Updated: Intel CEO out; IC industry on track to $1T by 2030; Xiaomi to use own mobile processors in 2025; Korea’s FOPLP; CHIPS Act rush to fund; Samsung’s new leaders; S Korea’s chip support; metrology tool acquisition; diamond semiconductors; NAND flash; ALE, CXL, RISC-V fundings.
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, continue to cut into Intel’s core market, and as big systems companies opt to design their own chips rather than buying off-the-shelf components. At the same time, the company’s foundry business has struggled against entrenched competitors such as TSMC and Samsung Foundry.
The chip industry is still on track to hit $1 trillion annually by 2030, according to PWC‘s new State of the Semiconductor Industry report. Key drivers for growth are electrification, digitization, and faster deployment of AI and IoT technologies. Of particular note is the shift from predictive to generative AI, which can learn to create new content based on patterns in data, and which is expected to account for $58 billion of that $1 trillion by 2028.
China’s Xiaomi plans to use internally developed mobile processors in its phones next year, in keeping with China’s plan to be more self-sufficient in light of ongoing geopolitical tensions, according to Bloomberg.
The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) announced new bonding and inspection equipment, materials, and a core process for 600mm x 600mm fan-out panel-level packaging.
Japan plans to invest another $9.9 billion in chips and AI this year, per Bloomberg. Rapidus is expected to be one of the beneficiaries.
New U.S. government funding:
Samsung Electronics announced new leadership in its memory and foundry divisions:
CSIS analyzed Chinese policy documents and market share data and issued a new report, “The True Impact of Allied Export Controls on the U.S. and Chinese Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment Industries.” The think tank also reported on immigration policy solutions to U.S. critical sector workforce shortages.
The South Korea government is planning more than US$10B in financial support for its domestic chip industry in 2025, as well as increases in tax credits and an AI computing center by 2030.
Special Report: Chiplets are gaining widespread attention across the semiconductor industry, but for this approach to really take off commercially it will require more standards, better modeling technologies and methodologies, and a hefty amount of investment and experimentation.
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Sagence AI emerged from stealth to debut its analog in-memory compute architecture for AI inference.
Earnings releases this week: Analog Devices.
Semiconductor Engineering published its Systems & Design newsletter this week, featuring these top stories:
More reporting this week:
STMicroelectronics plans to use Chinese foundry Hua Hong Semiconductor to make its 40nm industrial MCUs, starting next year.
Canada-based photonics developer POET Technologies is expanding its optical engine production capacity in Malaysia.
Malta is establishing a Semiconductor Competence Centre at the University of Malta, co-funded with €4M in EU funds and €4M in government funding. It’s not the only semiconductor company on the 122 square-mile island nation, located off the southern coast of Sicily. STMicroelectronics built an assembly plant in Malta in 1981, which now employs 1,800 people.
Japan’s JX Advanced Metals opened its new advanced sputtering plant in Mesa, Arizona.
Tokyo University of Science researchers had a breakthrough in demonstrating transverse thermoelectric conversion in tungsten disilicide (WSi2), leading to more efficient thermoelectric devices.
Recent security research:
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a number of alerts/advisories.
Rivian received a conditional commitment for a loan of up to $6.6 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program, which would be used to build a facility in Stanton Springs North, Georgia.
Infineon introduced a family of full-bridge transformer drivers for IGBT and SiC MOSFET gate driver power supplies, and SiC and GaN power switches. Target markets include EV charging, solar, energy storage systems, and more.
Imagination’s DXS GPU IP was independently certified as ISO 26262 ASIL-B compliant by SGS-TÜV Saar. The GPU’s functional safety technology, Distributed Safety Mechanisms, effectively eliminates the PPA overheads of meeting ASIL-B requirements.
Robert Bosch RTC researchers published a technical paper about intrusion detection in auto MCUs.
Automotive OEMs are looking to build an OS ecosystem as SDVs have created a new subscription-based revenue stream, reports Counterpoint.
Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis are recalling many 2022-24 EVs because they may suddenly lose power while in motion, owing to a faulty integrated charging control unit (ICCU), per Consumer Reports. This is the second recall for this problem.
In battery news, Argonne National Laboratory is leading a $50 million consortium focused on sodium-ion batteries while Caltech researchers devised a method for coating lithium-ion battery cathodes with graphene.
Siemens’ Solido SPICE software is now certified on Samsung Foundry’s leading edge process technologies.
Israel’s Tower Semiconductor released its 300mm silicon photonics process as a standard foundry offering.
Rebellions selected Alphawave Semi’s multi-protocol I/O connectivity chiplets for its next-generation composable AI accelerator SoC. The I/O chiplet integrates Alphawave’s PCIe 6.0, CXL 3.1, and Ethernet subsystems with UCIe 2.0 die-to-die connectivity.
SureCore began licensing a suite of memory IP capable of operating from 77K down to the near absolute zero temperatures required for quantum computing applications.
SemiQon released a CMOS transistor optimized for cryogenic conditions. The new transistor allows quantum computing control and readout electronics to be placed directly inside a cryostat alongside the processors without causing disruption from heat dissipation.
Q.ANT launched a photonic processor for energy-efficient HPC and real-time AI applications. The processor executes complex, non-linear mathematics natively using light and includes a PCIe interface.
Alice & Bob debuted a logical qubit emulator as part of a toolbox for working with fault-tolerant quantum algorithms and predicting the behavior of logical qubits. It is built on top of IBM’s Qiskit.
Orange Quantum Systems unveiled new test equipment that can characterize quantum chips with 100+ qubits.
Quantum Circuits uncorked an 8-qubit quantum processor that uses error-detecting dual-rail cavity qubits.
NTU Singapore researchers discovered they could tune the van Hove singularity energy levels of two topological materials, opening the door to engineering quantum materials with novel properties.
Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:
Event | Date | Location |
---|---|---|
Materials Research Society Fall Meeting and Event | Dec 1 – 6 | Boston |
Advancing Digital Twins in Semi Manufacturing | Dec 4 – 5 | Milpitas, CA |
IEDM | Dec 7 – 11 | San Francisco |
SEMICON Japan | Dec 11 – 13 | Tokyo |
AI Executive Conference: The Power of AI to Transform Semi Design and Manufacturing | Dec 12 | San Francisco |
ISS 2025: Industry Strategy Symposium | Jan 12 – 15 | Half Moon Bay, CA |
IEEE/EPS Hybrid Bonding Symposium | Jan 16 – 17 | Silicon Valley |
Chiplet Summit 2025 | Jan 21 – 23 | Santa Clara, CA |
SPIE Photonics WEst | Jan 25 – 30 | San Francisco |
DesignCon 2025 | Jan 28 – 30 | Santa Clara, CA |
Find All Upcoming Events Here | ||
Upcoming webinars are here.
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