Industrial computer maker CipherLab Co (欣技) said it expects revenue this year to grow 5 to 10 percent from last year, although second-quarter operations have been affected by a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar since early May.
The company has seen a large portion of its revenue offset by foreign-exchange losses in the second quarter due to the NT dollar’s appreciation, CipherLab finance and accounting division director D.C. Chang (張家榮) told reporters in Taipei on Wednesday, without disclosing the size of the losses.
CipherLab reported losses per share of NT$0.14 in the first quarter, while revenue decreased 5.74 percent annually to NT$270.65 million (US$9.39 million), company data showed.
Photo: Screen grab from CipherLab Co’s Web site
The company supplies handheld industrial computers, barcode scanners, and radio-frequency identification readers and related software, such as automatic identification and data capture systems, its Web site says.
Revenue in the second half of this year is projected to rise 20 percent from the first half after the company secured large orders in Taiwan and Japan, and in Southeast Asia, Chang said, adding that the growth momentum is expected to last until next year.
The company’s clients range from system integrators, express logistics operators and shipping companies to automakers, hospitals and convenience store chains, he said.
With the number of its Japanese projects increasing, the company expects the Japanese market to account for 10 percent of its revenue next year, up from 5 percent currently, Chang said, adding that the firm plans to establish a Japanese subsidiary next month to better serve customers there.
The US market accounts for about 20 percent of the company’s revenue, while western Europe contributes 5 percent and eastern Europe, including Russia, makes up 20 percent, he said.
The company expects US revenue to grow steadily in the second half and anticipates a stable performance in eastern Europe, while the market in western Europe still requires time to develop, the company said.
Chang said the company last month raised prices for products shipped to the US, as it assumes tariff rates would be 10 to 20 percent.
It might consider further adjustments if the rate exceeds 20 percent, he added.
Taiwan remains CipherLab’s main production base, he said, adding that the company has no plans to shift production to Southeast Asia to mitigate tariff effects, as relocation would increase costs and add operational complexity.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
AI TALENT: No financial details were released about the deal, in which top Groq executives, including its CEO, would join Nvidia to help advance the technology Nvidia Corp has agreed to a licensing deal with artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Groq, furthering its investments in companies connected to the AI boom and gaining the right to add a new type of technology to its products. The world’s largest publicly traded company has paid for the right to use Groq’s technology and is to integrate its chip design into future products. Some of the start-up’s executives are leaving to join Nvidia to help with that effort, the companies said. Groq would continue as an independent company with a new chief executive, it said on Wednesday in a post on its Web
CHINA RIVAL: The chips are positioned to compete with Nvidia’s Hopper and Blackwell products and would enable clusters connecting more than 100,000 chips Moore Threads Technology Co (摩爾線程) introduced a new generation of chips aimed at reducing artificial intelligence (AI) developers’ dependence on Nvidia Corp’s hardware, just weeks after pulling off one of the most successful Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs) in years. “These products will significantly enhance world-class computing speed and capabilities that all developers aspire to,” Moore Threads CEO Zhang Jianzhong (張建中), a former Nvidia executive, said on Saturday at a company event in Beijing. “We hope they can meet the needs of more developers in China so that you no longer need to wait for advanced foreign products.” Chinese chipmakers are in