Memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) yesterday said it is expanding DDR3 DRAM capacity to satisfy demand, which would help boost the revenue contribution from the segment to 50 percent of overall DRAM revenue in 2024.
DDR3 DRAM sales make up 30 percent of Winbond’s total DRAM revenue, the company said in a statement.
Winbond said DRAM sales made up more than 20 percent of its revenue of NT$20.77 billion (US$710.1 million) in the second half of last year.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
Winbond has been in the DDR3 DRAM business for 10 years and aims to ensure a stable supply to its customers amid a supply crunch.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc are exiting the sector, while new supply from Taiwan and China cannot catch up with demand in the short term.
Prices of DDR3 DRAM chips are to be flat or rise about 5 percent this quarter, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said.
A new fab in Kaohsiung is expected to produce 10,000 12-inch wafers a month in the fourth quarter of this year, Winbond said.
To cope with demand, Winbond plans to start a second-phase capacity expansion by adding 10,000 wafers a month at the fab, it said.
In February, the company’s board of directors approved an additional investment of NT$28.99 billion to fund the capacity expansion.
This year, Winbond has budgeted NT$45.8 billion for capital expenditure, surging from NT$9.4 billion last year.
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
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
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
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed gratitude to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for its plan to invest approximately 250 million euros (US$278 million) in a joint venture in France focused on the semiconductor and space industries. On his official X account on Tuesday, Macron thanked Hon Hai, also known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), for its investment projects announced at Choose France, a flagship economic summit held on Monday to attract foreign investment. In the post, Macron included a GIF displaying the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as he did for other foreign investors, including China-based
RSS