Taiwan-based Supreme Electronics, a major IC distributor for Samsung Electronics, expects rising NAND flash and DRAM chip prices to buoy its sales performance in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) on December 7 held its 2023 Supply Chain Management Forum and presented awards to outstanding supplier partners in gratitude for their support and contributions throughout the past year. The increase in the number of Taiwanese suppliers and more awards given to partners of new fab building services reveals the company's challenge in deploying a new supply chain in Arizona over the past year.

Novatek Microelectronics, with its OLED display driver ICs (DDI), has entered the supply chain for Apple's iPhones that are set to be released in 2024, according to industry sources.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has described Huawei as a formidable rival to his company in the Chinese market, despite the fact that many in the semiconductor industry are wondering how far China's tech giant could go amid the US sanctions.

A generative artificial intelligence startup targeting the Indian market raised $41 million in fresh funding, the largest such round by an early-stage AI contender in the country.

Following Nvidia and AMD's footsteps, cloud service provider AWS has started to design its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) chips. This move is deemed beneficial for the growth of the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market dominated by South Korean companies such as Samsung and SK Hynix.

AMD's "Advancing AI" event on December 6 was attended by industry leaders such as Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, Dell Technologies, HPE, Lenovo, Supermicro, Arista, Broadcom, and Cisco to demonstrate how these companies are collaborating with AMD to deliver advanced AI solutions spanning cloud, enterprise, and PCs.

In recent years, a wave of consolidation has swept through the global IC trading sector, with companies seeking to stand out in a fiercely competitive market by engaging in mergers and acquisitions. This trend has transformed the competitive dynamics of IC distribution and reshaped the industry landscape worldwide.

Advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology under 14nm was included in the list of 22 key core technologies to be banned from illegal outflows to foreign adversaries on December 6, announced by Taiwan's National Technology and Science Council (NTSC). Wang Mei-hua, Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs, said semiconductor foundry manufacturers are already aware of the ban on advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes, and their existing investments in China will not be affected.

Established in 2014, Clarius, a Canada-based company with 150 staff around the world, made waves in the medical imaging realm with the introduction of one of the pioneering handheld ultrasound scanners. Now, Clarius is steering its ambitions towards the expansive Asian market, actively pursuing strategic partnerships for distribution and production. In a bid to understand and navigate the nuances of the Taiwanese market, the company has forged a partnership with the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei (CTOT) through its CTA program.

According to industry sources, more cloud service providers (CSP) are building their own AI chips, which benefits Taiwan-based ASIC service and silicon IP providers.

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is set to implement the Taiwan Chip-driven Industrial Innovation Program (TCIIP) in January 2024, a collaborative effort with various government agencies. Key players in the Taiwanese IC design industry express optimism that the program will fortify the talent ecosystem, attracting global professionals crucial for semiconductor development.

Samsung Electronics is actively expanding its 4nm foundry customers. It's reported that VisioNexT, a subsidiary of the Hanwha Group, will place orders with Samsung to manufacture 4nm AI chips. The hope is that this move can bring breakthroughs in the vision AI sector.

The latest report by Wccftech pointed out that Huawei's new notebook (NB) PC L540 is equipped with the 5nm Kirin 9006C, an SoC with 8 cores. Chinese media ITHome recently revealed that this 5nm 9006C processor has been adopted by L420 in 2021. Therefore, it is not a new chip manufactured in 2023. It is more likely that Huawei's stockpiled chips were manufactured by TSMC, before the company was banned by the US from accessing American technologies in September 2020.

Poland is expected to play a greater role in driving Central Europe's tech industry forward as Warsaw awaits a new government in December. Donald Tusk. a veteran Polish politician who served as the country's Prime Minister between 2007 and 2014 before serving as President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019, led his party Civic Platform to victory at Poland's national election in October, will return as Prime Minister, forming a government together with two smaller opposition parties in December. According to a source from the Polish political circle, the incoming government will seek to further strengthen Poland's role in the global high-tech value chain, and a subsidy package potentially worth billions is anticipated to attract and consolidate foreign investment in the Polish high-tech industry, especially when it comes to semiconductors.

The global trend of cybersecurity legislation development, with the European Union's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) slated for enforcement in 2024, will impact the IoT ecosystem and require companies to ensure compliance when operating globally.

The low utilization rates of LCD fabs have caused display driver IC (DDI) suppliers to exercise caution when predicting demand for the first quarter of 2024.

Marvell Technology's outlook indicates that inventory adjustments for network chips may take longer than expected, possibly lasting through the first half of 2024, according to industry sources.

According to industry sources, AMD's new-generation AI GPU series, the Instinct MI300, will be available soon, with shipments expected to reach 300,000-400,000 units in 2024.

Although the limelight of global media was cast on SMIC for its 7nm chips used in Huawei's Mate 60 Pro smartphone, Shanghai Huali Microelectronics Corp (HLMC), the other China foundry maker that has the capability of manufacturing advanced chips under 10nm, kept a low profile and remained quiet from public attention.

October witnessed a sequential 3.9% increase in worldwide semiconductor sales, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reports, marking the eighth consecutive month of sequential market growth.

IBM, a trailblazer in quantum computing, chose the stage of the IBM Quantum Summit on December 4 to reveal a significant milestone in the field – its IBM Quantum System Two and its Quantum innovation roadmap to 2033.

In recent years, Samsung Electronics has adopted custom-designed application processors (APs) from Qualcomm for its flagship smartphones, eliminating performance controversies associated with Samsung's own APs. However, this has led to a significant increase in AP procurement costs. During the first three quarters of 2023 alone, Samsung's AP procurement costs reached a staggering US$7 billion.

The global PC market's growth in 2024 may not be as rapid as many terminal device manufacturers anticipate - a 10% increase, according to sources at IC design houses.

After a meeting between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, it was stated that Japan hopes Nvidia will supply as many GPUs as possible to Japanese companies for AI development. Nvidia also plans to collaborate with Japanese companies such as SoftBank to accelerate the development of generative AI in Japan.