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.
DIGITIMES recently interviewed Julian Hetherington, the director of the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), to understand the future of EV development in the UK and its potential benefits for Taiwan's supply chain.
The announcement of collaboration between Intel and Taiwan's second-largest foundry manufacturing service provider United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), is one step ahead of Intel's ambitious goal of taking second place in the global semiconductor foundry market.
Samsung Electronics and Intel have long competed with each other for first place in the fierce global semiconductor IDM market, and a fierce battle for orders and rankings has begun with Intel's return to the foundry market. The wide adoption of Chiplet technology is undoubtedly a great opportunity for Samsung and Intel, which are struggling to catch up with TSMC.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's plan to build its artificial intelligence (AI) chip fab raised eyebrows these days as some say that Altman wants to raise cows for his milk, which would make sense if the cost of milk has become exceedingly expensive or if they have to line up for months to get limited supplies. However, the money spent does not necessarily guarantee the result of the internalization effort would meet his needs.
The flagship Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2-inch tablet computer, recently released in countries such as Malaysia, Italy, and Saudi Arabia, is equipped with an 8-core Kirin 9000W processor. However, it is currently unclear how this version differs from the Kirin 9000S version used in previous Huawei devices in China, and clarification is still pending.
As the global EV market grows, more emerging automakers have risen. They innovate car designs and production. Moreover, these companies have created new rules for their collaboration with suppliers.
Food Cycle Sciences, a Canadian company that produces FoodCycler, the kitchen waste processor, is planning to expand its market in Taiwan via a local partner.
The emergence of generative AI has made high-bandwidth memory (HBM) a bonanza, which helped the memory industry recover from huge losses due to inventory corrections in 2023.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) recently disclosed its overseas expansion progress and plans in its earnings report conference on January 18 and expressed interest in building a second fab in Japan. Surprisingly, supply chain sources said TSMC's success in Japan has inspired Singapore to pitch even better incentives to attract investments from TSMC.
With TSMC's Kumamoto fab progressing more smoothly than expected and market rumors even speculating about TSMC's second and third fabs in Japan, people wonder whether TSMC will shift part of the Arizona fab investment to Japan. The unspoken message is that the spotlight is no longer on Arizona, but on Kumamoto.
