Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest maker of custom chips, said it would increase spending on research and development by 20 percent this year to reduce the size of chips and cut costs.
The target is spending as measured in US dollars, Sun Yuan-cheng (孫元成), a vice president in charge of research and development (R&D) for the Taiwanese company, said today at a briefing in Yokohama, Japan. TSMC raised R&D expenses 24 percent in local-currency terms to NT$19.7 billion (US$599 million) last year from NT$15.9 billion in 2007.
TSMC, whose clients include Intel Corp and Nvidia Corp, plans to invest in technology that packs more circuits per wafer to revive a slump in demand as the global recession prompts customers to delay orders. The company is a benchmark for the technology industry because it makes chips for everything from phones to TVs.
“Despite this economic downturn, we are making a significant increase in research-and-development spending,” Sun said.
TSMC fell 1.1 percent to NT$54.4 today in Taipei trading, bringing this year’s increase to 23 percent. Taiwan’s benchmark TAIEX has gained 45 percent this year. The increased R&D investment will help TSMC produce new 22-nanometer chips next year, scheduled for mass production in 2011, Sun said. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter and measures the width of the transistors packed in a semiconductor.
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
RSS