Japan-based Toshiba Memory Corp (TMC), now the world's No. 2 supplier of NAND flash memory chips with nearly 20% market share, is striving at full throttles to rival top supplier Samsung Electronics by advancing its IPO listing to the second half of 2019 from 2021 and enhancing cooperation with No...

The historic flood of merger and acquisition agreements that swept through the semiconductor industry in 2015 and 2016 slowed significantly in 2017 and then eased back further in 2018, but the total value of M&A deals reached in the last year was still nearly more than twice the annual average...

The world's leading semiconductor suppliers significantly increased their combined market share over the past decade. According to IC Insights, the top-5 semiconductor suppliers accounted for 47% of the world's semiconductor sales in 2018, up 14pp from 10 years earlier.

DRAM contract prices are set to fall nearly 20% sequentially in the first quarter of 2019, according to DRAMeXchange, which estimated previously a smaller 15% price decrease.

Taiwan-based DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology has estimated 2019 capex at about NT$10 billion (US$324.3 million), significantly lower than the NT$20.4 billion spent in 2018.

The global market for NAND flash memory will remain in oversupply in 2019, as the outlook for end-market demand stays weak, according to DRAMeXchange. NAND flash chipmakers have moved to slow down their capacity expansion pace and cut capex this year, aiming to limit their bit output growth and moderate...

Micron Technology has announced the company is exercising its right to purchase Intel's interest in the parties' joint venture, IM Flash Technologies.

Worldwide semiconductor revenues totaled US$476.7 billion in 2018, a 13.4% increase from 2017, according to preliminary results by Gartner. Memory strengthened its position as the largest semiconductor category, accounting for 34.8% of total semiconductor revenues, up from 31% in 2017.

Winbond Electronics has signed a seven-year syndicated loan for NT$42 billion (US$1.36 billion) with 19 local banks in Taiwan, according to the maker of specialty DRAM and flash memory.

The semiconductor industry is expected to allocate the largest portion of its capex spending for flash memory again in 2019, marking the third consecutive year that flash has led all other segments in spending, according to IC Insights.

Unimos Microelectronics, a re-invested memory backend service affiliate of China's Tsinghua Unigroup, has recently kicked off volume production at its 3D NAND memory chips packaging and testing lines, marking a great stride by the group toward building sound memory and storage ecosystems.

DRAM demand for server applications has started showing weakness with related chip prices trending downward, according to market observers. Nevertheless, the outlook for server DRAM demand this year remains optimistic, as the data center sector looks promising.

Global NOR flash production value fell 7% sequentially and 14% on year in the fourth quarter of 2018, due to price falls for mid- and low-density chips and impact of lingering US-China trade disputes, according to Digitimes Research.

With the rise of fabless IC companies in China, demand for foundry services has also risen in the country. According to IC Insights, pure-play foundry sales generated from the China market surged 41% in 2018, compared with the only 5% growth for the global pure-play foundry market.

The huge annual trade deficit of up to US$375 billion is definitely a major reason for the US to raise tariffs on goods imported from China, but the trade war seems to be more of a US effort to block the new economic powerhouse from challenging its global leaderships in high-tech domains, particularly...

Winbond Electronics, a maker of specialty DRAM and flash memory, saw its December revenues fall to a 20-month low of NT$3.69 billion (US$119.6 million).

Micron Technology has announced its automotive-grade LPDDR4X memory devices are being adopted for Qualcomm's third-generation Snapdragon automotive cockpit compute systems. The companies are also working to validate and integrate Micron's memory solutions into Qualcomm's Snapdragon automotive cockpit...

Most Taiwan-based IC design firms fared better than expected in 2018 despite tight wafer capacity, but they face multiple headwinds from trade war, subdued handset momentum, slower economic growth and reduced capital expenses from major IT companies in 2019.

Unwavering in its drive to build a self-sufficient semiconductor supply chain, China plans more new fab projects than any other region in the world from 2017 to 2020, and its expansion of fab capacity recently picked up pace on the strength of new foundry and memory projects from both domestic and...

DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology and Macronix International, a maker of mask ROM and flash memory, have both reported sequential decreases in December revenues of 10.6% and 32.9%, respectively.

Taiwan-based memory modules supplier Adata Technology expects market demand for DRAM products to pick up starting in the second half of 2019 along with the gradual easing of Intel's CPU supply shortages.

Major DRAM chipmakers will slow down their capacity expansion pace in 2019 with lower capex than year-ago levels, judging from end-market demand weakness this year, according to DRAMeXchange.

Fast NAND flash price falls are expected to accelerate the penetration of the memory into various application segments, and may also trigger a wave of reshuffle among suppliers in 2019, with technological leaders standing a good chance of becoming winners.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached US$41.4 billion for the month of November 2018, up 9.8% compared to year-ago levels but down 1.1% sequentially, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Monthly sales numbers are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS)...

South Korea is a global semiconductor powerhouse, with semiconductor output recording an increasing ratio of its total annual exports, surging from 12.6% in 2016 to 17.1% in 2017, and further to 21.2% in the first 11 months of 2018. The significant growth momentum has largely resulted from constant...