Chip Industry Week In Review


Global chips sales hit a record $56.9 billion in October, a 22% increase versus October 2023, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. Also, global semiconductor equipment billings reached $30.38 billion in Q3 2024, a 19% YoY increase and 13% growth QoQ, SEMI reported. TSMC commenced equipment installation for its 2nm fab in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, six months ahead of schedule. The 2n... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retired on Dec. 1, according to the company. He will be replaced by two interim co-CEOs, David Zinsner, who also continues to serve as CFO  and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, who has been named CEO of Intel Products. In addition, Frank Yeary was named interim executive chairman. Intel has been under pressure investors as non-traditional rivals, including Arm and NVIDIA, co... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


SK hynix started mass production of 1-terabit  321-high NAND, with availability scheduled for the first half of next year. Rapidus will receive an additional ¥200 billion yen ($1.28B) from the Japanese government beginning in fiscal year 2025, reports Nikkei. This is on top of ¥920 billion yen ($5.98B) Rapidus has already received from the government in support of its goal to reach commer... » read more

Asia Government Funding Surges


Billions of dollars have been pouring into Asian countries for the past few years in an effort to boost their production capacity, explore leading-edge technology, compete on the global stage, and shore up supply chains in the face of geopolitical turmoil. Each country has its own plan to maintain a foothold in the global market, from China’s Big Fund to Korea’s Yongin Cluster and Japan�... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


CSIS issued a new report that says Intel is "not too big to fail, but too good to lose." The report noted that Intel is needed for national security, and that it must be viewed in a geopolitical context rather than from a purely business standpoint when it comes to funding the company. Japan's government is creating a 10 trillion yen (~$65 billion) fund for next-gen technologies, including A... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Analog Devices acquired Flex Logix's technology assets, along with its technical team. Semiconductor global sales increased 23% in Q3 2024 $166B, up almost 11% versus the same period in 2023, according to SIA. Notable regional year-to-year sales in September: Americas up 46%, China up 23%, Europe down 8%. Fig.1: Worldwide Semiconductor Revenues, year-to-year % change. Source: Semiconduc... » read more

EMEA Investments Driving Technology Specialization


Government programs across Europe and the UK are seeing a surge of investments in leading edge technology, materials, and packaging. Industry and academia are coalescing around specialty areas, drawing on established relationships to foster innovation and fill gaps in regional supply chains while also maintaining international bonds. Government initiatives also are picking up in Israel, Saudi A... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Siemens announced plans to acquire Altair Engineering, a provider of industrial simulation and analysis, data science, and high-performance computing (HPC) software, for about $10 billion. Altair's software will become part of Siemens' Xcelerator portfolio and provide a boost to physics-based digital twins. Onto Innovation bought Lumina Instruments, a San Jose, California-based maker of lase... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


Europe's top court ruled in Intel's favor, voiding a $1.1 billion fine imposed by the European Union and dismissing charges of anti-competitive behavior. IBM released yield benchmarks for high-NA EUV, which serve as proof points that the newest advanced litho equipment will enable scaling beyond the 2nm process node. Also on the lithography front, Nikon is developing a maskless digital litho... » read more

Americas Chip Funding Energizes Industry


This is the second in a series of articles tracking government chip investments. See part one here (global),  part 3 covering EMEA is here and Asia here. Since the first announcement of a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms with BAE Systems in December 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce has rolled out comprehensive plans to support more than a dozen companies in order to shore up... » read more

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