Taiwanese IC companies expect second half performance to surpass first half results driven by AI infrastructure demand and global CPU shortages
The majority of Taiwanese IC companies see second half performance surpassing the first half. Chips manufacturers financial report shows the driving force of the boom is still AI infrastructure demand, the demand ofagentic AI has resulted in an unexpected need for traditional servers and now there is a sudden lack of CPUs across the globe.
ASPEED, a chip manufacturer that specializes in server management ICs says the customer demand is still extremely high and the limitation for sales has now shifted from supply shortage in packaging instead of IC production. To break through, the firm has added another packaging partner, and predicts the sales will grow quarter by quarter during rest of the year where 3rd quarter higher than 2nd quarter and 4th quarter higher than 3rd quarter.
The industry has also seen a cyclical recovery on upstream materials suppliers. Silicon wafer manufacturer Formosa Sumco Technology said the industry has officially come out of its cyclical trough. Customers have started aggressive inventory build up and this leads to much improved order visibility during the second half of the year.
UMC, a contract chip manufacturer predicted that it will see its foundry business pick up during the second half of the year and will be driven by the very active power management IC market. UMC sees the increasing share in sales from the 22nm specialized manufacturing technology in terms of nearest expansion driven.
The picture is very mixed in IC design. Radio frequency chip designer RichWave predicts second half will be better than first half but warned against increasing memory material costs for new customer projects, although the ramp up in projects is already strong. On the other hand, High speed interface chip designers ASMedia remains cautious, warning that increased memory costs and CPU shortages will squeeze motherboard market and will accelerate development of proprietary product line.
