Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday became the most expensive stock on the Taiwan Stock Exchange after its share price rose by the daily limit for a second consecutive day to close at NT$2,380 due to a strong revenue forecast.
It was the first time that Alchip outpaced Aspeed Technology Inc (信驊), the world’s biggest supplier of baseboard management controllers for servers, which closed at NT$2,355.
Alchip was one of the most actively traded stocks yesterday with total turnover of NT$8.58 billion (US$268.6 million), Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Photo: screen grab from the Alchip Technologies Ltd Web site
AI server maker Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) and AI accelerator supplier Wistron Corp (緯創) ranked the most and second-most active stocks respectively as investors continued betting on the AI boom.
Alchip, a designer of application specific ICs, on Friday last week raised its revenue forecast for this year to between US$900 million and US$950 million, from its previous estimate of US$900 million in May, thanks to soaring inquiries about AI chip supply.
That meant the company’s revenue would be two times higher than the US$460 million it posted for last year.
Growth momentum is set to carry into next year and 2025, thanks to more AI chip orders and new revenue contribution from auto chips, the company said during a quarterly teleconference on Friday last week.
The growth would be also fueled by higher demand from its major North American customers next year, reversing Alchip’s earlier worries of a diminishing order book, which would possibly decline 30 percent year-on-year.
“We are confident about our business this year. We anticipate that 2023 will be another record-breaking and outstanding year for Alchip,” company president Johnny Shen (沈翔霖) told investors.
The company said tight supply of advanced chip packaging CoWoS capacity from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would lead to a single-digit percentage decline in revenue this quarter, compared with US$258.57 million last quarter.
TSMC’s supply would be abundant starting next year, given the company’s close partnership with the foundry service provider, Alchip said.
Alchip counts Amazon.com Inc and Intel Corp among its AI chip customers. Chips used in high-performance computing devices, notably servers, made up 81 percent of the company’s revenue last quarter.
Seven-nanometer technology made up 87 percent of the company’s revenue last quarter.
With customers upgrading their technologies, Alchip expects 3-nanometer chips to contribute revenue in the second half of this year.
The company’s net profit last quarter surged 65.1 percent year-on-year and 25.2 percent quarter-on-quarter to US$23.92 million. That translated into earnings per share of US$10.16.
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