COMPUTERS
Shipments tipped to fall
Total shipments of notebooks from Taiwanese contract producers might fall to their lowest level in seven years this quarter, because of lower orders from HP Inc and Apple Inc, as well as soft demand for Chromebook laptops, Taipei-based Digitimes Research said yesterday. Shipments from Taiwanese makers led by Compal Electronics Co (仁寶電腦) are forecast to reach 27.365 million units in the January-to-March quarter, down 6.8 percent year-on-year and 17.8 percent quarter-on-quarter, Digitimes said in a report. Global notebook brands are predicted to see total shipments fall by 9 percent annually and 16.5 percent quarterly to 34.21 million laptops this quarter, about 80 percent of which would come from Taiwanese makers, the report said. The market researcher attributed the weakness to inventory depletion in retail channels, lackluster sales in Chromebooks and other seasonal factors. Detachable notebooks were not covered in Digitimes Research’s latest market analysis.
ELECTRONICS
Novatek expects sales drop
Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠), the nation’s biggest supplier of driver ICs for LCD panels, yesterday said it is expecting sales of between NT$11.5 billion and NT$12 billion (US$341.4 million and US$356.3 million) this quarter, compared with last quarter’s NT$12.63 billion. The company’s guidance for this quarter indicates that sales are to fall 5 to 9 percent sequentially, which it attributed to the effects of a slow season and fewer working days this month. Gross margin is also likely to reach between 27.5 percent and 28.5 percent this quarter, compared with 28.45 percent last quarter, the company said in a statement. Novatek also released its results for last quarter, showing its net income on a consolidated basis decreased both annually and quarterly to NT$1.52 billion, or earnings per share (EPS) of NT$2.49, partly due to lower foreign-exchange gains. For the whole of last year, the company posted net profit of NT$6.4 billion, or EPS of NT$10.52, with consolidated sales falling 5.91 percent year-on-year to NT$50.87 billion.
SOFTWARE
AI firm announces tie-up
Artificial intelligence (AI) developer Appier (沛星互動科技) yesterday announced a collaboration with National Taiwan University (NTU) in a bid to improve the firm’s technological capabilities. Appier said in a statement that it has hired NTU associate professor Lin Hsuan-tien (林軒田) to head its AI research and development team. Founded in 2012 in Taipei, Appier has thus far secured US$30 million in funds from major private equity firms, including Sequoia Capital (紅杉資本), and industry backers such as MediaTek Inc (聯發科). The firm said it serves more than 500 global brands and agencies in 11 Asian markets.
CHIP PACKAGERS
Powertech sees income rise
Powertech Technology Inc (力成), a memorychip tester and packager, yesterday reported that net income last year rose 24 percent annually to NT$4.02 billion, the highest in four years. During the period, sales rose 6.2 percent annually to NT$42.52 billion, while earnings per share were NT$5.2, it said. Powertech chairman Tsai Du-kung (蔡篤恭) said that the company’s decision to sell a 25 percent stake to China’s Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd (清華紫光) is aimed at fending off competitors from poaching its major clients and to grow its foothold in the Chinese market.
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
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
NEXT GENERATION: The new 3-nanometer chip has 28 percent more transistors and offers up to 80 percent faster language model performance than its predecessor MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Wednesday launched a new flagship smartphone chip, Dimensity 9400, made with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) enhanced 3-nanometer technology, aiming to bring more artificial intelligence (AI) applications to edge devices like phones. The Dimensity 9400 is the second smartphone chip using TSMC’s second-generation 3-nanometer technology, after Apple Inc’s A18 Pro chip for the new iPhone 16 series. The new mobile chip has 28 percent more transistors, offers up to 80 percent faster large language model performance and is up to 35 percent more power-efficient than its predecessor, Dimensity 9300, MediaTek said. Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi Corp (小米),
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