Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋半導體), the world’s largest pure-play gallium arsenide foundry, yesterday said it expects a low-teens percentage decline in revenue this quarter as demand from smartphones weakens during the slack season and unfavorable foreign-exchange rates continue to affect its top-line performance.
The company reported revenue of NT$6.86 billion (US$241.75 million) for October to December last year, with about 40 to 45 percent of that coming from power amplifiers for smartphones.
The Taoyuan-based company also said that some of its factories are entering annual maintenance this quarter, which would suggest a decline in wafer shipments and affect its revenue.
Photo: Screen grab from the Win Semiconductors Corp Web site
The company aims to retain its gross margin at about 35 percent this quarter, flat from last quarter, Win Semiconductor president Kyle Chen (陳國樺) told investors in a virtual conference.
The figure is the lowest in six quarters, as the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar and an unfavorable product mix cut gross margin by 9 percentage points from 44 percent a year earlier.
For the whole of this year, Win Semiconductor still looks to expand its revenue to another record high from NT$25.55 billion reported last year, Chen said.
Higher 5G smartphone penetration and continued deployments of 5G base stations worldwide are expected to drive growth, he said.
Last year, about 20 percent of smartphone power amplifiers shipped by the firm were used in 5G smartphones and the figure is forecast to rise to 30 to 40 percent this year, he said.
The company is also bullish on the growth of its new gallium nitride-on-silicon carbide wafers for 5G base stations, as demand rose at an annual rate of 50 percent for a second consecutive year last year.
3D sensing components and light-detection-and-ranging applications would be another growth engine this year, thanks to increasing adoption of its vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) for light sources, Chen said.
The company’s VCSEL products are used in Apple Inc’s flagship iPhone 12 handsets to unlock the devices via facial identification, as well as for the back 3D camera for the first time to enhance picture quality, especially in low-light situations.
To cope with strong demand, Win Semiconductors last year expanded installed capacity at its factory in Taoyuan’s Gueishan District (龜山) by 5,000 wafers a month.
The company’s net profit last quarter plunged 31 percent to NT$1.28 billion, compared with NT$1.84 billion a year earlier. Last quarter’s figure was the weakest since the second quarter of 2019.
For the whole of last year, net profit soared 47 percent to NT$6.47 billion, compared with NT$4.4 billion in the preceding year. Earnings per share rose to NT$15.45, from NT$10.59.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for