The US’ biggest online video-on-demand provider Netflix Inc said it is collaborating with Taiwanese chipmakers, including MediaTek Inc (聯發科), to develop smart TV chips.
The partnership with local firms to produce ultra-high-definition videos is part of the “Netflix Recommended TV” program, which was launched in the US last year and is to be extended globally this year to help consumers identify TVs that offer better performance.
“With smart TVs gaining traction, consumers prefer to stream Netflix’s ultra-high-definition 4K and high-dynamic-range videos on larger screens [TVs, over mobile phones and PCs],” Netflix international development officer Greg Peters said in a statement on Tuesday.
As local system-on-a-chip (SoC) suppliers pay more attention to smart TV chips, it would be crucial for Netflix to collaborate with Taiwanese companies such as MediaTek, MStar Semiconductor Inc (晨星半導體) and Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠) to deliver high-level streaming services, Peters said.
Netflix this week launched its Taiwan office in Hsinchu and hired a local engineering team, which is to be in charge of providing certification services for SoC manufacturers, connected TVs, game consoles, set-top boxes and mobile devices.
The company said it plans to develop strategic partnerships with Taiwanese companies and stream more local content to its subscribers around the world.
Netflix also plans to buy 20 Taiwanese “idol dramas,” including The Fierce Wife (犀利人妻), produced by SetTV (三立電視).
The dramas would be available later this year in Taiwan and elsewhere, the company said.
Netflix, which started providing its online streaming services in Taiwan in January, has about 81 million members in more than 190 nations.
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.
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