iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF

Semiconductor manufacturing is complex and involves design, fabrication, assembly, and testing. Building a fab requires investments of $3–4 billion.

A study by Bank of America Merrill Lynch noted that US labor is 2.6 times more expensive than Chinese labor, which could increase Apple’s product prices by 20%.

The Russian economy fell by 0.6% on an annual basis in July—compared to Market expectations of a 1.0% decline and lower than a decline of 0.5% in June.

Taiwan’s economy rose by 0.7% on an annual basis in 2Q16—compared to a contraction of 0.29% in the previous quarter and slightly above estimated forecasts.

Nvidia is looking at new revenue streams beyond gaming while aiming to tap every possible way of generating revenue from gaming.

To become cost-competitive, Micron is increasing its capex from $5.0 billion in fiscal 2017 to $7.5 billion in fiscal 2018.

For fiscal 2Q18, Micron expects to improve its gross margin to 56.0% at the midpoint.

In the DRAM market, Micron expects to achieve bit crossover on 1X DRAM by the end of 2018.

Micron Technology (MU) is the third-largest DRAM (dynamic random access memory) manufacturer in the world, after Samsung (SSNLF) and SK Hynix.

Micron is thriving in a strong memory environment, wherein increasing DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and NAND prices are driving earnings.

AMAT expects demand for OLED displays to remain high for the coming few years as the market faces a supply shortage.

Apple’s (AAPL) revenue in Greater China fell 14% YoY (year-over-year) from $12.5 billion in fiscal 2Q16 to $10.7 billion in fiscal 2Q17.

In response to AMD’s Threadripper, Intel announced an 18-core, 36-thread i9 processor for the very high-end market at the Computex Taipei show in Taiwan.

Currently, institutional investors own 81.1% and insiders own 0.69% of the total outstanding shares of Micron.

NVIDIA’s product strategy NVIDIA (NVDA) has officially unveiled its next-generation Volta architecture. Whenever the company develops a new architecture, it first launches it on the Tesla GPU (graphic processing unit) platform for data centers because it commands a higher price than other platforms. Then it launches the architecture on the GeForce gaming platform, as its […]

The early production ramp up for Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 8 doesn’t seem to indicate an early launch of the smartphone.

In 2017, Apple sued Qualcomm for unfair licensing practices, accusing it of charging unfair royalties for “technologies they have nothing to do with.”

Taiwanese manufacturer, Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn, is expected to be a major beneficiary of the iPhone 8 super-cycle.

The contract manufacturers don’t intend to withhold royalty payments, but they aren’t getting the cash from Apple.

A higher allocation to Asia could certainly provide diversification benefits to investors while enhancing their risk-adjusted returns.

The EAFE Index provides exposure to slow-growing developed markets while disregarding Asia’s fast-growing markets (FXI) (INDA).

For the last three decades, Asia has posted higher economic growth than any other region of the world.

Things are heating up in the GPU space as AMD looks to enter the high-end market with its Vega GPU. Vega will be priced competitively, likely creating a price war between AMD and NVIDIA.

Apple’s (AAPL) revenue from Greater China, which includes China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, fell 14.0% YoY.

Cypress (CY) is rumored to be in the process of securing a smartphone design win for its USB type-C port from Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (SSNLF).

Micron Technology (MU) has achieved a 25% cost reduction by transitioning from 25nm to 20nm.

Micron Technology (MU) entered the 3D NAND market earlier than its competitors, as its planar NAND did not deliver good returns.

Nvidia’s (NVDA) move from GPUs to a GPU platform-based business model contributed to its exceptional growth in fiscal 2017. Nvidia’s earnings touched new highs as its revenues rose 38% year-over-year.

Apple’s (AAPL) revenues from Europe rose 3.0% to $10.5 billion, and its revenues from the Asia-Pacific region rose 8.0% to $5.9 billion.

Cypress Semiconductor (CY) is becoming a complete embedded solutions provider.

In fiscal 1Q17, Micron’s non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) gross margin was 25.0%, a rise of seven percentage points from fiscal 4Q16.

Xilinx (XLNX) is moving ahead of Intel (INTC), not only in FPGA (field programmable gate array) adoption but also in technology node.

The key highlight in Micron’s fiscal 1Q17 earnings will be the integration of Inotera, which should be quickly accretive to its gross margins, EPS, and FCF.

Micron Technology will have to raise ~$2.5 billion to fund its joint venture acquisition of Inotera, and this move will add to its already high leverage.

AMAT is the world’s largest manufacturer of SME (semiconductor manufacturing equipment) and supplies to chipmakers around the world.

Sales fell 30% in Greater China Apple’s (AAPL) revenue from Greater China, which includes China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (EWT), fell 30% YoY (year-over-year) from $12.5 billion in fiscal 4Q15 to $8.8 billion in fiscal 4Q16. The United States continued to be Apple’s largest market, generating revenue of $20.2 billion in fiscal 4Q16. However, this […]

Qualcomm earns revenue by selling mobile chips and by licensing its technology to other handset makers. Let’s first look at the core business of QCT.

According to Strategy Analytics, Apple is now the fifth-largest smartphone player in China.

China’s trade surplus widened to $52.3 billion in July from $48.1 billion in the previous month. It’s expected to narrow to $47.6 billion.

The inflation rate in Taiwan rose by 1.2% in July on an annual basis—above expectations of 1.1% growth and last month’s rise of 0.91% in consumer prices.

Apple’s revenue from Greater China fell 33% YoY (year-over-year) from $13.2 billion in fiscal 3Q15 to $8.8 billion in fiscal 3Q16.

The official manufacturing PMI for China, published by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, came in at 49.9 for July—slightly below June’s reading of 50.

The inflation rate in Malaysia increased by 1.6% on an annual basis in June—compared to 2.0% in the previous month and below forecasts of 1.6%.

The central bank of Colombia increased interest rates on June 22, 2016, by 25 basis points to 7.5%, which was in line with expectations. This was its tenth consecutive hike in benchmark rates.

Micron’s technology transition will slow down the output and revenue in the short term. The company will be able to meet advanced memory products’ needs.

One of the most important growth drivers for Apple in China is the growing percentage of people in China’s upper middle class.

Taiwan (EWT) is the largest semiconductor manufacturer, housing the world’s top two foundries, namely TSMC (TSM) and UMC (United Microelectronics).

Taiwan’s semiconductor revenue rose 16.7% year-over-year to $72.5 billion in 2014, driven by an increasing demand for chips used in smartphones and Internet of Things products.

A fabless company only focuses on chip designing and a foundry focuses on manufacturing the chips designed by fabless firms.

While China’s official PMI held above 50 for two consecutive months, the PMI figures released by HSBC Markit paint a grim picture of China’s economy.