MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest supplier of 5G smartphone chips, yesterday posted record net profit for last quarter and forecast 40 percent annual revenue growth this year, benefiting from robust demand for its flagship 5G smartphones chips and other chips.
The Hsinchu-based firm said that growth momentum would this year accelerate, thanks to healthy end-market demand and an increase in new IC design projects.
Last year, revenue grew 30.8 percent to NT$322.15 billion (US$11.53 billion), MediaTek said, adding that it is forecasting an equally high growth rate this year.
Photo: CNA
“Amid industry-wide supply constraints, we expect our capacity to support a year-on-year revenue growth target of more than 40 percent,” MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a teleconference yesterday.
“The growth is led by [higher] 5G penetration,” Tsai said, adding that demand for the firm’s 5G smartphone chips is rising.
All Android phone manufacturers are designing their new phones with MediaTek chips, he said.
The company expects global 5G smartphone shipments to reach about 500 million units, including 300 million from China.
Inventory at its customers had fallen to much lower levels than usual at this time of the year, Tsai said.
MediaTek’s gross margin jumped to 44.9 percent last quarter, from 44.5 percent a quarter earlier and 43.1 percent a year earlier, the firm said.
MediaTek raised its full-year gross margin target to 44 to 46 percent, up from 43 to 44 percent estimated in January.
Net profit surged to NT$25.57 billion in the first quarter, compared with NT$5.8 billion in the same period last year.
On a quarterly basis, net profit jumped 72.3 percent from NT$15.75 billion.
Earnings per share rose to NT$16.21 last quarter, compared with NT$3.64 a year earlier and NT$9.35 in the previous quarter.
The company’s board of directors yesterday approved raising the dividend payout ratio to 80 to 85 percent, up from 60 to 70 percent, with the policy to take effect next year.
MediaTek has budgeted NT$100 billion over the next four years for special cash dividends, it said, aiming to pay out special annual cash dividends of NT$16 per share.
This year, MediaTek plans to pay a special cash dividend of NT$37 per share, together with the regular cash dividend of NT$21 based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$27.52.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”