Geopolitical pressures and changes in industrial structure are driving strategic collaborations among semiconductor companies, with various countries or regions incentivized for partnerships, particularly Taiwan and Japan. However, support from Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea is essential to establish ICT supply chains in emerging countries such as South Asia and Southeast Asia.
It has been almost two weeks since the launch of Apple's Vision Pro on February 2, and many early reviews of it have started to come out. Initial reactions to Apple's long-awaited new product line appear mixed, with many reviews pointing out its impressive hardware capabilities and unique spatial computing features. However, it's also widely acknowledged as a flawed product, primarily due to its selling price, battery life, overall comfort, and lack of content.
The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked many economies to address the disruptions caused throughout the global semiconductor supply chain. Whether the result of so-called "security nationalism," unsettled competitive trading regimes, or warfare destabilization, we are experiencing a new competitive era in semiconductor manufacturing. Canada has become a major participant in those ongoing reshoring recalibrations (Canada's semiconductor industry can be traced back to Nortel in the late-1960's).
Nvidia's many customers, including Open AI CEO Sam Altman, are trying to find ways to cut dependency on its AI chips. While specialists have pointed out that Altman's lack of understanding of the semiconductor industry may have underestimated the challenge and may not end well, semiconductor veterans suggested there are better alternatives that can reduce costs and increase the probability of success.
SMIC is said to have set up a new semiconductor production line in Shanghai and hopes to utilize its existing US and Dutch manufacturing facilities to mass-produce Huawei HiSilicon's new-generation high-end mobile processors using 5nm process technology within 2024, according to a Financial Times report citing sources.
The Japanese government's efforts to attract foreign semiconductor investment have been very effective, with almost every major international semiconductor manufacturer responding to the call. In addition, Rapidus, a company formed by a consortium of local companies, is also targeting the development of cutting-edge processes.
SMIC Hong Kong International Company Limited (SMIC HK) has been removed from the US Department of Defense (DOD) 1260H list of Chinese military companies.
Although AI PC has become a hot topic the market has been following lately, AMD's AI GPUs, such as the MI300, were the center of attention during AMD's latest earnings call.
Apple was reported to be downgrading its vehicle autonomy before Tesla released the financial results that did not meet market expectations. The two US-based EV makers have experienced a crisis and an opportunity at the same time as traditional automakers catch up and Chinese EV companies rise in the global EV market.
In the second half of the 1990s, Samsung Electronics came to the forefront of Dataquest's DRAM manufacturer rankings. NEC and Toshiba were in second and third place, and other Japanese companies were ranked in the top 10.
Intel and UMC's announcement to work together in developing 12nm processes has been lauded as a creative move. DIGITIMES Research believes that because of the complementary nature of their development strategies and the fact that this collaboration will allow them to take advantage of each other's strengths to create a win-win situation in terms of process development and foundry services, there is even a possibility of further cooperation to mature processes in the future. Intel's alliance with UMC marks the beginning of a new chapter of competition in the foundry industry.
When will memory manufacturers restart expansion plans after weathering the storm of a sluggish market and falling average selling prices (ASPs)? This question appears not hard to answer, as memory vendors are signaling a bullish outlook with a significant surge in orders for advanced semiconductor lithography equipment from ASML in the fourth quarter of 2023.
