Brand manufacturer Asustek (2357-TW) has been actively deploying in the AIoT field in recent years. After acquiring a 30% stake in Ruichuan, a subsidiary of Zhenhua Electronics (8114-TW), for 1.5 billion yuan last year, it also evaluated its own smart factory and recently joined hands with Taiwan The university jointly established a research and development center. According to Asustek’s plan, this quarter will not rule out further investment in Ruichuan, which will further increase the shareholding ratio to 45%.
ASUS is actively expanding business in fields such as artificial intelligence and AIoT. Among them, AIoT applications target three areas: smart manufacturing, smart medical, and smart retail. Internally, various business units are encouraged to develop innovation, entrepreneurship, and new technology through industry-university cooperation and strategic alliances. , The layout of application fields such as the innovation ecosystem.
In February last year, ASUS took a major share in Zhenhua Electronics Co., Ltd. Ruichuan, and strengthened the AIoT layout of the two parties. It plans to start with AIoT servers. ASUS R&D and Ruichuan will be responsible for the foundry. ASUS planned that within one year, A further 15% stake in Ruichuan will be acquired to deepen the cooperation between the two parties. In this regard, Asustek only stated that the direction of its mid- to long-term shareholding plan remains unchanged.
However, observing the layout of Asustek in the field of smart manufacturing, it also plans to invest nearly 3 billion yuan to set up smart production lines and smart factories in Taiwan. It is reported that smart production lines will be applied first in Ruichuan factories, and for its own smart factories, it will find another In terms of location construction, Asustek stated that it will prioritize targeting a small variety of AIoT and server products affected by tariffs for product line planning.
In terms of operation, Asustek believes that the notebook and motherboard industries will still be in short supply in the first quarter of next year, and the PC market will remain positive. According to the evaluation of orders in hand, there are still 2-3% of orders that cannot be met. , The effect of shipping delay continues. As for the IC shortage, it is expected to continue to improve next year, but it still cannot be completely relieved.
