GlobalFoundries and Qualcomm have announced they are more than doubling their existing strategic global long-term semiconductor manufacturing agreement previously entered into by GF's and Qualcomm's respective subsidiaries. Today's announcement secures wafer supply and commitments to support US-based manufacturing through capacity expansion at GF's most advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility in Malta, New York.

Sumco, a key supplier of silicon wafers for the semiconductor industry, said it has already sold out its production capacity through 2026, a sign shortages in the industry may not abate for years.

Heavy investment is needed to increase capacity in the semiconductor industry and there is no immediate danger of oversupply, the CEO of Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML said on Wednesday.

Verizon continues to be a leading corporate buyer of US renewable energy, announcing seven new Renewable Energy Purchase Agreements (REPAs) for an aggregate of approximately 910 megawatts (MW) of projected renewable energy capacity. These agreements position the company to achieve its goal to source or generate renewable energy equivalent to 50% of its total annual electrical consumption by 2025.

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage will construct a new 300-milimeter wafer fabrication facility for power semiconductors at its main discrete semiconductor production base, Kaga Toshiba Electronics, in Ishikawa Prefecture. Construction will take place in two phases, allowing the pace of investment to be optimized against market trends, with the production start of Phase 1 scheduled for within fiscal 2024. When Phase 1 reaches full capacity, Toshiba's power semiconductor production capacity will be 2.5 times that of fiscal 2021.

On the call, Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger told analysts that the company has "a lot of catching up to do" in building out capacity, or "shells," to address supply constraints.

GlobalFoundries debuted on the Nasdaq this week, valued at over $25 billion, as it became increasingly evident that a global chip shortage could persist through 2023 or later.

Renesas Electronics on Wednesday unveiled plans to raise its capacity to supply a key component in cars and electronics more than 50% by 2023, as some industry watchers predict a global chip shortage could last into next year and beyond.

Intel plans to build new chip-making facilities in Europe valued at up to $95 billion, responding to a cross-border race to add manufacturing capacity at a time of a global chip-supply crunch.

Samsung is increasing foundry prices to support more investment in 5nm EUV process technology.

Renesas Electronics on Tuesday said restoring full production capacity at a fire-damaged chip plant in Japan would take longer than expected, predicting a return to normal by mid-June rather than the previously estimated end of May.

Applied Materials gave a bullish forecast for the current quarter boosted by orders from chipmakers rushing to add capacity to meet a flood of demand for their products.

GF has invested more than $15 billion in its Fab 8 facility over the last decade to support innovation and manufacturing capacity. In 2021, the company is doubling its planned investment to expand global capacity, with $500 million targeted for Malta, NY alone.

The fate of automakers will be determined by how executives balance the decline of the internal-combustion engine with the rise of battery power, along with other drivetrains. If electric vehicles achieve 30% market share by 2030, that will leave the auto industry with 40 million vehicles of excess capacity for gas-powered cars - the equivalent of 200 unneeded factories.

Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that production at its US chip plant at Austin, Texas had returned to near-normal levels as of last week after more than a month of disruption that exacerbated a global chip capacity crunch.

Chinese electric car start-up Nio said Tuesday a shortage in semiconductors and batteries will cut its production capacity in the second quarter to 7,500 vehicles a month, down from 10,000.

Qualcomm incoming Chief Executive Officer Cristiano Amon said US sanctions against China's Huawei Technologies may help alleviate a global shortfall in semiconductor supply. If Huawei's in-house chip unit HiSilicon can't get its designs manufactured, the company may order more chips from other providers. These limitations will also free up capacity at TSMC, Amon said in a webcast with Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall.

Samsung might be planning to make additional investments in Vietnam and increase its smartphone production capacity in the country.

Japan's Shin-Etsu Chemical will spend an estimated JPY30 billion (US$285 million) to raise capacity for a crucial semiconductor plant material by 20%, expanding its supply for cutting-edge chip production, Nikkei has learned.

Samsung Electronics may boost the production capacity of its CMOS image sensor by nearly 20% this year, analysts here said Sunday, as the South Korean tech giant tries to meet soaring demand.

Global consumer electronics makers HP, Dell, Microsoft and Amazon are all looking to shift substantial production capacity out of China, joining a growing exodus that threatens to undermine the country's position as the world's powerhouse for tech gadgets.

Apple has asked its major suppliers to evaluate the cost implications of shifting 15% to 30% of their production capacity from China to Southeast Asia as it prepares for a fundamental restructuring of its supply chain, Nikkei Asian Review has learned.

According to SE Daily (via Google Translate), Intel and Samsung are in the final stages of negotiating for additional capacity. Intel is said to have chosen to work with Samsung over TSMC due to concerns about Huawei and AMD's improved competitive performance.

Texas Instruments has been steadily ramping up its production of 300mm wafers for its analog processors, as it looks to cut costs and boost production efficiency. While the company's existing 300mm facilities still have room to scale up production, TI will be investing in the next phase of its 300mm analog output, likely to be available by around 2022.

Izumo Murata Manufacturing will start constructing a new production building in October 2018 with completion scheduled for November 2019.

STMicroelectronics and Macom Technology Solutions announced an agreement that will improve Macom's access to manufacturing capacity for its gallium nitride-on-silicon technology and enable ST to manufacture its own products based on the technology for the RF energy and RF lighting markets.

China will have capacity in place to run 700,000 300mm wafers a month by the end of this year, according to TrendForce.

The "light but mighty" (in speed and capacity) laptops from Dell, HP and Microsoft seem to me to be very expensive because Intel sells processors at premium prices. Now that AMD has produced Ryzen chips, can you foresee if and when these makers will produce desirable laptops with cheaper AMD chips?

Data-storage company Western Digital revealed at its San Jose campus a new technology that enables capacity increases in hard drives that could span to 2030 and even beyond.

Tech giant Samsung Electronics said on Monday it is considering adding NAND memory chip production capacity at its manufacturing base in China amid an industry-wide boom that will likely fuel record sales for memory suppliers.

Even if China doesn't build all of these fabs, there are still some worrisome signs. For example, a large percentage of the projected capacity from China's foundry vendors is slated for 28nm processes and above. So over time, some see a potential capacity glut, if not a price war, looming for these technologies.

A big concern is a potential over-supply situation in display glass, as China slams on the gas for OLED capacity.

Sumitomo Chemical is adding yet more capacity to produce touchscreens for smartphones with OLED displays in South Korea. The major Japanese chemical company plans to spend about JPY20 billion ($165 million) to increase capacity by 40% at the factory of its subsidiary in Pyeongtaek by October.

Chipmakers plan to significantly expand capacity in China, with total investment expected to reach US$50 billion in the next five years, more than double what they spent during the preceding five years, according to a Nikkei survey.

We note that Intel has been building new capacity at Dalian - it could be cheaper for Intel to buy NAND capacity from Micron than to invest in expanding new capacity at Dalian.

Kyocera will spend about JPY15 billion (US$132 million) to double production capacity for flip-chip chip scale package (FC CSP)substrates. These items carry the central processing unit, communication modules and sensors, and connect to the printed circuit board which holds other components such as resistors.

Intel's move comes as the chip industry undergoes a wave of consolidation and China steps up efforts to build local technology manufacturing capacity.

AMD has allegedly decided to delegate the responsibility of producing its hotly anticipated Zen CPU chips to TSMC on its 16nm FinFET process. This development has allegedly unfolded amidst AMD fears of Globalfoundries' slow 14nm FinFET yield and capacity progress.

Skyworks Solutions has announced that it is expanding production capacity in Japan to meet the growing demand for its filter technology.