NXP Semiconductors NV shares yesterday fell in premarket trading after the company announced a new chief executive officer as part of its quarterly earnings report and warned that tariff threats had created “a very uncertain environment.”
CEO Kurt Sievers, 56, is to retire late this year, the Dutch chipmaker said in a statement on Monday.
Rafael Sotomayor, a current NXP executive, is to assume the role of president immediately — on the way to becoming the new CEO on Oct. 28.
Photo: Reuters
Tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump threaten to add further upheaval to the industry, which has been working through a backlog accumulated after the COVID-19 pandemic.
NXP’s peers, such as STMicroelectronics NV and Infineon Technologies AG, have struggled with weak demand for mature chips used in electric vehicles or smartphones.
NXP said Sievers, who has been CEO since 2020 and has been with the company for three decades, is leaving on good terms with the board. Sotomayor joined the company in 2014 from Broadcom Inc.
The shares tumbled about 8 percent in premarket trading yesterday before New York exchanges opened. They had declined 5.6 percent this year to close at US$196.24 on Monday.
As part of the earnings report, NXP forecast that revenue would decline to US$2.8 billion to US$3 billion in the second quarter. That compares with an average analyst estimate of US$2.86 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The company said it has a “cautious optimism” that it can continue to navigate a challenging market.
“We are operating in a very uncertain environment influenced by tariffs with volatile direct and indirect effects,” NXP said.
First-quarter revenue fell 9 percent year-on-year to US$2.84 billion and adjusted diluted earnings per share in the period were US$2.64. Analysts had estimated US$2.83 billion in sales and US$2.60 a share in earnings.
Despite the downturn, NXP invested in acquisitions this year. The company in January agreed to buy Austrian software maker TTTech Auto for US$625 million to develop more solutions for software-defined vehicles.
NXP in February also announced the takeover of Kinara, a developer for processing units enabling artificial intelligence applications, for US$307 million.
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
AI BOOST: Although Taiwan’s reliance on Chinese rare earth elements is limited, it could face indirect impacts from supply issues and price volatility, an economist said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) has sharply raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 5.6 percent, citing stronger-than-expected exports and investment linked to artificial intelligence (AI), as it said that the current momentum could peak soon. The acceleration of the global AI race has fueled a surge in Taiwan’s AI-related capital spending and exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products, which have been key drivers of growth this year. “We have revised our GDP forecast for Taiwan upward to 5.6 percent from 4 percent, an upgrade that mainly reflects stronger-than-expected AI-related exports and investment in the third
RARE EARTHS: The call between the US Treasury Secretary and his Chinese counterpart came as Washington sought to rally G7 partners in response to China’s export controls China and the US on Saturday agreed to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the APEC summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that
CHINESE EXPORT CURBS: A dispute between China and the Netherlands could halt chip supply, affecting vehicle production, US and European auto associations said Groups representing major automakers late on Thursday warned that a chip disruption stemming from a dispute between China and the Dutch government could quickly affect US auto production. Automakers and their suppliers received notice from chipmaker Nexperia (安世半導體) last week that it could no longer guarantee delivery of its chips, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said, adding that manufacturing could be significantly disrupted. In the US, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Hyundai and nearly all other major automakers, urged a quick resolution. “If the shipment of automotive chips doesn’t resume — quickly — it’s going to
RSS