PANELS
LCD panelmaker revenue fell
Revenue from the world’s major LCD panelmakers declined 19 percent to US$6.9 billion last month, from US$8.6 billion in the same period of last year, market researcher NPD DisplaySearch’s latest report showed yesterday. That represented a less than 1 percent decline from September’s US$7 billion, the research house said. South Korea’s LG Display Co posted US$2.16 billion in revenue for last month, making it the top LCD panel maker in the world, according to NPD DisplaySearch. Samsung came next with US$1.29 billion in revenue. AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) grabbed No. 3 position by making US$1.15 billion in revenue. Meanwhile, Innolux Corp (群創光電) ranked No.5 with revenue of US$938 million.
CHIPMAKERS
LED chipmaker seeks buyer
LED chipmaker Chi Mei Lighting Technology Corp’s (奇力光電) said it was seeking to sell two plants to repay bank loans after it suspended its operation in August, according to a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday. Chi Mei Lighting owes NT$5.64 billion in loans to local lenders. The company is now under a court’s receivership after all its managers and board members quit their jobs. Chi Mei Lighting’s biggest shareholder, Innolux Corp (群創光電), said it respected the company’s decision. Innolux, the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, holds about 34 percent stake in the LED chipmaker.
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
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
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