Chip Industry Week In Review

Computex in Taiwan:

• Arm and Nvidia introduced an AI PC platform, RTX Spark, with an Arm-based Grace CPU, Blackwell RTX GPU, and unified memory.
• Cadence announced a fully autonomous virtual agentic AI design engineer, enabling customers to run dynamic simulations in automated workflows.
• Intel launched Xeon 6+, its first data-center CPU built on Intel Foundry‘s 18A process. The company also announced several partnerships with Siemens, Hitachi, Foxconn, and others.
• Wiwynn, Ayar Labs and others demonstrated advanced CPO innovations.
• Micron highlighted its 256GB SOCAMM2 module that delivers 1/3 the power and footprint vs. standard RDIMMs.
• Samsung unveiled a mock-up of HBM5 with its new Heat Path Block technology.

Fig. 1: An AI PC concept. Source: Arm

Reports

• The WSTS released its latest semiconductor market forecast, significantly raising the industry outlook to +$1.5T in 2026 and $1.9T in 2027.
• SEMI reports Q126 IC equipment billings increased 14% over Q125.
• SIA/Deloitte’s powering AI data center report found that semiconductors account for 95% of an AI data server rack’s value, with a single AI server rack containing over 4,500 packaged chips.
• ITIF warns that China’s subsidized semiconductor buildout threatens U.S. chip hubs in Arizona, Idaho, N. Mexico, and Oregon.
• Counterpoint’s teardown says Apple M5 Pro chip marks Apple’s move into a chiplet-style architecture, separating CPU- and GPU-heavy dies in one package to improve scaling, yield, and performance-per-watt. It aligns Apple with a broader industry trend toward advanced packaging and modular chip designs.

Fig. 2: WSTS forecast summary by region and product segment. Source WSTS

Memory

• HBM contract prices are expected to rise sharply in 2027 as tight DRAM supply gives memory suppliers greater pricing power.
• Global DRAM revenue rose 81% sequentially to $97B in Q126 as contract prices for conventional DRAM increased by roughly 93% to 98%, according to TrendForce. The firm expects conventional DRAM contract prices to rise another 58% to 63% in the second quarter.
• SK hynix plans to double its capacity over the next five years, reports Nikkei Asia.
• A coalition warned the US government that DRAM/NAND supply is being pulled away from consumer electronics, broadband gear, cars, and medical devices, and is calling for faster expansion of memory-chip production, stronger supply-chain support, adequate supplies for non-AI industries, and fewer barriers to capacity growth.

Earnings and projections

• Broadcom, Credo, and ST (new revenue guidance).

Quick links to more news:

Global |In-Depth |Reports and Deals | New Technologies | Security | Vehicles, Batteries | Trending Video | Research | Quantum | Workforce, Education  Events and Webinars

Global

Americas

• SpaceX secured tax incentives from Grimes County, Texas, for a proposed semiconductor manufacturing and advanced-computing facility. SpaceX and Tesla plan to invest an initial $55B in the Terafab project, potentially rising to $119B if fully built out, despite opposition from residents.
• Wolfspeed launched a data center solutions team in Silicon Valley.
• The US government finalized a $150M CHIPS Act award to xLight for its free-electron laser prototype, a potential alternative to EUV, and a $1.6B loan/award to USA Rare Earth.

Europe

• The European Commission presented Chips Act 2.0, shifting toward a wider plan that also creates demand for EU-made chips, speeds up the permitting process, supports the full supply chain, and ties chip policy to AI/data-center growth. SEMI Europe supports the plan.

Asia

• TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said AI-related chip demand remains strong, with the company working to expand capacity and avoid becoming a bottleneck in the semiconductor supply chain, reports Reuters. Wei also said TSMC has purchased high-NA EUV tools for R&D, but does not yet need them for production because the economics remain unfavorable.

Reports and Deals

M&A

• Cadence acquired Ausdia for its TimeVision timing constraints management and timing closure solutions.
• GlobalFoundries completed its previously announced acquisition of Synopsys’ ARC Processor IP Solutions business.

Fundings

• Coralogix raised $200M to scale an AI observability platform.
• XCENA raised $135M for its computational memory
• Invisix raised €20M for soft X-ray metrology for chips.

Reports

• Global NAND Memory Market Surges to a Record $46B in Q1 (Counterpoint)
• Smartphone Shipments to Post Worst Annual Decline
• The Environmental Cost of AI: Carbon, Water, and Land Footprints (UN)

Opinions

• CEO Huang’s bid to win at every layer of AI stack (CNBC)
• How US export curbs are forcing China to redesign its AI chip industry (SCMP)
• Europe Wants to Be Less Reliant on American Tech. Here’s Its Plan (NYT)
• America’s Data Center Build Out is Falling Way Behind Schedule (WSJ)

New Technologies

JEDEC published two new SiC guidelines aimed at reliability and evaluation in power electronics.

Siemens announced new industrial AI orchestration software to help scale AI from pilots to real-world operations, with people and AI agents working together across shared workflows. The company also added 3D electrical design capabilities to its Capital SW, connecting wiring and physical design.

Infineon rolled out a number of new products, including: CoolSiC JSET expansion, CoolSET SiP variants, SiC bidirectional switches, and a compact power module and packaging concept for high-power density applications.

Keysight expanded the photonics design ecosystem with GF’s PDK, enabling designers to move from PIC design to full electro-optical-electrical system simulation within a single environment.

Bruker launched a novel airborne molecular contaminants (AMC) TOF-MS solution for yield optimization in semiconductor manufacturing.

Marvell launched a 102.4 Tbps switch for AI and cloud data center infrastructure, claiming to deliver up to 25% lower power than other solutions, enabling data centers to deploy larger numbers of accelerators within existing power envelopes.

Adoptions and integrations

• Infineon’s power management solutions will now support Nvidia’s MGX AI factory ecosystem, and its quantum-threat protected physical AI security will be integrated in Nvidia’s Jetson Thor platform.
• Oracle Cloud is joining the Arm AGI CPU ecosystem.
• Keysight and NTT are teaming up on realistic 6G channel modeling and simulation.
• Ayar Labs joined the NVLink Fusion ecosystem, making its products optically and electrically compatible with Nvidia‘s co-packaged optics and SerDes.

Research

National Labs

• Argonne and other researchers showed that MXenes, a class of 2D materials, can be selectively engineered.
• Ames Lab proposed a physics-informed AI roadmap to speed discovery of rare-earth-free permanent magnets.
• Los Alamos National Lab developed a method to detect hallucinations in vision-language AI models.
• LLNL described the warm-water liquid cooling system and dense rack design used on its El Capitan exascale supercomputer.
• ORNL built a smaller, lighter GaN-based power converter that switches 10–20x faster than silicon.

Fig. 3: ORNL researcher R. Biswash tests a GaN converter. Source: A. Hines/ORNL

More technical papers

• Intro to the Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (Intel)
• Emerging Trends in Intelligent Sensing (IBM Research)
• Switching in Ta-HfO2-Pt Memristors (U. of Illinois, Argonne)
• Deterministic moiré superlattices in 2D materials (Berkeley et al.)
• Nanofluidic ionic memory for next-generation computing (Manchester)
• Scaling nanoribbon transistors with monolayer TMDs (Stanford, SLAC et al.)
• 130-nm CMOS-integrated superparamagnetic tunnel junction-based p-bit (Tohoku, NIST)

Security

Alerts and vulnerabilities

• ASU and Georgia Tech presented a temperature- and aging-aware rowhammer vulnerability analysis of a-IWO eDRAM for edge platforms.
• High or critical level alerts were issued by Nvidia, Giga Computing , Qualcomm, and Mediatek.
• CISA warned of ongoing supply-chain compromises targeting developer environments, GitHub repositories, and CI/CD infrastructure. Other CISA alerts are here.
• Rapid7 reported active exploitation of a PAN-OS GlobalProtect authentication-bypass flaw.
• Hackers reportedly exploited Meta’s AI-powered Instagram support assistant to add attacker-controlled email addresses to victim accounts, enabling password resets and the takeover of high-value Instagram handles before Meta deployed a fix.

Cryptography, PQC

• Apple published details of its formal-verification work for its internal corecrypto.
• ENISA opened public review of updated EU cryptography guidance.
• As threats evolve faster, protecting security algorithms from design through manufacturing and across the supply chain is becoming more difficult. To stay ahead of emerging threats — especially post-quantum risks — hardware must be built with cryptographic agility, secure roots of trust, and reliable update mechanisms from the start.

Security reports and technical papers

• A System-Level Tool to Model RowHammer (UC Davis)
• Framework for Accelerating Zero-Knowledge Proofs (KAIST)
• Formal Verification of Secure Encrypted Virtualization (UF, AMD)
• Designing a HW Reverse Engineering Course (Ruhr, Max Planck)
• Hardware masking with buffer chain (Shandong, CAS, Tsinghua)

Upcoming June security online events include Caliptra Audits for OCP S.A.F.E. and CRA Readiness (June 11) and Device Security Testing in the Semiconductor Industry (June 24).

Vehicles, Batteries

EVs and batteries

• The IEA’s latest EV outlook found that EVs accounted for about 25% of global new-car sales in 2025, with battery deployment reaching a record 1.2TWh.
• Infineon released a number of new EV and battery technologies, including a 1,300 V SiC module that operates up to 205°C, new MOSFET technology for motor drives and batteries, and a new family of reinforced isolated gate-driver ICs for BEV traction inverters.

Connected vehicles and RF

• Automotive Ethernet and standards such as TSN and MACsec are enabling vehicle network designers to use the latest high-speed protocols for safety-critical elements in the vehicle, which were previously reserved for CAN bus and other older protocols and standards.
• Motorola Solutions agreed to acquire D-Fend Solutions for $1.5B, adding RF detection and cyber-takeover technology to identify rogue drones, seize control of their communications link, and safely land or redirect them without jamming nearby signals.
• Keysight achieved an automotive Hybrid eCall certification to the EN 18052:2025 standard from DEKRA.

Autonomous

• Imec broadened its automotive chiplet program to an Autonomous Edge Chiplet Program.
• Tesla is rolling out unsupervised robotaxis in the greater Austin, Texas, metro area.
• Also in Texas, you can now submit a complaint about self-driving vehicles in the state’s new portal.
• Nvidia is expanding its DRIVE Hyperion robotaxi ecosystem, with deals in Asia, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. The company also launched a 32B-parameter open reasoning model for L4 robotaxi development and AV simulation workflows.

Vehicle technical papers

• Model-based DL for Radar Artifact Mitigation (TU/e)
• Autonomous Driving: The KITScenes Multimodal Dataset (FZI, KIT)
• Boosts for Lidar Semantic Scene Completion (Inria, valeo.ai, ETH Zurich et al.)
• Energy-Optimal Thermal Management of Heat-Pump Battery EVs (Chalmers)
• Dataset and Benchmark for Long-Tail Autonomous Driving (UCLA, Motional)

Find all papers added to Semiconductor Engineering’s technical library here.

Trending Video

Overcoming Bottlenecks In Data Movement: Where the choke points are in AI systems and what to do about them.

AI is all about data. There is more data to process, store, and move, and more tradeoffs required to do that efficiently and with enough flexibility to handle changes in future workloads. Nandan Nayampally, chief commercial officer at Baya Systems, talks about networks on chip and networks across chip, what the choke points are for data movement, and where and when data coherency makes sense.

Quantum

Roadmaps 2029 to 2032

• IBM plans to invest over $10B in quantum computing over the next five years, spanning R&D, CapEx, manufacturing scaling, ecosystem partnerships, and M&A, toward its aim of delivering a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer in 2029.
• Microsoft released its next-gen topological quantum chip, Majorana 2. The chip includes a new materials stack enabling a 1,000-fold improvement in reliability over the prior generation of qubits, and the company now expects to achieve a scalable quantum computer by 2029.
• D-Wave announced a new gate-model roadmap toward fault-tolerant quantum computing, targeting 100 logical qubits capable of successfully performing over 1 million operations by 2032.

Funding

• Quantinuum raised $1.68B in an upsized IPO, per Bloomberg (latest price is here). This is by far the largest pure-play quantum computing IPO to date and one of the biggest technology IPOs of 2026.
• Quobly raised €115M to bring silicon-based quantum computers to market.

Quantum research

• Quantum error correction with the toric code (Atom Computing).
• U. of Osaka researchers stabilized an exotic cobalt-based honeycomb structure with potential for low-cost quantum technologies.

Workforce, Education

IEEE’s Solid-State Circuits Society and Electron Devices Society opened applications for SEED, a semiconductor education and outreach program that will fund selected PhD students, young professionals, and junior faculty to work with underserved regions.

Momentum is building with the new SEMI Foundation-operated NNME workforce nodes. NNME Northeast launched as a 12-state semiconductor workforce node led by NY CREATES and SUNY, and U. of Arizona and UCLA joined the Southwest hubs.

Siemens launched Expedite for Vets, a workforce-development initiative that will provide free access to its industry-recognized engineering microcredential program for up to 5,000 U.S. service members and veterans. The program is designed to create a pipeline into advanced manufacturing, digital engineering, automation, and infrastructure roles through online coursework, mentorship, and a pre-apprenticeship model.

The UK Electronics Skills Foundation expanded its 2026 Semiconductor Talent Award to support 700 UK undergraduates.

IIT Delhi and Cadence launched an AI-enabled innovation lab to train semiconductor talent, support research, and help early-stage startups in India, reports Analytics India Mag.

Events and Webinars

Upcoming webinars are here, including:

• Caliptra Audits for OCP S.A.F.E. and CRA Readiness, June 11
• Be the SI/PI Expert: Route Correctly the First Time, June 17

Find upcoming chip industry events here, including: