MPI Corp (旺矽), a wafer testing services provider, yesterday said it aims to expand its probe card capacity by 30 percent this year in a bid to satisfy customers’ growing demand over the next few years amid the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
The new capacity expansion came as the company is still unable to fully satisfy customers’ demand after boosting capacity by 30 percent last year versus the previous year, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported yesterday.
“The growth prospects for the [AI] industry are sustainable at least to the end of this year. Although the consumer electronics market is experiencing ups and downs, AI infrastructure deployment has become a priority for many countries,” the Liberty Times quoted MPI chairman Ko Chang-lin (葛長林) as saying on the sidelines of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City (竹北).
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
“This industry is to be flourishing at least over the next 5 years,” Ko said. “That will help boost demand for advanced process technologies that are used to make AI chips as well as equipment and materials.”
Strong customer demand is driving MPI’s book-to-bill ratio to exceed one, Ko said.
Likewise, the utilization rate of its probe card factories is approaching 100 percent, he said.
To meet customers’ urgent demand, MPI is planning to add 30 percent probe card capacity this year, Ko said.
The company aims to launch a new factory in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口) by the end of next year, with another new factory also being planned, he said.
Benefiting from strong AI-related demand, MPI expects revenue to grow more in the second half of this year from the first half, Ko said.
MPI’s revenue last month surged 50.66 percent year-on-year to NT$1.3 billion (US$43.45 million), representing the strongest May figure in the company’s history.
During the first five months of this year, cumulative revenue soared 39.41 percent year-on-year to NT$5.01 billion.
Probe cards accounted for 67 percent of the company’s revenue in the first quarter. The item acts as a connector between the wafer and testing equipment, allowing for electrical measurements of individual IC chips on the wafer before they are diced and packaged.
The company said it is capable of testing advanced chips such as those made with 3-nanometer process technology this year and would extend its testing scope to 2-nanometer chips next year.
MPI shareholders yesterday approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$16 per share, an all-time high, representing a payout ratio of 65.52 percent based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$24.42 last year.
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