The Tech Week that was.. Aug 23~27

Welcome to the latest edition of my weekly newsletter bringing you all the key semiconductor and technology news from around the world in one easy read.?This week updates of the M&A activity from Western Digital, Toshiba, Renesas, Analog Devices and Onsemi.?A summary of all the latest market analysis together with lots of other news.

?Lets start this week with merger and acquisition news.

Western Digital is reported to be in advanced talks to acquire Japan’s Kioxia in a deal that could unite the two technology storage providers.?The deal is said to be worth more than US$20billion and would enabe the two companies to compete with Samsung.?According to Trendforce Samsung held 34% in Q2’21 whilst Kioxia held 18.3% and Western Digital 14.7%.

?Toshiba is reported to be in talks with at least four investment companies to provide ideas for a new strategy for the company after the company was hit by scandals, with a possible view for a buyout.?The four investment companies are said to include KKR, Blackstone, Bain and Brookfield

?Last week, Renesas announced progress towards closure of its proposed US$5.9billion acquisition of Dialog Semiconductor after Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission waived its jurisdiction to review the all-cash deal. With clearances already issued in China, Germany and the United States, Renesas said it expects to close the Dialog deal by the end of August.?The acquisition was first announced back in February.

Similarly this week Analog Devices has completed it’s acquisition of Maxim after China’s regulators approved the acquisition. Analog Devices previously announced its US$20billion acquisition in July 2020.?The acquisition brings together the #2 and #3 players in the market for standard, non-custom analog chips, giving the combined company a broader range of technologies to take on Texas Instruments, the leader in analog semiconductors.

Onsemi has announced it will acquire SiC wafer manufacturer GT Advanced Technologies for US$415million.?The move is a major push further into electric vehicles for Onsemi, which already supplies other automotive chips such as sensors in driver safety systems.?GT Advanced Technology was founded in 1994 in Hudson USA

Market Research News

NAND Flash revenue grew 10.8% in Q2’21 according to Trendforce.?Global NAND flash output value generated US$16.4bililon in Q2. due to strong notebook and data center demand.?The quarterly total NAND Flash bit shipments rose by nearly 9% QoQ, due to robust notebook demand from PC OEMs during the period.

The DRAM segment continued it’s upward direction from Q1,?with Q2 revenue increasing 20% QoQ due to robust demand especially from the notebook sector and also due to price increases.?Total DRAM revenue for 2Q21 reached US$24.1 billion.?Samsung remains in top spot with 43.6% market share from SK Hynix (27.9%) and Micron (22.6%).

?Semiconductor equipment sales continued its upward trend in July.?SEMI released it’s July 2021 North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers worldwide billings data last week reporting that July billings grew 4.5% compared to June to US$3.86 billion.?This is 50% higher than billings a year ago in July 2020.

The US PC market continues to be very robust in Q2, boosted by new orders due to the reopening of US schools after more than a year of virtual classes, and also from companies adopting permanent hybrid work arrangements.?According to market research firm Canalys, the US PC?market grew 16.6% in Q2’21 compared to a year ago with shipments of desktops, notebooks, tablets and workstations topping 36.8million units.?Notebooks remained the top category growing 27% in Q2. HP held the largest market share with 21.9% from Apple with 20.6%.?

?Other Industry News

?With the global shortage of chips and full capacity in the leading foundries, TSMC is the latest foundry reported to be increasing wafer prices by as much as 20% for most if its technologies including 7nm, 12nm, 28nm and 40nm.?The price increases are effective immediately the customers receive notification.

?The worsening COVID-19 situation in Malaysia is threatening to make worse the global chip shortage as companies are forced to close production facilities for as long as 2 weeks for cleaning and disinfection. Malaysia has emerged in recent years as a major center for chip testing and packaging, with Infineon, NXP and STMicroelectronics among the key automotive suppliers operating plants there.?Both STMicro and Infineon reported having to close facilities to COVID outbreaks, whilst Ford, Toyota and Nissan have announced it will temporarily stop production at their auto plants due to the shortage of chips from Malaysia.

GlobalFoundries CEO, Tom Caulfield said this week that the chip industry needs to double it’s production capacity in the next 8~10years to keep up with demand.?Currently all the main chip producers have announced plans to increase capacity and build new plants as U.S., Europe, China, Japan and South Korea governments are all pouring money into their respective semiconductor industries and urging companies to bring chip production onshore.

Taiwan’s silicon wafer supplier GlobalWafers has reported that its long term wafer orders are healthy with customers placing more than US$3.6billion in long term supply agreements over the next 2~3years. The company is asking customers to make a pre-payment of 20~30% of the overall order. Over the next 2.5 years, GlobalWafers plans to spend about US$800 million on brown-field capacity expansion in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the US to meet increasing demand.

?System Plus Consulting has done a tear down of the miniLEDs used in Apples 12.9 inch iPad Pro. ?Each iPad has more than 10,000 mini LED’s believed to be manufactured by Epistar and assembled on COB by TSMT.?The miniLED’s are driven by 9 drivers from STMicroelectronics.

?That's all for this week. If you enjoyed what you read, why don't you subscribe to my free newsletter and automatically stay up to date with all the industry news.

Stay safe and healthy... bye.