Chip Industry Week In Review

Arm uncorked its first internally developed CPU chip this week, aimed squarely at the agentic AI data center market. Arm CEO Rene Haas (pictured) emphasized the CPU’s power efficiency and performance/watt compared to other AI processor architectures. “We are obsessed with efficiency, and if you think about one of the biggest appeals that Arm has had over the years, it is power profile,” he said. “If you think about 1 gigawatt of capacity and the CapEx associated with that extra power you’re spending at the sake of performance, it’s up to $10 billion CapEx.” Arm tapped its ecosystem to market and support the new chip, the first version of which is based on a 3nm TSMC process.

Meanwhile, Gartner predicts that by 2030, performing inference on a 1 trillion-parameter LLM will cost GenAI providers 90% less than it did in 2025, driven by gains in semiconductor efficiency, infrastructure, model design, chip utilization, inference-specific silicon, and edge processing.

Google predicts 2029 is the year quantum computers can break today’s encryption, an accelerated timeline that will require migration to quantum-resistant algorithms.

GlobalFoundries filed patent infringement lawsuits against Tower Semiconductor, alleging Tower infringed on 11 GF patents covering manufacturing process technologies used in products for smart mobile, automotive, aerospace, and communications infrastructure markets.

Buildouts

imec and Ghent University researchers incorporated thin-film lithium niobate modulators onto imec’s silicon photonics platform using a micro-transfer printing method.

A new 2D Materials Roadmap covers high-impact 2D materials, including graphene and its derivatives, TMDs, MXenes, as well as their heterostructures and moiré systems.

Argonne National Laboratory researchers developed a chip that compresses and processes pixel-detector data in real-time, allowing engineers to analyze experiments and adjust conditions while they are still running. This breakthrough offers value for the semiconductor research ecosystem, where faster handling of imaging and detector data can accelerate materials analysis, process development, and other data-intensive R&D workflows.

UIUC researchers reported a vertical photoconductive intrinsic diamond switch capable of handling 17.1A at 1kV. The work points to continued progress in diamond-based power electronics, where the material’s high breakdown field and thermal properties have long made it attractive for high-voltage, high-efficiency switching.

Cambridge-led researchers created a new type of hafnium oxide memristor to store and process data in the same place, a design that offers more stable, low-power operation and could cut AI energy use by up to ~70%.

IBM’s quantum computer was used to simulate real magnetic materials with results that match neutron scattering experiments.

More technical papers

• CNFETs-based integrated systems for chemical gas sensing (MIT et al.)
• A better method for identifying overconfident LLMs (MIT, IBM Watson et al.)
• Nanoscale hotspots in OLEDs may shorten their lifespans (UMich)
• Topological soliton frequency comb in nanophotonic lithium niobate (Caltech)

More Fundings

• EPIC Micro raised $21M for its vertical power delivery architecture.
• Mojo Vision raised $17.5M for its microLED-based optical I/O platform.
• Silicon QC received ~$14M to manufacture quantum chips.

Deals

• Infineon and DG Matrix will work together on advanced power infrastructure for AI data centers.
• Ericsson and FZJ plan to jointly develop 5G/6G technologies, including the use of neuromorphic computing approaches.
• AEM entered a strategic partnership with ASE to bring AEM’s parallel test and thermal technologies to ASE’s manufacturing and test environments.
• SEALSQ plans to acquire Miraex, a developer of photonics-based quantum interconnect solutions.

Opinions

• Strange Chip Cousins: Vietnam and Ireland (CEPA)
• The Feedback Loop Driving the Taiwan Crisis (Domino Theory)
• Trump Killed an Effort to Secure Our Technological Future (NYT)
• America’s Export Controls Shouldn’t Run on the Honor System (AEI)
• America’s Semiconductor Blind Spot Requires Presidential Action (RCD)
• Musk’s Terafab Fever Dream Exposes Reality of the AI Chip Crunch (Bloomberg)
• China’s Localization Drive in Semiconductors Gains Impetus from Allied Chip Export Controls (CSIS)

Intel’s security group INT31 detailed real-world implementation challenges of post-quantum cryptography — specifically those associated with NIST‘s new lattice-based PQ standards,  FIPS 203 and FIPS 204 — which promise strong mathematical security.

Matthew Ferren at the Council of Foreign Relations argues that the Trump administration’s recently released abbreviated cyber strategy reflects a big gap between the vision of U.S. cyberspace dominance and “the government’s capacity to deliver on it,” leaving Americans more exposed than necessary. Further, the U.S. Cyber Command leader has no direct cybersecurity experience, according to the report.

New releases and deals

• Intel released its 2026 Platform Security Report, an annual data-driven report on how Intel products performed, emphasizing its confidential AI, post‑quantum readiness, and HW enforced software robustness.
• OpenAI introduced a safety bug bounty program this week, aiming to partner with security and safety researchers.
• At the RSA Conference this week, Swissbit presented its hardware platform to test PQC authentication flows.
• Onur Mutlu just released a lecture on “Revisiting RowHammer – Top Picks in HW and Embedded Security.”
• GF customers will now have access to Jmem Tek’s PUF IP for HW root of trust and PQC security technologies.
• Siemens Smart Infrastructure and Viakoo are teaming up on advanced OT/IoT security management.
• Yubico will partner with IBM and Auth0 to create a ‘human-in-the-loop’ model for the approval of AI agent workflows.

Recent security research

• Quantum-Enhanced Attentive Graph NN for Intrusion Detection (Deakin)
• Remote Attestation of Microarchitectural Attacks: Case of Rowhammer (Ruhr, UDE)
• HW Trojans from Invisible Inversions: On the Trojanizability of Standard Cell Libraries (Max Planck et al.)
• SW-HW Attack Gadgets for Adversarial Threat Amplification in Compound AI Systems (UT Austin, Intel et al.)

Government

• The FCC now includes foreign-made consumer routers on its Covered List, meaning they pose an unacceptable security risk.
• CISA added new additions to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, including some from Apple, Livewire, and Craft.