Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), which assembles electric vehicles for Fisker Inc and Lordstown Motors Corp, yesterday signed an agreement with Taisic Material Corp (盛新材料) to invest NT$500 million (US$16.79 million) by subscribing to Taisic’s share issue through its investment subsidiary, the latest in a slew of steps made by Hon Hai to build an electric vehicle chip ecosystem.
The deal with Taisic would help Hon Hai gain better access to silicon carbide (SiC) substrates, a key component in building electric vehicles, it said in a statement.
The investment would give Hon Hai a 10 percent stake in Taisic, one of the very few Taiwanese companies capable of producing multiple types of 6-inch SiC.
Photo, Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
“SiC substrate is a key part of the electric vehicle supply chain, as it accounts for a large portion of overall SiC semiconductor costs,” Bob Chen (陳偉銘), president of Hon Hai’s semiconductor business group, said in the statement.
“The company hopes to have better control of SiC substrate supply via this investment,” he said.
To broaden its semiconductor portfolio, Hon Hai in May acquired a 30 percent stake in Advanced Power Electronics Corp (APEC, 富鼎) for about NT$2.89 billion through XSemi Corp (國創半導體), a semiconductor joint venture with passive component supplier Yageo Corp (國巨).
APEC is one of the nation’s biggest makers of metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), a device that is widely used for switching and to amplify electronic signals.
Hon Hai yesterday said that it expects this year to complete the deployment of its first SiC production line in Hsinchu at a 6-inch fab it purchased last year from Macronix International Co (旺宏電子).
That would provide a strong base for Hon Hai to tap into auto chips, it said.
Hon Young Semiconductor Corp (鴻揚半導體) helps operate the chip production line.
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
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
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