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.

Several media reports that young American engineers complained about working at TSMC. How about Japanese engineers? Would they be holding grudges too?

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.

Power Management IC (PMIC) design house Silergy is confident that the Chinese market will recover at a faster rate than other markets.

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.

Alchip Technologies, a Taiwan-based ASIC service and silicon IP provider with AWS as its main client, has announced that Amazon will subscribe to its shares via private placement.

DDR4 is expected to reach the mature stage of its life cycle this year, resulting in a rise in sales volume and pricing.

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.