Wistron Corp (緯創), which supplies graphics processing unit (GPU) server modules to Nvidia Corp, yesterday said it expects sales this year from non-PC products to rise to 25 percent of total revenue, up from last year’s 20 percent, driven by growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products.
Revenue from GPU-based AI servers, GPU accelerator cards, AI modules and AI systems is expected to triple this year, compared with annual growth of 50 percent last year, the company said.
PACKAGING SHORTAGE
Photo: Samyukta Lakshmim, Bloomberg
Wistron blamed a shortage of chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging capacity for its “conservative” growth last year.
“We expect to see a triple-digit percentage growth in revenue generated by AI products this year,” Wistron chief executive officer Jeff Lin (林建勳) told an online investors’ conference.
“The second half would be better than the first half in terms of AI business,” he said.
Wistron has secured orders from multiple enterprise customers in the AI business, Lin said.
The company has also expanded its AI product portfolio to include GPU accelerator cards, he said.
CAPEX PLAN
This year, Wistron plans to spend about NT$14 billion (US$445 million) on capacity expansion in Taiwan, Vietnam and Mexico, with half of the funds being allocated to Taiwan, it said.
In the US, Wistron is to set up a new production line to serve customers there, it said.
On the PC front, Wistron expects its notebook computer revenue to grow by up to 5 percent annually this year, after emerging from a slump last year, Lin said.
Overall, the company’s revenue is not expected to show significant growth this year, capped by a tepid world economy and geopolitical tensions, Wistron chairman Simon Lin (林憲銘) said.
The company’s target is to raise its profitability by optimizing product lineups, he said.
IPHONE EXIT
Wistron expects to wrap up the disposal of its US$125 million of Indian assets this quarter, as the company is shifting away from iPhone assembly to AI servers.
The company in October last year agreed to sell its iPhone assembly business in India to Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Tata Group.
Wistron reported the strongest profit in about 12 years last year, as its transformation efforts started to bear fruit.
Net profit rose 2.8 percent to NT$11.47 billion, compared with NT$11.16 billion in 2022. Earnings per share climbed to NT$4.08 from NT$4.01.
Gross margin edged up to 7.96 percent last year from 7.08 percent in the prior year, hitting an all-time high.
The company’s board of directors approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.6 per share, the same as last year. That represented a payout ratio of 64 percent.
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