Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) second-quarter sales outperformed analysts’ rising expectations on the strength of the company’s growing artificial-intelligence (AI) server business.
The iPhone assembler, also known as Foxconn (富士康), yesterday said that its revenue last month was NT$490.7 billion (US$15.1 billion), making for a total of NT$1.55 trillion for the quarter, up 19 percent. An average of analyst estimates pointed to a 13.8 percent rise, with expectations growing after Hon Hai said a month earlier that it expected the AI business to help it beat estimates for the quarter.
Hon Hai said revenue last quarter marked the strongest second quarter performance in the company’s history and greatly exceeded its own expectations.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Hon Hai’s shares have more than doubled this year and hit new highs last month on hopes the company can capitalize on the AI boom. It went through a tough year last year, as sales shrank due to moribund demand for the consumer electronics it assembles. However, the company rapidly added revenue from orders for AI servers and other data center gear, diversifying away from the smartphone business.
“The third quarter is expected to generate growth compared to the second quarter and the same period last year,” Hon Hai said in a statement accompanying its monthly sales release.
Excitement about Hon Hai’s role in the AI hardware market helped its shares breach the NT$200 level that founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) had pledged to achieve in 2016. The AI boom has also brought much focus to Taiwan this year, making the latest Computex event a huge success, with CEOs from the biggest US chipmakers all coming to woo key suppliers and data center equipment makers.
Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday introduced the company’s latest supercomputer platform, featuring six new chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), saying that it is now “in full production.” “If Vera Rubin is going to be in time for this year, it must be in production by now, and so, today I can tell you that Vera Rubin is in full production,” Huang said during his keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas. The rollout of six concurrent chips for Vera Rubin — the company’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) computing platform — marks a strategic
REVENUE PERFORMANCE: Cloud and network products, and electronic components saw strong increases, while smart consumer electronics and computing products fell Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted 26.51 percent quarterly growth in revenue for last quarter to NT$2.6 trillion (US$82.44 billion), the strongest on record for the period and above expectations, but the company forecast a slight revenue dip this quarter due to seasonal factors. On an annual basis, revenue last quarter grew 22.07 percent, the company said. Analysts on average estimated about NT$2.4 trillion increase. Hon Hai, which assembles servers for Nvidia Corp and iPhones for Apple Inc, is expanding its capacity in the US, adding artificial intelligence (AI) server production in Wisconsin and Texas, where it operates established campuses. This
Garment maker Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽) yesterday reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue of NT$7.93 billion (US$251.44 million), down 9.48 percent from NT$8.76 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, revenue fell 10.83 percent from NT$8.89 billion, company data showed. The figure was also lower than market expectations of NT$8.05 billion, according to data compiled by Yuanta Securities Investment and Consulting Co (元大投顧), which had projected NT$8.22 billion. Makalot’s revenue this quarter would likely increase by a mid-teens percentage as the industry is entering its high season, Yuanta said. Overall, Makalot’s revenue last year totaled NT$34.43 billion, down 3.08 percent from its record NT$35.52
PRECEDENTED TIMES: In news that surely does not shock, AI and tech exports drove a banner for exports last year as Taiwan’s economic growth experienced a flood tide Taiwan’s exports delivered a blockbuster finish to last year with last month’s shipments rising at the second-highest pace on record as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and advanced computing remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Exports surged 43.4 percent from a year earlier to US$62.48 billion last month, extending growth to 26 consecutive months. Imports climbed 14.9 percent to US$43.04 billion, the second-highest monthly level historically, resulting in a trade surplus of US$19.43 billion — more than double that of the year before. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) described the performance as “surprisingly outstanding,” forecasting export growth
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