Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, last year remained the most profitable company in Taiwan, Taipei-based credit information company CRIF (中華徵信所) said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler also known as Foxconn (富士康), generated the most in sales in the country last year, CRIF said in its latest top-5,000 company report.
Last year, the top 5,000 companies in Taiwan, comprised of entities in the public and private sectors, posted NT$3.58 trillion (US$110.2 billion) in combined net profit, down 17.72 percent from a year earlier, while their aggregate revenue totaled NT$40.55 trillion, down 6.05 percent year-on-year.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The decline in net profit and sales is largely related to high inflation and inventory adjustments in the global supply chains, CRIF said.
As Taiwan is a major supplier of the world’s high-tech gadgets, the country is prone to the impact from global economic weakness, it added.
A total of 2,082 Taiwanese companies saw their sales falling year-on-year last year, while 1,107 businesses enjoyed growth in sales and net profit, it said.
Out of the 1,107 companies, 664 generated more than NT$1 billion in sales each, accounting for 59.98 percent, it said.
Among the top 5,000 firms in Taiwan, TSMC, which boasts advanced chip production technologies, raked in NT$838.5 billion last year, keeping the title as the most profitable company in Taiwan, it said.
Hon Hai was second after registering NT$142.1 billion in net profit, ahead of smartphone IC designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科, NT$77 billion), Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控, NT$65 billion) and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電, NT$61 billion), CRIF said.
Other profitable companies last year included CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控, NT$57.6 billion), Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控, NT$51.5 billion), CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行, NT$41.3 billion), contract notebook computer maker Quanta Computer Inc (廣達, NT$39.7 billion) and telecom services provider Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信, NT$36.9 billion).
Cathay Financial rose from 11th spot in 2022 to No. 7 last year, Quanta Computer returned to the top 10 for the first time since 2013; and Chunghwa Telecom rose back to the top 10 list after being absent for two years, according to CRIF.
Hon Hai generated NT$3.45 billion in sales last year, the most among the 5,000 companies, with its ranking unchanged from a year earlier. It was followed by TSMC (NT$2.15 trillion); Pegatron Corp (和碩, NT$1.18 trillion) state-owned oil supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan (中油, NT$1.10 trillion), and Quanta Computer (NT$907.95 billion), CRIF said.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
OUTLOOK: Pat Gelsinger said he did not expect the heavy AI infrastructure investments by the major cloud service providers to cause an AI bubble to burst soon Building a resilient energy supply chain is crucial for Taiwan to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology and grow its economy, former Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger said yesterday. Gelsinger, now a general partner at the US venture capital firm Playground Global LLC, was asked at a news conference in Taipei about his views on Taiwan’s hardware development and growing concern over an AI bubble. “Today, the greatest issue in Taiwan isn’t even in the software or in architecture. It is energy,” Gelsinger said. “You are not in the position to have a resilient energy supply chain, and that,