Memorychip supplier AP Memory Technology Corp (愛普科技) yesterday said it expects to see the first revenue contribution from licensing its intellectual property (IP) linked to advanced packaging technologies used in artificial-intelligence (AI) accelerator chips in the next year.
That would be major progress in its strategy of shifting its focus to supplying very-high-bandwidth memory (VHM) chips used in mainstream AI applications from chips for crypto mining.
Licensing IP used in AI chips appears to be the first step. AP Memory said it is in discussion with several customers to grant its IP to develop silicon interposer, a key part of the advanced packaging technology for AI chips.
Photo courtesy of AP Memory Technology Corp
The company yesterday declined to identify Samsung Electronics Co as one of the potential customers who has adopted or intend to adopt its technology.
“We cannot comment on specific customers,” AP Memory vice president Liu Chin-hung (劉景宏) told investors. “We are in talks with more than one customer to license our IP and provide other services as well. We expect to see revenue contribution within a year at the earliest.”
“We have received a license fee from some customers,” Liu said.
AP Memory shares closed at NT$348 on Wednesday, up from NT$174 at the beginning of this year. Investors consider AP Memory one of the beneficiaries of the AI boom.
Apart from IP licensing, AP Memory also aims to offer its VHM technology for AI chips, replacing the mainstay high-bandwidth memory (HBM) developed by the world’s top three memorychip makers — Samsung, Micron Technology Inc and SK Hynix Inc.
Some AI accelerator chip suppliers have approached AP Memory seeking potential supply of VHM chips as supplies of HBM chips are scarce, Liu said.
Spiking demand for AI algorithms, a large-language-model to generate data and text, has boosted demand for HBM chips, Liu said.
Some projects have entered the proof-of-concept phase, the first of six or more phases of development before a product enters mass production, Liu said.
It would take one to three years for one such project to yield results, AP Memory chairman and chief executive officer Chen Wen-liang (陳文良) said.
As a result, the company’s AI business group would be in the trough in next two quarters in terms of revenue, Chen said.
Falling demand for older-generation chips used in crypto mining is also a factor, he said.
New-generation chips are to enter production next year, he said.
The company’s AI business group accounted for 10 percent of its total revenue last quarter, with 90 percent from supplying memory chips used in Internet-of-Things devices.
AP Memory’s net profit in the second quarter soared 277 percent to NT$389.74 million (US$12.32 million) from NT$101.04 million in the first quarter. On an annual basis, net profit contracted 17 percent from NT$456.57 million.
Earnings per share rose to NT$2.35 from NT$0.62 the previous quarter. That represented a decline from NT$2.83 a year earlier.
The company expects revenue to grow in the second half of the year thanks to inventory replenishment demand from customers.
For the full year, the company expects revenue to be flat or grow slightly from NT$5.1 billion last year.
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
TECH WINNERS: Taiwan and South Korea reported robust trade, which suggests that they have critical advantages in the rapidly expanding AI supply chain, an official said Exports last month surged to a new high, as booming demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure fueled shipments of advanced technology components, underscoring the nation’s pivotal role in the global semiconductor supply chain. Outbound shipments climbed to US$80.18 billion, the highest ever for a single month, rising 61.8 percent from a year earlier and marking the 29th consecutive month of growth, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. “The surge was driven primarily by global investment in AI infrastructure,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) said. The mass production of next-generation AI computing systems has accelerated procurement across the semiconductor supply
RSS