Around the web
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Samsung Electronics likely saw a 45% jump in profit for January-March on robust sales of smartphones, TVs and home appliances, though chip division earnings are seen tumbling after a storm suspended production at its US plant.
Reuters
Micron Technology on Wednesday forecast fiscal third-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates due to a rise in demand for memory chips thanks to 5G smartphones and artificial intelligence software that is pushing memory chip prices upward.
Reuters
"I have never seen anything like this in the past 20 years since our company's founding," said Jordan Wu, co-founder and chief executive officer of Himax Technologies, a leading supplier of display drivers. "Every application is short of chips."
Bloomberg
LG Electronics is leaving the smartphone market and plans to complete its exit by July 31. The deals are only going to intensify as that date approaches.
ZDNet
Subaru will reduce vehicle production by about 10,000 autos at a Japanese assembly plant as the industry struggles with a shortage of chips.
Nikkei Electronics Asia
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger will virtually attend a meeting being put together by President Joe Biden's administration for April 12 to discuss the semiconductor supply chain issues disrupting US automotive factories, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Reuters
Micron Technology and Western Digital are each exploring a potential deal for Kioxia Holdings that could value the Japanese semiconductor company at around US$30 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
Wall Street Journal
The global shortage of semiconductors and winter storm that devastated Texas last month probably cost carmakers production of about 1.3 million vehicles this quarter, according to IHS Markit.
Bloomberg
Arm has unveiled the biggest overhaul of its technology in almost a decade, with new designs targeting markets currently dominated by Intel.
Bloomberg
With chipmaker Renesas Electronics not expected to achieve a full recovery from its recent factory fire until mid-July, Japan's largest automakers have begun bracing for long-term disruptions and potential production cuts.
Nikkei Electronics Asia
A huge container ship that has been wedged in the Suez Canal since Tuesday has finally been freed from the shoreline.
BBC News
Hyundai Motor to suspend some South Korea output due to chip, component supply issues (Mar 29, 2021)
South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co said on Tuesday it plans to temporarily suspend production at its Ulsan No.1 plant in South Korea due to chip and component supply issues from April 7-14.
Reuters
South Korea said Monday it has granted the final approval to SK Hynix' KRW120 trillion (US$106 billion) project to build a new semiconductor complex, a move that could ease supply shortages in the global market.
Korea Herald
Top US chipmaking equipment supplier Applied Materials said Monday it has abandoned a $3.5 billion deal to acquire Japanese peer Kokusai Electric from investment firm KKR owing to regulatory hurdles.
Nikkei Electronics Asia
Xiaomi plans to invest about $10 billion over the next decade to manufacture electric cars, embarking on its biggest-ever overhaul to enter China's booming EV market.
Bloomberg
Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that production at its US chip plant at Austin, Texas had returned to near-normal levels as of last week after more than a month of disruption that exacerbated a global chip capacity crunch.
Reuters
Renesas CEO Hidetoshi Shibata told a news conference that while production at the company's fire-hit plant looked likely to resume within a month, recovery to pre-fire levels was expected to take around 100 to 120 days from the incident.
Reuters
Governments around the world are subsidizing the construction of semiconductor factories as a chip shortage hobbles the auto and electronics industries and highlights the world's singular dependence on Taiwan for vital supplies.
Reuters
Samsung Display is likely to receive compensation from Apple over a shortfall in OLED panel orders, industry insiders said Tuesday.
Korea Herald
Apple is considering launching an Apple Watch with a rugged casing aimed at athletes, hikers and others who use the device in more extreme environments, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bloomberg
Nio will temporarily halt production at one of its factories in Anhui province because of a semiconductor shortage, becoming the first high-profile Chinese carmaker to succumb to the chip snarl that's silenced the factory lines of auto manufacturers globally.
Bloomberg
The LEC-IMX8MP SMARC AI-on-module features NXP's i.MX 8M Plus with integrated NPU running up to 2.3 TOPS
Company release
China's Xiaomi plans to make electric vehicles (EV) using Great Wall Motor's factory, said three people with direct knowledge of the matter, making it the latest tech firm to join the smart mobility race.
Reuters
Japan has called on equipment makers to help one of its biggest chipmakers restore production, the latest government move aimed at easing a semiconductor shortage that has hit production at car companies and is now pressuring makers of electronic devices.
Reuters
Intel and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have announced a three-year partnership to advance the development of domestically manufactured structured ASIC platforms.
Company release
Swedish truckmaker Volvo said on Monday that a shortage of semiconductors would have a substantial impact on production in the second quarter.
Reuters
A fire at one of Renesas Electronics' semiconductor facilities will probably have a big impact on the supply of chips for the automobile industry, Chief Executive Officer Hidetoshi Shibata said during an online news conference Sunday.
Reuters
In an update, Infineon said it was continuing to ramp production and expected to reach pre-shutdown levels of production by June.
Reuters
International bondholders owed tens of millions of dollars by a Beijing-backed semiconductor group are seeking to freeze its overseas assets, as corporate debt problems complicate President Xi Jinping's attempts to unshackle China from foreign-made chips.
The Financial Times
Qualcomm chief executive officer Steve Mollenkopf said he expects the global chip shortage to ease for certain products using mature technology.
Bloomberg
Japan's Renesas Electronics halted production at one of its main plants in Hitachinaka, northeast of Tokyo, after a fire broke out, the chipmaker said late Friday.
Nikkei Electronics Asia
Average delivery times of Kulicke and Soffa Industries' packaging equipment, which require microcontrollers, have doubled to six months, said executive VP Chan Pin Chong. The company supplies equipment to customers like ASE Technology, the world's largest chip packaging and testing services provider.
Bloomberg
Investments into next-generation wireless networks will span a much longer time than the 4G cycle, giving underdog Nokia time to catch up with rivals that zoomed past it for early rollouts, according to its chief executive.
Bloomberg
Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) said on Wednesday it planned to jointly invest in a US$2.35 billion project with the government of Shenzhen to make 40,000 wafers per month in the southern Chinese city from 2022.
Reuters (via Yahoo! Finance)
BMW says it will have 13 BEVs on sale in 2023, from compact cars to the biggest, most luxurious cars to wear the blue-and-white propeller. And by the end of 2025, the plan is for BMW to have delivered a total of 2 million plug-ins to customers.
Ars Technica
Huawei will begin charging smartphone makers a royalty to use its patented 5G technology.
CNBC
Legend, the parent of the world's biggest PC maker Lenovo, said it purchased about 12.8 million shares of Chinese chipmaker Fullhan Microelectronics for CNY1.54 billion (US$236.9 million).
NASDAQ.com
Baidu has raised US$3.1 billion in its Hong Kong secondary listing, according to a filing by the Chinese internet search giant.
Reuters
Qualcomm is struggling to keep up with demand for its processor chips used in smartphones and gadgets, as a chip shortage that first hit the auto industry spreads across the electronics business, industry sources told Reuters.
Reuters
Finnish telecoms group Nokia said on Tuesday it planned to cut up to 10,000 jobs within the next two years to trim costs and invest more in research capabilities, as part of its restructuring plan.
Reuters
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