Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星科技), which focuses on making gaming computers, graphics cards and related components, yesterday said it expects revenue to grow year-on-year next quarter as new and better-performing processors from chipmakers such as Intel Corp and Nvidia Corp are to stimulate gaming PC sales.
“The second quarter used to be a slow season, but this year we expect to have an above-seasonal quarter as new products from Intel, Nvidia and AMD [Advanced Micro Devices Inc] are set to hit the market in the quarter,” MSI president Joseph Hsu (徐祥) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“That means we might have a year-on-year growth in revenue in the second quarter,” he said.
The firm booked NT$23.25 billion (US$797.2 million) in revenue for the second quarter of last year, company data showed.
Hsu’s optimistic outlook was also based on a shrinking shortage of key components, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), because an increase in the supply of GPUs from Nvidia would help MSI ship more graphics cards.
Rapidly growing demand for GPUs used in gaming computers and cryptocurrency mining have caused constraints on the supply of graphics cards since the second half of last year, MSI said.
MSI has failed to meet consumer demand for its graphics cards since the second half of last year, and cryptocurrency mining is likely to continue to fuel graphics card demand this year, Hsu said, citing a 20 percent annual increase in the firm’s shipments of graphics cards last year.
Another bright spot is gaming desktops, Hsu said, adding that shipments this year are expected to grow by between 30 percent and 50 percent from last year, repeating last year’s growth rate.
However, gaming notebook computers have stiff competition from Chinese firms, he said.
MSI on Wednesday reported that net profit last year inched up 1 percent year-on-year from NT$4.89 billion to NT$4.94 billion, attributing the lackluster performance to a 7 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar and constant price hikes for key components.
Earnings per share last year rose from NT$5.79 to NT$5.84, while revenue grew 4 percent from NT$102.19 billion to NT$106.42 billion, company data showed.
“A strong local currency and price increases for passive and other key components dragged down gross margin last year,” Hsu said.
Despite the firm’s expansion into high-end products, those unfavorable factors eliminated more than NT$1 billion from its gross profit, which totaled NT$15.03 billion last year, leading gross margin to decline from 14.63 percent to 14.12 percent, he said.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS