Taiwan-based Faraday Technology, a fabless ASIC service and silicon IP provider, has revised upward its annual revenue growth forecast for 2022 to 60% from 50%, as market demand continues to outpace supply, and it is also optimistic about sales prospects for next year, according to company president Steve Wang.
At a recent investors conference, Wang said Faraday has secured additional capacity supply from foundry partners to meet strong order placements from clients, and all the available capacity will be fully utilized this year.
Wang continued that with total capacity in hands still unable to satisfy demand from clients, the company will actively seek more foundry capacity to serve them. He stressed Faraday is confident that its revenues will grow quarter by quarter in 2022, and the growth momentum will persist into 2023.
The company has reported its first-quarter 2022 revenues surged 21% sequentially and 109% on year reaching a record high of NT$3.21 billion (US$109.26 million). Its net earnings for the period shot up 40% on quarter and 295% on year to a new quarterly high of NT$670 million, more than half of its total annual profits for 2021.
Wang attributed the sharp revenue and profit gains to structural changes in the company's product deployments, with ASICs significantly gaining weight in its shipment portfolios due to their performance upgrades and diversified applications.
Shipments of ASICs grew 25% sequentially and 171% on year to NT$2.5 billion in the first quarter of the year, compared to NT$410 million in NRE (non-recurring engineering) design service incomes, which went up 12% sequentially and 20% on year; and NT$290 million in IP sales, rising 9% both on quarter and year, according to company statistics.
The company expects its ASIC orders to stay on a growth track under solid support from long-term clients, despite unfavorable macro environments and COVID impacts. It also estimates revenues for its three major product lines will see at least single-digit sequential increases in the second quarter.
