Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), one of the largest contract notebook computer makers in Taiwan, yesterday said that Texas is one of its top options as it considers investing in the US.
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the company’s weiya (尾牙), or year-end dinner, Compal president Anthony Peter Bonadero said that in response to the return to the White House of US president-elect Donald Trump, who vowed to raise tariffs during his campaign trail, the company is considering investments in the US.
Compal is looking at several options in particular states in the southern US, and Texas is one of the leading options, as it is the only state in the US with an independent electricity grid network, Bonadero said.
Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
Compal, which also makes artificial intelligence (AI) servers, is one of several Taiwanese tech firms to list Texas as their top investment venue option.
Over the weekend, Inventec Corp (英業達) president Jack Tsai (蔡枝安), another AI server maker in Taiwan, also said that Texas is a likely choice for its US investments, citing the state’s adequate power supply, as well as its proximity to Mexico.
As global demand for AI servers largely comes from four mega data centers in the US, it is no surprise that Compal is thinking about investments in manufacturing in North America over the longer term, Bonadero said.
The company is expanding its talent pool for the fast-growing server business, while assessing a production expansion plan, he said.
Compal has joined US-based AI chip designer Nvidia Corp’s MGX server platform — a modular reference design supporting diverse applications, from remote visualization to edge supercomputing, he said.
The company aims to strengthen its ties with the US AI giant, he added.
AI servers would account for 15 percent to 20 percent of the company’s sales generated by servers this year, up from last year’s low single digits, as the company aggressively searches for business opportunities created by the Nvidia MGX ecosystem, he said.
While the large language model — which refers to a type of machine learning model designed for natural language processing tasks such as language generation — is a very important field for AI server development, Compal would also explore other areas for growth, he said.
In addition, demand for AI PCs is expected to grow this year due to the end of support from Windows 10 in the fourth quarter of the year with replacements of Chromebook computers, he said.
Demand for AI PCs would account for more than 40 percent of total PC sales next year, he said.
The company has laid a solid foundation in PC and smart device production and is looking for a new growth driver, Compal chairman Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) said.
It expects AI servers, automotive electronics and 5G products to become major sources of sales, he said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) secured a record 70.2 percent share of the global foundry business in the second quarter, up from 67.6 percent the previous quarter, and continued widening its lead over second-placed Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Monday. TSMC posted US$30.24 billion in sales in the April-to-June period, up 18.5 percent from the previous quarter, driven by major smartphone customers entering their ramp-up cycle and robust demand for artificial intelligence chips, laptops and PCs, which boosted wafer shipments and average selling prices, TrendForce said in a report. Samsung’s sales also grew in the second quarter, up
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump weighed in on a pressing national issue: The rebranding of a restaurant chain. Last week, Cracker Barrel, a Tennessee company whose nationwide locations lean heavily on a cozy, old-timey aesthetic — “rocking chairs on the porch, a warm fire in the hearth, peg games on the table” — announced it was updating its logo. Uncle Herschel, the man who once appeared next to the letters with a barrel, was gone. It sparked ire on the right, with Donald Trump Jr leading a charge against the rebranding: “WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel?!” Later, Trump Sr weighed
HEADWINDS: Upfront investment is unavoidable in the merger, but cost savings would materialize over time, TS Financial Holding Co president Welch Lin said TS Financial Holding Co (台新新光金控) said it would take about two years before the benefits of its merger with Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) become evident, as the group prioritizes the consolidation of its major subsidiaries. “The group’s priority is to complete the consolidation of different subsidiaries,” Welch Lin (林維俊), president of the nation’s fourth-largest financial conglomerate by assets, told reporters during its first earnings briefing since the merger took effect on July 24. The asset management units are scheduled to merge in November, followed by life insurance in January next year and securities operations in April, Lin said. Banking integration,
LOOPHOLES: The move is to end a break that was aiding foreign producers without any similar benefit for US manufacturers, the US Department of Commerce said US President Donald Trump’s administration would make it harder for Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc to ship critical equipment to their chipmaking operations in China, dealing a potential blow to the companies’ production in the world’s largest semiconductor market. The US Department of Commerce in a notice published on Friday said that it was revoking waivers for Samsung and SK Hynix to use US technologies in their Chinese operations. The companies had been operating in China under regulations that allow them to import chipmaking equipment without applying for a new license each time. The move would revise what is known
RSS