Yageo Corp (國巨), one of the world’s top three passive component suppliers, said its products have been widely used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications, including servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI chips, which has helped to boost its AI-related business’ revenue contribution to about 5 percent.
This growing revenue from AI has been one of Yageo’s major achievements of the past six years, as the company transforms itself into a premium passive component supplier and shakes off cut-throat price competition from Chinese rivals in the standard components segment, Yageo chairman Pierre Chen (陳泰銘) told reporters on the sidelines of an AI summit arranged by the company in Taipei on Thursday.
Yageo has also dramatically reduced China’s revenue contribution to about 24 percent last year, versus as high as 78 percent in 2017, Chen said.
Photo: CNA
As part of its efforts to expand its product spectrum, Yageo dived into the AI sector about five years ago, concentrating on developing components and technologies to enhance power efficiency for AI applications, Chen said.
In Taiwan, Yageo has risen to become the largest supplier of X6S multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC), a high-capacity MLCC that is used in AI servers, Chen said.
“We have been deeply involved in the AI [sector]… Yageo will not be absent from any areas linked to AI applications,” he said.
“A majority of the market’s main AI players are our customers from Taiwanese assemblers to overseas AI companies,” he added.
As a long-term supplier to Nvidia, Yageo has also expanded its ability to supply high-capacity MLCCs for Nvidia’s latest and most powerful GB200 superchip through companies on Nvidia’s approved vendor list, the company said.
Global hyperscalers such as Amazon.com Inc and tech giants such as Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp are keen on investing in servers and data centers to help customers doing AI training and referencing over the next few years.
Chen said that he expected Yageo to benefit from this AI boom.
Yageo develops passive components to enhance power management and power efficiency for customers’ AI products to address the power consumption issue, it said.
Last year, Yageo was the world’s biggest producer of polymer tantalum, which is mainly used in AI servers.
Aside from servers, Yageo’s components also can be found in a wide range of chips that are used in laptops, accelerator cards, switches and autonomous vehicles.
“Yageo now is not the company as it was known 10 years ago,” Chen said.
The MLCC business only accounts about 17 percent of the company’s total revenue, as it has broadened its product portfolios through a series of mergers and acquisitions, Chen said.
In 2017, it accounted for half of the company’s overall revenue.
Magnetic components were Yageo’s biggest revenue source at 30 percent during the first half of this year, company data showed.
As supply chain management becomes an increasingly complicated challenge, Yageo has been tasked to provide a total solution to customers, Chen said.
Passive components only make up a mere 5 percent of customers’ component costs, he added.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media