Innolux Corp (群創) is supporting Sharp Corp’s construction of its first organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display production line, which might open the door for joint investments in future OLED plants to avoid investment overlap, a company executive said yesterday.
Innolux has been working with Sharp to accelerate the commercialization of OLED technology, after the Osaka-based company became a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) via a share sale deal worth US$3.5 billion in April last year.
Innolux is Hon Hai’s Taiwan-based LCD display manufacturing arm.
Integrating group resources, Sharp and Innolux engineers jointly worked on research and development at Innolux’s fab before Sharp started its own G4.5 OLED fab, Hon Hai Technology Group (鴻海科技集團) display consultant Tuan Hsing-chien (段行建) said at a news conference yesterday.
At that time, Innolux made faster progress with an experimental OLED line, while Sharp was in the early stages of developing expensive OLED technology, Tuan said.
“We plan to send about 10 Innolux employees from the company’s OLED operation to join Sharp’s new G4.5 [OLED] plant later this month, or in May,” Tuan said.
“This will be the first phase,” for Innolux to participate in Sharp’s OLED plant, Tuan added.
When asked if Innolux planned to build its own OLED plant, Tuan said: “There is no need for Innolux to repeat what Sharp has done.”
“The companies could jointly build an OLED plant. There is no need for all of us to build our own fabs. There is no need for an overlap,” Tuan said.
For the same reason, Innolux might not have to build its own G10 plant to produce larger displays, Tuan said, adding that no Taiwanese companies can afford to build such a plant without government support.
OLED technology requires a massive capital investment and has a higher technological barrier than thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal-display technology.
Sharp has a good chance of beginning to operate its own G4.5 OLED fab next year, Tuan told reporters in May last year, when he accepted the new job at Hon Hai.
Tuan is a former chairman and CEO of Innolux.
He also said at the time that “OLED [technology] is a major consideration for Hon Hai’s investment in Sharp,” as Apple Inc, Hon Hai’s biggest client, was reportedly shifting to OLED displays from low-temperature polycrystalline silicon displays for next-generation iPhones.
Except OLED technology, Innolux and Sharp are complementary in terms of indium-gallium-zinc-oxide technology, panel capacities and factory management skills, Tuan said.
Innolux shares rose 0.68 percent to NT$14.8 in Taipei trading yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX, which gained 0.31 percent.
US PROBE: The Information reported that the US Department of Commerce is investigating whether the firm made advanced chips for China’s Huawei Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract maker of advanced chips, yesterday said it is a law-abiding company, and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations including export controls. The Hsinchu-based chip giant issued the statement after US news Web site The Information ran a story saying that the US Department of Commerce has launched a probe into TSMC over whether it breached export rules by making smartphone or artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為). “We maintain a robust and comprehensive export system for monitoring and ensuring compliance,” the statement said. “If we
DEMAND FOR AI CHIPS: Net income in the third quarter surged 31.2% quarter-on-quarter to NT$325.26 billion, the strongest quarterly return in the company’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday raised its revenue forecast to annual growth of 30 percent this year, thanks to strong and sustainable demand for artificial intelligence (AI) processors for servers. It was the second upward adjustment from 25 percent year-on-year growth estimated three months ago, despite recent concerns about whether the AI boom could be another technology bubble. “The demand is real. It’s real. And I believe it is just the beginning of this demand. Alright, so one of my key customers said the demand right now is ‘insane,’” TSMC chairman and chief executive C.C.
Starbucks Corp might have the more recognizable name, but 7-Eleven’s City Cafe remains the king of Taiwan’s fresh coffee market, helped by the convenience store chain’s extensive market presence and product diversification. President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which runs both the 7-Eleven and Starbucks store chains in Taiwan, established the City Cafe brand in 2004. The brand took off when actress Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) became its spokesperson in 2007. City Cafe’s sales exceeded NT$10 billion (US$311.69 million) for the first time in 2015, surpassing the revenue of Starbucks Taiwan, and rose to more than NT$17 billion last year, exceeding the NT$14.98
COUNTRY-BASED: Setting ceilings on sales of the technology would tighten limits that originally targeted China’s ambitions in artificial intelligence amid security risks US officials have discussed capping sales of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Nvidia Corp and other American companies on a country-specific basis, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would limit some nations’ AI capabilities. The new approach would set a ceiling on export licenses for some countries in the interest of national security, according to the people, who described the private discussions on condition of anonymity. Officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden focused on Persian Gulf countries that have a growing appetite for AI data centers and the deep pockets to fund them, the people