Wafer probing service provider Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co (中華精測) yesterday said it aimed to grow revenue by a double-digit percentage this year, benefiting primarily from rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chips.
Increasing demand for products ranging from AI-enabled servers to edge devices with AI features such as smartphones, PCs and notebook computers are stimulating demand for the company’s advanced wafer probing services, boosting probe card revenue, Chunghwa Precision Test Technology president Scott Huang (黃水可) said.
“We are seeing exuberant development of the AI industry,” Huang said. “Adding AI features to smartphones and PCs is igniting new growth momentum. Forecasts by customers show that 2024 will be better than 2023, that is for sure.”
Photo: Lisa Wang, Taipei Times
The probing card business would be a major growth area this year, as the firm has secured new customers that develop smartphone chips, SSD controllers and Wi-Fi 7 chips, the company said.
As a result, Chunghwa Precision Test Technology is targeting a more than 40 percent increase in its probe card revenue contribution this year from 33 percent last quarter, Huang said.
Gross margin is expected to rebound to its normal range of between 50 and 55 percent this year, as the probe card business has better margins, he said.
The company’s gross margin improved to 49.8 percent last quarter from 48.8 percent in the third quarter last year, but is down from 51.1 percent last quarter.
Chunghwa Precision Test Technology focuses on designing and manufacturing printed circuit boards for semiconductor testers, such as load boards for final testing and probe cards for wafer probing.
With the industry’s inventory correction cycle approaching its end, the firm expects a lukewarm pickup in the first half, Huang said.
There is a lack of clear signs indicating a full recovery of demand for electronics, he said.
China, with its slowing economy and troubled property market, and Europe have shown weakness in electronics spending, he said.
“Consumer consumption is a major concern,” Huang said. “We have not seen spending on electronics coming back yet. Rather, people are spending their money on travel and luxury bags.”
The growth momentum would pick up in the second half of this year, he said.
Net profit surged 60.28 percent sequentially to NT$17.47 billion (US$554.74 million) last quarter, compared with NT$10.9 billion in the third quarter last year, marking the third straight quarter of profit and the best quarterly earnings last year as the company and its customers battled a prolonged inventory correction and sluggish demand.
The company’s operating profit was NT$15.51 million last quarter, reversing an operating loss of NT$17.24 million a quarter earlier.
Last year as a whole, Chunghwa Precision Test Technology booked an operating loss of NT$52.72 million.
Net profit plummeted about 96 percent to NT$29.5 million last year from NT$782.57 million in 2022, the weakest annual net profit since 2012.
Earnings per share dipped to NT$0.99 last year from NT$23.5 the prior year.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
Artificial intelligence (AI) giant Nvidia Corp’s most advanced chips would be reserved for US companies and kept out of China and other countries, US President Donald Trump said. During an interview that aired on Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes program and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only US customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization. “The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States,” he told CBS, echoing remarks made earlier to reporters as he returned to Washington
RSS