Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co (CHPT, 中華精測), a chip testing and wafer probing services provider, yesterday said that revenue this quarter would climb to an all-time high, benefiting from increased demand for chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications and smartphones.
The company also said that it has a clearer outlook for its orders over the next eight to nine months, exceeding the average of three months in the semiconductor industry.
“We are positive about the third quarter thanks to growing demand for AI and high-performance computing [HPC] applications. Revenue in the third quarter is likely to hit a record high,” CHPT president Scott Huang (黃水可) told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of an upgraded intelligent product design and manufacturing software system during the Semicon Taiwan trade show in Taipei.
Photo: Lisa Wang, Taipei Times
As customer demand seems to be sustainable, revenue in the fourth quarter would only drop slightly on a quarterly basis during the traditional low season for the industry, Huang said.
The company aims to increase its revenue next year at the same rate as this year, driven by AI and HPC applications, he said.
He did not give a detailed growth forecast.
The firm’s revenue soared nearly 60 percent annually during the first eight months of this year to NT$3.19 billion (US$105.25 million).
HPC applications, primarily AI chips, are the biggest revenue contributor to CHPT, making up 42.5 percent in the second quarter, replacing application processors.
That was a significant jump from a 21 percent share a year earlier.
CHPT said that it is ready to provide its services in the US if customers ramp up production of 2-nanometer chips, as it has a small assembly line in San Jose, California.
The company would expand its capacity in accordance with demand, given expensive labor costs in the US, it said.
CHPT said it has more than quadrupled capacity at a factory there to cope with AI chip and smartphone processor testing demand.
Separately, California-based semiconductor equipment supplier ACM Research Inc yesterday said it is seeking to set up a subsidiary in Taiwan, as it plans to build a research-and-development (R&D) team and potentially a manufacturing line here, eyeing the nation’s fast-growing semiconductor equipment market.
ACM operates an R&D center in China and Oregon, ACM chairman David Wang (王暉) said at Semicon.
The company makes wet-process cleaning tools, atomic layer deposition equipment and advanced packaging plating equipment.
The company aims to sell its panel-level chip packaging equipment to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), Wang said.
Taiwan’s contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and silicon wafer suppliers including Wafer Works Corp (合晶科技) and GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) are customers of ACM, he said.
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