Airoha Technology Corp (達發科技), a supplier of network and communication chips, yesterday said that revenue would pick up in the second half of this year, due to rising demand for broadband chips as the US, EU and India, among other countries, roll out new high-speed broadband infrastructure projects.
Airoha, which is 77 percent owned by mobile phone chip supplier MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and is scheduled to debut its shares on the TAIEX at the end of October at the earliest, designs network and communication chips used in fiber broadband, Ethernet networks, satellites, Bluetooth for true-wireless stereo (TWS) earphones and smart watches as well as in GPS in vehicles.
Based in Hsinchu with about 1,000 employees, the company is No. 2 in the world in the TWS earphones, fiber broadband and fixed-line broadband markets. It is also the third-largest supplier of GPS chips.
Photo: CNA
“The [semiconductor] industry and the macroeconomy is facing hardship this year. For Airoha, the first quarter should be the trough,” Airoha chairman Hsieh Ching-jiang (謝清江) told a news conference in Taipei. “The second quarter will be better than the first quarter. The third quarter will be better than the second. The fourth quarter will be better than the third, thanks to the introduction of new products.”
The improvement would also be supported by customers’ smooth inventory digestions, Hsieh said, adding that its operations would improve following an end to inventory effects in the third quarter, Hsieh said.
The expected growth is to be driven by broadband chip demand, it said.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has announced a US$42 billion initiative to improve high-speed broadband access in the US, Airoha said.
“Broadband chips will outgrow wireless chips,” company spokesman M.H. Shieh (謝孟翰) told reporters.
The company’s recently launched high-speed broadband chip for 10-gigabit passive optical networks has been adopted by telecoms in North America and Western Europe, Airoha said.
The new product supports the most advanced Wi-Fi-7 chips from MediaTek, it said.
The company has shipped more than 700 million broadband chipsets to more than 100 telecoms worldwide, it said.
In addition, the company said its GPS chips, used largely in electric and autonomous vehicles, have been adopted by two Japanese automakers along with auto chips from MediaTek.
The company’s artificial intelligence chips are used mostly in edge devices such as earphones and low Earth orbit satellite ground stations.
The company reported NT$119.24 million (US$3.85 million) in net profit for the first quarter, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed.
That translates into earnings per share of NT$0.82. Gross margin was 43.89 percent, while revenue was NT$3.03 billion.
Airoha reported NT$2.89 billion in net profit last year, or earnings per share of NT$19.9. Revenue was NT$18.78 billion.
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