Recently, multiple IC design manufacturers including MediaTek, MediaTek, Ruiyu, and Weier have announced their latest performance. According to TrendForce Consulting, the top ten global IC design companies in the second quarter of 2023 are NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Broadcom, AMD, MediaTek, Marvell, Novatek, Realtek, Will Semiconductor, and MPS, respectively. From the recent performance of major manufacturers, benefiting from the wave of AI models, customer inventory levels in the mobile phone industry have gradually returned to normal levels. Driven by the release of multiple new products, the revenue growth and performance of the mobile phone business have rebounded.

Nvidia: Future data centers are the focus of development

NVIDIA previously announced its fourth quarter and fiscal year results as of January 28, 2024. It is reported that Nvidia's fourth quarter revenue was $22.1 billion, compared to $6.051 billion in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 265% and a month on month increase of 22%. Among them, data center revenue was 18.4 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 409% and a month on month increase of 27%. The net profit for the quarter was 12.285 billion US dollars, compared to 1.414 billion US dollars in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 769% and a month on month increase of 33%. Overall, Nvidia's revenue for the fiscal year was $60.922 billion, compared to $26.974 billion in the previous fiscal year. Net profit was $29.76 billion, compared to $4.368 billion in the previous fiscal year.

NVIDIA CFO Huang Renxun emphasized the planning of data center business. He pointed out that the current data center business is undergoing two important industry transformations, one is the shift from general computing to accelerated computing, and the other is the shift towards generative artificial intelligence. Huang Renxun mentioned that the growth of general computing is gradually losing momentum, so Nvidia will focus on accelerating computing by improving computing efficiency and reducing costs to meet the growing market demand.

Qualcomm: Continuously Promoting Deep Integration of AI and Smartphones

Previously, Qualcomm announced its first quarter results as of December 24, 2023, with revenue of $9.935 billion, a 5% increase from $9.463 billion in the same period last year; The net profit was 2.767 billion US dollars, an increase of 24% from the same period last year's 2.235 billion US dollars. It is reported that Qualcomm's QCT business revenue increased by 7% year-on-year to $8.423 billion. Among them, the revenue of mobile phone chips increased by 16% to 6.687 billion US dollars; The revenue of the automotive business increased by 31% year-on-year, reaching 598 million US dollars; The revenue from IoT business was 1.138 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 32%. In addition, the revenue of authorized business QTL was 1.46 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 4%.

Qualcomm pointed out that the growth of its mobile phone business reflects the demand in the Android market, while the record breaking performance of its automotive business reflects Qualcomm's strong development momentum in this field. Last December, Qualcomm released the next-generation flagship mobile platform Snapdragon 8Gen3, which is now available on almost all Android flagship devices released this year. The Snapdragon 8Gen3 is the first to bring the AI big model to the mobile phone side, bringing a new experience of combining AI with smartphones, which is also the latest trend in the future development of mobile phones.

Broadcom: This year's performance will continue to benefit from the AI wave

In mid March, Broadcom released its first quarter financial report for the 2024 fiscal year. It is reported that the company's revenue in the first quarter was 11.961 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 34.2% and a month on month increase of 28.7%. The net profit was 5.25 billion US dollars, slightly lower than the previous year. Among them, the revenue of Broadcom's semiconductor business was 7.39 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 4%, accounting for 62% of the total revenue; The gross profit margin is 67%, a year-on-year decrease of 1.9%. The growth of AI business offset the decline of Broadcom Telecom's business. It is reported that Broadcom Software's revenue was 4.57 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 105%, accounting for 38% of the revenue. It is worth noting that at the end of 2023, Broadcom spent nearly $70 billion to acquire virtualization and cloud service technology provider VMware, and contributed $2.1 billion in revenue 10.5 weeks after the merger. Thanks to VMware, Broadcom's software bookings increased from $600 million month on month to $1.8 billion, and will grow to over $3 billion in the next quarter.

Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom, stated that artificial intelligence revenue in the first quarter doubled compared to the same period last year, reaching $2.3 billion, far offsetting the losses caused by the current cyclical slowdown. The company's latest estimate is that revenue from artificial intelligence accounts for approximately 35% of semiconductor revenue, exceeding $10 billion, which is sufficient to offset the weaker than expected demand for broadband and server storage.

AMD: Latest Chip Release Boosts Performance Growth

AMD previously released its financial reports for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023. The revenue in the fourth quarter was 6.168 billion US dollars, an increase of 10% compared to the same period last year's 5.599 billion US dollars; The net profit was 667 million US dollars, a significant increase of 3076% compared to the same period last year of 21 million US dollars. AMD's annual revenue was $22.68 billion, a decrease of 4% compared to $23.601 billion in the fiscal year 2022; The net profit was $854 million, a 35% decrease from the net profit of $1.32 billion in the fiscal year 2022.

It is reported that the revenue of AMD Data Center Business Unit in 2023 was 6.5 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 7%, mainly due to the strong growth of AMD Instinct GPUs and the fourth generation AMD EPYC CPUs; The revenue of the client business unit was 4.7 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 25%, mainly due to the decline in the PC market; The revenue of the gaming business unit was 6.2 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 9%; The revenue of the embedded business unit was 5.3 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 17%, mainly due to the integration of the annual revenue of the acquired Serenius.

MediaTek: Flagship smartphone chip revenue is expected to grow by over 50% this year

On April 26th, MediaTek held a performance briefing for the first quarter of 2024, stating that its revenue for the quarter was NT $133.458 billion, a month on month increase of 3% and a year-on-year increase of 39.5%; The gross profit margin was 52.4%, a month on month increase of 4.1%, and a year-on-year increase of 4.4%; The net profit was NT $31.655 billion, a significant increase of 87.4% year-on-year.

Regarding performance growth, MediaTek CEO Cai Lixing stated that MediaTek's revenue for all product categories this year will grow compared to the previous year, with mobile phone revenue growth being higher than other categories. Due to the strong market share expansion in the flagship mobile phone market and the high average unit price of flagship mobile phone chips, there is confidence that the annual revenue growth of mobile phones will be higher than the median percentage, and the revenue of flagship mobile phone chips is expected to grow by more than 50%. The first quarter exceeded the operational target range by a high standard, mainly due to better than expected demand for inventory replenishment from mobile phone, broadband, and television customers.

Cai Lixing pointed out that with customers strongly replenishing inventory in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, shipments in the second quarter have returned to their normal trajectory, and revenue is expected to decrease within 9% of the quarter. For mobile phones, Cai Lixing stated that the next generation flagship chip, the Dimensity 9400 chip, will be upgraded to 3 nanometers in process, with more powerful computing performance, and will continue to use the Arm architecture. Currently, he has received quite positive feedback from customers and is expected to be launched in the second half of this year. He will be the leader in edge device SoC.

Marvell: The data center terminal market continues to benefit from the AI wave

Previously, Marvell Technology Group announced its fourth quarter and fiscal year results as of February 3, 2024. It is reported that the net revenue in the fourth quarter was 1.427 billion US dollars, compared to 1.419 billion US dollars in the same period last year. The quarterly net loss was 393 million US dollars, compared to a net loss of 15.4 million US dollars in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 769% and a month on month increase of 33%. The revenue for this fiscal year was $5.51 billion, compared to $5.92 billion in the previous fiscal year. The net loss for the fiscal year was $933 million, compared to a net loss of $164 million in the previous fiscal year.

Mr. Matt Murphy, Chairman and CEO of Marvell, stated that Marvell's fourth quarter revenue exceeded expectations, and the revenue growth brought by artificial intelligence was even more astonishing. Marvell's data center terminal market revenue increased by 38% month on month and 54% year-on-year.

Lianyong: Optimistic about AI application business opportunities, PC/NB will experience a wave of device upgrades

Recently, Lianyong held a performance briefing stating that its revenue in 2023 was NT $110.429 billion, an annual increase of 0.43%; The gross profit margin is 41.85%, with an annual decrease of 4.48%; The net profit was 26.662 billion yuan. The revenue in the fourth quarter was 27.154 billion yuan, with a quarterly decrease of 6.14% and an annual increase of 21.11%; The gross profit margin is 41.48%, with a quarterly decrease of 0.77%; Net profit of 6.306 billion yuan.

From the perspective of the three major product lines, Lianyong's revenue in the fourth quarter of last year accounted for 35% for small-sized driver ICs, about 26% for large-sized driver ICs, and 35% for SOC. Lianyong stated that due to insufficient rebound in demand for consumer electronics terminals, manufacturers adjusted inventory at the end of the year, resulting in a decrease in revenue in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter. The gross profit margin in the fourth quarter was better than expected due to cost reduction, inventory depreciation recovery, and NRE revenue contribution. Looking ahead to the first season, Lianyong's expected revenue ranges from 24 billion yuan to 25 billion yuan; The gross profit margin ranges from 38.5% to 40.5%; The expected operating profit margin is between 19.5% and 21.5%. Looking ahead to the whole year, Wang Shouren, Vice Chairman of Lianyong, stated that he is optimistic about the business opportunities of AI applications, and there will be a wave of PC/NB upgrades, which is a new growth opportunity for the company.

Ruiyu: This year, switches, automotive, vehicular networking, and wired network communication chips will gradually shift towards higher speed specifications

Recently, Realtek Semiconductor released its first quarter financial report data, and it is reported that the company achieved a revenue of NT $25.623 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.5%. At the same time, the company also achieved a gross profit margin of 50.8% and a net profit margin of 10.7%. In addition, the inventory days of Ruiyu in the first quarter decreased to 81 days, a significant decrease from 104 days in the fourth quarter of last year, indicating that the company's operational efficiency and inventory management capabilities have been further improved.

For future prospects, Ruiyu stated that this year, switches, automotive, vehicular networking, and wired network communication chips will gradually shift towards higher speed specifications, which is expected to drive the stable growth of the company's related businesses. However, Ruiyu holds a cautious attitude towards consumer electronics chip businesses such as PCs.

Weier Shares: Benefiting from the recovery of smartphones, performance has rebounded

On April 26th, Weier Group released its annual report for 2023 and the first quarter report for 2024. In the first quarter of this year, Weier Group achieved a revenue of 5.644 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.18%; The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 558 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 180.5%. In 2023, Weier Group's total revenue was 21.021 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.69%. Net profit was 556 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 43.89%; The net profit after deduction was 138 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.70%.

According to the public financial reports of Weir Group in the past two years, Weir Group reached its highest level of inventory in the third and fourth quarters of 2022. Afterwards, inventory adjustments will be initiated. The inventory adjustment in the first half of 2023 was effective, and by the fourth quarter, the inventory sales ratio had reached 1.06, returning to normal inventory levels. The latest news from the first quarter of this year is that, benefiting from the recovery of smartphones, Weier Group has begun to proactively replenish inventory. In the first quarter of this year, the gross profit margin increased by 3.17% year-on-year and 4.99% month on month, mainly due to improved demand and a rise in high-end CIS prices.