Airoha Technology Corp (達發科技), the world’s No. 2 supplier of bluetooth chips used in Android-based true wireless stereo (TWS) earphones, yesterday said it aims to outgrow the industry next year, benefiting from market share gains and robust demand for bluetooth chips for headphones.
The company said it has set a goal to become the world’s top supplier of TWS bluetooth chips, challenging Qualcomm Inc’s leading position.
Airoha has gained the leadership position in gaming headphones, it said.
Photo courtesy of Airoha Technology Corp
The firm is 67 percent-owned by mobile phone chip supplier MediaTek Inc (聯發科).
Bluetooth for premium TWS earphones and GPS devices accounted for more than half of the company’s revenue in the third quarter, while fiber broadband and ethernet network chips made up 35 percent.
“We are optimistic about the outlook for bluetooth and GPS chips next year. With strong artificial intelligence [AI] capabilities, we believe we have a chance to see [revenue] trend up further,” Yuchuan Yang (楊裕全), a senior vice president in charge of Airoha’s wireless communications business group, told a media briefing in Taipei.
“The growth momentum next year will be very similar to this year’s,” Yang said. “The growth will be mostly driven by TWS earphone chips used in headsets.”
Yang declined to give a detailed revenue forecast for next year.
Based on a Global Market Insights projection, the world’s wireless stereo chip market is expected to expand at an annual rate of 20 percent from 2014 to 2032.
In the first 11 months of this year, Airoha’s revenue surged 39.48 percent year-on-year to NT$17.56 billion (US$540.62 million) from NT$12.59 billion in the same period last year.
The company counts the world’s premium headphone brands — Bang & Olufsen, GN Group and Sennheiser — among its customers.
To take advantage of growth opportunities, Airoha has identified TWS earphone chips with AI technology — with features such as adaptive noise suppression and voice-activated controls with improved natural-language processing — as a trend.
As the AI-enabled functions would require AI algorithms, the company uses low-voltage 12-nanometer chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Airoha vice president David Liang (梁仁昱) said.
Airoha is the first company to adopt TSMC’s low-voltage 12-nanometer chips, he said.
Another growth driver would be the emerging hearing aids market — standard bluetooth earbuds that amplify ambient sounds, the company said.
It is estimated that by 2050, more than 700 million people — or one in every 10 — would have hearing disabilities, Airoha said, citing a WHO report.
About 25 customers of Airoha have received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for over-the-counter hearing aids, it said.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for