Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星科技) plans to expand its production capacity in the US, with in-house server output at its US plant likely to exceed its earlier projection of 60 percent of total output.
The company in June said that it was targeting producing 60 percent of its US server output at its California facility and outsource the remaining 40 percent. The California plant is set to produce servers, PCs and gaming products.
However, the company might adjust the in-house production figure after Washington announced a 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods last week and pending the outcome of a Section 232 investigation under the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as clients might request higher capacity in the US, a source said yesterday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Photo: CNA
While the company had planned to begin production at its California facility this quarter, the facility is still undergoing structural reinforcement and its operations might not be ready until the end of this year, the source said.
MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage and communications devices, with operations in Taiwan, China and the US.
The company plans to set up a warehousing unit for motherboards, graphics cards and notebooks in the Netherlands, set to start operations at the end of the year, the source said.
The company has been building a new plant in Taoyuan’s Gueishan District (龜山) since March, which is to add eight surface mount technology production lines in 2027, the source said.
The Europe, Middle East and Africa region accounted for 38 percent of MSI’s revenue last year, while North America made up 25 percent, company data showed.
The company might share tariff costs with clients such as Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Nvidia Corp, as well as with consumers, to maintain its gross margin, but it is unlikely to pass the full tariff rate on to retail prices, as doing so could raise prices by 10 to 20 percent and dampen consumer demand, the source said.
MSI’s PCs and notebooks that use Nvidia’s RTX 50 series graphics cards entered mass production last quarter, but consumer demand for those products has exceeded supply, the source said.
The company has no plans to raise prices for existing models, despite potential tariff impacts, but would raise prices for future products equipped with newer generations of central processing units and graphics processing units, the source said.
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
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
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
RSS