Wistron Corp (緯創), the world’s third-largest notebook computer maker, yesterday reported that its net profit declined 20.9 percent annually to NT$1.73 billion (US$ 55.57 million) last month, but greatly surpassed the overall performance in the first quarter.
The company made NT$0.62 per share last month, Wistron said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
It made NT$0.06 a share during the three-month period to March.
Photo: Bloomberg
Revenue last month fell 20.12 percent year-on-year from NT$101.53 billion to NT$81.1 billion. During the first six months of the year, revenue dropped 11.07 percent annually from NT$470.66 billion to NT$418.55 billion.
Wistron was asked to disclose its latest financial figures due to a spike in its stock price. Wistron shares surged 5.4 percent yesterday to an all-time high of NT$95.7.
The stock is now 2.27 times higher than its closing price of NT$29.2 on Jan. 3, thanks to an artificial intelligence (AI) craze sparked by the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT application.
Wistron makes graphics processing unit (GPU) servers and GPU accelerator cards used in data centers, and counts Nvidia Corp as one of its major customers in this area.
The comapny’s combined revenue contribution from GPU servers and GPU accelerators only accounted for about 1.5 percent of its total revenue, but the GPU business helped boost its gross margin to 7.01 percent in the first quarter from 5.65 percent a year earlier.
Wistron said it expects demand for those two products to accelerate due to increasing usage of AI applications.
GPU severs and GPU accelerator cards deliver double-digit percentage gross margins, Wistron told investors in March.
GPU accelerator cards are usually used to boost the performance of traditional servers.
To cope with robust demand at its GPU business, Wistron plans to expand GPU-related product capacity at its factory in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口) next quarter.
That would be the third GPU factory operated by the company.
Notebook and desktop computers made up less than 50 percent of Wistron’s revenue last year.
The company expects quarterly revenue and notebook computer shipments to grow quarter-on-quarter after hitting the trough in the first quarter.
It also forecast that revenue in the first half of the year would make up about 40 percent of its total revenue this year, while the second half would make up about 60 percent.
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