SEMICONDUCTORS
Elan revenue grows
Touch-panel controller chip maker Elan Microelectronics Corp (義隆電子) said on Friday that revenue grew 0.73 percent to NT$668 million (US$22.27 million) last month, compared with NT$663 million in July, thanks to an increase in shipments of touchscreen chips. Elan said that revenue from its touchscreen chips rose 5.7 percent last month from a month earlier. The company also said it has clinched orders from five customers to supply chips used in wearable devices such as smartwatches and smart glasses. Elan has previously said that it is scheduled to ramp up production of chips used in wearable devices in the second half of this year.
SOLAR CELLS
Neo Solar hit by US probes
Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光), the nation’s largest solar cell manufacturer, said on Friday that revenue contracted 8.83 percent to NT$1.87 billion last month, from July’s NT$2.05 billion. Neo Solar attributed the decline to weak solar cell prices after the US Department of Commerce made a preliminary ruling on its anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into Taiwanese and Chinese solar cell manufacturers.The company said that the outlook for next quarter was quite good, mostly due to strong demand from China. In additional, the US Department of Commerce has cut the proposed import tariffs on local solar cell makers, including Neo Solar and Motech Industries Inc (茂迪). Shipments are expected to increase next quarter, the company said.In the first eight months of the year, revenue jumped 72.37 percent to NT$18.59 billion from NT$10.78 billion in the same period of last year.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
FAULTs BELOW: Asia is particularly susceptible to anything unfortunate happening to the AI industry, with tech companies hugely responsible for its market strength The sudden slump in Asia’s technology shares last week has jolted investors, serving as a stark reminder that the world-beating rally in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor stocks might be nearing a short-term crest. The region’s sharpest decline since April — triggered by a tech-led sell-off on Wall Street — has refocused attention on cracks beneath the surface: the rally’s narrow breadth, heavy reliance on retail traders, and growing uncertainty around the timing of US Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts. Last week’s “sell-off is a reminder that Asia’s market structure is just more vulnerable,” Saxo Markets chief investment strategist Charu Chanana said in
RSS