The Tech Week that was... Feb 19~23

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.?

Globalfoundries New York and Vermot Fabs are the latest beneficiaries of funding from the Chips Act. The U.S. Department of Commerce announced it will provide US$1.5 billion in direct funding for GlobalFoundries ?as part of the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act. This investment will enable GF to expand it’s existing Malta Fab and build a new Fab there and modernize it’s Vermot Fab. An additional US$600 million plus in funds for the Malta Fabs are planned over a 10-year term from New York State Green CHIPS and other State benefits .? This is the largest funding payout from the US$50 billion dollar CHIPs Act fund to date.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s announced a conditional US$544 million loan to SK Siltron to expand American manufacturing of silicon carbide (SiC) wafers for electric vehicle (EV) power electronics. The project is expected to create up to 200 construction jobs in the build-out phase and up to 200 skilled operations jobs at full production at the SK Siltron CSS facility located in Bay City, Michigan.

It is reported that Intel is in talks with the U.S. Department of Commerce to receive US$10billion in subsidies from the CHIP’s Act .? The Intel award is expected to include loans and direct grants but negotiations are still ongoing finagling final details.? Intel is building a new US$20 billion Fab in Ohio, undergoing a US$20 billion expansion in Arizona and investing US$3.5 billion in New Mexico.

SK Hynix is reported to be very close to selecting the state of Indiana for it’s new US$15billion advanced packaging facility in the U.S., though the company says no final decision has been made.? The new packaging plant will reportedly be focused on stacked DRAM high bandwidth memory (HBM), used for AI. ?Hynix has been shipping HBM3 to Nvidia during the past year, and the new plant presumably will be part of the supply chain sourcing HBM to TSMC advanced packaging plants in Arizona providing AI products for Nvidia.

The German state of Saxony is looking to attract more Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers to manufacture in Saxony in add to TSMC who have already announced to build a Fab there.? The German Trade Office in Taipei held a seminar to explain Saxony’s investment environment and support resources, as Taiwan’s suppliers remain cautious due to concerns about labor shortage, worker unions, operation costs, and subsidies.

In other industry news..

Intel officially launched Intel Foundry this week, claiming it is the “world’s first systems foundry for the AI era.” ?The foundry also released more details of it’s technology roadmap down to 14A process technology.? Intel Foundry will be separate from the chipmaker, utilize third-party chiplets and IP, and leverage some of the chipmaker’s technology innovations for its foundry customers. It has also certified tools from the leading EDA companies for its 18A process technology.

Infineon will sell for around US$69million two back-end test and assembly manufacturing sites, one in Cavite, Philippines, and the other in Cheonan, South Korea, to two wholly owned subsidiaries of ASE. Post the transaction, ASE will assume operations with current employees, and further develop both sites to support multiple customers, and the companies have signed long term manufacturing agreements. The two acquisitions are expected to be completed as early as the end of the second quarter of this year.

The AI boom continues for Nvidia, as the company reported FY Q4’24 revenue of US$22billion, up 265% YoY and up 22% sequentially .? Overall fiscal 2024 revenue was up 126% YoY to US$61billion.? For FY Q1’25 Nvidia is forecasting revenue of US$24billion, up 9% sequentially.? Data centre revenue revenue accounted for US$18.4billion of the total revenue.

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chipmaker, has expanded its partnership with the British chip design firm Arm to bolster the competitiveness of its foundry business.? Samsung will deliver the next generation Arm? Cortex?-X CPU optimized on Samsung Foundry’s latest Gate-All-Around (GAA) process technology and the collaboration sets the stage for further announcements as the companies have plans to reinvent 2nm GAA for next-generation data center and infrastructure custom silicon, as well as a groundbreaking AI chiplet solution

Renesas has terminated it’s proposed acquisition of Sequans Communication , announced in Sept 23, after it received an adverse Japanese Tax Ruling.? Sequans Communication is a developer and supplier of cellular IoT connectivity solutions, providing chips and modules for 5G/4G massive and broadband IoT.

In market research news..

?Global electronic sales edged up 1% YoY in Q4 2023 , the first year on year YoY since second half 2022, whilst IC sales increased 10% YoY in Q4’23 according the latest report from SEMI & Techinsights.? This growth is projected to continue into Q1’24 with electronic sales predicted to increase 3% YoY whilst IC sales are predicted to grow 18% YoY.? Capex is expected to have a mild recovery in Q1’24 with Memory Capex ?forecast to increase 10% YoY, whilst non memory capex is expected to grow sequentially, but compared to Q1'23 will be lower. ?Fab utilization was 66% in Q4’23 and is expected to rise to 70% in Q1’24.

?Apple captured the top 7 best selling smartphone spots in 2023 in Counterpoint Research’s list of top 10 best selling smartphones.? Samsung took the remaining 3 positions in the top 10.? Apple’s iPhone 14, with 3.9% marketshare, was the best-selling smartphone of 2023, with the US and China making up half of its sales.

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Stay safe and healthy... bye