The age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the edge is here, companies cannot wait to showcase their solutions and AI PC products at Computex 2024, which will be hosted from June 4-7. Paradoxically, industry experts at the AI PC Industry Exploration Forum on May 16 predicted the phrase "AI PC" or "AI smartphones" will be obsolete in a few years.
Moore's Law is not advancing as fast as it used to be under 2nm and even into the Angstrom level, and competitors are trying to catch up. Can ASML, the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker, continue its monopolistic leadership in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment market?
Zinite is seeking to shake up the semiconductor industry through innovations in transistor architecture to achieve more chip performance density. Founded by Gem Shoute, Douglas Barlage, and Kenneth Cadien, and seeking to meet the demands of HPC, AI, and AGI by accelerating 3D chip adoption, Zinite's core technology is a thin-film transistor (TFT) with CMOS-level drive current and a large temperature process window, including channel material processing stability at 400C.
Recent data indicates an uptick in semiconductor industry inventories, particularly among top chip companies capitalizing on the AI trend. While China has witnessed a rise in listed semiconductor firms, it continues to face challenges, particularly in the memory business sector.
Industry sources predict that niche market memory prices will increase only marginally in 2024. However, by the second half of 2025, prices are expected to revert to pre-epidemic levels as supply and demand in the market realign.
Amazon participated in the private placement for SIP Core provider Alchip, purchasing around a 0.3% share in Alchip for US$16 million. Regarding this move, Bloomberg Opinion columnist Tim Culpan wrote on LinkedIn that in the current era of the AI development boom, having independent chip R&D capabilities is a major advantage in differentiating one's competitiveness.
To maintain its leading position in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Nvidia has mastered its CUDA software, constantly emphasized its affiliation with Taiwan and TSMC, and has even secured strong connections with the server supply chain in practice.
Amidst endeavors to cultivate a semiconductor ecosystem, India is purportedly contemplating creating an IP pool for semiconductor startups, mirroring the approach adopted by Taiwan in nurturing its semiconductor ecosystem.
Macroblock, a Taiwan-based LED driver IC design house, intends to avoid the red ocean sector and instead focus on increasing high-value-added products such as professional large-scale LED displays, XR display applications, and vehicle LED displays.
To sustain its chip design capabilities, Taiwan must advance its development of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools for 3D Heterogeneous Integration (3DHI) and explore next-generation EDA solutions. However, the dominance of companies like Synopsys and Cadence in the EDA market, along with the trend of emerging startups being swiftly acquired by them, raises questions about Taiwan's potential for EDA autonomy.
The US announced 25% to 100% tariff hikes on China-made EVs, batteries, semiconductors and other goods. Although the move does not impact South Korean industries for now, companies must tackle a new round of supply chain disruptions as US-China trade disputes heat up.
WPG will embrace various collaboration models, in addition to Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), to broaden its business scope in light of geopolitical shifts and changes in supply chains, according to the Taiwan-based IC distributor.
Suppliers are expanding their target regions to include India and Southeast Asia as consumer Microcontroller Unit (MCU) markets revive at different rates, according to industry sources.
From Nvidia and Microsft to Taiwan's TSMC, Quanta, Wistron, and Foxconn, companies are constantly exploring the future of their businesses with the theme of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
While governments in the US, Europe, India, and Japan are eager to strengthen domestic semiconductor supply chains with subsidies, Taiwan sees its irreplaceable role in helping global teams actualize their innovation faster than building fabs from scratch.
As the AI and HPC markets develop, high-performance computing is rapidly growing, driving the demand for high-speed transmission. Naturally, the complexity of chip design has also increased significantly, and communication between chips is a key factor in processing speed.
Google announced the launch of the sixth generation TPU called Trillium, boasting 4.7 times the computing power of TPU v5e and a doubling of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) performance, all while reducing energy consumption. Cloud customers can access it later in 2024, with an emphasis on utilizing liquid cooling technology.
Broadcom anticipates that AI chip revenue will contribute 35% to its semiconductor revenue in 2024, up sharply from 15% in 2023. The AI revenue for the year is estimated to soar past US$10 billion, more than double the 2023 level of US$4.3 billion.
NXP Semiconductors and Pegatron have announced plans to open a joint laboratory and work together on various automotive electronics applications. Their early partnership will concentrate on applications that can be implemented quickly, starting with smart cockpits.
The adoption of automotive Ethernet is increasing at a fast pace, which is likely to create significant economic prospects for related chip suppliers, according to industry sources.
