Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s top contract chipmaker, yesterday reported a 9.1 percent annual growth in revenue to NT$40.5 billion (US$1.38 billion) last month, an all-time high as restocking demand grew at a faster-than-expected pace.
That was up from NT$37.13 billion last year. On a monthly basis, TSMC’s revenue rose 9.2 percent from NT$37.08 billion.
“This result is in line with our expectation of NT$40.4 billion,” Credit Suisse analyst Randy Abrams said in a research note yesterday. “We expect to see continued month-on-month growth into May and June.”
Last month, TSMC forecast revenue would hit a record high this quarter, ranging between NT$126 billion and NT$128 billion, which would be between 19 percent and 21 percent higher then last quarter’s NT$105.51 billion.
Sales were driven by inventory restocking and growth in the communications sector, Abrams said.
“Orders were stronger than we had expected, which allowed us to have a solid second quarter. Forecasts of incoming orders are also very strong,” TSMC chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) said at an investor conference on April 26 in Taipei. “This means the third quarter will be a continued-growth quarter.”
Chang said at the time that the worldwide semiconductor market would grow at a faster pace than his previous estimate of 2 percent annual growth in revenue, citing encouraging macroeconomic news from the US and China, which are the chipmaker’s biggest markets.
Excluding the memorychip business, growth would be between 3 percent and 4 percent, he added.
Separately, TSMC plans to spend more than US$1 billion on research and development this year, company spokesman Elizabeth Sun (孫又文) said on the sidelines of a TSMC technology forum in Hsinchu.
That number represents about 8 percent to 9 percent of the chipmaker’s expected total revenue this year, Sun said.
Last year, TSMC spent NT$33.68 billion on research and development, or about 7.9 percent of the company’s revenue of NT$427.08 billion, according to the company’s annual financial statement posted on its Web site.
Because of stronger demand, TSMC was unable to keep up with demand for its 28-nanometer (nm) chips for mobile devices, Chang said last month.
He expected supply constraints to improve in the fourth quarter and to be fully resolved in the first quarter of next year.
TSMC is effectively the sole foundry supplying 28nm chips, Chang said, as rivals such as United Microelectronics Co (UMC, 聯電), Globalfoundries Inc and Samsung Electronics Co have not started mass producing 28nm chips.
The chipmaker expects 28nm chips to make up 20 percent of its revenue in the fourth quarter.
Earlier this week, UMC reported its strongest monthly revenue in nine months at NT$9.12 billion for last month, beating Credit Suisse’s estimate of NT$8.44 billion.
That represented 11.4 percent monthly growth from March’s NT$8.19 billion. However, it was down 4.59 percent from the NT$9.56 billion posted in April last year.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
RSS