A recent report out of Japan says three of tech's biggest and most prominent companies are interested in bidding on Toshiba's memory chip business. Can this be true?

Dialog Semiconductor's shares plunged the most in more than 16 years after an analyst warned that Apple probably will cut back on the use of the company's power-management chips.

Globalfoundries is offering early retirement packages to some longtime employees at its US semiconductor manufacturing plants, including East Fishkill, the company confirmed Wednesday.

A Chinese private equity firm has cut a deal to acquire Xcerra, a Massachusetts-based supplier of semiconductor and electronics test equipment, for $580 million, Xcerra said Monday (April 10).

A Japanese public-private consortium is being assembled to bid for a stake in Toshiba's newly spun-off memory unit in hopes of heading off potential outflows of technology and talent from the country, it was learned Friday.

Struggling Toshiba's planned semiconductor business sell-off has attracted bids of more than JPY2 trillion ($18.1 billion) from two foreign companies.

Toshiba has narrowed the number of bidders for its semiconductor business from about 10 interested parties to a smaller group that includes Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry and Korea's SK Hynix, according to people familiar with the matter.

IBM said it will offer the latest Nvidia GPU, the Tesla P100, in the IBM Cloud as it aims to grab artificial intelligence, machine learning, and high performance computing workloads.

The complaint specifically refers to Toshiba flash memory chips and products containing such chips-including memory cards, solid-state drives, wearable devices, digital camcorders, mobile devices, advanced audiovisual systems, car navigation systems, computers, servers, and other consumer electronic devices-as infringing products.

Samsung Electronics is expecting operating profits of KRW9.9 trillion ($8.8 billion) for the first quarter of 2017, its second-highest quarterly profit, thanks to strong performance from its chip business and despite the absence of the Galaxy Note 7.

"The biggest benefit I think is convenience," said Patrick Mesterton, co-founder and CEO of Epicenter. As a demonstration, he unlocks a door by merely waving near it. "It basically replaces a lot of things you have, other communication devices, whether it be credit cards or keys."

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will adopt the world's first spray-type electromagnetic interference, or EMI shielding technology, for their respective chip production lines from June, according to industry sources.

Record earnings at Samsung Electronics' chip division are set to propel the tech giant's first-quarter profit to a three-and-a-half-year high, and the quarters ahead could be even better if its newest smartphone, Galaxy S8, is a success.

Imagination Technologies was forced to issue an announcement on Apple's intention to stop using its GPU tech in the next 15-24 months. With over 50% of Imagination Technologies' revenue coming from Apple alone, its share price understandably collapsed 70%.

Today brings a report from Credit Suisse's John Pitzer, who maintains a Neutral rating on Intel shares, and a $35 price target. He concedes Intel has shown it maintains its manufacturing lead. He's just not sure it will be enough to give the company the edge it needs.

The French utility company Engie said it was exercising "contractual rights" to sell its shares because NuGen was "facing some significant challenges."

US-based private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners and US-based chipmaker Broadcom apparently tendered a roughly JPY2 trillion (US$17.9 billion) bid. That is on the high end of estimates of the memory business' value.

Fingerprint Cards, the Swedish maker of biometric ID sensors, said revenue is set to fall more than 50% in the first quarter as device manufacturers cut back on orders amid a stubborn inventory backlog.

This powerful platform allows the Galaxy S8 to support Gigabit LTE, for fiber-optic Internet speeds on the go, and more consistent mobile data performance in more places.

Toshiba shareholders agreed to split off its prized NAND flash memory unit on Thursday, paving the way for a sale to raise at least $9 billion to cover US nuclear unit charges that threaten the conglomerate's future.

Toshiba's plan to divest its memory chip business has Japanese corporate leaders worried that critical information technology could leak to foreign companies - particularly those in China.

Intel says that when its long-delayed 10-nanometer Cannon Lake chips finally arrive, they'll be a "full generation ahead" of rivals Samsung and TMSC, thanks to "hyper scaling" that squeezes in twice as many transistors.

The supply of Samsung Electronics' upcoming flagship smartphone, presumably the Galaxy S8, may fail to meet demand due to the sluggish production of Qualcomm chipsets, industry sources said Tuesday.

The US firm has struggled with hefty losses that have thrown its Japanese parent into a crisis, putting the conglomerate's future at risk.

Intel is warning its channel partners that demand for SSDs is expected to outstrip supply for all of 2017, forcing the company to prioritize its production for data center SSDs over lower-cost consumer SSDs.

Qualcomm prevented Samsung Electronics, its biggest client for Snapdragon chip-sets, from selling its own Exynos counterpart to third-parties, South Korea's Fair Trade Commission claimed.

Traditional semiconductor scaling is expected to reach an end by about 2024, according to a white paper from engineers working on a new version of the semiconductor roadmap. The good news is a wide variety of new kinds of devices, chip stacks and systems innovations promise to continue benefits in computing performance, power and cost.

The government is considering urging struggling Toshiba not to sell its semiconductor business to a Chinese or Taiwanese company, sources said March 22.

Micron Technology gained more than 7% in late trading Thursday after the chipmaker reported better earnings than expected amid reported price hikes for its memory chips.

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 joint venture led by Qualcomm and the Brazilian government will see the launch of a semiconductors factory producing high-complexity equipment. The consortium, which also includes semiconductor manufacturing firm ASE Group, is predicted to make a total investment of $200m in the initiative.

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

Samsung appears to be about a quarter ahead of TSMC with the ramp of 10nm process technology, according to a veteran chip analyst.

Samsung Electronics said Tuesday its chip factory under construction in southern Seoul is expected to start production in the first half of 2017 as scheduled. The new line is expected to focus on the production of 3-D Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory.

Apple's iPhone 8 smartphone will include a 3D-sensing module to enable augmented-reality applications, Rosenblatt Securities recently said. Rosenblatt Securities named Austria's AMS AG as a likely supplier of 3D sensors to Apple.

Seagate is closing a design center in South Korea, according to its 8-K homework submitted to US financial watchdog, the SEC.

The Japanese government said it was not considering steps to support embattled Toshiba and will share information with Washington on developments involving the firm and its US nuclear unit Westinghouse.

TSMC reports 76% yields on 256Mbit SRAM modules manufactured on 7nm.

The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) announced that it will conduct an investigation on certain graphics systems and computing products imported into the country as they allegedly infringe patents owned by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and ATI Technologies. The companies filed a complaint with the USITC and the federal agency has identified a number of respondents in the investigation, including LG Electronics, VIZIO, MediaTek, and Sigma Designs.