Chip testing service provider Ardentec Corp (欣銓) yesterday said revenue is expected to grow by a mid-single-digit percentage this quarter, following stronger-than-seasonal growth last quarter, benefiting from rising demand for testing services for artificial intelligence (AI) and smartphone chips.
Revenue would continue to grow in the second half of this year, Ardentec chief financial officer Jimmy Lan (藍政明) said at an earnings conference. Net profit is expected to increase each quarter this year, thanks to increasing factory utilization, he said.
The growth should be fueled by increasing demand from its communications customers, who should remain unscathed by weakening smartphone sales this year as higher memory prices drove higher unit prices, Lan said.
Photo: Screen grab from Ardentec Corp’s Web site
Revenue last quarter rose 24 percent annually and up 4.9 percent quarterly to NT$3.98 billion (US$125.9 million), with the communications segment contributing the most, at 32.5 percent.
A major talking point at yesterday’s conference was Ardentec’s new factory in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭), where new facilities would be allocated entirely to AI application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) testing for a major foundry service provider, the company said.
While Ardentec did not disclose the client’s name, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) is rumored to be on the short list.
It remains unclear if the factory would be used to provide wafer-sorting services for AI ASICs designed by MediaTek Inc (聯發科), Ardentec said.
The Longtan factory is expected to generate a new revenue stream beginning during the third quarter of this year at the earliest, Lan said.
Ardentec has completed construction of the first clean room and is building two more, he said. The factory is designed to accommodate seven clean rooms, he added.
In the first quarter, Ardentec’s net profit surged 53.7 percent from NT$601 million to NT$927 million in the same period last year, the best quarterly profit in about four years. Net profit expanded 8.9 percent from NT$848 million the previous quarter.
Earnings per share rose to NT$1.95 from NT$1.79 a quarter earlier and NT$1.27 a year ago.
Gross margin climbed to 38.4 percent from 35.1 percent the previous year and 37.8 percent the prior quarter.
Factory utilization has increased to more than 70 percent, Lan said. He did not provide figures for comparison.
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