Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技), a memorychip testing and packaging services provider, yesterday said that revenue would grow this year mainly driven by chips used in applications such as artificial intelligence (AI) PCs.
The positive prospects come after the company’s revenue declined 16.07 percent last year to NT$70.44 billion (US$2.26 billion) from NT$83.93 billion in 2022 due to weak demand for electronics amid high inflation and economic uncertainty, Powertech said.
The company expects moderate growth this year, with momentum gaining speed from the second quarter and being sustained for the rest of the year, Powertech chief executive officer Boris Hsieh (謝永達) said at a media gathering in Taipei.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
As Intel Corp, Microsoft Corp and several PC makers are embracing AI features this year, new AI devices are expected to boost demand for higher-density and faster-speed DRAM chips such as advanced DDR5 and high-bandwidth-memory (HBM) chips, which would in turn lead to a surge in demand for chip testing and packaging services and benefit Powertech, the Hsinchu-based company said.
“The introduction of AI PCs is to bring major changes to the industry this year,” Hsieh said.
The company is tapping new advanced packaging technology for HBM chips that are used in high-speed-computing devices, Hsieh said.
The first batch of such products using its advanced packaging technology, called panel-level-fan-out-on-substrate technology, is to be delivered to a Japanese customer at the end of this year at the earliest, he said.
Powertech’s new advanced packaging technology is a more cost-efficient solution to the much-talked-about chip-on-wafer-on-substrate technology used in AI chips, he added.
With rising demand for advanced packaging technology in the next few years, Powertech plans to “resume active capital spending from the second half of this year,” Powertech chairman Tsai Du-kung (蔡篤恭) said.
Hopefully, the company’s capital expenditure would reach between NT$17 billion and NT$18 billion in the upcoming years, Tsai said.
Powertech said this year it plans to increase spending on advanced packaging equipment after spending about NT$10 billion last year.
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