Global top-5 notebook brands' combined shipments in August 2020 - not including detachable models - hit a new high for 2020 as shipments to the consumer segment gew on year, and education procurement orders from Japan's GIGA School project gradually approached the peak of the year.Hewlett-Packard (HP) saw its August shipments return above five million units thanks to robust demand from the education sectors of Japan and the US. Although the US placed a trade ban on a major Chinese Chromebook supplier of Lenovo in July, Lenovo's notebook shipments in August still went up 12% on month due to keen orders from the education sector.Dell suffered an on-month shipment decline in August as its orders from the enterprise and consumer segments both slipped from July.The top-3 ODMs together experienced a 2% on-month increase in August revenues. With the surge in Chromebook orders from Japan's education segment, Quanta Computer, which is the largest Chromebook supplier, was able to extend its lead against competitors.

Apple is diversifying its production bases. One of the moves involved in the diversification reportedly is having its heat dissipation solution providers install automated production lines, standardizing the manufacturing process to make it more flexible and easier to relocate its production bases. Thermal dissipation is a major issue for datacenter operators, as new hardware is generating so much heat that traditional cooling solutions cannot handle. They are now switching to liquid cooling. And Nivida has just announced its acquisition of Arm from SoftBank for US$40 billion.Apple reportedly initiating automated heat pipe production at supply chain: Apple is reportedly working with its heat dissipation solution providers on production line automation with aims to automize manufacturing processes for heat pipe production initially, according to industry sources.Datacenter operators turn to liquid cooling: Datacenter operators have been adopting liquid cooling solutions for their facilities to improve thermal dissipation from new hardware that is generating more heat, and to address government regulations that are looking to cut down on datacenters' power usage.Nvidia to acquire Arm for US$40 billion: Nvidia and SoftBank Group (SBG) have announced a definitive agreement under which the former will acquire Arm from the latter and the SoftBank Vision Fund in a transaction valued at US$40 billion.

The US is reportedly mulling imposing sanctions on China's largest pure-play foundry house, SMIC. Such a move could severely disrupt supply of NOR flash, as one of the the world's biggest suppliers for the memory, GigaDevice, relies heavily on the Chinese foundry house. SMIC may suffer as a result of US sanctions, but Taiwanese foundries see bright prospects, with their utilization rates expected to stay high through year-end 2020. Taiwanese IC designers are also queueing up for capacity support from the foundry houses.US ban on SMIC may result in severe shortages of NOR flash: A US ban on China's pure-play foundry SMIC, a supplier to GigaDevice, might lead to severe shortages of NOR flash memory, according to Macronix International chairman Miin Wu.Taiwan foundries see bright prospects ahead: Pure-play foundries including TSMC, UMC and VIS are poised to see their fab capacities continue being fully utilized through the end of 2020, according to industry sources.Taiwan IC design houses striving for foundry support: Taiwan-based IC design houses are striving for capacity at foundry partners whose support will be crucial for their sales performance in fourth-quarter 2020 and first-half 2021, according to industry sources.

Graphics cards vendors have seen impressive shipments in the first three quarters of 2020, thanks to demand generated by the stay-at-home economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. They now expect the new Nvidia GPUs to further boost their graphics cards sales in the fourth quarter. Remote learning has also been shoring up demand for notebooks, paticularly Chromebook devices. Acer, as the top Chromebook vendor, has seen component shortages delaying its shipments. The pandemic may have hit hard the handset market, but later this year Apple is set to launch 5G iPhones. The new Apple iPhone devices' camera setups are expected to feature 7P lens modules.New Nvidia GPU to boost 4Q20 revenue at graphics card makers: The availability of Nvidia's newly unveiled Ampere-architecture GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs is expected to boost revenues at first- and second-tier graphics card makers in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to industry sources.Acer delays notebook deliveries due to components shortfall: Acer has had to reschedule 70% of its notebook deliveries to next month due to shortages of panels and diverse ICs, especially those for educational models which will see strong demand extend to 2021, according to company chairman and CEO Jason Chen.New iPhone series expected to boost adoption of 7P lens modules: Upcoming iPhone devices are expected to feature 7P lens modules, which will prompt Android smartphone vendors to follow suit and heat up competition among Taiwanese and Chinese optical lens module makers, according to industry sources.

In China's push to stimulate economic growth by undertaking new infrastructure projects, artifical intelligence (AI) plays the role of facilitating digital transformation and upgrades to smart operations for various industries.The campaign includes AI, 5G, IoT, cloud computing, blockchain and other new technologies in IT infrastructure.Development of AI applications is being promoted by virtue of open AI innovation platforms and experiment sites for AI innovations.Local government policies focus on: hardware (such as ICs) R&D for AI infrastructure; technology development in terms of platform establishment and data processing; and establishment of experiment sites to test applications.China is progressing well in development of AI applications, but still lags behind the US and others in Europe in basic research and development of AI technology, Digitimes Research noted. China has actively applied AI to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic, including monitoring of the spread of the virus, detection of body temperatures, and AI-based robots for cleaning factories.

Apple is gearing up for the launch of its new-generation MacBook and iPad Pro series powered by its own Arm-based processors, which will be fabricated using TSMC's 5nm process technology. TSMC is expected to start making Apple Silicon in fourth-quarter 2020. Apple's growing adopting of SiP technology is settng a trend that many in the semiconductor sector are keen to follow. And leading backend services providers expect sales from their SiP businesses to climb about 30% in 2020.Apple to increase 5nm wafer starts at TSMC in 4Q20: Apple will kick off its 5nm wafer starts at TSMC for its new Apple Silicon processors starting the fourth quarter of 2020, with monthly output estimated at 5,000-6,000 wafers, according to industry sources.Suppliers gearing up for SiP demand boom: TSMC, ASE Technology, IC substrate makers including Unimicron Technology as well as international materials and equipment suppliers are all gearing up for the SiP (system-in-package) boom fueled by Apple's growing adoption of the technology in its devices, according to industry sources.OSAT providers to enjoy impressive SiP sales growth in 2020: Leading OSAT providers, such as ASE Technology, are expected to see revenues generated from their SiP businesses climb about 30% in 2020, driven by demand for 5G, AI and HPC device applications, according to industry sources.

Apple, keen on boosting its services sales, is fast expanding its opwn datacenters. The US vendor is expected to see a sharp rise in purchases of server components in 2020 and 2021. Meanwhile, demand for 8-inch foundry support has been strong. UMC is ready to raise quptes for its 8-inch fab capacity, which it expects to stay tight for the long term. And UMC is identified as one of the possible beneficiaries if the US threat of balcklisting SMIC materializes, which would shake up the foundry scene Apple raises datacenter server component purchases: Apple has been stepping up its purchases of datacenter server components since second-quarter 2020 with related shipments in full-year 2020 expected to double on year and to continue to grow in 2021, according to sources from Taiwan's server upstream supply chain.UMC likely to raise foundry quotes for 2021: United Microelectronics (UMC) has seen its fabs particularly 8-inch ones reach full capacity utilization, and is mulling raising its foundry quotes for 2021, according to industry sources.Possible SMIC blacklisting may reshape pure-play foundry landscape: The potential blacklisting of SMIC, China's largest pure-play foundry, by the US government may shake up the second-tier pure-play foundry market segment.

The development of open architecture 5G networks has been gaining momentum recently as telecom operators worldwide are under pressure to reduce capital expenditure amid slower-than-expected penetration in the 5G subscriber market, according to Digitimes Research.The coverage of 5G networks is still below 20% on average, Digitimes Research has found.The rapidly escalating US-China tensions have driven the global open network sector closer to a "G2" divide - namely one standard, two ecosystems.The use of high frequency bands for 5G networks effectively increases the speeds of data transmission, which neverthelss comes with high costs for 5G base station deployments. Telecom operators are unable to raise 5G rates much higher due to a lack of killer applications at th emoment. Non-stand alone (NSA) and open networks could effectively reduce telecoms' cost concerns during initial 5G network deployments.The open architecture 5G networks are getting increasing support in the US, as the Trump's administration is promoting a shake-up of the global supply chain and decoupling of the US industries from China's. And the open networks could become an effective solution for excluding Huawai and ZTE from the telecom equipment market outside China.The impact of the US government's efforts to contain Chinese equipment suppliers is likely to continue intensifying, and could lead to the supply chain led by the industries in the US and their allies in Japan, Korea and Europe to operate independently from the ones established in China, resulting in two separate 5G ecosystems.

Handset shipments in the fourth quarter of 2020 are likely to slip from the third quarter as Huawei is said to have cut 30% of its component orders for the upcoming Mate 40 series flagship smartphones, having anticipated troubles for the smartphones' shipments to grow, while foundries are also seeing their orders for handsets in the fourth quarter dipping, but will still enjoy growths in PC-related orders. AMD reportedly is looking to enhance its chips' offering with customized Wi-Fi 6 technologies via cooperation with MediaTek and is planning to penetrate through the dominate of Intel and Realtek in the Wi-Fi chip industry.Huawei reportedly cuts component orders for Mate 40 lineup by 30%, say sources: Huawei reportedly has slashed component orders for its forthcoming Mate 40 series products by 30%, according to sources from Taiwan's handset supply chain makers.Foundries see 4Q20 demand vary for PCs and handsets: Taiwan-based pure-play foundries have seen orders for PCs and handsets ramp up in the third quarter of 2020. Nevertheless, orders for PCs and handsets received thus far for the fourth quarter vary, according to industry sources.AMD looking to penetrate into Wi-Fi chip sector with cooperation with MediaTek: AMD and MediaTek reportedly will start their collaboration with the development of customized Wi-Fi 6 ASIC chips for notebook applications seeking to break the dominance of the Wi-Fi chips segment by Intel and Realtek Semiconductor and further strengthen its competitiveness in notebook chips platforms, according to industry sources.

Memory chipmakers have seen inventory pile up amid weakening demand from the datacenter sector. They have almost four months worth of memory inventory on average, and mobile DRAM inventory levels are even higher. Although components suppliers are conservative about datacenter demand for the rest of 2020, server vendors and ODMS are generally optimistic. PC vendors are also upbeat about their sales in second-half 2020 due to the stay-at-home needs. And they are now devoting moe efforts to the enterprise and gaming segments.Memory chipmakers hold nearly 4 months of inventories: Samsung Electronics and other major chip suppliers have held nearly four months of DRAM and NAND flash inventories on average, due to a slowdown in orders for datacenter applications and overall weaker consumer sentiment than pre-pandemic levels, according to industry sources.Upstream, downstream suppliers vary in datacenter outlook: Mixed messages are coming from the datacenter server supply chain about the outlook for the rest of 2020, with component suppliers expressing caution about demand and system assemblers generally remaining positive.Notebook brands pushing enterprise and gaming models in 2H20: Brand vendors have seen strong PC sales due to stay-at-home activities worldwide and are now primarily focusing on releasing enterprise and gaming models to cater to related demand, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.