Weblink International Inc’s (展碁) revenue would benefit from rising prices of memory chips, storage products and central processing units in the second half of this year, despite the pressure they would put on the PC market, the information technology and consumer electronics distribution subsidiary of Acer Inc (宏碁) said yesterday.
The global PC market in the first half of this year is better than the same period last year, but full-year shipments are expected to decline 6 to 9 percent year-on-year as demand weakens amid rising component prices, Weblink president Dave Lin (林佳璋) said after the company’s annual general meeting in Taipei.
Component shortages and rising costs hit high-end PCs and premium models more than other devices, Lin said.
Photo: Vanessa Cho, Taipei Times
As the development of artificial intelligence (AI) has shifted from early-stage large language model training to inference and real-world conversational applications, Weblink remains optimistic about the increase in AI PC penetration, he said.
AI PCs are expected to account for more than 40 percent of the company’s total PC products this year, he added.
Weblink is also positive about the broader adoption of AI applications across industries, with smart healthcare emerging as one of the key areas for practical AI deployment, Lin said.
Weblink, in which Acer has a 53.7 percent stake, said that shareholders yesterday approved the company’s proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$3 per share, a payout ratio of 71.43 percent based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$4.2 last year.
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