Having recently completed the acquisition of Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Globalfoundries is expected to launch the new, combined entity this week.

Answer: Yes and no.

A recent research by SEMI indicates China is committed to narrow the gap between its IC production and consumption. "In addition to investments in the macro economy, the Chinese government also remains the biggest investor in the semiconductor industry in China..."

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government is mulling plans to buy a stake in South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor, according to Dow Jones.

Semiconductor makers must take the lead in evolving the tools and business processes that allow the electronics industry to benefit from the efficiency improvements and risk reduction associated with truly collaborative supply chain management.

In the US, we've seen chipmakers shut down their fabs one-by-one over the years. How can we reverse that trend? One possible solution: Why not tell the Asian silicon foundries (TSMC, UMC, SMIC, etc.) that they must build fabs in the US?

Korea Exchange Bank said on December 20 that the creditors of Hynix Semiconductor will send out invitations to Korean companies Monday (Dec. 21) to seek bids for their combined 28% stake in the chip maker.

The Korean government and private sector will jointly inject 58.4 billion won (US$50.5 million) over the next three years into building up the local semiconductor manufacturing equipment sector, according to government officials.

Xilinx and Altera, which together control more than 85% of the programmable logic market, are poised to grow twice as fast as the broader semiconductor industry going forward, according to a Wall Street analyst.

Samsung doesn't get it. The foundry sector is a service business. It has nothing to do with churning out cheap and simple commodities like memories.

EDA vendors Mentor Graphics and Magma Design Automation have both reported quarterly revenues that exceeded Wall Street estimates and their own sales targets, but offered outlooks for the current quarter that fell short of analysts' expectations.

Samsung Electronics plans to invest around seven trillion won (US$6.05 billion) in its semiconductor business for 2010 - five trillion won in DRAM and two trillion won in NAND flash memory and system LSI, according to industry sources.

"Apple has asked Korean semiconductor makers to produce a certain amount of chips for its digital products, only to actually purchase a smaller volume eventually. The company doesn't make immediate purchases, but waits until chip prices to fall to the level it internally targets..."

"Once the STT-MRAM is developed, South Korea may be able to control roughly 45% of the 30nm type memory chip market by 2015..."

Sematech wants to expand its wings. The chip-making consortium is now looking at ways to bring fabless companies into the fold and is also hoping to expand its collaborative efforts with fab tool makers.

Loss-making foundry Tower Semiconductor, which trades as TowerJazz, has announced it plans to transfer "manufacturing know-how and certain equipment" to support an un-named Asian company ramp up production.

A recovery is coming in 2010 but many things about it remain uncertain, according to a survey. One consistent finding is that the Chinese market opportunity is the key to growth.

Consumers are changing buying patterns, placing a new emphasis on value and gravitating toward products that promise to improve their lifestyles, such as netbooks, portable navigation devices (PNDs), digital TVs, DVD recorders and video game consoles.

South Korea's Hyosung has withdrawn its bid for Hynix Semiconductor, throwing the future of the world's second-largest memory chipmaker into doubt again.

"Chartered shareholders have spoken overwhelmingly in favor of the acquisition...as we believe this offer enables Chartered to accelerate its goal of becoming a leading player in the semiconductor industry," said Jim Norling, chairman of the board of directors at Chartered.

Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) has shipped more than 1.5 billion units and processed more than one million wafers from foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). CSR also announced that it is collaborating with TSMC on a 40nm low power (LP) RF process technology.

Renesas Technology has reached a preliminary agreement to transfer its semiconductor manufacturing equipment business to Hitachi High-Technologies.

Samsung Electronics will seek to sharply expand sales in its semiconductor sector over the next three years through improved product quality and cost savings, according to the company. It hopes to register US$25.5 billion in revenue from its semiconductor division in 2012, up more than 50% from this year's goal of US$16 billion.

ATMI, which provides specialty materials to semiconductor makers, saw revenues for third-quarter 2009 improve sequentially and beat Wall Street's expectations.

TriQuint earned US$10.5 million, or US$0.07 per share in the third quarter compared with US$11.8 million, or US$0.08 cents a share in third-quarter 2008.

This purchase for automated NSX Inspection Systems with Discover yield management software reflects a trend to incorporate real-time process control into advanced back-end fabrication processes, according to Rudolph Technologies.

Don't bet on it. The retiring chairman and CEO of National Semiconductor may be taking a break but the industry will still be hearing from him.

IMEC's revenues will be down only about 5% this year, compared to drops of 20% generally among electronics vendors. "R&D is the last part to cut because they need to continue to innovate," said company CEO Van den hove.

Like many other chip makers, TI discovered that the cost of Moore's Law–industry shorthand for the race to shrink transistors on digital chips–is too costly for the payoff it brings. It began placing greater emphasis on manufacturing analog chips.

MagnaChip Semiconductor is poised to exit from Chapter 11 with the successful conclusion of its financial restructuring which was executed under the supervision of the US Bankruptcy Court.

An international solar-related company is in talks with Hynix Semiconductor to buy the South Korea-based company's shuttered computer-chip plant in west Eugene, according to local government and economic development officials.

The world's leading semiconductor manufacturers plan to discuss ways to prevent overproduction and enforce fair competition at an industry-wide annual meeting on Jeju Island, according to the South Korean government.

Backend tool giant Kulicke & Soffa Industries has raised its revenue outlook for its fiscal fourth quarter ending October 3.

In addition to a DRAM recovery, the NOR and NAND flash memory market has been extremely active. The volume of requests for Spansion and Numonyx flash memory has tripled over the last two months.

"We believe this delay in fab closures is due to stronger than expected demand, and Fairchild wanting to continue manufacturing product at those facilities to meet this stronger than expected demand...

"Semiconductor shipments rose to meet current OEM demand, after an overcorrection earlier this year, driving an increase in our variable royalty payments and consequently higher expected revenue for the quarter," said Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer at Rambus.

Cymer, the world's leading supplier of light sources used by chipmakers to create advanced semiconductor chips, now anticipates revenues for third-quarter 2009 to increase around 30% sequentially.

The European Semiconductor Sales index climbed 1.2% in July, says market research company e-forecasting.com. The indicator has increased month over months in a row over the last six months.