Wiwynn Corp (緯穎), a supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers and components, yesterday said it more than tripled its capital expenditure for this year to NT$18 billion (US$548.2 million) in its latest efforts to expand its global manufacturing footprint amid a growing requirement to divert production away from Mexico due to tariff hikes by the US.
That compared with a budget of NT$5 billion last year. This year’s outlay primarily aims to fund the construction of a newly announced US$300 million factory in Texas and a new factory in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹), which is under construction, as well as additional capacity expansions at existing plants in Mexico and Malaysia, Wiwynn chief financial officer Harry Chen (陳昌偉) told investors.
“We have to equip ourselves with countermeasures in response to the capricious [tariff] situation,” Chen said. “Any changes in US tariffs policy will not sway our decisions to build a US fab.”
Photo: Nathan Laine, Bloomberg
Wiwynn did not aim to make the Texas fab a substitute for its Mexican plants, but to offer an extra option for customers and greater flexibility in choosing manufacturing sites to help them address the tariffs issue, Chen said.
Some customers requested to stop delivering servers from Mexico entirely and to shift production to Wiwynn’s factories in the Czech Republic or Malaysia, while some customers chose to pay 25 percent tariffs and stick to their original production plans in Mexico, he said.
Mexico is a major server manufacturing hub for Wiwynn, making up about 70 percent of its total server capacity.
Wiwynn yesterday gave an upbeat business outlook, fueled by strong demand from the world’s major cloud service providers (CSP), which plan to expand capital expenditure by a double-digit percent this year versus last year. Wiwynn counts US-based CSPs Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp among its major clients.
On top of that, the company said it is scheduled to ship GB200-powered AI servers later this quarter as requested by its customers. That would mark the first time Wiwynn has tapped into the AI server market based on Nvidia Corp’s AI chips.
“We are bullish about customers’ demand in 2025 on the back of strong capital expenditure by CSPs,” Chen said. “Both AI servers and general-purpose servers are growing this year.”
With the takeoff of generative AI applications, servers have become an essential item for CSPs, Chen said.
None of them can afford risking operating under insufficient computing power and scant memory storage, he added.
“AI-related demand is sustaining. It is not just a short-lived [phenomenon],” Chen said.
Strong revenue last month reinforced the company’s positive view, he said.
Revenue last month surged 91.22 percent year-on-year to a new record high of NT$46.51 billion, he said.
That brought revenue in the first two months of this year to NT$84.02 billion, a spike of 95 percent from the same period last year.
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