Wiwynn Corp (緯穎), a developer and manufacturer of artificial intelligence (AI) servers, yesterday posted annual growth of 79.5 percent in net profit for last quarter as customers showed a strong appetite for cloud-based computing devices.
Net profit jumped to NT$4.69 billion (US$143.9 million) last quarter, compared with NT$2.62 billion in the second quarter of last year. However, on a quarterly basis, it represented a decline of 0.3 percent from NT$4.71 billion, which was an all-time high.
Gross margin improved to 10.8 percent last quarter from 8.8 percent a year earlier, but fell from 11.1 percent in the first quarter.
Photo: CNA
Wiwynn said it holds an upbeat view about cloud devices and AI-based server market demand in the long term.
To cope with business growth, the company’s board of directors yesterday approved a proposal to inject US$500 million into its US subsidiary, Wiwynn International Corp, with an aim to boost operational capital and optimize its financial structure.
The company in June said that AI servers accounted for about 20 percent of its total revenue in the first quarter and it expected rapidly growing demand would help boost the revenue contribution of AI servers to about 50 percent in the fourth quarter of this year.
At the time, Wiwynn said part of its revenue might come from servers outfitted with Nvidia Corp’s new Blackwell graphic processing units.
The company’s revenue soared 76.23 percent year-on-year to NT$31.12 billion last month, compared with NT$17.66 billion a year earlier, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday.
Compared with NT$30.76 billion in June, revenue edged up 1.17 percent last month.
During the first seven months of the year, revenue expanded 20.27 percent year-on-year to NT$178.23 billion from NT$148.29 billion.
The AI boom is not only giving a boost to AI server makers such as Wiwynn, but also prompted chip tester King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電子) to significantly raise its capital spending in response to strong demand for testing services for AI and high-performance computing chips.
King Yuan, which provides chip testing services for Nvidia, yesterday said it plans to increase its capital expenditure to a record NT$13.83 billion for this year, from its previous estimate of NT$5.31 billion.
The company yesterday posted NT$3.27 billion in net profit for the first half of this year, up 19.78 percent from NT$2.73 billion in the same period last year.
Gross margin improved to 34.18 percent during the first half from 32.89 percent a year earlier.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
CHANGING JAPAN: Nvidia-powered AI services over cellular networks ‘will result in an artificial intelligence grid that runs across Japan,’ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said Softbank Group Corp would be the first to build a supercomputer with chips using Nvidia Corp’s new Blackwell design, a demonstration of the Japanese company’s ambitions to catch up on artificial intelligence (AI). The group’s telecom unit, Softbank Corp, plans to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer to support local services, it said. That computer would be based on Nvidia’s DGX B200 product, which combines computer processors with so-called AI accelerator chips. A follow-up effort will feature Grace Blackwell, a more advanced version, the company said. The announcement indicates that Softbank Group, which until early 2019 owned 4.9 percent of Nvidia, has secured a