Stefan Mileschin

Off-set by server and high-end chip demand

SK Hynix has warned that there will be slower growth in smartphone chip sales, this year but this would be offset somewhat by robust demand for server and other high-end chips.

Increasing signs of a maturing global smartphone market have fueled expectations that last year’s boom in chip demand is moderating and so will earnings growth.

The South Korean chipmaker met market expectations with a 77 percent jump in first-quarter operating profit to $4 billion. That was short of last quarter’s best-ever result, ending a run of four consecutive quarters of record profit.

TSMC warned last week of softer smartphone demand, cutting its revenue target and sending shares of key client Apple and as well as other chip firms lower, but like SK Hynix, the world’s No. 2 memory chip maker it was quick to stress it also had areas of strong growth up its sleeve.

SK Hynix head of DRAM marketing Sean Kim told an earnings briefing.“Although overall growth in smartphone sales will stagnate, China’s big four smartphone firms are leading the accelerated adoption of high-capacity chips,”

“As for servers, North American internet data centre firms as well as Chinese firms led by Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are increasing investment,” he added.

Prices for DRAM chips, which help devices perform multiple tasks, have risen as servers, gaming PCs and cryptocurrency mining devices demand more firepower to process large amounts of streaming data.

https://fudzilla.com/news/mobile/461...chip-slow-down