Aspeed Technology Inc (信驊), the world’s biggest supplier of baseboard management controllers (BMC) used in servers, yesterday gave a bullish revenue outlook for next year mainly driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI), following explosive growth this year.
During the first 10 months of this year, Aspeed has witnessed annual growth of 104 percent in revenue to NT$5.04 billion (US$155 million), significantly outpacing its earlier estimate of between 40 percent to 50 percent growth, thanks to exuberant demand for general servers and AI servers, Aspeed chairman and president Chris Lin (林鴻明) said.
“Demand is surprisingly good this year,” Lin said. “For next year, we have got a feeling that it will be a better year, given that a lot of customers are hiking their capital expenditures on AI servers. We are optimistic about overall revenue prospects next year, despite muted demand for general AI servers.”
Photo: Lisa Wang, Taipei Times
The AI boom could elevate AI server revenue to between 20 percent and 25 percent of the company’s overall revenue next year, compared with about 15 percent this year, Lin said.
Aspeed commands 70 percent of the world’s BMC market.
On its product development progress, Lin said the company is working with customers to develop next-generation BMCs and expects the new controller, code-named AST2700, to ramp up production in 2026. Aspeed aims to hold steady its gross margin at 65 percent through adjusting new product prices, he said.
The company saw its quarterly net profits soar 43.5 percent sequentially, or up 170 percent annually, to NT$729 million last quarter, setting an all-time high. That brought the first three quarters’ net profit to NT$1.63 billion, more than four times the firm’s share capital of NT$378 million.
Gross margin improved to 64.3 percent last quarter from 63 percent a year earlier.
Each AI server rack based on GB200/NVL72 chips from Nvidia Corp would consume 87 BMCs, a surge from 12 BMCs used in the AI server rack powered by H100 chips, Aspeed said.
As Aspeed turns 20 years old this year, Lin said the company was inspired by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) producing the world’s first BMC in 2004. Since then, Aspeed’s small single-chip BMC has gradually replaced its chunky and expensive predecessors at affordable prices, Lin said.
Quanta assembles notebook computers for Apple Inc and makes servers for Nvidia, and is one of the biggest customers of Aspeed today.
Nvidia considers Aspeed’s BMC an essential part of its AI servers, and yet an “inexpensive” chip, Lin said.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
AI: Softbank’s stake increases in Nvidia and TSMC reflect Masayoshi Son’s effort to gain a foothold in key nodes of the AI value chain, from chip design to data infrastructure Softbank Group Corp is building up stakes in Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the latest reflection of founder Masayoshi Son’s focus on the tools and hardware underpinning artificial intelligence (AI). The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about US$3 billion by the end of March, up from US$1 billion in the prior quarter, regulatory filings showed. It bought about US$330 million worth of TSMC shares and US$170 million in Oracle Corp, they showed. Softbank’s signature Vision Fund has also monetized almost US$2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of this year,
RSS