred on by the AI revolution, customers are accelerating product upgrades to nearly every year, compared with the two to three-year development cadence in the past, TSMC vice president of advanced packaging technology and service Jun He (何軍) said at a 3D IC Global Summit organized by SEMI in Taipei. These shortened cycles put heavy pressure on chipmakers, as the entire process — from chip design to mass
SEMICONDUCTOR SERVICES: A company executive said that Taiwanese firms must think about how to participate in global supply chains and lift their competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it expects to launch its first multifunctional service center in Pingtung County in the middle of 2027, in a bid to foster a resilient high-tech facility construction ecosystem. TSMC broached the idea of creating a center two or three years ago when it started building new manufacturing capacity in the US and Japan, the company said. The center, dubbed an “ecosystem park,” would assist local manufacturing facility construction partners to upgrade their capabilities and secure more deals from other global chipmakers such as Intel Corp, Micron Technology Inc and Infineon Technologies AG, TSMC said. It
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