Largan Precision Co (大立光), a supplier of smartphone camera lenses to Apple Inc, on Saturday reported that its sales for last month are its highest in 23 months after new phone launches increased orders.
The company posted NT$5.21 billion (US$161.88 million) in consolidated sales, up 24 percent from a year earlier and also up 2 percent from a month earlier, it said in a statement.
Last month’s sales were the company’s highest since November 2020, when its revenue was NT$5.24 billion, company data showed.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The rising sales momentum last month, a traditional peak season, largely came after Apple Inc’s launch of the iPhone 14 series in September, analysts said.
Largan is one of Apple’s largest suppliers.
Lenses with a resolution of 20 megapixels or more — a higher-margin product and one of Largan’s specialties — accounted for 10 to 20 percent of Largan’s sales last month, the company said.
Lenses of 10 to 20 megapixels accounted for 50 to 60 percent of Largan’s sales, 8 to 10 megapixel lenses comprised about 10 percent, and other products such as voice coil motors constituted 30 to 40 percent of sales, the company said.
In the first 10 months of this year, Largan’s consolidated sales stood at about NT$38.50 billion, up 1.02 percent from a year earlier, reversing a 2 percent year-on-year fall in the first nine months.
Sales for this month are expected to remain little changed from last month as clients continue to launch new smartphones, Largan said.
Largan shares rose 5.25 percent last week from the previous month, closing at NT$1,905 on Friday, after foreign institutional investors registered a net buy of its shares for five trading sessions in the week.
The increase outperformed the TAIEX, which rose by only 1.86 percent for the week.
US SANCTIONS: The Taiwan tech giant has ended all shipments to China-based Sophgo Technologies after one of their chips was discovered in a Huawei phone Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) after a chip it made was found on a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) artificial intelligence (AI) processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product. Sophgo said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that it was in compliance with all laws
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
TECH TITANS: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple again on Friday after becoming the world’s largest company for a short period in June, as Microsoft fell to third place Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been
SPECIALIZIATION: OpenAI is designing a new type of semiconductor with Broadcom that would run artificial intelligence software and respond to user requests OpenAI is working with Broadcom Inc to develop a new artificial intelligence (AI) chip specifically focused on running AI models after they have been trained, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The AI start-up and chipmaker are also consulting with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest chip contract manufacturer, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. OpenAI has been planning a custom chip and working on such uses for the technology for about a year, but the discussions are still at an early stage, the sources said. OpenAI declined
RSS