Meta's surprise success with its Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2024 reignited industry confidence in headworn devices. The result: a renewed wave of investment and innovation from big tech, startups, and semiconductor vendors aiming to capture the next major frontier in AI-powered consumer electronics.
Benefiting from a surge of rush orders spurred by US tariffs and steadily rising demand from AI server customers, memory packaging and EMS firm OSE is seeing its business momentum pick up in the first quarter of 2025. The company anticipates sequential revenue growth throughout the year, with stronger performance in the second half compared to the first.
Samsung Electronics is ramping up development of its next-generation SOCAMM memory, which it sees as a potential rival to high-bandwidth memory (HBM) in terms of market opportunity. Despite the first SOCAMM generation not yet being commercialized, the company is pushing ahead with SOCAMM 2 to gain a first-mover edge in the AI server memory segment.
As the July 9, 2025 deadline approaches for the expiration of the United States' temporary suspension of "reciprocal tariffs," US President Donald Trump appears to be shifting his trade focus toward Asia, following a recent victory in persuading NATO allies to increase defense spending.
Doris Hsu, chairperson of Sino-American Silicon Products Group (SAS), indicated that the US government is likely to take about 90 days to reach a decision regarding semiconductor tariffs. This suggests a resolution could be announced by the end of the third quarter of 2025, before summer concludes.
Wolfspeed, a global leader in silicon carbide technologies, announced on June 30, 2025, that it has made continued progress in executing its previously announced Restructuring Support Agreement (RSA). The agreement has received backing from key stakeholders, including holders of more than 97% of its senior secured notes, Renesas Electronics' wholly owned US subsidiary, and convertible debtholders holding more than 67% of the outstanding convertible notes.
As the Trump administration's reciprocal tariff extension is approaching the deadline on July 9, Taiwanese chipmakers remain cautious about the possible impact of the tariffs, since even if the reciprocal tariffs on Taiwan are not as high as expected, another possible tariff on Taiwan's semiconductor industry may still come, according to sources from the related upstream supply chain.
Silicon Motion Technology Corporation has appointed Jeffrey Ju, former co-chief operating officer at MediaTek, as its senior vice president of platform and strategy. The company aims to leverage Ju's expertise to enhance cross-platform collaboration and innovation.
Under pressure from low-cost competition in China, many application sectors are struggling to turn a profit. Recently, the compound semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) industry has seen reports of major manufacturers experiencing fatigue and reduced willingness to invest, even considering more aggressive strategies. This could trigger sectoral shifts within the "non-China GaN supply chain."
Loongson has launched its next-generation processors at the 2025 Product Launch and User Conference in Beijing, introducing chips built on its proprietary LoongArch instruction set. The lineup includes the flagship 3C6000 server CPUs and the 3B6000M and 2K3000 processors for industrial control and edge applications, reinforcing China's ambitions in AI infrastructure, secure computing, and homegrown IT systems.
Ericsson announced an expansion of its Research and Development (R&D) team in Bengaluru, India, focusing on ASIC development, aiming to leverage local expertise and enhance Ericsson's semiconductor design capabilities to maintain its leadership in future communication technologies.
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