PentaPro Materials Inc (宇川精材), which produces metal organic precursors used in advanced chip production, yesterday said it plans to invest NT$3 billion (US$95.17 million) in a new factory in Taiwan to meet rising demand.
The company’s main facility is approaching full capacity as customers continue to advance manufacturing process technologies to create smaller chips with more complicated architecture, PentaPro told a news conference in Taipei.
The company’s semiconductor precursors are high-purity chemical liquids used in chip manufacturing. They provide source materials for depositing thin films mainly using atomic layer deposition to form integrated circuits. The process is primarily used in the production of logic and memory chips smaller than 16 nanometers.
Photo: Chang Hui-wen, Taipei Times
PentaPro is a supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker.
“Utilization of the existing factory is running in high gear now,” PentaPro co-CEO C.Y. Chen (陳建榮) said. “One of our major advantages is local supply. We are running out of space, so we have to build a second factory.”
Chipmakers prefer the local supply of semiconductor precursors, as the chemicals are primary chemical hazards and can only be transported through ocean shipping, a time-consuming practice compared with air freight for chips.
The new factory would have an installed capacity six to 10 times greater than the existing plant, when it enters operation in 2028, PentaPro said.
The company is collaborating with multiple customers to jointly develop new precursors and to produce them for customers on a contract basis, chairman and co-CEO Kuo Wen-che (郭文哲) said.
To cope with growing demand, PentaPro said it is revamping an older production line to produce advanced semiconductor precursors later this year.
It expects revenue this year to grow significantly higher than last year, thanks to strong customer demand and new capacity.
Cumulative revenue in the first 11 months of last year totaled NT$121 million, a dramatic increase from full-year revenue of NT$61 million in 2024, company data showed.
Semiconductor precursors accounted for more than 70 percent of the company’s revenue last year, PentaPro said.
However, the company lost NT$97 million in the first half of last year, or losses per share of NT$0.97, as additional costs for equipment purchases and technology adjustments dented the company’s gross margin, it said.
A smaller revenue scale was also a factor, PentaPro chief financial officer Joseph Chen (陳祖華) said.
The company swung into a monthly profit in November, as gross margin improved, he said.
PentaPro is scheduled to debut its shares on the Emerging Stock Board on Tuesday next week.
Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday introduced the company’s latest supercomputer platform, featuring six new chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), saying that it is now “in full production.” “If Vera Rubin is going to be in time for this year, it must be in production by now, and so, today I can tell you that Vera Rubin is in full production,” Huang said during his keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas. The rollout of six concurrent chips for Vera Rubin — the company’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) computing platform — marks a strategic
Shares in Taiwan closed at a new high yesterday, the first trading day of the new year, as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) continued to break records amid an artificial intelligence (AI) boom, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 386.21 points, or 1.33 percent, at 29,349.81, with turnover totaling NT$648.844 billion (US$20.65 billion). “Judging from a stronger Taiwan dollar against the US dollar, I think foreign institutional investors returned from the holidays and brought funds into the local market,” Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺) said. “Foreign investors just rebuilt their positions with TSMC as their top target,
REVENUE PERFORMANCE: Cloud and network products, and electronic components saw strong increases, while smart consumer electronics and computing products fell Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted 26.51 percent quarterly growth in revenue for last quarter to NT$2.6 trillion (US$82.44 billion), the strongest on record for the period and above expectations, but the company forecast a slight revenue dip this quarter due to seasonal factors. On an annual basis, revenue last quarter grew 22.07 percent, the company said. Analysts on average estimated about NT$2.4 trillion increase. Hon Hai, which assembles servers for Nvidia Corp and iPhones for Apple Inc, is expanding its capacity in the US, adding artificial intelligence (AI) server production in Wisconsin and Texas, where it operates established campuses. This
Enhanced tax credits that have helped reduce the cost of health insurance for the vast majority of US Affordable Care Act enrollees expired on Jan.1, cementing higher health costs for millions of Americans at the start of the new year. Democrats forced a 43-day US government shutdown over the issue. Moderate Republicans called for a solution to save their political aspirations this year. US President Donald Trump floated a way out, only to back off after conservative backlash. In the end, no one’s efforts were enough to save the subsidies before their expiration date. A US House of Representatives vote
RSS