On April 30th, Chief Telecom (6561) announced its Q1 2025 financial report. Despite the shadow of global tariff wars, Chief has achieved revenue of NT$953 million, marking an 11.4% increase compared to the same period last year. After-tax earnings per share (EPS) reached NT$3.57, setting a new record high for the period and demonstrating robust “flywheel” growth momentum.
Amidst recent global economic concerns over tariff wars, Chief Telecom has demonstrated remarkable profitability. In the first quarter of this year, optimized product lines drove the gross profit margin above 50% for the first time, reaching 54.7%. Concurrently, the operating profit margin and after-tax net profit margin also saw significant year-over-year increases, hitting 38.8% and 29.3%, respectively. This impressive performance marks a “three-rate, three-rise” achievement for Chief Telecom.
Mr. Jerry Shao, Chairman of Chief Telecom, clarified that while global tariffs introduce uncertainties like increased operating costs and supply chain adjustments for many businesses, Chief Telecom’s business model remains resilient. As a provider primarily of intelligent data center, network, and cloud application services, Chief Telecom is not a manufacturer exporting to the U.S. and has thus avoided the direct impact of the ongoing tariff war. “We are, of course, closely monitoring the situation and remain vigilant,” stated Jerry Shao. “However, at present, these market fluctuations have not impacted the company’s operating costs.”
Mr. Johnny Liu, President of Chief Telecom, addressed market concerns about potential oversupply in data centers due to AI development, offering a different perspective. He explained that while major international cloud service providers like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in overseas IDC expansion, which might raise global concerns about rapid data center construction, Taiwanese IDC operators currently have no large-scale expansion plans in the short term. Therefore, Johnny Liu concludes that there’s no immediate concern about an oversupply of AI intelligent data centers in the domestic market.
“The emergence of DeepSeek is fueling the rapid development of AI application services, simultaneously driving demand across all industries in Taiwan for AI data centers,” stated Johnny Liu. He emphasized the need for data centers with high load capacity (2,000 kg/m²), water cooling, and superior heat dissipation. Johnny Liu further highlighted that Taiwanese AI servers can be produced within the local supply chain, offering an edge by being unaffected by export tariff costs. This makes Taiwan an exceptionally competitive location for investing in AI computing power centers to provide cross-regional services. Liu concluded, “Chief Telecom’s LY2 AI Data Center is the optimal choice for meeting the high-spec AI data center requirements.
Viewing the global economic situation, Chief Telecom anticipates Q2 revenue and profit to surpass Q1, maintaining an optimistic outlook for future operations. Chief is confident in setting new revenue and profit records for the full year.
Chief Telecom (6561) Historical Quarterly EPS Summary Table
| Quarter/Year | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Q1 | 1.81 | 1.98 | 2.11 | 2.38 | 2.79 | 2.88 | 3.11 | 3.57 |
| Q2 | 1.94 | 1.93 | 2.1 | 2.23 | 2.86 | 2.78 | 3.3 | – |
| Q3 | 1.78 | 1.87 | 2.15 | 2.49 | 2.64 | 2.94 | 3.33 | – |
| Q4 | 1.88 | 2.05 | 2.31 | 2.65 | 2.48 | 3.24 | 4.08 | – |
| Total | 7.41 | 7.83 | 8.67 | 9.75 | 10.77 | 11.84 | 13.82 | 3.57 |
Caption: Led by Chairman Jerry Shao (first left) and President Johnny Liu (third right), the Chief Telecom management team is highly confident in achieving new revenue and profit milestones for the current year. (Provided by Chief Telecom)
