Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) yesterday said revenue would gradually pick up in the second half of this year due to restocking demand and an optimized product portfolio in response to growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
The Hsinchu-based chipmaker has been adjusting its product portfolios for the past two years with the aim of meeting demand from major customers, who were diversifying from China amid geopolitical risks, Powerchip president Brian Shieh (謝再居) told shareholders during the company’s annual general meeting in Hsinchu yesterday.
Powerchip is also developing a new process technology to make power management chips, vying for business opportunities in the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, high-performance computing and electric vehicle arenas, he said.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
“With all those preparations and product line adjustments, we hope the effect will emerge from the second half to the first half of next year after customers reduce their inventory to normal levels,” Shieh said. “With capacity from the new fab in [Miaoli County’s] Tongluo Township (銅鑼) coming online in the second half, we anticipate the company’s revenue would gradually recover.”
Powerchip’s revenue fell 5.3 percent year-on-year to NT$14.5 billion (US$449 million) in the first four months of this year, following a 42 percent annual decline to NT$44 billion last year due to inventory adjustments.
Through product optimization, Powerchip is also looking to fend off rising competition from Chinese chipmakers, Shieh said.
China’s biggest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), and Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (晶合) are major rivals to Powerchip.
Chinese companies expanded their capacity last year to produce display ICs, CMOS image sensors and power management chips using mature process technologies, but they had to drastically slash prices to compete for market share, Powerchip said.
Powerchip is also developing advanced “wafer-on-wafer” packaging technology as demand for devices such as PCs and smartphones with generative AI applications increases, Shieh said.
Powerchip plans to expand its product offerings to match customers’ demand for “single-level-cell” NAND and high-density NOR flash memory chips used in networking, mobile phones, IoT and computer peripherals, he said.
The company also plans to produce gallium nitride chips by rejuvenating its less-advanced 8-inch fabs, as well as power semiconductors including metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and insulated gate bipolar transistors, he added.
Powerchip shareholders yesterday approved a proposal not to pay a cash dividend after the chipmaker lost NT$1.6 billion, or losses per share of NT$0.4, last year.
The company also booked NT$10.3 billion in idled manufacturing equipment losses and expenditures of NT$2.4 billion for the opening of the new fab in Tongluo Township.
The company last month said that it was approaching the break-even level last quarter as customers have reduced their inventory of chips used in consumer electronics such as smartphones, PCs and TVs to healthy levels.
Automotive and industrial chips were still in the process of inventory digestion, it said.
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) said it has come up with a new pathway to shorten its gap with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), potentially achieving a breakthrough in making advanced semiconductors without cutting-edge equipment. Right now there is about a five-year gap between what TSMC is capable of and what Huawei, together with its manufacturing partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), can produce. Huawei is to start making 1.4-nanometer chips by 2031 with its own “LogicFolding” technology, Huawei semiconductor chief He Tingbo (何庭波) said in a rare public appearance during a chip conference yesterday, while TSMC has
RSS