Donald Trump wants to overturn US Chips Act + Lufthansa profits slump + DHL expects little earnings growth in 2025 + Merck aims for further profitable growth in 2024 after uprising + Kontron share price jumps to record high after order

Donald Trump wants to overturn US Chips Act

• Should the US government actually stop payments or cut commitments, this would affect many US companies: Although reporting is dominated by Intel $INTC (+0,66 %), Micron $MU (+5,2 %), Samsung $005930and TSMC $2330, which will receive up to 8.49 billion US dollars. But also Texas Instruments $TXN (-0,25 %), Applied Materials $AMAT (+3,11 %)and the University of Arizona will also receive money.
• In addition, a number of small companies are to receive between 200,000 and 300,000 US dollars. All projects can be found in a list maintained by Nist. In the case of Intel, the loss of subsidy commitments could exacerbate the current crisis.

Lufthansa $LHA (+2,35 %)Profit collapses

• Strikes, higher costs and lower ticket prices caused Lufthansa's profits to plummet last year.
• The core brand Lufthansa Airlines was even in the red in its day-to-day business, as the MDax-listed company announced in Frankfurt on Thursday.
• Group-wide operating profit before special items therefore slumped by over one billion to around 1.65 billion euros.
• For the current year, CEO Carsten Spohr is aiming for a "significant" improvement.
• The already announced restructuring program should contribute to this.
• Last year, Group airlines such as Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian and Eurowings carried 131 million passengers, seven percent more than in the previous year.
• Turnover increased by six percent to 37.6 billion euros.
• Unlike the passenger division, the cargo subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo and the maintenance division Lufthansa Technik were also able to increase their operating profit.
• The bottom line was a Group-wide surplus of just under 1.4 billion euros, 18 percent less than in the previous year.
• Nevertheless, shareholders are to receive an unchanged dividend of 30 cents per share.

DHL $DHL (+2,96 %)expects only little earnings growth in 2025

• The logistics group DHL is implementing a cost-cutting program to combat sluggish global trade and the uncertain geopolitical situation.
• This is accompanied by the reduction of 8,000 jobs in the German mail and parcel business, as the company announced in Bonn on Thursday.
• CEO Tobias Meyer sees "both shadow and light" for the Group in the US customs policy.
• Meanwhile, the Bonn-based DAX-listed company expects only a sluggish improvement in earnings in 2025, after 2024 performed somewhat better than analysts had feared.
• "We continue to expect an operating result (EBIT) of over 7 billion euros in the medium term," Group CEO Tobias Meyer told the financial news agency dpa-AFX.
• He had previously targeted earnings before interest and taxes of more than EUR 7 billion for 2026.
• Similar to Brexit, the number of shipments is expected to decline on the one hand, while on the other hand DHL is likely to gain in added value, for example because more shipments will have to be cleared through customs.
• On this basis, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) are expected to increase slightly to at least EUR 6 billion in 2025.
• However, analysts surveyed by the company had estimated a median of 6.3 billion euros.
• At the same time, free cash flow is expected to remain stable at EUR 3.0 billion and thus be slightly better than expected, as in 2024.
• In 2024, the DAX-listed company earned EUR 5.9 billion in day-to-day business, a good 7 percent less than in the previous year.
• However, the operating result did not fall quite as sharply as analysts had feared.
• At 3.0 billion euros, the free cash flow was also better than experts had expected.
• DHL therefore met the targets it had set itself.
• At EUR 3.3 billion, the bottom line for shareholders in 2024 was a good 9 percent less profit than in 2023.
• The Board of Management intends to propose a stable dividend of EUR 1.85 per share at the Annual General Meeting.
• The share buyback program is to be increased by EUR 2 billion to EUR 6 billion and extended until 2026.

Merck $MRK (-0,63 %)aims to continue to grow profitably after the upswing in 2024

• After a weak previous year, day-to-day business at the pharmaceutical and technology group Merck KGaA has picked up again in 2024.
• The final quarter was above average.
• CEO Belen Garijo now wants to build on the upswing in the current year.
• "Merck is back on course for growth with all three businesses," said the manager in a statement on Thursday.
• "In 2025, we will once again grow profitably across the entire company."
• Shareholders are to receive a stable dividend of 2.20 euros for the past year.
• According to the statement, Merck is targeting sales of EUR 21.5 to 22.9 billion in the current year, which corresponds to organic growth of three to six percent.
• Adjusted for special effects, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) are expected to increase organically by three to eight percent to EUR 6.1 to 6.6 billion.
• Last year, Group revenue climbed by 0.8 percent year-on-year to EUR 21.16 billion, supported by good business with medicines and semiconductor materials for artificial intelligence (AI).
• Since the second half of the year, there have also been signs of an upturn in the laboratory division, after the division had suffered from weak demand for a long time following the coronavirus boom.
• The Group also kept its costs in check.
• Adjusted for special effects, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) increased by 3.3% to almost EUR 6.1 billion.
• Merck's sales and operating result were thus in line with its own targets and also more or less in line with analysts' expectations.
• Due to higher taxes, however, the Darmstadt-based company earned just under EUR 2.79 billion, around two percent less than in the previous year.

Kontron $KTN (+6,05 %)share price jumps to record high after order

• Following an order, Kontron shares reached a record high of EUR 23.34 on Wednesday.
• Most recently, the share price rose by 12.9 percent to EUR 23.18 and was one of the top positions in the small cap index SDax.
• The Austrian technology group announced a further order from the automotive industry worth 40 million euros.
• This involves the delivery of highly developed sensor technologies.
• This should at least benefit the perception of the share, commented a trader.
• On February 20, Kontron had announced an order with a total volume of 250 million US dollars over several years from a "leading supplier to the automotive industry".

Thursday: Stock market dates, economic data, quarterly figures

• ex-dividend of individual stocks
• Qualcomm USD 0.85
• BHP Group AUD 0.80

• Quarterly figures / company dates USA / Asia
• 22:00 Broadcom quarterly figures
• 22:05 Hewlett Packard Enterprise quarterly figures
• No time specified: Costco Wholesale | Universal Music Quarterly figures

• Quarterly figures / Company dates Europe
• 07:00 Lufthansa | DHL Group | Merck KGaA | Siltronic | Ströer | Zalando | Aareal Annual results
• 07:30 Compugroup Medical | Prosiebensat1 | Dürr | GFT Technologies | Air France-KLM | Bouygues Annual results
• 08:00 Deutsche Beteiligungs AG | Reckitt Benckise Annual Results
• 09:00 DHL Group Analyst Conference | Aareal Bank | Zalando BI-PK | Ströer Analyst and Press Conference
• 09:30 Lufthansa BI-PK
• 10:00 Merck KGaA PK | Siltronic Analyst Conference | Dürr BI-PK
• 10:45 Zalando Analyst Conference
• 11:00 DHL Group BI-PK
• 11:30 Prosiebensat1 BI-PK
• 12:30 Lufthansa Analyst Conference
• 14:00 Merck KGaA Analyst Conference | Dürr Analyst Conference
• 18:00 Vivendi Annual Results
• No time specified: Andritz | Solvay Annual figures

• Economic data

08:00 DE: Services turnover December

11:00 EU: Retail Sales January Eurozone FORECAST: +0.1% yoy previous: -0.2% yoy

12:00 TR: Turkish Central Bank, outcome of the Monetary Policy Council meeting Key interest rate FORECAST: n/a previously: 45.00%

14:15 EU: ECB, outcome of the Governing Council meeting and staff projection for growth and inflation in the eurozone Deposit rate FORECAST: 2.50% previously: 2.75%

14:30 US: Initial jobless claims (week) FORECAST: 235,000 previously: 242,000

14:30 US: Trade Balance January FORECAST: -128.7 bn USD previously: -98.4 bn USD

14:30 US: Productivity ex Agriculture (2nd release) 4Q annualized PROGNOSE: +1.2% yoy 1st release: +1.2% yoy 3rd quarter: +2.3% yoy Unit labor costs PROGNOSE: +3.0% yoy Preliminary: 1st release: +3.0% yoy Previously: 3rd quarter: +0.5% yoy

$MU (+5,2 %)

The memory manufacturer Micron has now presented its first SSD with a 5th generation PCIe interface for end consumers. The new connection to the system should ensure significantly higher data transfer speeds.

Four capacity classes

The Micron 4600 comes in the M.2-2280 format and is available in four storage configurations: 512 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB and 4 TB. According to Micron, the new SSD doubles the bandwidth compared to the previous Gen4 SSDs. According to the manufacturer, the sequential read and write speeds reach up to 14.5 gigabytes per second and 12 gigabytes per second respectively, which represents a significant improvement on the previous Micron 3500 model.

The random read and write speeds have also been improved and reach up to 2.1 million IOPS. Data-intensive applications in particular, such as various AI applications and the training of large language models (LLMs), benefit from these performance increases.

In addition to the improvements over previous SSD generations, the Micron 4600 offers up to 11 percent more performance than other current PCIe Gen5 models according to the PCMark10 benchmark, the company explained. And significantly better results were also achieved in the SPECwpc5 benchmarks. However, independent tests of the SSD will have to show whether this is actually achieved in everyday practice.

Soon in finished PCs

In addition to the improved speeds, the new SSD also scores with optimized energy consumption. Thanks to the G9 TLC NAND technology, the Micron 4600 works more efficiently and consumes up to 8.5 watts at maximum performance. In addition, the average operating time is specified as two million hours.

The Micron 4600 PCIe Gen5 SSD is now available for OEM partners worldwide. It should therefore soon be found in high-end computers from various manufacturers that rely on the latest AMD Ryzen 9000 and Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors. It has not yet been announced when the memory will be available in retail stores and how much it will cost.

Summary

Micron presents first PCIe Gen5 SSD for consumers

The new SSD achieves read speeds of up to 14.5 GB/s

Available in capacities from 512 GB to 4 TB in M.2-2280 format

Improved random read and write performance

Optimized energy consumption thanks to G9 TLC NAND technology

Initially available for OEM partners worldwide

Retail availability and pricing not yet known

https://m.winfuture.de/news/148955

Yesterday I sold my position in Micron with about 10% profit. Compared to others here, that's not a huge amount of course, but you don't have 10% gains every day and so I preferred to play it safe now, especially when I was down over 10% for a month before.

Now I just have to think about where to reinvest the money.

Today is shopping with a discount

$NVDA (+4,27 %)

$MU (+5,2 %)

these items have been extended today💪

Semiconductor stocks and electricity shares are falling today because of the Deepseek panic. This panic is probably exaggerated. We'll talk about it in tonight's podcast. So be sure to subscribe to the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3SHlvxmpYWkpiWnykajNPa

Semiconductors:

-12% Broadcom $AVGO (+1,39 %)

-12% TSMC $2330
$TSM (+0,95 %)

-11% Nvidia $NVDA (+4,27 %)

-11% BE Semiconductor $SMH (+2,44 %)

-11% ARM Holdings $ARM (+5,03 %)

-11% ASML $ASML (+2,7 %)

-9% Dell $DELL
$DELL (+2,84 %)

-9% Micron $MU (+5,2 %)

-6% AMD $AMD (+2,64 %)

-5% KLA $KLAC (+4,22 %)

Power stocks:

-20% Siemens Energy $ENR (+3,69 %)

-15% Bloom Energy $BE (+1 %)

-14% GE Vernova $GEV (+3,61 %)

-13% Vistra $VST (+4,56 %)

-11% Schneider Electric $SCHNEIDER

#deepseek
#openai
#ai
#ki
#china
#podcast
#spotify
$SPOT (+5,99 %)
#semiconductor
#halbleiter

Today, my overweighting of the semiconductor sector is once again falling flat on its face.

Which stocks would you sell and why? Or would you stick with it everywhere?

$NVDA (+4,27 %)
$HY9H (+4,84 %) . $QCOM (+2,15 %) . $MU (+5,2 %)
$ASML (+2,7 %)
$8035 (+2,02 %)

$TSM (+0,95 %)
$2330

• Revenue: $26.24B (Est. $25.83B) ; +39% YoY
• Net Income: $11.31B (Est. $11.17B) ; +57% YoY
• Gross Margin: 59.0% (Est. 58.5%) ; +53% YoY
• Oper. Margin: 49.0% (Est. 48.1%)
• FY25 CapEx: $38B - $42B (Est. $35.15B)
• FY24 CapEx: $29.76B (Est. ~$29.5B)

Q1'25 Guidance:

• Revenue: $25B - $25.8B (Est. $24.43B)
• Gross Margin: 57% - 59%
• Operating Margin: 46.5% - 48.5% (Est. 46.4%)
• Management expects a ~5.5% sequential revenue drop (smartphone seasonality) but sustained robust AI demand.

Long-Term Revenue CAGR: ~20% (2024-2028)

• AI-related revenue was mid-teens percent of total in 2024 and is expected to double in 2025, with a ~40% CAGR for AI accelerators through 2029.
• AI & HPC cited as main growth engines
• Smartphone & PC segments also gain from higher silicon content

Q4 Process & Segment Details:

• Wafer Shipments: 3.418M; UP +15.6% YoY
• ASP per wafer: ~$6,850 (FY basis); UP +19% YoY
• Advanced Technologies (7nm & below): 74% of total wafer revenue (vs. 69% in Q3)
• 3nm: 26% (vs. 20% in Q3)
• 5nm: 34% (vs. 32% in Q3)
• 7nm: 14% (vs. 17% in Q3)

Q4 revenue by product platform

• HPC (incl. AI): 53% (vs. 51% in Q3) - HPC up +69% YoY
• Smartphone: 35% (vs. 34% in Q3)
• IoT: 5%
• Automotive: 4%
• Consumer Electronics: 1%
• Others: 2%

Q4 Revenue by Geography

• North America: 75% (vs. 71% in Q3)
• China: 9%
• Asia Pacific (ex-China): 9%
• Japan: 4%
• EMEA: 3%

Capital Expenditure:

• FY24 CapEx: $29.76B (Est. ~$29.5B)

- ~70% allocated to advanced nodes (N3, N2)

- ~10-20% for specialty tech & non-wafer (e.g., advanced packaging, mask)

• Sees FY25 CapEx: $38B - $42B (Est. $35.15B)

- "Higher than 2024" to fund advanced nodes (N3, N2) & packaging expansions

- Overseas fabs contribute to increased spending

Advanced Packaging (CoWoS, SoIC):

• ~8% of revenue in 2024; expected to exceed 10% in 2025
• "Any rumors about CoWoS order cuts are simply not true. We continue to increase capacity."

Comment from the management:

Sales drivers and overall performance in the 4th quarter

• "We attribute our sales performance in the fourth quarter to strong demand for 3 nm and 5 nm process technologies."
• "Advanced technologies (7nm and below) accounted for 74% of total wafer sales compared to 69% in the third quarter."

Full year 2024 and future outlook

• "TSMC expects 2025 to be another strong growth year, with revenue growth of over 20% in US dollar terms."
• "Over the next five years (from 2024), we expect a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 20%, driven primarily by AI-related demand and the continued growth of silicon content in smartphones and PCs."

• "In 2024, AI-related revenue was a mid-double-digit percentage of TSMC's total revenue. It is expected to double by 2025 as the strong increase in AI demand continues."

• "We expect a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40% for AI accelerator revenue over the next five years (2025-2029). This is an important driver for future growth."

AI demand, HPC and HBM

• "Memory will grow overall, but HBM (High-Bandwidth Memory) will grow very fast."

• "Demand for AI has more than tripled at TSMC in the last year and we expect it to more than double again in 2025."

• "We continue to see a robust demand profile in AI and can only hope that we can get enough teams and capacity together to support this growth."

Comment on rumors and expansion abroad

• "Rumors about capacity cuts at CoWoS are just rumors - we are continuing to expand our capacity. There are no plans to cut orders."

• "Factories abroad, including in the US and Japan, have an annual gross margin dilution effect of 2-3%, mainly due to smaller scale and higher supply chain costs. We expect this 2-3% margin effect to continue over the next five years."

• "Taiwan will always be the first to ramp up new nodes due to its proximity to our R&D labs (Hsinchu). Other factories abroad will follow depending on customer demand and government support."

• "Our factory in Arizona has started mass production of N4. The second factory is on schedule to produce N3 or N2 technology. Japan's second factory is planned for 2025 and Europe's first factory is also on schedule."

Non-AI markets and silicon content

• "Smartphones are still experiencing low single-digit growth, but the trend towards higher silicon content (AI features, advanced functions) will drive further growth and shorten replacement cycles."

• "PC is similar: overall unit growth is modest, but AI features in PCs are increasing, leading to advanced nodes and higher ASP."

Export controls and demand from China

• "We believe the new US export rules are manageable. We will apply for special licenses for customers as needed, especially in the automotive, industrial or other non-AI use cases."

• "China remains an important market, but currently only accounts for around 9-10% of sales. We continue to work within the regulatory framework."

Silicon photonics and packaging

• "We've had some technical success with silicon photonics, but we probably won't reach significant volumes for another year to a year and a half."

• "Advanced packaging accounted for over 8% of sales in 2024 and is expected to be over 10% in 2025. Our margins for advanced packaging are still slightly below the company average, but are improving."

• "The demand for CoWoS is extremely high for HPC and AI. Other applications (such as smartphones or PCs) may adopt CoWoS in the future, but for now the focus is on AI."

HBM, partnerships and supply chain

• "We are working with all memory manufacturers to provide advanced logic for HBM controllers. It could be another 1.5 years before significant product production from HBM-related logic makes a big revenue contribution."

• "We do not see TSMC as a bottleneck for AI demand. We are expanding capacity for advanced packaging (CoWoS) as quickly as possible and working with memory partners to align capacity."

Margins & pricing strategy

• "We operate in a capital-intensive business and therefore need a healthy gross margin to continue investing in advanced technologies. Pricing must reflect this."

• "We are seeing several cost headwinds including N3 ramps, N2 R&D, conversions from N5 to N3, inflationary pressures and higher costs overseas. We remain confident that we will achieve a gross margin of ~53% or more in the long term."

• "For wafers produced in the US, we are discussing with customers how they will bear the higher costs. Customers understand that the cost structure is different."

Further questions and answers for CEO/CFO

• "We don't comment on competitors' IDMs, we just say that they are important customers. This business is important to us."

• "AI includes CPUs, GPUs, ASICs and HBM logic for HPC/data centers. Edge AI could create 5-10% more chip area in smartphones/PCs, further driving the adoption of advanced nodes."

• "Currently, SoIC is mainly used in AI applications, but we expect more applications in the future."

• "We expect continued strong growth in the AI sector in 2026, although we have not yet made a specific forecast. Our focus is on ensuring sufficient capacity."

• "We are focused on narrowing the cost gap between factories in the US and Japan, but realistically the scale will remain smaller than Taiwan for years to come."

Final note from the CEO

• "2025 will be another strong year. We expect a 20% increase in sales in US dollars, driven by AI and our advanced technologies. We are ramping 3nm and preparing for N2 and beyond to maintain TSMC's technology leadership."

$ASML (+2,7 %) , $ASML (+2,65 %) , $NVDA (+4,27 %) , $AMD (+2,64 %) , $KLAC (+4,22 %) , $QCOM (+2,15 %) , $INTC (+0,66 %) , $MU (+5,2 %) ,

$NVDA (+4,27 %)

• NVIDIA ANNOUNCES PROJECT DIGITS PERSONAL COMPUTER PRICED AT $3,000.

• Nvidia $NVDA CEO Jensen Huang just said he thinks self driving vehicles will likely be the first multi trillion dollar robotics industry

• KION $KGX (+6,3 %) NVIDIA and Accenture optimize supply chains with AI-powered robots and digital twins (German)

• Uber $UBER (+2,2 %) Teams Up with NVIDIA to Accelerate Autonomous Mobility

• $MU (+5,2 %) NVIDIA CEO HUANG: MICRON PROVIDES MEMORY FOR NEW GPUS

• Toyota, Aurora, and Continental Partner with $NVDA NVIDIA for Autonomous Vehicle Revolution

• $NVDA Nvidia Launches Cosmos World Foundation Model Platform to Accelerate the Development of Physical AI

Nvidia Cosmos is a platform of state-of-the-art generative World Foundation

models (WFM), advanced tokenizers, guardrails and an accelerated

accelerated data processing and curation pipeline that enables the

development of physical AI systems such as autonomous vehicles (AVs) and

• robots