Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) revenue rose 33 percent year-on-year last month, accelerating from the previous month thanks to demand for servers powering artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
Apple Inc’s main manufacturing partner, also known as Foxconn, reported sales of NT$548.3 billion (US$17.1 billion) — a record for August. That pace was up sharply from an annual growth of 22 percent in July.
Hon Hai’s topline has begun to recover from a protracted smartphone slump, helped by a growing business supplying data center operators with servers containing Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators.
Photo: CNA
Last month, it said it expected revenue to grow over the rest of the year, reversing successive quarterly declines.
Some investors preach caution. Nvidia reported earnings that failed to live up to expectations, triggering a record selloff. Analysts have issued fresh warnings that AI’s potential is thus far largely untested and unproven.
Still, Hon Hai has set itself the goal of securing 40 percent of the global AI server market, relying on relationships with many of the world’s biggest tech companies and its own manufacturing expertise.
The Taiwanese company also benefits from consumer electronics demand, and the addition of AI features and enhancements might encourage mobile users to upgrade their devices. Shipments of the iPhone in China have in recent months bounced back, and the global smartphone market is recovering. Apple is preparing to unveil the iPhone 16 next week.
“Entering the peak season in the second half of the year, we anticipate our operation to gradually gain momentum,” Hon Hai said in a statement yesterday.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
RSS