Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (TSEM) shares gained 7.64% to trade at $29.44 in pre-market on Thursday, June 24, 2021, as of this writing. Yesterday, TSEM’s stock gained 0.40% to close Thursday’s session at $27.35. TSEM shares have risen 37.30% over the last 12 months, and they have moved down 0.83% in the past week. Over the past three months, the stock has lost 0.91%, while over the past six months, it has declined 11.00%.
Let’s see what are the latest news about TSEM?
ST and Tower join forces
On June 24, 2021, STMicroelectronics announced that it has reached an agreement with Tower Semiconductor to participate in its Agrate R3 300mm fab under construction at its Agrate Brianza site. Tower and ST will collaborate for an accelerated fab ramp-up, which is a key factor to achieve a high utilization level and thus competitive wafer costs. In R3, ST will share a cleanroom with Tower, which will install equipment in one third of the space.
Participation at 2021 IMS
Tower Semiconductor Ltd recently shared technology papers at IMS 2021 and co-hosted the RFIC conference which held on Monday, June 21, 2021. The conference was co-hosted by RFIC, addressing emerging and high-volume semiconductor markets and the company demonstrated breakthrough figureof of merit performances using Tower Semiconductor process device technologies.
Recent financial results
OnMay 12, 2021, Tower Semiconductor released its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2021.
Q1 2021 financial highlights
- Tower Semiconductor earned a revenue of $347 million inQ1 2021 compared to $300 million in the first quarter of 2020.
- In Q1 2021, gross profit was$70 million in Q1 2021 compared to $53 million in Q1 2020.
- Operating profit was $32 million in Q1 2021 compared to $16 million in the first quarter of 2020.
- The company net profit was $28 million, or $0.26 basic and diluted earnings per share in Q1 2021 as compared to a net profit of $17 million or $0.16 basic and diluted earnings per share in Q1 2020.
- Total operating cost and expenses were $37.34 million in Q1 2021 compared to $36.1 million in Q1 2020.
- In Q1 2021, operational activities generated a cash flow of $87 million with an investment in fixed assets of $49 million.
Use of Tower’s Hi-K VIA capacitor memory in AI-in-Imager products
On May 6 2021, AIStorm and Tower Semiconductorsaid that AIStorm’s new AI-in-Imager products will use AIStorm’s electron multiplication architecture and Tower’s Hi-K VIA capacitor memory instead of digital calculations to perform AI computation at the pixel level.
The Hi-K via capacitors reside in the metal layers and thus allow the AI to be built directly into the pixel matrix without any compromise on pixel density or size, and also results in saving multiple die packaging costs and power required of competitive digital systems.
Conclusion
The recent collaboration of STMicroelectronics with Tower Semiconductor is the reason behind TSEM early pre-market surge on Thursday. TSEM stock can continue to surge in the rest of the week, based on its recent developments.
