Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it was purchasing a 21 percent stake in a US-based solar photovoltaic company as part of its efforts to move into the green energy business.
TSMC, the world’s top contract chipmaker, said in a statement that it had reached a series of agreements with Stion Corp on technology licensing, supply and joint development of thin-film solar photovoltaic modules technology.
The Hsinchu-based chipmaker would also acquire about one-fifth of the shares of the California-based Stion through its venture capital affiliate, VentureTech Alliance LLC, for US$50 million, TSMC said in the statement.
TSMC’s latest move into the green energy business follows a Dec. 9 announcement that it had bought 75.32 million shares of Motech Industries Inc (茂迪), or about 20 percent, of the nation’s biggest solar cell maker, for NT$6.23 billion (US$192.6 million).
Besides solar power, TSMC has also been moving into LED lighting. During a groundbreaking ceremony at the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) on March 25, the company pledged to invest an initial NT$5.5 billion in a LED lighting research and development center and fab, aiming to start supplying LED light sources and light engines next year, Rick Tsai (蔡力行), TSMC’s president of New Businesses division, said at the time.
TSMC had also bought a 3 percent stake in a US LED chip maker, BridgeLux Inc, in April 2008.
Under yesterday’s agreements with Stion, TSMC said it would obtain copper indium gallium sulfur selenide (CIGSS) based thin-film solar module technology from the US company, while it would in turn offer its partner a certain quantity of solar modules using the technology.
“Working with Stion, TSMC gains a robust thin film technology with inherent low cost structure,” Tsai said in the statement, adding that the company aims to achieve long-term leadership in solar photovoltaic businesses while contributing to a greener economy.
Stion CEO and president Chet Farris said he viewed the new partnership with TSMC as a good example of a “win-win relationship” in the solar energy business.
“The collaboration enables Stion to scale its operations, leverages both companies’ strengths to achieve market leadership and to deliver on the promise of efficient, affordable solar energy,” Farris said in the statement.
The two companies also said in the statement that they would work together to enhance thin-film technology through joint development, but did not disclose details.
Shares of TSMC closed at NT$61.4 on Tuesday, up 0.49 percent from the previous session. The local market was closed yesterday for Dragon Boat Festival.
So far this year, TSMC has dropped 4.81 percent on the main bourse, compared with the benchmark TAIEX’s 8.96 percent decline, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
RSS