IC distributor WPG posted strong revenue figures for the second quarter of 2024, with vice president Scott Lin expecting the third quarter to be the peak of the year in terms of both market growth and prices, and an optimistic outlook for the latter half of 2024.

IC distributor WPG Holdings expects memory prices to rise by more than 60% in 2024.

Taiwanese PCB makers have particularly targeted the automotive market in their investments. The simultaneous expansion of their operations in Thailand reflects their clients' emphasis on a "China+1" production strategy. Furthermore, the Thai government's focus on electric vehicles (EVs) as a priority industry has attracted companies from Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and China to expand production in the country.

Nvidia is said to be making major changes to the shipment roadmap for its next-gen Blackwell chips.

As the flagship smartphone AP battleground officially enters the 3nm era in the second half of 2024, MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Apple are all said to be preparing chips with vast performance improvements. In addition to more advanced processes, these improvements also benefited from enhanced designs and NPU processing power to facilitate AI functionality.

In their latest earnings report, mobile chip giants MediaTek and Qualcomm both maintained their previous forecasts for the smartphone market in the second half of 2024. Both companies believe that annual smartphone shipments in 2024 will see only a slight improvement over 2023 levels at best, and may even remain flat.

As AI servers continue to drive momentum, some companies have been teaming up in pursuit of potential opportunities. As an example, server chassis maker Chenming Electronic Tech (aka Uneec) has joined forces with cooling module suppliers TaiSol and Kaori, as well as connector company Lotes, to jointly bring out liquid-cooled server cabinets by the fourth quarter of 2024.

Photomask company Taiwan Mask Corporation (TMC) has acquired four seats on optical component manufacturer TrueLight's board, during the latter company's board of directors election.

Industry leaders continue to voice their optimism for AI PCs, with Acer chairman Jason Chen drawing a comparison with the explosion of the internet in the late 1990s, and Wistron president Jeff Lin saying that AI PCs will gradually take off.

Even with the slow recovery in the PC market, continued healthy demand for motherboards and the AI server trend have helped Asus and Gigabyte maintain revenue growth into April 2024, with Gigabyte, in particular, seeing single-month revenue reach a record high in April.

As an exclusive ODM supplier for AMD's desktop chipsets, ASMedia Technology saw inventory turnover boost its gross margin to 59% in the first quarter of 2024, a marked improvement of 6% over 2023. Net income after tax in the first quarter increased sequentially by 31% to NT$886 million (US$27.3 million), marking a 10-quarter high, and a year-on-year improvement of 127%, while earnings per share stood at NT$12.8.

Even with the slow recovery in the PC market, continued healthy demand for motherboards and the AI server trend have helped Asus and Gigabyte maintain revenue growth into April 2024, with Gigabyte, in particular, seeing single-month revenue reach a record high in April.

As an exclusive ODM supplier for AMD's desktop chipsets, ASMedia Technology saw inventory turnover boost its gross margin to 59% in the first quarter of 2024, a marked improvement of 6% over 2023. Net income after tax in the first quarter increased sequentially by 31% to NT$886 million (US$27.3 million), marking a 10-quarter high, and a year-on-year improvement of 127%, while earnings per share stood at NT$12.8.

Smart manufacturing and edge computing trends have led to renewed demand in the Industrial PC (IPC) market.

Apple is expected to rebound from a lackluster first half of 2024, with shipments of both iPhones and Mac computers picking up in the latter part of the year, say supply chain sources. As mere hardware refreshes can no longer stimulate consumer purchases, market attention has focused almost exclusively on AI and foldable screens; in Apple's case, however, implementing AI into their products may be the quicker option.

As the global EV market experiences a slowdown, and even market leader Tesla is forced to begin layoffs, high-end precision stamping company China Fineblanking Technology (CFTC) has not seen a reduction of orders from its EV clients, says chairman Huang I-Hsiang.

TSMC offered its take on market developments at its quarterly earnings call on April 18: while demand for AI-related high-performance computing (HPC) continues to grow, the same cannot be said for other applications.

Taiwan-based testing interface giant Winway Technology, a manufacturer of Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) and Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) testing devices, expects growth across the entire year in 2024, with demand rebounding for AI devices and consumer electronics. In addition, with optical communications using Wi-Fi 7 and 5G standards on the rise, the company's silicon photonics wafer-level CPO testing system has been certified by its clients, leading to a significant increase in market inquiries.

According to April Huang, general manager of the networking and communication business group (NCG) at Qisda, inventory adjustments among the company's customers during the second half of 2023 exceeded expectations, which may lead to a pessimistic forecast for the first half of 2024. However, growth is still expected for the entire year. Huang, who is also chairwoman of Qisda subsidiaries Alpha Networks, Hitron Technologies, and Interactive Digital Technologies, notes that companies should optimize for the long run during operational lows, which is why the corporate group has been integrating production and R&D resources across its three network and communications subsidiaries, while more clearly defining the missions and business strategies of each company.

According to industrial production statistics released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on January 29, the electronic component industry finally saw a year-on-year growth of 10.73% in January 2024, ending 16 consecutive months of negative growth. Even with a lower baseline due to the Lunar New Year holidays falling in January 2023, the industry saw increased production of 12-inch wafers, large-sized panels, and IC designs.

Leading server baseboard management controller (BMC) supplier Aspeed predicts a single-digit slide in server shipments for 2024, in contrast with forecasts from numerous server ODMs anticipating a rebound in shipment numbers. In particular, according to most forecasts, shipments of general-purpose servers will see single-digit growth, while AI server shipments will double.

As smartphone makers continue to commit to foldable phones, all eyes are on Apple's expected efforts in this space. However, recent signals have been mixed as some sources believe Apple has halted development due to quality issues, while others point to a 2026 launch for Apple's foldables. According to Taiwan-based supply chain sources, Apple has been developing foldables for the past five years, and its first foldable product will not be a smartphone. It will instead be a larger device.

With Windows 12 delayed until 2025, according to supply chain rumors, Microsoft will instead focus on an AI-centric update to Windows 11 in mid-2024. During this year's Computex Taipei, Microsoft will collaborate with Qualcomm and Intel to integrate Windows on Arm efforts and x86 architecture into a new wave of AI PCs.