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Friday 25 July 2025

Lip-Bu Tan’s Intel pivots harder toward austerity in latest earnings

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has launched a sweeping campaign of fiscal restraint, marking a sharp break from the ambitious expansionism of his predecessor.

Friday 25 July 2025

Rebellions partners with CoAsia SEMI to deliver AI chiplets to data centers worldwide

South Korean AI semiconductor startup Rebellions has inked a strategic partnership with system-on-chip (SoC) design house CoAsia SEMI to co-develop and commercialize AI chiplets and software solutions targeting global data center applications.

Friday 25 July 2025

China targets 22/28nm as wafer sourcing landscape shifts

China's continued investment in mature semiconductor foundry capacity has become a focal point in the industry. Many worry that China's mature process output could flood global markets, significantly impacting the chip ecosystem.

Thursday 24 July 2025

China-Taiwan trade heating up amid US tariffs saga

Business exchanges between Chinese and Taiwanese makers have shown significant increases amid concerns over US tariffs, trade restrictions, and global supply chain restructuring, with China and Hong Kong together remaining the biggest market for Taiwan's exports.

Thursday 24 July 2025

Trump weighed Nvidia breakup but was told it'd be 'hard'

President Donald Trump said he considered attempting to break up Nvidia to increase competition in artificial intelligence (AI) chips before finding out "it's not easy in that business."

Thursday 24 July 2025

'Awkward' fit: Nvidia's H20 snubbed in China as Qihoo 360 turns to Huawei AI chips

Nvidia's H20 chip has re-entered the Chinese market but is facing an underwhelming reception, as influential tech leaders increasingly favor local semiconductor alternatives. Zhou Hongyi, co-founder and chairman of 360 Security Technology Inc. (Qihoo 360), said the H20 chip has lost its price-performance advantage in China. He noted that 360 has switched exclusively to domestic chips — specifically Huawei's — reflecting a wider industry shift.

Wednesday 23 July 2025

TI flags 2Q25 demand boost from pull-ins, expects more typical demand as tariff impact fades

Texas Instruments (TI) signaled a more moderate third-quarter outlook, with CEO Haviv Ilan citing easing tariff-related demand and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty. While earlier inventory-driven orders spurred growth, the company now expects more typical seasonal patterns. TI emphasized its long-term US manufacturing investments as a strategic hedge amid shifting global supply chains.

Wednesday 23 July 2025

MediaTek reportedly wins Meta's new 2nm ASIC order, aiming for 1H27 mass production

MediaTek and Broadcom continue to compete for Meta's new application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) projects, with industry insiders stressing that both companies are performing at a comparable level. However, recent reports suggest that MediaTek is poised to secure a major order for one of Meta's upcoming 2nm process ASICs, codenamed "Arke," which focuses on post-training and inference functions, potentially moving toward mass production in the first half of 2027.

Wednesday 23 July 2025

Strong China growth propels TI's industrial business

During its second-quarter 2025 earnings call, Texas Instruments (TI) underscored the pivotal role China played in driving the company's industrial segment growth.

Wednesday 23 July 2025

TI notes slower growth in automotive market, reaffirms 2025 capex plan

Texas Instruments' management struck a cautious tone during its second-quarter 2025 earnings call, highlighting signs of cyclical recovery across most end markets while acknowledging growing volatility and uncertainty in the latter half of the quarter.

Wednesday 23 July 2025

TI posts solid 2Q25 results, cautious outlook tempers optimism

On July 22, Texas Instruments (TI) reported a strong set of second-quarter results, buoyed by a rebound in analog chip demand and signs of stabilization in its industrial business. However, a cautious outlook for the third quarter has tempered investor enthusiasm for a sharper recovery in the second half of the year.

Wednesday 23 July 2025

Samsung bets on GAA and HBM4 to retake AI crown

The second half of 2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal period in the global semiconductor industry, as the race for technological supremacy intensifies. At the forefront are Samsung Electronics and TSMC, which are set to clash over next-generation 2nm process technologies. Equally critical is the unfolding battle over sixth-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM4), a segment poised to redefine performance benchmarks in AI computing.

Wednesday 23 July 2025

3nm’s swan song: Android chipmakers race to outsmart Apple with AI

As the smartphone industry enters the second half of 2025, attention is turning toward the final chapter of 3nm system-on-chip (SoC) flagships. Apple, MediaTek, and Qualcomm are all expected to transition to the 2nm process node by 2026, making this year's releases the swan song for 3nm chips.

Tuesday 22 July 2025

Hygon's 4GHz C86 chip marks China's shift from policy-driven to performance-led PCs

China's IT localization strategy has entered a new phase with the launch of Hygon Information Technology's C86 processor, a 4.0GHz x86-compatible chip now powering a broad lineup of domestic desktops and mobile workstations. The rollout marks a shift in China's PC market — from policy-driven deployment to performance-focused competition.

Tuesday 22 July 2025

NXP signals soft outlook; TI may strike similar tone as auto, industrial chip markets struggle

NXP Semiconductors posted a second-quarter revenue decline and cautious guidance for the third quarter, reinforcing concerns over lingering weakness in the automotive and industrial control sectors, just as Texas Instruments (TI) prepares to report its own earnings later this week.

Tuesday 22 July 2025

NXP posts soft 2Q25, guidance fails to impress as growth headwinds persist

NXP Semiconductors reported a steeper-than-expected year-on-year revenue decline in the second quarter and issued a lukewarm third-quarter forecast, underscoring ongoing weakness across key business segments despite management's optimism about cyclical recovery.

Tuesday 22 July 2025

Nvidia and MediaTek delay AI PC launch to 2026 due to Microsoft OS hurdles and market headwinds

MediaTek and Nvidia have postponed the launch of their highly anticipated AI PC platform to the first quarter of 2026, supply chain sources say, citing a combination of delays in Microsoft's operating system roadmap, ongoing chip revisions at Nvidia, and weakening demand in the overall notebook market.

Tuesday 22 July 2025

Arm's ASIC ambitions test loyalty of chip-making partners

Arm is reportedly considering re-entry into the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) market, potentially positioning itself as a competitor to some of its key customers. Industry insiders note that this development, especially with a focus on artificial intelligence workloads, aligns with existing trends and is not unexpected.

Tuesday 22 July 2025

China's RISC-V charge expedites: DAMO Academy, BOSC go deep on server-class and 16-core CPUs

China is accelerating its deployment of RISC-V architecture as US-China tech decoupling intensifies, aiming to build a fully autonomous semiconductor supply chain. At the 5th RISC-V Summit China in Shanghai, Alibaba's DAMO Academy introduced new advances in its high-performance RISC-V platform under the XuanTie brand. Concurrently, the Beijing Institute of Open Source Chip (BOSC) confirmed system-level validation of its third-generation 16-core RISC-V processor, Kunminghu (Kunming Lake).

Tuesday 22 July 2025

Softstar takes over Taiwan Mask Corporation

Softstar Entertainment has expanded its territory in recent years and actively deepened its presence in Taiwan's key industries, covering diverse fields such as heavy electrical equipment, cybersecurity, semiconductor design, manufacturing, and distribution.

Tuesday 22 July 2025

Synopsys strengthens India's role with push for world's first AI-based chip foundry

Synopsys is playing a key role in India's growing semiconductor ambitions, partnering closely with Tata Electronics to support what may become the world's first AI-based semiconductor foundry at Dholera in Gujarat.

Monday 21 July 2025

Taiwan Mask Corporation changes major shareholder following subsidiary bankruptcy

Taiwan Mask Corporation (TMC), the world's fourth-largest independent photomask maker, has undergone a change in its largest corporate shareholder, as Softstar Entertainment acquired a portion of TMC through its subsidiary.

Monday 21 July 2025

Is computing the wrong focus? Lightmatter's 3D photonics tackles AI's data bottleneck

As AI workloads hit data movement bottlenecks, MIT spinoff Lightmatter is betting that photonics, not more transistors, holds the key to next-generation infrastructure. After years of pioneering photonic computing, Lightmatter is moving from research to commercialization. Its flagship interconnect products — Passage M1000 and L200 — are set to enter production in 2025 and 2026.

Monday 21 July 2025

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang highlights China's unique role in AI innovation and tech ecosystem

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang recently visited China, and in a one-on-one interview with CCTV, he highlighted the uniqueness and significance of the Chinese AI market. Huang underlined that China's innovation in artificial intelligence is undeniable and will continue independently, even without Nvidia's direct involvement.

Monday 21 July 2025

Broadcom, MediaTek battle for cloud AI chips as CSPs double down on custom silicon

As major US-based cloud service providers (CSPs) prepare to announce their latest earnings, investors are closely monitoring their investment strategies in cloud infrastructure and potential changes in capex, key factors influencing the custom application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) market.

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