Application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday raised its projected revenue contribution from artificial intelligence (AI) related business to a high single digit this year, driven by robust demand for advanced 2.5D packaging technology, and expects growth to further pick up next year with more AI chips entering mass production.
“AI products are the major driving force this year in terms of NRE [non-recurring engineering] and MP [mass production],” Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told investors during a virtual conference.
Faraday, which mainly offers advanced packaging design services for AI chips, secured its first AI project at the end of last year, the company said.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
The firm designs the interposer — a key structure providing electrical connection between chips and components inside the 2.5D packaging.
Foundry service provider United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) produces this interposer before handing it over to chip packagers.
Faraday is leveraging its partnership with Arm Holdings Ltd to expand into AI. The firm last year became the only ASIC company picked by Arm to become a partner for its Neoverse subsystems.
Faraday expects revenue this year to return to the growth track, after sliding 8.42 percent last year as customers grappled with a prolonged inventory correction cycle, Wang said.
A spike in NRE revenue would help cover the weakness in MP revenue, which would drop by about 20 percent this year, Wang said.
NRE revenue would at least double this year, after climbing 1.6 percent annually to a record-high of NT$627 million (US$19.24 million) in the first three months of the year, he said.
ASIC companies usually generate revenue from collecting NRE, the one-time cost to research, design, develop and test a new product or product enhancement, intellectual property (IP) license, or royalty and revenue after the chips they designed enters mass production.
Faraday’s growth would also be fueled by expanding its business to advanced chips made on 5-nanometer, 4-nanometer or 2-nanometer technology through its collaborations with foundry partners Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp.
The company expects consolidated revenue to grow by a low-single-digit percentage this quarter compared with NT$2.58 billion last quarter, led by NRE revenue, which would grow by a double-digit percentage, while IP revenue would increase by a single-digit percentage.
MP revenue would shrink by a low-single-digit quarterly due to inventory digestion, it said.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest