Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) announced the launch of the "IC Taiwan Grand Challenge" on May 14 to attract global IC-related teams to Taiwan to propose research, development, and commercialization plans and leverage the semiconductor ecosystem and capabilities.
The South Korean government is planning a comprehensive semiconductor investment support program, with a scale exceeding KRW10 trillion (US$7.304 billion). The aim is to strengthen South Korea's position in the semiconductor industry.
With the rise of AI, SK Hynix has successfully developed a new mobile NAND Flash solution called ZUFS (Zoned UFS) 4.0, targeting on-device AI applications.
Polar Semiconductor, the only US-based manufacturer specializing in sensor, power, and high-voltage semiconductors, disclosed plans to expand its Bloomington, Minnesota manufacturing facility and branch into innovative technologies to serve new customers and markets.
Intel has announced the appointment of Kevin O'Buckley as senior VP and GM of Foundry Services, the customer service and ecosystem operations division of Intel Foundry. O'Buckley starts immediately and joins Intel's executive leadership team, reporting to CEO Pat Gelsinger.
Taiwan-based IC design firms have been coping with aggressive price slashing from China-based competitors, in one of the most challenging situations the industry has faced for more than a year, which threatens to derail future prospects and profitability for Taiwan-based players, say industry insiders.
Huawei has recently launched its Pura 70 series smartphones featuring its in-house developed Kirin 9010 application processors made using SMIC's 7nm N+2 manufacturing process.
Although Taiwanese IC design companies generally have a grasp on demand for the second quarter, when it comes to the demand situation for the second half of the year, most manufacturers remain relatively cautious. Almost all of them believe that the visibility of orders for the second half of 2024 is still limited.
Suppliers of Power Management ICs (PMICs) may encounter challenges in bolstering their sales momentum for DDR5 PMICs in the coming years, due mainly to the market penetration of DDR5 being constrained by the rapid rise of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), according to Global Mixed-mode Technology (GMT), a PMIC specialist based in Taiwan.
Introspect Technology, a Canadian private company, introduced its M5512 GDDR7 Memory Test System, which is designed for testing GDDR7 memory controllers, GDDR7 physical layers, and GDDR7 SGRAM chips, less than one month after the graphics memory specification was announced in March 2024.
SMIC released its first-quarter financial report for 2024, with revenue performance showing a year-on-year increase of 19.7% to $1.75 billion, slightly better than market expectations and comparable to UMC. It also indicated continuous growth in shipment volume and a capacity utilization rate of 80.8%, higher than 76.8% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 68.1% in the first quarter of 2023, showcasing a significant improvement.
An Indian startup is commercializing globally significant Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductor technology with applications in wireless transmitters and 5G networks.
Lam Research is expanding its investments to help India grow a chipmaking ecosystem. India-based Mindgroove Technologies introduced a RISC-V SoC to meet local demands.
The US will triple its domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity from 2022—when the CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS) was enacted—to 2032. The projected 203% growth is the largest projected percent increase in the world over that time, according to a recent SIA report.
Display Driver IC (DDI) specialist Raydium Semiconductor expects to post slight revenue growth in the second quarter of 2024, thanks to a pick-up in demand for large-size DDIs.
Chinese tech conglomerate Huawei has dismissed rumors that it is increasing efforts in PC chip R&D, to launch the Kirin X series PC processor line in 2024.
Intel confirms that one of its customers' export license was revoked and would impact its second-quarter sales in 2024 to fall to the lower range between its US$12.5-13.5 billion projection for the quarter, according to a document submitted to the US Security Exchange Commission.
Since the official shipment of the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine in 2017, ASML has sold about 200 units of EUV equipment, critical to manufacturing advanced chips.
Hung-chang Hsieh, CEO of the IC distributor Alltek Technology, stated that in recent years, the increase in interest rates has led to higher financial costs and changes in industry trends.
Apple has revealed the M4, the latest silicon chip designed by Apple that will first power the new iPad Pro series. Apple was less tight-lipped about AI than before during its recent event, stating several times that the M4 can provide exceptional performance in AI computing with only a quarter of the power consumption.
Chinese mature-node foundries collaborate with the country's domestic IC design firms, including MCU businesses, to provide capacity support and offer competitive pricing, according to industry sources.
SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to acquire Graphcore Ltd., a struggling British semiconductor startup once valued at $2.8 billion, according to people familiar with the deals.
Taiwan's prowess in semiconductors cannot be underestimated, exceeding even that of Intel, and the 10-year NT$300 billion Taiwan Chip-driven Industrial Innovation Program (TCIIP) approved by the Executive Yuan will further solidify Taiwan's position at the forefront of the semiconductor industry, according to Frank Huang, chairman of the Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC).
