Shares of local contract chipmakers yesterday rose as much as the 10 percent daily limit, as investors bet on orders being transferred from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際) after the US imposed export restrictions on the Chinese chipmaker.
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) shares soared 10 percent to close at NT$27.5 as 380 million shares changed hands on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
UMC is the world’s No. 3 foundry by revenue, followed by SMIC, according to data from market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技).
Photo: EPA-EFE
UMC has product and customer portfolios similar to those of SMIC, TrendForce said, adding that UMC offers 14-nanometer and less advanced chips similar to those SMIC provides.
To avoid operational risks, chip designers such as Qualcomm Inc and Broadcom Inc are likely to shift orders to non-Chinese foundries such as GlobalFoundries Inc, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), UMC or Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進), TrendForce analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said in an e-mail responding to questions from the Taipei Times.
Smaller local foundry Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (力積電) and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co are also options, Chiao said.
The potential transfer of orders would worsen already tight supply constraints, with the utilization rate at local foundries already approaching 100 percent, she said.
Vanguard and TSMC shares rose 9.76 percent and 1.77 percent to close at NT$97.8 and NT$431.5 respectively.
Unlisted Powerchip makes CMOS image sensors, DRAM chips and driver ICs used in panels made for smartphones. The firm operates three 12-inch fabs and two 8-inch fabs in Taiwan, as well as a 12-inch fab in China.
A senior semiconductor analyst, who requested anonymity, said “there is an urgent need” for SMIC’s customers to transfer their orders to other contract chipmakers, but that might not provide an immediate revenue boost given their high utilization rates.
The effects of the transfer of orders would likely emerge next year, the analyst said.
It is worth watching to see whether any of the contract chipmakers increase their capital expenditure for next year, the analyst said.
Shares of SMIC, China’s largest chipmaker, yesterday fell 3.88 percent to close at HK$17.86 in Hong Kong trading, a four-month low.
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
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
RSS