Intel is increasing its reliance on erstwhile rival TSMC in its attempt to boost sales and eventually regain dominance as the world leader in manufacturing scale and chip process technology.

The semiconductor industry has long struggled with a notorious cycle of booms and nasty downturns. Now though, the industry is confident of beating the patterns of the past to extend what is an extraordinary run for the sector.

This week's announcement that India's Vedanta has tied up with Taiwan's Foxconn Technology to make chips is being lauded as proof that New Delhi is gaining traction with its plans to build a semiconductor industry. That's hardly the case.

Arm has introduced its new Mali-C78AE image signal processor (ISP), which is added to its "AE" line of safety-capable IP suitable for ADAS and human vision applications.

Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger said Intel would be interested in participating if a consortium emerges to own the British semiconductor and software design company Arm.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a conference call with analysts that regulators would not budge in their opposition to Nvidia's proposed $80 billion acquisition of Arm.

The Mercury Research CPU market share results are in for the fourth quarter of 2021, showing that AMD now comprises 25.6% of the overall x86 market, its highest share ever, partially on the strength of its increasing gaming console shipments.

Construction of TSMC's first advanced chip plant in the US is three to six months behind schedule.

Intel is close to buying Israeli firm Tower Semiconductor for about US$6 billion, a source familiar with the matter said, as the US company looks to advance its strategy of contract manufacturing chips for other businesses.

AMD has received approval from all necessary authorities to proceed with the acquisition of Xilinx.

ASML has warned that an affiliate of a China company it previously accused of stealing its trade secrets has begun marketing products that could infringe on its intellectual property rights.

Intel has just announced $1 billion for the foundry ecosystem. The company will prioritize investments in "capabilities that accelerate foundry customers' time to market - spanning intellectual property (IP), software tools, innovative chip architectures, and advanced packaging technologies." What's interesting is that it does not only cover x86 architecture but also Arm and RISC-V, with a focus on the latter, as Intel has just become a Premier member of RISC-V International.

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.

Renesas Electronics expects solid growth in revenue and profits in 2022 following a robust performance last year, amid a global semiconductor shortage.

China's No. 2 telecommunications equipment maker ZTE has been quietly boosting its chip design capabilities as a US crackdown continues to hobble its bigger domestic rival, Huawei Technologies, Nikkei Asia has learned.

The European Commission will ease funding rules for innovative semiconductor plants under plans announced on Tuesday as the European Union looks to boost its chip industry and cut its dependence on US and Asian supply.

SoftBank has shelved its blockbuster sale of Arm to US chipmaker Nvidia valued at up to US$80 billion citing regulatory hurdles and will instead seek to list the company.

Haas succeeds Simon Segars, who has stepped down as chief executive officer and member of the board of directors after 30 years with the company.

"Infineon has made a successful start into the 2022 fiscal year," said Infineon CEO Reinhard Ploss. "Utilization of our manufacturing capacities is very high and we are expanding them step by step. This will help us improve the availability of products that we manufacture in-house over the course of the year."

Rohde & Schwarz is partnering with the automotive chipset development team of Realtek to ensure compliance with current and future OPEN Alliance standards.

Siltronic AG (SDAX/TecDAX: WAF) recorded a significant increase in sales and earnings in 2021. This excellent development is primarily based on a strong increase in wafer area sold.

In a tech world still hindered by component shortages, choices have to be made. And in the world of laptops, Windows-based devices are being chosen over those running Chrome OS.

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.

China plans to set up a special organization that facilitates collaboration between domestic companies and overseas semiconductor powerhouses such as Intel to foster development hubs for software, material and manufacturing equipment.

Ford Motor plans to suspend or cut production at eight of its factories in the United States, Mexico and Canada throughout next week because of chip supply constraints, a spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday.

Samsung Electronics is stepping up spending on advanced chipmaking technology as it sees growing demand for its smartphones, displays and memory products.

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.

Memory chip maker Micron Technology will shut its DRAM chip designing operations in Shanghai by the end of this year, the company confirmed late on Wednesday.

Efforts aimed at reviving US semiconductor manufacturing and strengthening technology supply chains advanced this week with the introduction of a catch-all bill that funds "surge production" of US-made chips while investing in broad-based technology R&D.

The chief executive of ASML on Wednesday said the company still has not received permission to ship any of its most cutting edge lithography systems, which are necessary to make advanced computer chips, to China.

Toyota said on Tuesday it expects to miss its annual 9 million vehicle production target because competition for semiconductors meant it didn't have enough to ramp up car output to offset production lost during the pandemic last year.

Sony said Tuesday that it has completed the initial funding of TSMC's chipmaking subsidiary in Japan, a key milestone in their joint venture.

Manufacturers have seen their stocks of semiconductors plunge amid the global chip shortage, the US Department of Commerce has warned. A survey of more than 150 firms found supplies had fallen from an average of 40 days' worth in 2019 to just five days in late 2021.

Arm faces significant hurdles to growth as a standalone company if Nvidia's proposed acquisition falls through, according to documents released as part of the UK regulator's ongoing merger inquiry.

EU antitrust regulators have resumed investigation of Nvidia's deal for British chip designer ARM, setting a new deadline of May 25 for their decision, a European Commission filing showed.

Rob Crooke, CEO of Solidigm and a 10-year veteran of Intel's memory business, told CRN that while the memory business has been a profitable one for Intel, Intel realized that to get the scale needed to continue to serve customers' growing memory and SSD requirements required a huge investment in scale, and the SK Hynix had the scale necessary.

SK Hynix has started to mass produce 0.7-micron image sensors, getting into competition with Sony and Samsung Electronics in the global image sensor market.

China's state-backed Tsinghua Unigroup has scrapped major memory chip projects in two cities as new investors push to turn around the debt-stricken company that has been left reeling from US restrictions on its access to vital technology.