Chip Industry Week In Review

Apple plans to invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, building a new server factory in Houston, Texas, and expanding facilities in Michigan, Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Oregon, North Carolina, and Washington. Apple also noted that it has begun manufacturing advanced chips at TSMC’s Fab 21 in Arizona, where it is the largest customer.

NIST rolled out a new cybersecurity framework for chip manufacturing, a voluntary risk-based approach for reducing cyber threats.

imec demonstrated the first electrical test results on 20nm pitch metal lines, patterned with single-exposure high-NA EUV, achieving more than 90% yield on what is approximately a 2nm chip.

SkyWater Technology will purchase Infineon’s 200mm Fab 25 in Austin, Texas. The companies also inked a long-term supply agreement. SkyWater plans to operate the fab as a foundry, boosting U.S. capacity for 65nm to 130nm nodes, which are necessary for industrial, automotive, and defense applications.

CSIS contributors emphasize the strategic importance of the chip design sector in the U.S. in this recent published “Growing Challenges for the Semiconductor Design Industry: The United States Cannot Take Leadership for Granted.”

Arm unveiled its Armv9 edge AI platform with the Cortex-A320 CPU and Ethos-U85 NPU. Optimized for IoT applications such as industrial automation and smart cameras, the platform enables AI models with more than 1 billion parameters to run on-device.

Micron began shipping its 1γ (10nm-class) DRAM node-based DDR5 memory.

Amazon Web Services introduced a quantum computing chip based on ‘cat qubits’ that can reduce the costs of implementing quantum error correction.

GlobalFoundries and MIT announced a new master research agreement with an initial focus on leveraging GF’s silicon photonics technology.

Financial releases this week: ASM, NVIDIA, Navitas, Synopsys,  SkyWater Technology, and Valens.

Quick links to more news:

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

In-Depth

Semiconductor Engineering published its Systems and Design newsletter this week, featuring these top stories:

• Improving Verification Methodologies
• Lines Blurring Between Supercomputing And HPC
• Multi-Die Design Complicates Data Management
• Tech Talk: Cracking The Memory Wall

More reporting this week:

• What Scares Chip Engineers About Generative AI
• Linear Pluggable Optics Save Energy In Data Centers

Markets and Money

Deals

• Advantest and Micronics Japan entered a strategic partnership to develop advanced semiconductor test solutions, optimizing test processes and costs. As part of the agreement, Advantest will acquire a minority stake in MJC.
• Western Digital and Sandisk completed their separation. Western Digital will focus on HDDs, and Sandisk will take over the flash memory business.
• SK hynix has nearly completed its acquisition of Intel‘s NAND business, reports Business Korea. Valued at $8.844 billion, it is the largest M&A deal by a South Korean company.

Market reports

• Semiconductor test equipment revenue grew 18% YoY in 2024, mostly due to increased demand for testers and HBM DRAM. The lion’s share went to market leader Advantest, according to Counterpoint.
• Despite a 7% decline in fab CapEx, the global semiconductor equipment market is projected to grow 8% in 2025, driven by investments in EUV lithography, atomic layer deposition, and etching technologies, says TECHCET.
• DRAM revenue surpassed $28 billion in Q4 2024, a roughly 10% QoQ increase driven by rising contract prices for server DDR5 and concentrated shipments of HBM, TrendForce reports. Samsung retained its top position, despite strong growth by SK hynix and Micron due to HBM3e expansion.

Global

Europe:

• Ams OSRAM will receive €227 million in funding under the European Chips Act for a new facility in Austria that will focus on medical and automotive chips.
• The EU Commission unconditionally approved Nokia’s $2.3 billion acquisition of U.S.-based Infinera, an optical semiconductor and networking firm. The deal boosts Nokia’s share of the optical networking market to 20%, making it No. 2 in that segment.

VCI Global and Kinesis are jointly building a semiconductor wire facility in Chennai, India.

Nimy Resources raised more than $1 million to fund a 22-hole drilling program at its high-grade Block 3 gallium discovery in Western Australia. The company aims to establish a maiden JORC Resource and advance its collaboration with U.S. company M2i Global to supply gallium for critical industries.

Former TSMC executive chairman Mark Liu is establishing the Technology Competitiveness and Industrial Policy Center at UC Berkeley, under the College of Engineering, aimed at advanced technology development and production in the U.S.

Product News

Imagination Technologies released its latest DXTP GPU IP, delivering up to 20% improved power efficiency compared to the DXT, and extending battery life when accelerating graphics and compute workloads on mobile and other power-constrained devices.

proteanTecs and Andes Technology partnered to integrate on-chip monitoring IP into Andes’ RISC-V processor cores, enabling real-time analytics for performance optimization and fault detection.

Arteris released the latest generation of Magillem Registers, a register design and management product to automate the SoC hardware/software integration process and provide an integrated infrastructure to specify, document, implement, and verify SoC address maps.

Infineon:

• • Released support for computer vision in DEEPCRAFT Studio, aimed at machine learning developers across a wide range of applications and use cases.
  • Launched support for Apple‘s Find My network accessories in ModusToolbox, enabling customers to easily build the tool into Bluetooth Low Energy devices.
  • Extended its partnership with Eatron to include battery management solutions for industrial and consumer applications, in addition to automotive.
  • Announced SounDigital has integrated its CoolGaN transistors into its new 1,500 W Class D amplifier.

Fig. 1: A mobile robot that integrates Eatron’s AI-powered BMS software with Infineon’s components. Source: Infineon.

Intel announced new Xeon 6 processors for data center and network infrastructure workloads, and two new Ethernet product lines.

Keysight and MediaTek achieved nearly 12Gbps 5G internet protocol data throughput, ensuring better wireless communication for next-gen applications. Keysight also expanded its RF and microwave instrument portfolio with six new analog signal generators, two vector signal generators, eight RF synthesizers, and three signal source analyzers.

Education and Training

Industry-Academic partnerships:

• Siemens and U. of Michigan are collaborating on a “Introduction to 3D Printing with Metals” course, aimed at boosting the adoption of additive manufacturing.
• Samsung Austin Semiconductor donated $1.5 million to support the Texas A&M Engineering Academy at Austin Community College.
• The JVIC Advanced Manufacturing Node at Missouri State University awarded nearly $4 million in grants to four semiconductor projects, supporting private sector innovation and job creation in Missouri. Recipients include Brewer Science, GVD Corporation, MEMC, and SRC Electrical, with investments aimed at advancing semiconductor materials, manufacturability, and wafer inspection capabilities.
• Emerson and UT Austin partnered to support advanced research into AI, automation, energy, semiconductors, and more.

Accellera launched its SystemC Summer of Code program, inviting students to introduce enhancements and new capabilities to the various SystemC libraries and implementations while working alongside mentors.

Penn State will establish a new advanced semiconductor lab thanks to $4.3 million from the Midwest Microelectronics Consortium, part of the Department of Defense’s Microelectronics Commons.

Security

Recent security research:

• Oreo: Protecting ASLR Against Microarchitectural Attacks (MIT)
• HSM-Based Architecture to Detect Insider Attacks on Server-Side Data (Polytechnique Montreal)
• Stateless Hash-Based Signatures for Post-Quantum Security Keys (Max Planck Institute)
• μRL: Discovering Transient Execution Vulnerabilities Using Reinforcement Learning (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)

Apple removed its Advanced Data Protection tool from customers’s devices in the UK after the government insisted on gaining access to user data, reported BBC.

CISA issued a number of alerts/advisories.

Technical paper: The Security of Autonomous Vehicle Software and its National Security Implications (AEVA, Luminar)

Quantum

Quantum business:

• Quantum Machines raised $170 million in Series C for its quantum control.
• IonQ completed an ion trap vacuum package prototype for compact room-temperature quantum systems and made plans to acquire quantum networking company ID Quantique.
• Post-quantum security company SEALSQ intends to acquire ASIC/SoC development services firm IC’ALPS.
• Horizon Quantum, a provider of quantum software development tools, plans to go public through a merger with SPAC dMY Squared Technology Group.

PsiQuantum developed a quantum photonic chipset manufactured in a high-volume semiconductor fab, which the company claims contains all the components required to build million-qubit-scale quantum computers.

QuantWare uncorked a quantum processor unit with up to 17 transmon qubits and tunable couplers for quantum error correction up to a distance-3 surface code.

Welinq and QphoX teamed up to develop optical quantum interconnects for superconducting quantum computers.

Caltech engineers demonstrated entanglement multiplexing in a quantum network of individual spin qubits.

TU Wien and ISTA scientists used superconducting circuits to create new types of quantum systems that are much easier to control and more tunable than natural quantum systems like atoms.

Research

KIST engineers developed a high-performance 2D semiconductor-based sensor.

MIT engineers developed a chip-based system for terahertz waves that could enable more efficient, sensitive electronics, as well as a programmable fiber that incorporates a 32-bit floating-point MCU capable of performing edge computing tasks even when braided, woven, knitted, or seam-sewn into garments.

CEA-Leti developed a keyword detection circuit for embedded AI systems that combines frequency-based signal extraction with neural network processing for ultra-low power consumption and low silicon area.

Georgia Tech researchers built a stable solar panel without silicon by adding titanium to perovskite crystals.

The AI-RAN Alliance endorsed Northeastern University’s Open6G wireless laboratories.

Robotics:

• EPFL engineers developed a bio-inspired robot that can change shape in response to its environment, making it ideal for challenging terrain.
• Harvard University roboticists made a walking, jumping robot that can leap 23 times its body length.
• Penn State’s robotics club developed a two-drone system with 3D mapping technology to assist first responders.

Events and Further Reading

Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:

Upcoming webinars are here.

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