AblePrint Technology Co (APT, 印能科技) yesterday said it expects strong revenue growth this year due to robust demand for advanced packaging for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chips.
AI applications helped prop up APT’s revenue in the second half of last year thanks to rising demand for advanced chip packaging technologies, including chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, or CoWoS, fanout packaging and panel-level packaging, the Hsinchu-based firm said.
That compares with a slump in the first half of last year, when most semiconductor companies suffered from an inventory-driven correction, it said.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
In the first two months of this year, revenue increased 88.13 percent year-on-year to NT$218 million (US$6.93 million), company data showed.
APT supplies burn-in ovens and related technologies to address major issues faced by customers in the manufacturing processes — from void eliminations to void-free soldering and package warpage suppression.
The company counts Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the world’s leading chip packagers among its customers.
“As our customers are growing, we will be growing, too,” APT chairman Auger Horng (洪誌宏) told a media briefing in Taipei.
APT wants to “wow” investors with substantial revenue growth this year, Horng said, implying that growth could be as high as 50 percent from a year earlier.
The company has a good order visibility of six months this year, he said.
China and North America are the two markets with the greatest growth potential, he added.
APT reported a 30 percent annual decline in revenue last year to NT$1.19 billion.
Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia accounted for 70 percent of the company’s revenue last year, it said.
Net profit last year plummeted 29 percent to NT$549 million from NT$776 million a year earlier.
Gross margin improved to 66.3 percent from 65.8 percent.
In light of the growing AI business, APT plans to set up a sales office in the US, as customers are building new chip packaging factories in the US and Mexico, the company said.
North America leads global demand for AI chips, it said.
APT is to start trading on the Emerging Stock Board today at NT$489 per share.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the