The Tech Week that was... Oct 9 ~ 13

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.?

?In industry news...

South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix will be allowed to ship U.S. semiconductor manufacturing equipment to their China factories indefinitely without separate U.S. approvals according to South Korea's presidential office and the companies.? The waiver applies immediately and quells concerns at the 2 companies about their chip production in China.? In addition Taiwan’s Economic Affairs Minister has said the US has extended the waiver to TSMC to supply chip making equipment to it’s factories in China without a licence.? TSMC itself only confirmed that it expects to receive approval, saying the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has advised TSMC to apply for the "validated end-user" (VEU) programme.?

Qualcomm is laying off approximately 1258 employees in California at it’s Santa Clara and San Diego offices according to a recent filing with the California Employment Development Department.? This represents approx. 2.5% of it’s approx. 51,000 global employees.? This follows Qualcomms recent announcement in it’s quarterly earnings report that it was expecting workplace reductions and related restructuring charges.

Nexchip Semiconductor, a Chinese mature-node IC foundry, has disclosed plans to produce an additional 10,000 wafers each month according to Digitimes.? Nexchip is expanding capacity in the wake of rising demand for locally-made CMOS image sensors (CIS) and display driver ICs (DDI) to replace chips from foreign suppliers.? Nexchip's current production capacity is at 110,000 300mm wafers monthly, and it plans to add a monthly capacity of 10,000 wafers for its 55nm process. At present, it mainly uses mature processes to make DDIs, CIS chips, power management ICs (PWIC) and MCUs.

Amkor has opened it’s newest assembly and test factory in Bac Ninh, Vietnam.? The 57 acre site is planned to be Amkor’s largest facility when the project is completed.? Upon completion it will feature 200,000 sq meters of clean space, with US$1.6billion in investment committed for the first 2 phases.?

TSMC is planning to manufacture 6nm technology in it’s 2nd Japan Fab according to a report in the Nikkei. According to the report ?TSMC is planning to start producing 6-nanometer advanced semiconductors in its second Japan plant in Kumamoto in 2027, and the Japanese government is considering providing up to US$6 billion in subsidies for the Fab.

Japanese companies Denso and Mitsubishi Electric will invest $500 million each in exchange for a 12.5% non-controlling ownership interest in Coherent's silicon carbide business as per an agreement announced this week. Coherent? is a major supplier of materials to make chips used in the automotive industry.

Last week I reported on Taiwans Q3 foundry results which showed that overall revenue is still well down by double digits compared to Q3 2022 results.? TSMC and VIS reported sequential increases compared to Q2, with UMC flat, but TSMC is down -11% YoY, and UMC and VIS are down -25% and -19% respectively YoY. This week we can see the OSAT results from Taiwan, and we see similar results with slight sequential revenue growth compared to Q2 but down up to -19% compared to Q3 2022. Further data to reinforce the view that whilst we have reached the bottom, the recovery is not in sight yet.

For ASE ATM group which includes revenues of OSAT’s ASE & SPIL, they reported revenue of US$891million for September down -1% sequentially and down -16% YoY.? For Q3 revenue was US$2.66billion up 7% sequentially and down -19% YoY.

OSAT Powertech (PTI) reported September revenue of $186million, down -4% sequentially and down -10% YoY.? For Q3 revenue was US$785mililon, up 7% compared to Q2 but down -14% YoY.?

?Test specialist. KYEC reported September revenue of US$89million, down -1% sequentially and down -3% YoY.? For Q3 as a whole, revenue was US$267million, up 5% compared to Q2 but down -5% YoY.

?In market research news..

Digitimes Research is forecasting that global foundry revenue will grow at a CAGR of 11.3% from 2023 through 2028, driven by demand from 5G and electric vehicles.? New capacity coming on line from 2024 will help to fuel the industries long term growth.? In 2023 macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties continue to affect the foundry industry's growth and they predict that 2023 global foundry revenue will decline -13.8% to US$122billion.? For 2024 they predict some growth but this will be hampered by poor macroeconomic conditions and geopolitical risks, but despite these short term headwinds the mid to long term growth looks promising driven by HPC, 5G and EV.

Yole is forecasting that revenue from advanced packaging (AP) will achieve a CAGR of 8.7% between 2022 and 2028, reaching US$72billion in 2028.? In 2023 the AP market is expected to be flat around US$44billion, and recover in 2024 growing around 12% due to strong demand from AI. Yole defines AP as the following package types FCCSP, FCBGA, WLCSP/Fan-In, Fan-Out packages, 2D & 3D packages, and SiP

IDC reports that global PC shipments continued to decline in Q3.? Global volumes declined -7.6% YoY to 68million PC’s shipped.? Lenovo holds top position with 23.5% of market share followed by HP and Dell.? IDC reports that PC inventory has become leaner in the past few months and is near healthy levels in most channels.? Gartner reported similar numbers, ?reporting worldwide PC shipments totalling 64million, down -9% YoY.? Gartner is expecting to see growth in Q4, as there is evidence the PC market has finally bottomed out.

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Stay safe and healthy... bye