Samsung's 2nm chips coming in 2025 | Severe drought hits US agriculture | Manganese sulphate production for GM coming to Louisiana

In today's Portfolio Intelligence Daily:

• Samsung to start producing 2nm chips in 2025
• Severe drought hits US agriculture
• Manganese sulphate production for GM coming to Louisiana

Each day we spotlight under the radar investment themes and idiosyncratic risks, often involving emerging markets, supply chain issues, ESG risks, and the impact of regulatory changes.

Theme summaries are curated by Auquan’s analyst team using our Portfolio Intelligence Engine to uncover investment insights at scale using NLP and generative AI.?

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Samsung to start producing 2nm chips in 2025

Samsung Electronics unveiled a detailed plan for the mass production of chips with a 2nm process, which is expected to offer significant improvements in performance, power efficiency, and transistor density.

• Production of 2nm chips for mobile applications will begin in 2025; for high-performance computing and AI will begin in 2026; for automotive will begin in 2027.
• Samsung says its 2nm technology has shown a 12% rise in performance, a 25% increase in power efficiency, and a 5% decrease in area, when compared to its 3nm process.
• Samsung plans to increase production capacity in the United States, with its Taylor factory set to be completed by the year-end and be operational in the second half of next year, as scheduled.
• Samsung is competing against Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, to produce 2-nm chips. TSMC and Samsung are the only companies that can currently produce 3-nm chips, and TSMC is also expected to start 2-nm production in 2025.

Select timeline

• June 28, 2023 | Samsung Electronics to begin 2nm chipmaking process in 2025 for mobile applications (Yonhap News Agency)
• April 26, 2023 | TSMC struggles to produce enough 3nm processors for Apple (Donanim Gunlugu)
• June 30, 2022 | Samsung beats TSMC to production of 3nm chips (The Verge)

Tags: #tsmc #semiconductor #chips #samsung

Severe drought hits US agriculture

Corn and soybean conditions in the US are at the second-lowest level of quality in history, and the lowest since 1988 — and are expected to cause an increase in food prices.?

• Several important agricultural areas in the US are still on track for the driest June ever — a critical time for corn development as it is starting to pollinate — and for soybeans as they’re starting to set pods.
• The drought has been especially severe in the Midwest, where most of the corn and soybean crop is grown, and in other parts of the country, such as the South and the West.
• Drought conditions have caused a decline in wheat production in Kansas, which is expected to produce the smallest wheat crop since 1961.

Select timeline

• June 27, 2023 | U.S. Corn, Soybean Conditions Are Now the Worst Since 1988, Even With Weekend Rains (AG Web)
• June 22, 2023 | Central US drought intensifies, threatening grains and soy (Reuters)
• June 20, 2023 | A Rough Harvest for Kansas Wheat (NASA Earth Observatory)

Tags: #us #drought #climatechange #agriculture #wheat #soybeans #corn

Manganese sulphate production for GM coming to Louisiana

Australian mining company Element 25 has agreed to supply manganese sulphate to General Motors (GM) from a new facility in Louisiana.?

• The arrangement will supply GM with up to 32,500 tonnes of manganese sulphate per year supplied from Element 25's Western Australian Butcherbird mine and processed in Louisiana.
• GM will provide Element 25 with an $85 million loan to partially fund construction of the Louisiana facility.
• The deal is the second by GM for Australian battery minerals, following a move last October to take an equity stake in Queensland Pacific Metals to secure a new source of nickel and cobalt for battery cells.
• Element 25's high purity processing technology provides an alternative to China, where almost all of the world's high purity manganese is processed.

Select timeline

• June 23, 2023 | Australia's Element 25 To Supply Gm With Manganese Sulphate (Reuters)
• June 23, 2023 | Element 25 Secures $Us85m From Gm For High-purity Manganese Plant In Louisiana (The West)?
• June 23, 2023 | Element 25 Ltd And General Motors Join Forces To Expand Us Ev Supply Chain With Domestic Manganese Sulphate Production (Proactive Investors)?

Tags: #manganese #mining #batteries #cleanenergy #gm #ev #louisiana?

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