The first half of a year has been usually the slow season for graphics cards, but this year the coronavirus pandemic-triggeed stay-at-home needs has shored up demand. With AMD and Nvidia set to launch their next-generation GPUs in September, graphics cards vendors are expected to cut prices for older-generation products, stimulating demand further in third-quarter 2020. The pandemic-fueled demand for notebooks is also expected keep NAND flash memory prices stable in the third quarter. And the fresh US trade sanctions on Huawei is not deterring the Chinese tech giant from making building 5G networks around China. For semiconductor, Digitimes has an exclusive interview with TSMC's R&D senior VP Cliff Hou, who reveals the principles and issues concerning the foundry's recruitement and R&D. Graphics card makers see shipments boom: Graphics card manufacturers including Asustek Computer, Micro-Star International (MSI) and Gigabyte Technology are expected to see their shipments continue ramping up and grow through the fourth quarter of 2020, according to industry sources.NAND flash contract prices to stay flat in 3Q20: NAND flash memory contract prices are expected to stay flat in the third quarter, as demand for notebooks remains stable, according to Wallace Kou, president and CEO of Silicon Motion Technology.Huawei expects to build 800,000 5G base stations in China by 2020: Huawei has built 200,000 5G base stations so far in China and the number is set to hit 800,000 by 2020 covering over 340 cities, according to company's wireless network vice president Gan Bin.PhD shortage to challenge TSMC: Q&A with company senior VP of R&D Cliff Hou: Shortages of personnel with PhDs will be a challenge facing TSMC as well as Taiwan's chipmaking industry by 2030, according to Cliff Hou, company senior VP of technology development and corporate research under R&D.

Smartphone sales in China rose sharply in April on a sequential basis following weeks of stagnant demand amid the coronavirus outbreak. While strong momentum has been seen in the 5G segment, massive migration to 5G phones in China's handset market has yet to take place. Huawei may be able to remain in first place in China's handset market, but its peers, such as Xiaomi and Oppo, stand to reap benefits from fresh US trade sanctions on the top Chinese vendor. The latest US-China trade row has also prompted Apple to have its manufacturing accelerate their iPhone production relocation out of China.Smartphone sales picking up in China: Smartphone sales in China have been picking up recently, with strong consumer demand for 5G models fueling the momentum, according to sources from Taiwan's handset supply chain.Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo to benefit from fresh US restrictions on Huawei: Chinese handset vendors including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are likely to grab more market share from Huawei in overseas markets as China's top handset brand faces tightened trade restrictions imposed by the US, according to supply chain sources.Apple accelerates moving of iPhone production to India, Vietnam: Apple has stepped up moving more of its iPhone production to India and Vietnam looking to better diversify manufacturing risks amid the escalating trade US-China tensions, according to supply chain sources.

The output value of South Korea's memory chip industry grew about 1% sequentially in the first quarter of 2020, thanks mainly to a ramp-up in demand arising from the stay-at-home economy, according to Digitimes Research.The coronavirus pandemic has been stimulating demand for notebooks enabling distance learning and remote work, and servers and other data-intensive applications, which help offset weakness in smartphone sales, said Digitimes Research.Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix saw their memory businesses generate a combined KRW20.1 trillion (US$16.4 billion) in revenue in the first quarter of 2020, up 1.1% on quarter and 10% on year. Their combined memory business revenue, representing the overall output value of South Korea's memory chip industry, is forecast to register another sequential and on-year increases in the second quarter, Digitimes Research indicated.Samsung and SK Hynix both saw operating margins generated from their memory businesses edge up sequentially in the first quarter. Growing demand for server applications, coupled with production yield rate improvement, led to the operation margin growth during the quarter.Samsung and SK Hynix will put their capex focuses on the development of EUV process technologies as well as production optimization this year.

TSMC's 5nm fab to be built in the US may better serve its clients, including Apple, in the country and fall in line with the Trump administration's policy, but the foundry house's relationships with one of its biggest clients, namely Huawei, remain in limbo. Taiwan-based backend firms have similar concerns about orders - or termination of orders - from Huawei, thanks to the fresh US sanctions on the Chinese tech giant. For China's semiconductor industry, there ae still many hurdles to be overcome, but its display industry is expanding fast in both the LCD and OLED segments.TSMC braces for impact of new US restrictions on Huawei: TSMC already took 7nm and 5nm chip orders from Huawei in advance before stopping taking more orders from the China-based client in the wake of the US government's announcement of fresh sanctions on the Chinese tech giant, according to industry sources.Taiwan backend houses expect Huawei orders to drift starting 4Q20: Taiwan-based OSAT firms will continue to fulfill chip orders from Huawei/HiSilicon in the third quarter of 2020, but are unsure about the orders in the fourth quarter as the Chinese client faces new trade restrictions from the US, according to industry sources.Tianma, Visonox expanding flexible AMOLED panel capacity: China-based flat panel makers Tianma Microelectronics and Visonox have moved one step further to expanding their capacities for flexible AMOLED panels, with the former having the potential to become the world's third largest vendor in the segment.

High inventory levels at clients in late 2019 and the coronavirus outbreak early this year combined to send first-quarter 2020 revenues of the world's top-2 silicon wafer suppliers Shin-Etsu Chemical and Sumco, both based in Japan, suffering on-year falls. But unexpected short-term robust demand stoked by the pandemic and long-term agreements with clients are expected to bolster their overall results for first-half of the year, according to Digitimes Research.The market still sees certain demand momentum for silicon wafers in both second-quarter and second-half 2020, but suppliers share the view that actual demand visibility will depend on the development of the pandemic in the second half of the year.Many semiconductor firms initially pinned much hope on increasing 5G, electric vehicle and AI applications in 2020, but the unexpected pandemic has crippled global economic activities, yet creating short-term demand for PCs and datacenter servers needed to support remote work and learning amid pandemic-induced lockdowns, Digitimes Research noted.Holding high ratios of long-term agreements with clients, both Shin-Etsu and Sumco still maintained high capital expenditures in first-quarter 2020 and are not expected to significantly cut second-quarter spending, depending on the development of the pandemic. But Germany-based Siltronic has clearly noted that its 2020 capex will shrink 44.4% on year to EUR200 million.In 2019, global semiconductor sales plunged 12.1% with memory shipments posting the highest annual fall of 32.6% among diverse segments, driving up silicon wafer inventory levels at clients and dragging down total shipments in area and value by 7.2% and 2%, respectively. But 12-inch silicon wafer shipments saw a lower annual fall than the industry average in the year bolstered by demand for high-end logic components, while shipments of 8-inch and under wafers slackened.

Taiwan Computing Cloud (TWCC) established by National Center for High-performance Computing (NCHC) has introduced personalized computing services for AI research and application on a flexible pricing basis, according to Wang Yu-tai, director for NCHC's Intelligent Application Division.TWCC features high-performance computing capacity set up by NCHC and pre-installed virtual environment for developing software to enable quick use of computing services, Wang said.Users can build their own models at TWCC and independently store personalized scenarios, Wang noted. With VM (virtual machine) bundled with users, TWCC can be plugged and used at any time, Wang indicated, adding TWCC can flexibly adjust computing capacity available for use depending on the number of simultaneous users.For pricing, TWCC can detect users' completing running of software programs and then automatically stop operation of computing services to end charging, a measure to base service prices on the actual amount of use, Wang noted. For example, AI-based interpretation of 50,000 512x512 medical images about 400 disease cases takes one day of computing and is charged with about NT$31,000 (US$1,030), while that of 300 256x256 and 800x60 images about 800 disease cases using the same interpretation model takes only one hour at a price of NT$82, Wang said.TWCC is intended to develop toward providing one-stop customized services, along with accumulation of analytical and computing cases, algorithms and application software at a marketplace for shared use, Wang indicated.NCHC is under government-sponsored National Applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs).

TSMC has dopped a bombshell by announcing a plan to build a 5nm fab in the US. While the full impact of the fab poject remains to be seen, Digitimes Research believes it could reshape the global chipmaking supply chain. And according to figures collected by Digitimes Research concerning the notebook sector, the global top-5 vendors and top-3 ODMs saw impressive growths in April shipments, thanks to stay-at-home needs.TSMC 5nm fab in US could reshape global chipmaking supply chain, says Digitimes Research: A TSMC wafer fab designed for advanced 5nm process manufacturing in the US could drive changes to many semiconductor players within the supply chain, according to Digitimes Research.Top-5 notebook brands and top-3 ODMs see around 10% shipment growth in April, says Digitimes Research: Global top-5 notebook brands saw their combined shipments in April grow 12% on month to reach a new record for the month, as parts of their shipments originally scheduled for delivery in March were deferred to April, and demand for notebooks from users working and studying from home in mature markets was stronger than expected, according to Digitimes Research's latest figures from its notebook tracker.

A TSMC wafer fab designed for advanced 5nm process manufacturing in the US could drive changes to many semiconductor players within the supply chain, according to Digitimes Research.TSMC disclosed on May 15 its intention to build and operate a 5nm wafer fab in Arizona with monthly capacity designed for 20,000 wafer starts. Construction is planned to start in 2021 with production targeted to begin in 2024.The announcement by the world's top foundry chipmaker could suggest a potential change to the global chipmaking supply chain now located mainly in Asia, Digitimes Research indicated.Arizona is where the US has its major electronics industry, aerospace and defense manufacturing operations, as well as an IC industry cluster where Intel, Raytheon, Microchip, ON semiconductor, VLSI, Freescale, NXP, STMicroelectronics, Honeywell, Marvel, Amkor, Philips and Western Digital operate their plants.With TSMC likely to be involved in the IC industry cluster in Arizona, a bigger and complete local ecosystem could take shape, Digitimes Research believes. For the pure-play foundry itself, ensuring its business model and supply chain ecosystem locally is also a must for its fab project.Some major Taiwan-based partners of TSMC, such as OSAT providers, may be encouraged to set up production locally in Arizona to support the future needs of TSMC's 5nm wafer fab, Digitimes Research observed.TSMC also has plans to build new 5nm process capacity in Taiwan, where its major operations are located. It remains to be seen whether its 5nm fab investment in the US will affect its ongoing expansion project at its new Fab 18 in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP).

Global top-5 notebook brands saw their combined shipments in April grow 12% on month to reach a new record for the month, as parts of their shipments originally scheduled for delivery in March were deferred to April, and demand for notebooks from users working and studying from home in mature markets was stronger than expected, according to Digitimes Research's latest figures from its notebook tracker.Despite being a slow season, Hewlett-Packard (HP) enjoyed strong growth in April, as it had in March. Dell experienced rising orders from the enterprise and education sectors in April, helping the US-based vendor advance to second place in vendors ranking, surpassing Lenovo, Digitimes Research's figures show.With China's domestic demand weaker than that of Europe and North America and with fierce competition from Huawei and Xiaomi in China's online channel, Lenovo's shipments underperformed its US-based competitors in April.The top-3 ODMs witnessed an on-month increase of 10% in their combined shipments in April. Quanta Computer remained the largest ODM for the second consecutive month in April, thanks to robust orders for Chromebooks and MacBooks.The notebook industry enjoys on-month shipment growth in AprilPhoto: Digitimes file photo

The US has emerged as winner in the latest round of trade disputes with China: TSMC has announced a plan to build a 5nm fab in Arizona, ending months of speculation about the possibility of the world's top pure-play foundry making such a move amid increasing pressure from the Trump administration. The coronavirus pandemic may have worsened the trade ties between the two countries, but the stay-at-home needs it has created are set to gift ODM Quanta Computer with a double-digit growth in notebook shipments in second-quarter 2020. Such needs have also been fueling growth for the server supply chain, with chassis maker Chenbro seeing robust demand from both the US and China.TSMC announces intention to build and operate 5nm fab in US: TSMC today announced its intention to build and operate an advanced semiconductor fab in the US with the mutual understanding and commitment to support from the US federal government and the State of Arizona.Quanta expects double-digit notebook shipment growth in 2Q20: Quanta Computer expects its notebook shipments to register double-digit sequential and on-year increases in the second quarter of 2020, with annual shipments still likely to grow from 2019 despite relatively unclear market prospects for the second half of the year, according to company vice chairman CC Leung.Server chassis maker Chenbro enjoys robust demand from US, China: Server chassis maker Chenbro Micom has seen robust demand for datacenter applications from the US and China, significantly driving up its revenues in the second quarter of the year, according to company president Maggi Chen.