With the government's support, Chinese companies have scaled the silicon carbide (SiC) segment and secured partnerships with some international IDMs. In the second part of an interview with DIGITIMES, Doris Hsu, chairperson of the Sino-American Silicon Products (SAS) Group, talked about the opportunities SiC devices would bring to Taiwan's semiconductor industry.
The Japanese government's efforts to attract foreign semiconductor investment have been very effective, with almost every major international semiconductor manufacturer responding to the call. In addition, Rapidus, a company formed by a consortium of local companies, is also targeting the development of cutting-edge processes.
SMIC Hong Kong International Company Limited (SMIC HK) has been removed from the US Department of Defense (DOD) 1260H list of Chinese military companies.
China-based companies are expected to march into the compound semiconductor segment in 2024 as they solve the bottleneck of SiC crystal growth and are recognized by global companies like Bosch, Infineon, and STM.
Having to overcome ramps and bumps on its internationalization journey, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's leading pure-play foundry, is learning to act globally and think locally while expanding overseas. Owing to the assistance and support of the Japanese government, the construction of TSMC's first fab of its joint venture in Kumamoto, Japan, has been progressing smoothly and on schedule for mass production in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Although AI PC has become a hot topic the market has been following lately, AMD's AI GPUs, such as the MI300, were the center of attention during AMD's latest earnings call.
Apple was reported to be downgrading its vehicle autonomy before Tesla released the financial results that did not meet market expectations. The two US-based EV makers have experienced a crisis and an opportunity at the same time as traditional automakers catch up and Chinese EV companies rise in the global EV market.
In the second half of the 1990s, Samsung Electronics came to the forefront of Dataquest's DRAM manufacturer rankings. NEC and Toshiba were in second and third place, and other Japanese companies were ranked in the top 10.
Intel and UMC's announcement to work together in developing 12nm processes has been lauded as a creative move. DIGITIMES Research believes that because of the complementary nature of their development strategies and the fact that this collaboration will allow them to take advantage of each other's strengths to create a win-win situation in terms of process development and foundry services, there is even a possibility of further cooperation to mature processes in the future. Intel's alliance with UMC marks the beginning of a new chapter of competition in the foundry industry.
When will memory manufacturers restart expansion plans after weathering the storm of a sluggish market and falling average selling prices (ASPs)? This question appears not hard to answer, as memory vendors are signaling a bullish outlook with a significant surge in orders for advanced semiconductor lithography equipment from ASML in the fourth quarter of 2023.
DIGITIMES recently interviewed Julian Hetherington, the director of the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), to understand the future of EV development in the UK and its potential benefits for Taiwan's supply chain.
The announcement of collaboration between Intel and Taiwan's second-largest foundry manufacturing service provider United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), is one step ahead of Intel's ambitious goal of taking second place in the global semiconductor foundry market.
