Chip Industry Week In Review

The EU’s tariffs on semiconductors will not exceed 15%, according to Trump’s latest trade deal. In addition, the EU committed to purchasing at least $40 billion worth of U.S. AI chips as well as other investments. [FAQ is here.]

Lifelines for Intel:

• Intel inked a deal to sell the U.S. government a 10% non-voting equity stake in its business, worth $8.9 billion. The stake will be funded by the remaining $5.7 billion in CHIPS Act grants awarded but not yet paid and $3.2 billion awarded to the company as part of the Secure Enclave program.  The $8.9 billion is in addition to the $2.2 billion in CHIPS grants the company had received to date, for a total investment of $11.1 billion.
• Japan-based Softbank will take ~2% stake in Intel, buying $2 billion in Intel common stock at $23 per share.

The U.S. government’s decision to allow exports of NVIDIA H20 chips and similar AMD chips, along with the related 15% export tax is spurring much debate. Among the opinions:

• This “pay to play” policy damages national security and creates a shakedown that opens the door to corruption and bad policy (CSIS advisor W. Reinsch).
• America is handing the Chinese military an AI advantage (Hudson Institute’s senior fellow M. Sobolik).
• Sets a dangerous precedent and “reflects a more structural weakness in the US approach to its technological competition with China” (Chatham House).

Versus:

• Allowing the chips (though not the most advanced chips) into the Chinese market ensures AI tech leadership and “world’s supplier of choice” (Brookings’ J. Villasenor).
• “Selling H20s to China is good policy as they are slightly (1.25x) better than domestic Chinese AI accelerators. Selling the H20 thus effectively slows down the development of a robust domestic Chinese AI accelerator ecosystem” (Atreides Mgmt’s G. Baker).

Further muddying the waters, NVIDIA is developing a more powerful AI chip for China, tentatively known as B30A, reports Reuters.

French industrial gas giant Air Liquide said it will buy Korea’s DIG Airgas for €2.85 billion ($3.34 billion). The deal is expected to close in 1H 2026.

CWE updated its Most Important Hardware Weaknesses List, reflecting significant changes in the landscape since the 2021 update.

A report from MIT’s NANDA initiative reveals that 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are falling short of their goals. Meanwhile, DeepSeek released an update to its former agentic AI model that surpasses the R1 on key benchmarks.

Entegris is planning a $700 million investment in R&D projects and capital spending for its Materials Solutions and Advanced Purity Solutions divisions.

imec outlined strategies and real-fab examples for reducing the overall environmental footprint of the semiconductor industry, among the highlights:

• • transitioning to EUV lithography to lower per wafer energy consumption
  • minimizing the energy required to expose photoresist while maintaining critical imaging performance.
  • reducing dry etch emissions by improving abatement, optimizing process steps, and switched to low-GWP gases.

Financial releases this week: Analog Devices, Keysight, JCET, and Nordson.

Quick links to more news:

Global
In-Depth
Markets and Money
Education and Training
Product News
Research
Automotive
Security
Quantum
Events and Further Reading

Global

Americas:

• Canadian-based Ranovus will spend over $100 million to expand its optical semiconductor manufacturing facility in Ottawa.
• The Dominican Republic launched a national semiconductor strategy.
• NIST awarded over $1.8 million to 18 small businesses under its Small Business Innovation Research program, funding R&D and services related to AI, additive manufacturing, standards, semiconductor devices and other technologies.
• Wally Rhines, the former CEO of Mentor Graphics and Cornami, was named CEO of Silvaco. He replaces Babak Taheri, who left Silvaco on August 19.

Asia:

• Indian chemical companies are making progress toward a semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure. Tata Chemicals is reportedly enhancing its production capacity for high-purity chemicals targeting fab cleaning and etching processes.
• China’s government is calling for big municipalities to use at least 70% Chinese chips for its data centers by 2027.
• Taiwan’s “silicon shield” against Chinese control could be weakening, says the MIT Technology Review, with TSMC’s expansion outside of Taiwan providing a disincentive for other countries to defend the island.
• Government subsidies are paying dividends in Japan, fostering a “chip renaissance,” but one of its biggest challenges is finding talent (Economist).

EU/UK:

• The UK Council for Science and Technology released a report outlining the strategic importance of developing a sovereign AI chip design industry in the UK.
• Both Muratec, supplier of IC material handling systems, and InSeCoTec, professional service partner for IC factories, are opening separate sites in Dresden, Germany.
• Germany’s IC network Silicon Saxony weighs in on the EU-U.S. tariff deal, saying it’s a bad deal for Europe given the billions in mandated energy and other U.S. investments.
• Polymatech Electronics completed its PCB manufacturing facility in Estonia.

In-Depth 

Semiconductor Engineering published its Manufacturing, Packaging and Materials newsletter this week, featuring these top stories:

• Manufacturing At The Limits
• Reticle Stitching Bumps Up Silicon Interposer Costs
• The End Of Copper Interconnects?

More reporting this week:

• Complex Mix Of Processors At The Edge
• Best Options For Using AI In Chip Design

Markets and Money

Deals:

• Amphenol, which specializes in fiber optic connectors, interconnect systems, antennas, and sensors, agreed to buy Trexon, a supplier of high-reliability interconnect and cable assemblies to the defense market, for about $1 billion in cash.
• Haylo Labs acquired Plessey Semiconductors, a UK-based manufacturer of microLED display technology, used in AR, VR, automotive displays, and optical computing.
• Cirrus Logic and Globalfoundries are jointly developing next-gen BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) process technology and innovation in GaN technology.
• ZI Zenith has entered into an agreement that includes the launch of a public tender offer to acquire all publicly held registered shares of u-blox, a short range communications and technologies services company.

Funding:

• EdgeCortix closed its initial Series B round, bringing total funding to nearly $100 million after receiving $50 million in government project awards, enabling deployment of its SAKURA-II AI co-processors and production of its 2,000 TOPS per device SAKURA-X chiplet platform for advanced GenAI workloads.
• Celestial AI closed its final Series C1 round, bringing total funding to $520 million, for deployment of its photonic fabric technology.

Reports:

• The thermal interface materials market is expected to surpass $7B by 2036 (IDTechEx).
• The photomask market grew to $5.5B in 2024, a 2% increase versus the prior year (SEMI).
• Silicon wafer revenue is expected to grow over 6% to $13.6 billion in 2025, mostly driven by 300mm wafer shipments supporting AI, HPC, advanced logic, and certain high-performance memory applications (TECHCET).
• Korea‘s research institute ETRI published its “6G Insight vision and technologies v2.0,” outlining the direction and core technologies of the 6G.

Product News

China’s top EDA company, Empyrean, said it boosted design tools for memory chips and panel displays by adding a “clone group” function to the layout editor, which helps “quickly and accurately complete the layout design of identical units,” per SCMP.

Kioxia developed a prototype of a flash memory module for large-scale AI models with a capacity of five terabytes and bandwidth of 64 GB/s, enabling advanced AI processing at the edge.

Keysight has completed the industry’s first PSA Certified Level 4 security evaluation for Silicon Labs’ Series 3 Secure Vault.

Infineon’s Bluetooth MCU and SDK are verified as part of the Engineered for Intel Evo laptop accessory program.

Lightmatter said it achieved a world-first 16-wavelength bidirectional link on single-mode optical fiber, marking an 8X improvement in bidirectional wavelengths per fiber and paving the way for next-gen AI data centers.

Research

Imec explains why advances in wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding and backside technologies move CMOS 2.0 from concept to reality, allowing more options in scaling.

Researchers at ETH Zurich, Broadcom and others published Ultra Ethernet’s Design Principles and Architectural Innovations, an overview of the new protocol supporting high-performance AI and HPC networking over Ethernet.

Google published “Silent Data Corruption by 10x Test Escapes Threatens Reliable Computing,” detailing the severity of test escapes and SDCs caused by them.

Researchers at KAUST, AIXTRON SE, and National University of Singapore have fabricated 2D-materials-based microchips through a multi-project wafer tape out in the European 2D Experimental Pilot line.

LLNL researchers have developed “smart” windows with vertically aligned carbon nanotubes that can modulate the transmission of near-infrared light, either absorbing infrared light and blocking heat from the sun or letting the infrared light through. This discovery could potentially cut costs and energy usage in modern infrastructure.

Fig. 1: Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes. Credit: Jeremy Gardner/LLNL

Rice University materials scientists developed a transfer-free method to grow ultrathin semiconductors on electronics. They used chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to grow tungsten diselenide, a 2D semiconductor, directly onto patterned gold electrodes.

Find much more semiconductor research in SE’s technical paper library, with this week’s new additions here.

Automotive

Two Chinese automakers have rolled out 5-minute charging technology for EVs, something U.S. companies have not yet done.

McKinsey released a report on automotive product development, including faster time to market analysis, in addition to a report on how autonomous technologies have the potential to transform lives.

Global NEV sales (BEVs, PHEVs, FCVs) reached 4.868 million units in the second quarter of 2025, up 30% YoY. BYD remains the leading BEV brand with an 18% market share, according to TrendForce.

Automakers Xpeng and Nio cut their respective ties with Nvidia and have instead developed their own chips for smart driving.

Security

An Intel researcher discovered online infrastructure holes that exposed the personal details of more than 270,000 staff members.

SEMI launched a free, industry-tailored cybersecurity assessment, The Standardized Semiconductor Cybersecurity Assessment, designed specifically for the semiconductor supply chain.

The UK government dropped its demand that Apple allow law enforcement officials backdoor access to American customer data.

AI is helping hackers create effective malware, according to reporting from The Economist.

Fasoo announced the adoption of its CAD file security solutions built for semiconductor supply chain collaboration.

Recent security research:

• An ECC-based Fault Tolerance Approach for DNNs (Shiraz Univ.)
• The AI Risk Spectrum: From Dangerous Capabilities to Existential Threats (French Center for AI Safety)
• The Application of Transformer-Based Models for Predicting Consequences of Cyber Attacks (Texas Tech Univ.)

CISA issued a number of alerts/advisories.

Education and Training

Morgan State University’s New Silicon Initiative prepares students for careers in hardware engineering and silicon chip design. Students are using Intel 16 and the Cadence Tool Flow for an academic chip tapeout.

The Cornell Nanoscale Science and Technology Facility launched a free VR youth outreach model to expose students to microchip fabrication.

The Illinois Semiconductor Workforce Network offered the Semiconductor Fabrication Training Program at the University of Illinois Chicago.

University of Chicago received a $3 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to boost American design and manufacturing of advanced 3D chip technologies via the NSF ACE-3D Chip Design Hub.

Vietnam and France’s Dassault Systèmes partnered to boost semiconductor talent and innovation with a focus on AI-driven digital twins, integrated modeling and simulation, and advanced manufacturing.

Quantum

Chiba University researchers published, Emergence of a zero-bias peak on the MgO/Fe(001) surface induced by the adsorption of a spin-1/2 molecule, achieving stable isolated quantum spins on magnetic substrates.

Mitsui, QSimulate, and Quantinuum launched QIDO, a quantum-integrated chemistry platform aimed at faster drug and materials discovery. Quantinuum also released a new open-source software designed for application developers.

IQM Radiance will integrate its 20-qubit upgradeable full stack superconducting quantum computer into Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)’s HPC systems to advance hybrid quantum-classical application development.

Rigetti and Montana State University signed an MoU to advance quantum computing research and innovation and the university launched its new research and innovation center, QCORE, dedicated to quantum and photonic systems integration.

Oxford Ionics installed the QUARTET (Quantum Advantage-Ready Trapped-ion Exploration Testbed) quantum computer at the UK’s National Quantum Computing Center Harwell data center.

Events and Further Reading

Upcoming webinars are here, including:

• Understanding Semiconductor Technology and Business: Virtual Training, Americas (SEMI University) (August 25)
• Overview of Semiconductor Manufacturing: Virtual Training Americas (SEMI University) (August 26 – 27)
• Accelerating AI Workloads with Composable Memory & Hardware Acceleration (August 27)
• The Next Evolution of Outlier Detection with PAT++: 6 Practical Methods to Boost Yield and Enhance Quality (for Europe and Asia timezones) (August 27)
• Designing Safety-Critical Display Systems with Model-Based Engineering (August 28)

Three on-demand webinars showcase Amkor’s manufacturing buildout in Peoria, Arizona: chemical handling, water safety, and air quality.

Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:

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