Memory module maker Adata Technology saw sales of its SSD products increase 14.2% on year and over 10% sequentially to account for 22% of company revenues in January 2019.

Robust demand for more content for mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), automotive and industrial applications will drive production of 700,000 200mm wafers from 2019 to 2022, a 14% increase, according to SEMI. The increase brings total 200mm wafer fab capacity to 6.5 million wafers per month as many...

Unit prices for 1TB SSDs for gaming devices have fallen more than 50% since 2018, which is expected to help upgrade the mainstream storage specs of gaming SSDs to the range of 512GB-1TB, according to industry sources.

Taiwan led all regions/countries in wafer capacity with 21.8% share, a slight increase from 21.3% in 2017, according to IC Insights. Taiwan first became the global wafer capacity leader in 2015.

The global semiconductor industry posted sales of US$468.8 billion in 2018, the industry's highest-ever annual total and an increase of 13.7% compared to the 2017 total, according to Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

Samsung Electronics and Apple remained the top two semiconductor chip buyers in 2018, representing 17.9% of the total worldwide market, according to Gartner. Meanwhile, the top-10 OEMs increased their share of chip spending to 40.2%, up from 39.4% in 2017.

DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology saw its revenues fall to a 19-month low in January 2019, while niche-market DRAM specialist Winbond Electronics' revenues increased 5% on month.

Shipments of touch and memory modules by Apple's iPhone supply chain makers are expected to suffer significant setbacks in the first quarter of 2019 due largely to disappointing sales of iPhone XS and XR series products.

China-based IC production is forecast to exhibit a strong 2018-2023 CAGR of 15%, according to IC Insights. Considering that China-based IC production was only US$23.8 billion in 2018, the growth is starting from a relatively small base.

NAND flash prices will continue falling in the second half of 2019, but the pace will be more moderate, according to Wallace Kou, president and CEO of Silicon Motion Technology.

Specialty DRAM and flash memory chipmaker Winbond Electronics has said plans to build a new 12-inch wafer plant in southern Taiwan are still on track despite some near-term headwinds.

Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments in 2018 increased 8% to a record high, while revenues jumped 31% on year exceeding the US$10 billion mark for the first time since 2018, according to SEMI.

China's central government has decided to intervene in the case of Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit accused of stealing trade secrets from US-based Micron Technology, while the Fujian provincial government has been informed to stay out, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Annual semiconductor unit shipments, including integrated circuits and optoelectronics, sensors and discrete (O-S-D) devices, grew 10% in 2018 and surpassed the one trillion unit mark for the first time, according to IC Insights.

Billings among North American manufacturers of semiconductor production equipment posted a year-over-year decline for the second consecutive month in December 2018.

Macronix International has been engaged in 3D NAND technology R&D, and plans to offer 48- and 96-layer processes to deliver 128Gb and 256Gb products, according to company president CY Lu.

Macronix International expects to have a tough first-quarter 2019, as unfavorable global trade conditions are discouraging its clients from placing orders, according to the mask ROM and flash memory maker.

SK Hynix saw its revenues and profits hit record-high levels for the second consecutive year in 2018, but revenues and profits started showing weakness in the fourth quarter.

Toshiba Memory has started sampling Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Ver. 3.0 embedded flash memory devices. The new lineup utilizes the company's 96-layer 3D flash memory and is available in three capacities - 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. With high-speed read/write performance and low power consumption,...

Chip demand for emerging AI and 5G applications will keep surging to become a major growth driver for the global semiconductor sector in the next three years, according to Terry Tsao, president of SEMI Taiwan and the organization's newly-appointed chief marketing officer (CMO).

New Android-based smartphones rolled out for 2019 will have some core components upgraded, particularly the upgrade to 10GB or more RAM in flagship devices, according to industry sources.

Server DRAM contract prices are expected to fall by more than 20% sequentially in the first quarter of 2019, according to DRAMeXchange, which estimated previously a smaller 15% drop.

Japan-based Toshiba Memory Corp (TMC), now the world's No. 2 supplier of NAND flash memory chips with nearly 20% market share, is striving at full throttles to rival top supplier Samsung Electronics by advancing its IPO listing to the second half of 2019 from 2021 and enhancing cooperation with No...

The historic flood of merger and acquisition agreements that swept through the semiconductor industry in 2015 and 2016 slowed significantly in 2017 and then eased back further in 2018, but the total value of M&A deals reached in the last year was still nearly more than twice the annual average...

The world's leading semiconductor suppliers significantly increased their combined market share over the past decade. According to IC Insights, the top-5 semiconductor suppliers accounted for 47% of the world's semiconductor sales in 2018, up 14pp from 10 years earlier.