Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s top contract chipmaker, said its board had approved a plan to allocate US$50 million for possible investment in solar energy, the latest development in the chipmaker’s search for new growth engines in the green energy industry amid the slowing semiconductor sector.
To facilitate its expansion into green business, TSMC chairman and chief executive Morris Chang (張忠謀) told reporters in June that the company would not rule out securing green energy technologies and talent via mergers and acquisitions.
At the time, Chang said the new businesses would be “an important thrust” for TSMC as the overall semiconductor industry could see a 5 percent composite annual growth rate from last year through 2018 rather than the double-digit percent growth seen before.
The contract chip manufacturing business could see a slightly better growth at 6 percent.
New green energy businesses could help increase TSMC’s revenue growth, Chang said.
On July 30, Chang said the new businesses could generate revenues of US$10 billion, or US$15 billion by 2018, rather than US$2 billion he had forecast earlier.
Yesterday, speculation circulated that local solar-cell maker Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光能源) was an investment target for TSMC.
Neo Solar was not available for comment yesterday.
Neo Solar shares opened 3.57 percent higher yesterday after the local Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times reported that TSMC could consider purchasing a major stake in Neo Solar from money-losing PC memory chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體).
Hsinchu-based Powerchip and its investment arm own about 11.76 percent, or 18.85 million shares, of Neo Solar, which has 160.28 million in capital shares, information posted on the Industrial Development Bureau’s Web site showed. Based on Neo Solar’s closing price of NT$42 yesterday, the deal could amount to NT$792 million (US$24.1 million).
Neo Solar intends to issue 30 million common shares later this year to raise capital for new facilities and manufacturing equipment.
“Our checks suggest the acquisition is likely,” Andrew Lu (陸行之), a semiconductor analyst with Citigroup, said in a report released yesterday.
“If the acquisition goes through, TSMC could suffer short-term pain as Neo Solar was running a net loss,” he said.
Neo Solar registered losses of NT$425 million in the first quarter on oversupply. The four-year-old solar cell maker made NT$831 million in net profits last year.
Speculation surrounding the acquisition may have been the result of Neo Solar chairman Quincy Lin’s (林坤禧) close links to TSMC. Lin used to be a vice president of TSMC’s marketing and sales division, and held other positions in the corporate development and supply chain management departments, the Neo Solar Web site showed. Lin also helped TSMC establish its European and Japan units.
Former TSMC chief executive Rick Tsai (蔡力行) was appointed to lead a team to explore new business opportunities and TSMC said he has visited many solar companies in Taiwan and abroad since June.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
RSS