Gallant Micro Machining Co (均華), one of the advanced packaging equipment suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it received record orders totaling NT$1 billion (US$30.21 million) this year, thanks to continuous strong demand for advanced chip packaging technology, or chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) technology, used in producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips.
Order visibility has improved and can be extended through the first quarter of next year, company president Stone Shih (石敦智) told an investors’ conference in Taipei.
“We believe 2025 will be a better year than 2024, driven by the AI boom,” Shih said. “Our orders on hand have risen to an all-time high. Demand for advanced packaging technology has been surging since the second half of 2023.”
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
Gallant Micro’s revenue more than doubled from NT$1.19 billion in 2023 to NT$2.44 billion last year. Chip sorters, mainly AI chip sorters, are the biggest revenue source for the company, accounting for 64 percent last year, soaring from 40 percent in 2023. Bonders, which are also used in AI-related packaging technology, accounted for 15 percent, up from 10 percent the prior year.
The company expects advanced packaging equipment revenue to jump to a record high and account for about 90 percent of its overall revenue, compared with 75 percent last year, Shih said.
A majority of the company’s revenue came from foundry service providers, while chip packaging and testing houses made up the rest.
Gallant Micro’s confidence in the strong growth is also based on Yole Group’s encouraging forecast, which projected that the advanced chip packaging equipment market would surpass the traditional chip packaging market for the first time, making up 51.03 percent of the total chip packaging equipment market.
To cope with strong demand, Gallant Micro said it expanded its research-and-development headcount by 30 percent last year, leading to a 65 percent jump in operating expenses to NT$482 million from 2023.
In addition to supplying equipment used in CoWoS technology, Gallant Micro is developing equipment to be used in next-generation chip packaging technology, square panel-level packaging (PLP) technology matching its key customer’s technology roadmap, Shih said.
Our key customer plans to roll out the PLP solution in 2028, he added.
Gallant Micro also said it is stepping up efforts to create an office and a production line in the US, as US President Donald Trump is determined to roll out more policies to bring manufacturing back to the US. The first production line would be built within two years at the earliest, together with parent company Gallant Precision Machining Co (均豪).
Benefiting from thriving AI-related chip demand, Gallant’s net profits last year soared 309 percent from NT$101 million to NT$413 million. That translated into earnings per share of NT$14.62 last year from NT$3.57 the previous year.
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