March’19 Startup Funding: Money Springs Forth


Another month, another couple of billion-dollar rounds. Singapore-based Grab raised nearly $1.5 billion from the SoftBank Vision Fund, bringing its total private funding to more than $4.5 billion and valuing the company at around $14 billion. Grab has acquired Uber’s ride-hailing business in Southeast Asia and now competes chiefly with Go-Jek of Indonesia in Thailand and other emerging mar... » read more

Automotive Electronics: Driving The Semiconductor Market


Automotive electronics is the fastest growing end application in the semiconductor market, but what systems will see the highest penetration rates? Currently, self-driving cars grab much of the media attention, and for good reason. Semico estimates that today’s self-driving car has $21,525 of additional electronics. However, recent tests of ADAS vehicles produced less than stellar results. II... » read more

The Week In Review: IoT


Connectivity Sigfox this week held the first annual Sigfox World IoT Expo in Prague, Czech Republic, bringing together network operators, business partners, and industry professionals. The company announced a number of new services for its users, including the Admiral Ivory connectivity service, which promises to make any short-range wireless device into a long-range Internet of Things device,... » read more

Lawyers, Insurance And Self-Driving Cars


Self-driving cars are drawing semiconductor companies into legal and regulatory issues for the first time, adding a new level of scrutiny on cutting-edge chip technology. It also opens up a whole new field for legal interpretation, case law, and regulation. While most liability cases in the past never crossed below the system vendor/supplier level, that could change with autonomous vehic... » read more