Networking chip designer Realtek Semiconductor Corp (瑞昱半導體) plans to invest about NT$7.2 billion (US$256.4 million) in Taiwan, in line with its development strategy, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday.
The company’s investment is also a demonstration of the robust demand for semiconductors in the post-COVID-19 era, the ministry said in a statement.
Realtek, founded in 1987 at the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), is a fabless semiconductor firm that focuses on chips used in products for communication networks, computer peripherals, and devices for multimedia and ultra-wideband communications.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
The company plans to build a new office building at the Hsinchu Science Park and another at the Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park (新竹生醫園區) in Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City (竹北) to accommodate IC designers, software and hardware researchers, laboratories and small-scale trial production bases, the ministry said.
Realtek’s investment is in line with its research and development (R&D) and operational needs, and comes as the Internet of Things, cloud computing and artificial intelligence have shown promising commercialization, it said.
Last month, memorychip packaging and testing service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) said it would invest NT$20 billion in a second production facility at the Hsinchu Science Park.
“Amid US-China trade tensions and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, chip products are in short supply, showing that Taiwan holds a key position in the global semiconductor supply chain,” the ministry said.
Realtek on Monday reported record revenue of NT$9.45 billion for last month, up 10.2 percent from May and up 55.46 percent from last year, while revenue in the first half of the year rose 47.84 percent annually to NT$49.18 billion.
Given robust demand across its product catalog and tight capacity along the supply chain, the company said that it was cautiously optimistic in its outlook for the second half of the year.
Realtek’s investment is expected to bolster the already strong R&D capacity of the domestic semiconductor industry, while creating 545 jobs, the ministry said.
Realtek was one of five local companies that the ministry approved last week to join the government’s three-year action plan for domestic investment, and one of 932 companies granted ministry approval — for a total of NT$1.27 trillion to be invested — since the government launched incentive programs at the beginning of 2019.
The firms’ investments are expected to provide 107,240 jobs, while another 55 firms wait for approval, the ministry said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
SK Hynix Inc warned of increased volatility in the second half of this year despite resilient demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips from big tech providers, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs. The company reported a better-than-projected 158 percent jump in March-quarter operating income, propelled in part by stockpiling ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. SK Hynix stuck with a forecast for a doubling in demand for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) essential to Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, which in turn drive giant data centers built by the likes of Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. That SK Hynix is maintaining its