Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), the sole supplier of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) pods to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), yesterday said that it plans to invest NT$5 billion (US$179.18 million) to build a new factory to expand its EUV component capacity.
The factory is planned for New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城) and part of its facilities would be a manufacturing site for Gudeng’s fully owned subsidiary We Solutions Technology Co (家崎科技), which produces key components used in EUV inner pods, consumables used in the etching process and airplane components, Gudeng said.
Gudeng also supplies aircraft landing gear barrels to Airbus SE and Boeing Co.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
“The factory will become a backup manufacturing site for key EUV components, in addition to the company’s major manufacturing site in Tainan’s Tree Valley Park (樹谷園區),” Gudeng chairman Bill Chiu (邱銘乾) said at a groundbreaking ceremony.
The factory would be its research and development center when construction is completed in two-and-a-half years, the firm said.
The five-year investment plan is to create between 1,200 and 1,500 jobs, it said.
Gudeng is optimistic about this year’s revenue growth, as revenue would “be higher quarter by quarter this year,” Chiu said, citing a rising number of IC designers adopting EUV technology.
The more companies that adopt EUV technology, the more EUV pods would be used, the firm said.
Gudeng’s revenue growth is primarily driven by demand from Intel Corp and TSMC, which are accelerating uptake of EUV tools to produce new-generation chips, a company executive said.
Intel is using more EUV tools to make 7-nanometer chips to fend off growing competition from Apple Inc and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, the executive said.
TSMC is to start pilot production of 3-nanometer chips in the second half, which would boost EUV pod consumption, he said.
Gudeng has added Samsung Electronics Co to its EUV pod customer list.
TSMC, Intel and Samsung are among the few chipmakers in the world that have the technological capability to advance their technologies with the assistance of EUV tools from ASML Holding NV, the sole supplier of EUV tools.
EUV pods are to make up about 60 percent of Gudeng’s wafer pods, up from 50 percent last year, Chiu said in January.
The firm said that first-quarter revenue surged 40.39 percent to NT$638.22 million from NT$454.59 million in the same period last year.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
In the wake of strong global demand for AI applications, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy accelerated with the composite index of economic indicators flashing the first “red” light in December for one year, indicating the economy is in booming mode, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Moreover, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the potential state of the economy over the next six months, also moved higher in December amid growing optimism over the outlook, the NDC said. In December, the index of economic indicators rose one point from a month earlier to 38, at the lower end of the “red” light.
RSS