Global Core News of Semiconductor 2023, 34weeks.

1.?Memory module manufacturers in mainland China cooperate with the original manufacturers to suspend quotations, and NAND may increase by 8~10%.

Taiwan's Electronic Times reported on August 17 that as the NAND Flash price increase trend remains unchanged, memory module manufacturers in mainland China have recently suspended quotations and orders, and will increase their quotations by 8~10% in line with the original manufacturers. Although buyers and sellers are still in the see-saw stage, the direction of industry price increases is becoming clearer, and NAND prices are gradually moving closer to the manufacturing cost line. According to reports, Samsung’s internal plan is rumored to suspend Pingtaek’s P1 production line equipment, which is expected to last for at least a month or longer. The production line focuses on 128-layer stacked 6th-generation V-NAND mature process products. There have been rumors of NAND price hikes recently, and many small and medium-sized customers want to stock up at lower prices before the price hikes. As a result, major Chinese memory module makers decided to suspend quotations. With the ferment of the production reduction actions of the original manufacturers, the memory module industry also shouted higher prices, which will help to promote OEM customers to resume stocking. In the first half of 2023, NAND inventory will be depleted slowly, but the industry has expectations before the release of Apple’s iPhone 15. Mobile phone brands are also launching new products one after another. The short-term shipment pressure of original memory manufacturers is reduced, and the NAND adjustment cycle may come to an end.

2.?The price of Qualcomm chips has been greatly reduced, with a maximum drop of 10% to 20%.

???Taiwan’s Economic Daily reported on August 14 that the recovery of the mobile phone market was not as good as expected. It was reported in the industry that in order to stimulate customers’ willingness to purchase goods and speed up the clearance of inventory, Qualcomm recently launched a big price cut, locking in low-end and mid-range 5G mobile phone chips, and the price cut was as high as 1% 20%, it is expected that Qualcomm’s price reduction measures will continue to the fourth quarter. If the speed of inventory depletion is not as fast as expected, it is not ruled out that a new wave of price cuts will be intensified. According to industry analysis, Qualcomm's large-scale price reduction highlights the dilemma of low-end 5G mobile phone market buying. He also pointed out that Qualcomm has always been in a leading position in the non-Apple mid-to-high-end mobile phone market, so this price reduction focuses on the mid-to-low-end segment, hoping to accelerate the destocking to meet the new generation of Snapdragon series that will be launched in mid-to-late October Mobile phone chip.

3.??In the short term, the supply of GPUs in the Chinese market is in short supply, and the demand for domestic AI cloud services is only partially met.

??? On August 10, Zhang Yong, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, said that the model training and reasoning scenarios brought about by the development of a new generation of artificial intelligence have a very strong demand for AI cloud services, but due to the shortage of GPU supply in the Chinese market in the short term, As a result, such needs have only been partially met, and the incremental opportunities brought about by AI-related services have just begun to be released. This evening, Alibaba Group announced its new quarterly results. Alibaba Cloud’s revenue increased by 4% to 25.123 billion yuan, and its adjusted EBITA profit increased by 106% to 387 million yuan.

?4.?The major wafer foundry has proposed to the wafer supplier to lower the long-term contract price next year.

???? According to news from the industry, a large foundry has proposed to the Japanese silicon wafer supplier to lower the price of the long-term contract for next year in order to "overcome the difficulties together". Since the Japanese silicon wafer fab is the most important supplier in the industry, this move will affect future price negotiations among the same industry, as well as the follow-up pricing strategy of related silicon wafer fabs. The industry estimates that fabs will not easily compromise on the long-term price reduction requirements of large foundry customers, but relevant news has reflected the difficulty of the foundry end, and the storm has spread to the key material end.

?5.?Korean semiconductor 8-inch foundries generally cut prices by about 10%.

??? The Elec reported on August 14 that South Korean 8-inch foundry manufacturers have lowered their quotations for this year, and the price reduction rate is about 10%. The timing and magnitude of price cuts vary from company to company. Industry analysts believe that three major factors have a greater impact on the 8-inch OEM price reduction: first, due to the sluggish demand for TI equipment, resulting in a decline in the utilization rate of the foundry; second, the price reduction of TI products; third, the 12-inch conversion of the 8-inch process.

6.? Nvidia will ship about 550,000 H100 units this year, and A800 delivery may not be scheduled until Q1 next year.

The Financial Times reported on August 16 that according to multiple sources close to Nvidia and TSMC, Nvidia will ship about 550,000 H100 chips worldwide in 2023, mainly to US technology companies. Nvidia declined to comment. In addition, Nvidia A800 GPU is produced using TSMC’s 7nm process, and its production capacity has not yet reached full capacity. However, Nvidia has set a plan for the third quarter of production. It will take one quarter at the fastest from launch, packaging and testing to output. Nvidia A800 will be delivered to customers in mainland China It may be scheduled until the first quarter of next year.

7.? NAND flash price downturn or longer than expected.

???DRAM trials have seen some significant growth momentum due to artificial intelligence-induced demand for high-bandwidth (HBM) memory and DDR5. However, the NAND flash market has not received much boost from generative artificial intelligence, and the end-equipment market has no significant demand for any application that can speed up the inventory adjustment process. low point.

8.? Wolfspeed's factory construction costs are high, and the expected loss is expected to exceed expectations.

Power semiconductor materials company Wolfspeed said it expects a larger-than-expected quarterly loss due to pressure on factory construction costs. "We are building and expanding factories that are not yet producing and generating revenue, so we incur significant start-up costs," the company said. Wolfspeed expects an adjusted loss per share of between 60 cents and 75 cents for the latest quarter, according to Refinitiv data. , while analysts had expected a value of 29 cents. The company’s median quarterly revenue forecast was $220 million to $240 million, missing expectations of $2.332.

（The above data sources are collected from public website news.）