The Tech week that was... Dec 11~15

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 the U.S. Commerce Department announced it had awarded the first award under the CHIPS and Science Act to BAE Systems, who were awarded US$35million to modernize its Microelectronics Centre (MEC) in Nashua, New Hampshire.? BAE Systems’ MEC is a 110,000-sq-ft U.S. Department of Defense-accredited, semiconductor chip fabrication and foundry facility that develops advanced semiconductor technologies beyond those available commercially to meet demanding military requirements. It is one of the only domestic defense-centric 6-in. gallium arsenide and gallium nitride high electron mobility transistor wafer foundries.? U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she expects to make around a dozen similar semiconductor chips funding awards within the next year, some of them multi-billion dollar announcements.

Samsung and ASML have agreed to jointly invest US$760 to build a new semiconductor research facility in South Korea to develop cutting edge semiconductor processing technology.? The news was announced during South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol’s visit to the Netherlands.

This week the New York governor announced a new US$10billion partnership with leading semiconductor companies to expand the Albany NanoTech Complex to become a national research hub. The new center called the High Numerical Aperture Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography Center, will acquire and install a High NA EUV lithography tool, designed and manufactured by ASML where industry partners including Micron, IBM, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, and others will use the most advanced semiconductor equipment for semiconductor process research and development.

Rapidus Chairman Tetsuro Higashi, said at Semicon Japan, that he is confident that Rapidus can catch up with the likes of TSMC and Intel in the race to produce ultra-advanced chips despite the country's semiconductor industry being as much as 20 years behind its rivals by around 2027 or 2028, thanks to subsidies from the Japanese government.

In revenue news, Taiwan OSATs this week released November sales data, which showed a similar picture to the Taiwan Foundry November data reported last week. ASE reported that November revenue for its ATM group, which includes OSATs ASE & SPIL, was US$852million, down -3.2% from October and down -17% YoY.? Powertech (PTI) reported monthly revenue of US$206million for November, up 6% sequentially and up 8% YoY.? For the year to date revenue PTI has reported revenue of US$2.0bilion, down -18% compared to the same period in 2022.? Test specialist KYEC, reported revenue of US$91million, a decrease of -1% both sequentially and YoY.? ?

In market research news…

?Global sales of total semiconductor manufacturing equipment by original equipment manufacturers are forecast to reach $100 billion in 2023, a decline of -6.1% from 2022, according to the latest data from SEMI.? Semiconductor manufacturing equipment growth is expected to resume in 2024, with sales forecast to reach a new high of $124 billion in 2025, supported by capacity expansion, new Fab projects and high demand for advanced technologies in both the front-end and back-end segments.

?Taiwan currently accounts for 46% of the global semiconductor foundry capacity according to the latest report from Trendforce. Taiwan is followed by China (26%), South Korea (12%), the US (6%), and Japan (2%).? Trendforce is predicting that due to government subsidies and schemes in the US and China, these will reduce Taiwans share to 41% by 2027 and South Korea will decrease to 10%.? For advanced nodes (16nm and below), Taiwan currently holds 68% of capacity and this will decrease to 60% by 2027, with the US growing from 12% to 17%.? For mature nodes China will grow from the current 31% to 39% by 2027.

?That's all for this week.

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Stay safe and healthy... bye