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.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales