Aggregate sales by companies listed on the local main board rose more than 7 percent year-on-year in June, led by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE) said on Friday.
Combined revenue reached NT$3.66 trillion (US$125 billion) last month, up 7.37 percent from a year earlier, with 519 firms reporting year-on-year sales growth and 526 reporting a decline, TWSE said in a statement.
Among the major industries, the computer and peripheral equipment sector posted the strongest performance, with revenue soaring nearly 45 percent to NT$935 billion, fueled by robust global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, the exchange said.
Photo: RITCHIE B. TONGO, EPA-EFE
The environmental protection and renewable energy sector ranked second, reporting an almost 38 percent year-on-year increase in revenue to NT$12 billion, it said.
The information service industry also saw solid growth, generating NT$11 billion in sales last month, an increase of more than 29 percent from a year earlier, it added.
On the other hand, the financial and insurance industry recorded the sharpest year-on-year revenue decline for last month, dropping 45.5 percent to NT$108.7 billion amid volatility in global financial markets, TWSE said.
The trade and retail sector also posted a significant decline, with revenue falling 35 percent year-on-year to NT$33.6 billion, due to foreign exchange and investment losses, while the cement industry was hit by weakening demand, generating NT$18 billion in sales, down nearly 20 percent from the same month last year, the exchange said.
In the first half of the year, TWSE-listed companies reported total revenue of NT$21.94 trillion, up 13.82 percent from a year earlier, with 619 firms posting sales growth and 426 reporting declines, the exchange’s data showed.
Riding the global AI boom, the computer and peripheral equipment industry led all sectors in the six-month period, posting NT$4.88 trillion in revenue, an increase of 38.81 percent year-on-year, TWSE said.
Meanwhile, the combined revenue posted by companies listed on the local over-the-counter (OTC) market rose 7.72 percent from a year earlier to NT$250.2 billion last month, the Taipei Exchange (TPEx) said.
For the January to June period, OTC-listed firms posted combined sales of NT$1.45 trillion, up 9.67 percent from the same period last year, TPEx data showed.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
AI: Softbank’s stake increases in Nvidia and TSMC reflect Masayoshi Son’s effort to gain a foothold in key nodes of the AI value chain, from chip design to data infrastructure Softbank Group Corp is building up stakes in Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the latest reflection of founder Masayoshi Son’s focus on the tools and hardware underpinning artificial intelligence (AI). The Japanese technology investor raised its stake in Nvidia to about US$3 billion by the end of March, up from US$1 billion in the prior quarter, regulatory filings showed. It bought about US$330 million worth of TSMC shares and US$170 million in Oracle Corp, they showed. Softbank’s signature Vision Fund has also monetized almost US$2 billion of public and private assets in the first half of this year,