Lack of demand forces Nvidia to cut chip orders - report

GRAPHICS CHIP firm Nvidia has cut orders to its Taiwanese foundries for graphics chips but it's not alone, according to a report in the Taiwan Economic News today.

But the same report claims ATI has increased orders for its semiconductors to TSMC, and so has comms giant Qualcomm.

Broadcom, which said last week it had overstock of semiconductors, is also named in the report.

The newspaper claims that TSMC and UMC, the giants of the foundry business in Taiwan, are lowering their estimates of bouyant business with ST Micro also reducing orders of semiconductors at the factory.

It claims that other chip companies which use UMC and TSMC to make the chips they design are also reducing orders. Those chips include wireless LAN, TFT-LCD integrated circuits, power management, and mobile phone chips.

While the cuts may not have affect in the current third quarter, the newspaper reckons they will impact foundry firms' numbers in Q4.

Further, analysts covering chip stocks on Taiwanese bourse Taiex lowered estimates on the foundry makers over the weekend. µ