Increasing foundry and materials costs are prompting some major IC vendors in Taiwan to decide to raise their product prices in fourth quarter of 2021. In China, many components makers are being affected by the Chinese government's decision to cut power supply to industrial users in line with its carbon reduction policy. PCB suppliers will find out this week whether Apple will increase or cut orders for the iPhone 13 series.
China with its 14th 5-year Plan (2021-2025) will be stepping up the development of the country's homegrown third-generation semiconductor industry supply chain, according to industry observers.
Several Taiwan-based IC design houses are poised to raise their chip prices starting the fourth quarter of 2021 to reflect rising manufacturing costs, according to industry sources.
The supply chain shortage has not seen any relief in 2021, particularly when it entered the third-quarter traditional electronic peak season. Market demand has increased, but overall production capacity has not.
AMD and MediaTek are said to be seeking to form a joint venture that will develop notebook applications integrating Wi-Fi, 5G and high-transmission technologies. Other chip vendors in Taiwan are also hoping MediaTek to play a leading role in the local supply chain to compete with Qualcomm in the mmWave 5G market. In the EV market, Thailand has ambitious goals for its car manufacturing sector.
Taiwan's makers of RF and PA devices hope MediaTek can lead the local supply chain to meet competition from Qualcomm in tapping the mmWave 5G market, according to industry sources.
The global cellular baseband processor market grew 16% on year to US$7.2 billion in the second quarter of 2021, according to Strategy Analytics. Qualcomm capitalized on iPhone 12 design-wins and mid-range Android momentum to capture 52% revenue share during the quarter.
Display driver IC backend specialists Chipbond Technology and ChipMOS Technologies are looking to enhance their high-end testing capability, eyeing promising growth in demand for automotive DDIs, according to industry sources.
IDMs including TI, Infineon, STMicroelectronics and Microchip have all stepped up their deployments in the market for power devices using GaN, SiC and other third-generation semiconductor materials, according to industry sources.
Speculation has been circulating in the chipmaking market that AMD and MediaTek are in talks to form a joint venture that will be dedicated to developing SoC solutions combining Wi-Fi, 5G and high transmission technologies for notebook applications.
Intel is scheduled to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of two new fabs in Arizona on September 24. Company CEO Pat Gelsinger and local government officials will participate in the ceremony to mark what Intel claims is the largest private-sector investment in the history of Arizona.
Chromebooks with 14- to 15-inch displays are currently having the worst shortages as orders from the education segment are shifting from the elementary to middle school levels - which are commonly using 11.6-inch models for their study-from-home needs - to high school and college levels, according to Acer chairman and CEO Jason Chen.
Nan Ya PCB is set to commercialize new ABF substrate capacity by the end of 2021 and will scale up its output substantially for AMD's processors in the second quarter of 2022, which is expected to help the US chipmaker significantly drive up its shipments, according to industry sources.
According to market research reports, the global wafer foundry market size was about US$82 billion in 2020, with TSMC having a 55% global market share, and Samsung taking only 15%. In terms of profit in the global wafer foundry sector, TSMC took nearly 85%, compared with less than 5% for Samsung. In other words, TSMC's profit in wafer foundry business was 17 times Samsung's. Evidently, the two players are competing in different divisions. But why has Samsung been so constantly provocative? Why is South Korea going all-out, vowing to be a dominant power in the global semiconductor industry by 2030?
August billings among North American manufacturers of semiconductor production equipment decreased 5.4%, bringing an end to an eight-month period of consecutive increases.
NAND flash pices may stablize in 2022, but supply is likely to turn tight in the second half of next year, according to Silicon Motion's president. Meanwhile, Chinese memory maker YMTC is ready to volume produce 128-layer QLC NAND flash, initially targeting consumer SSDs. And in a recent interview by DIGITIMES, Harish Krishnaswamy, CTO and co-founder of MixComm, and Marzieh Veyseh, CTO/CPO and co-founder of SiTune, talked about their views on the development of mmWave market, latest chip crunch, and the Satcom market opportunities.
For the sixth straight quarter, the global smartphone applications processor (AP) market clocked a double-digit on-year revenue increase in the second quarter of 2021, according to Strategy Analytics.
MediaTek has recently launched the Kompanio 900T AP for Android-based tablets and expects the chip to help it maintain the leadership in the Android tablet AP market.
Fabless chipmakers are looking to step up their deployments in the 5G RF front-end module (RF FEM) and other device markets by working closely with their manufacturing partners, according to industry sources.
Following in the footsteps of International IDMs and automakers to promote their SiC components for EVs, China auto and semiconductors makers are also preparing their homegrown SiC chips and modules for EV applications. After the announcement to develop SiC components a few weeks ago, Foxconn continues its investment in EV business with PPT in Thailand to expand its EV supply chains to Southeast Asia. In addition to EV manufacturing, its maintenance service recently has aroused many discussions from different sides, due to the eight-year warrants of early Tesla Model S and Model X being expired soon.
Taiwan-based chipmaker MediaTek announced its plans to recruit more innovation staff in India to support local manufacturing, according to PTI, although the actual number of new employees they are looking for is not disclosed.
China auto and semiconductor makers are stepping up the development and production of their homegrown SiC chips and modules for EV applications, according to industry sources.
With the new-generation iPhones equipped with more antenna-in-package (AiP) modules, AiP packaging demand will be rising along with the iPhone sales, according to industry sources.
MediaTek has expanded its recruitment scale in Taiwan, looking to hire an additional over 2,000 design engineers to support its business expansion goals.
