These are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia news stories in the week of December 11-15:
Huawei will make 1 billion 5G merchandise per year for Europe in Alsace, France
In an exclusive interview on France Inter News Radio, Minggang Zhang, the Deputy General Manager of Huawei France, revealed Huawei's first overseas factory will be completed in the northeastern Alsace region of France, in Brumath in Bas-Rhin. Huawei is investing EUR200 million in the project, which will create 300 direct jobs and is projected to start manufacturing 5G equipment in 2025. "The factory construction is underway -- the ambition is indeed to produce 1 billion merchandise per year, with 500 jobs at stake in the long term. And Huawei is manufacturing in France to supply the entire European market," said Zhang.
US updated semiconductor export control to have little effort in stopping China, says DIGITIMES Research
Following the announcement to impose export restrictions aimed at blocking China's semiconductor industry development in October 2022, the US government released multiple new measures directed at China's semiconductor industry, including the expansion of the curbs on high-performance chip and advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SME) exports announced in October 2023, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest report on the US semiconductor export sanctions. DIGITIMES Research believes that although the added control measures may close the loopholes in the existing export restrictions, they will only slow down China's semiconductor industry development but will hardly stop China from building up its semiconductor strength.
Huawei to launch 'disruptive' products in 2024
Yu Chengdong, Huawei's executive director and chairman of the Intelligent Automotive Solution BU, announced at the recent Pollen Annual Conference 2023 that the company plans to launch highly innovative, groundbreaking products in 2024. These products will include HarmonyOS-native applications. Yu stated at the conference that Huawei aims to rewrite the industry's history in 2024. The company aspires to continue innovating and doing things others haven't thought of or dared to do, surpassing everyone's expectations.
TSMC lands rush orders for Nvidia China-bound processors
Nvidia has placed orders with TSMC for its China-bound AI processors that necessitate SHR (Super Hot Run). The commencement of fulfillment is planned for the first quarter of 2024, according to industry sources. Despite the US imposing stricter export restrictions on China's chip manufacturing sector, Nvidia has not been deterred and continues to ramp up wafer starts at TSMC, sources said. Sources indicated that Nvidia is pleading with TSMC to boost manufacturing capacity and satisfy demand for its H100 processors, which are now falling short due to limited CoWoS production capacity.
Semiconductor cybersecurity at stake: NXP hack and TSMC supply chain measures
Marc Hijink, the technology news reporter of Dutch media NRC Handelsblad, reported in late November about an espionage hacking group with ties to China that had been looting the network of NXP between late 2017 and early 2020. In 2018, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was forced to halt production for three days and ultimately lost an estimated US$171 million in a cyber attack incident caused by failing to do a virus scan on new equipment after installation. Those breaches are only part of a larger trend of significant increases in cybersecurity incidents affecting companies, industries, and government entities. DIGITIMES Asia (DT) had an exclusive interview with Marc Hijink (MH) and Bright Wu (BW), an SEMI Taiwan Cybersecurity Committee member who participated in the formulation of SEMI's cybersecurity standards.
Global semiconductor equipment sales to reach record US$124 billion in 2025, says SEMI
Global sales of total semiconductor manufacturing equipment by original equipment manufacturers are forecast to reach US$100 billion in 2023, a contraction of 6.1% from the industry record of US$107.4 billion posted in 2022, according to SEMI. Semiconductor manufacturing equipment growth is expected to resume in 2024, with sales forecast to reach a new high of US$124 billion in 2025, supported by both the front-end and back-end segments, SEMI indicated.
Microsoft pivoting from H100 to B100 GPUs in 2024 amidst AI arms race
In a strategic pivot, Microsoft is set to acquire many of Nvidia's cutting-edge B100 GPUs in 2024, diverting from its earlier procurement of Nvidia's H100. This decision follows a recent report from Omdia revealing Microsoft's acquisition of 150,000 H100 GPUs in 2023—a figure that outstrips heavyweights like Google, Amazon, Oracle, and Tencent. According to Morgan Stanley's latest report, Microsoft plans to transition part of its 2024 H100 chip orders to the B100.
