Mobile tech tipster, Revegnus, has highlighted an interesting Samsung presentation slide—according to machine translation, the company's electronics division is already responding to an anticipated growth of "client-side large language model" service development. This market trend will demand improved Universal Flash Storage (UFS) interface speeds—Samsung engineers are currently engaged in: "developing a new product that uses UFS 4.0 technology, but increases the number of channels from the current 2 to 4." The upcoming "more advanced" UFS 4.0 storage chips could be beefy enough to be utilized alongside next-gen mobile processors in 2025. For example; ARM is gearing up "Blackhawk," the Cortex-X4's successor—industry watchdogs reckon that the semiconductor firm's new core is designed to deliver "great Large Language Model (LLM) performance" on future smartphones. Samsung's roadmap outlines another major R&D goal, but this prospect is far off from finalization—their chart reveals an anticipated 2027 rollout. The slide's body of text included a brief teaser: "at the same time, we are also actively participating in discussions on the UFS 5.0 standard."

Construction of Intel's New Albany, Ohio fabrication site started back in late 2022—since then, a series of setbacks have caused anticipated timelines to slip. Team Blue's original plans included a 2025 opening ceremony—last month, this was amended to late 2026 or early 2027. New equipment deliveries have been affected by extreme weather conditions—Intel appears to be shoring up its flood prevention systems at their Licking County location. Ohio's Department of Development received a progress report at the start of this month, authored by Team Blue staffers—revised figures indicate that Fabrication sites 1 and 2 are expected to reach operational status somewhere within "2027-2028."

Jim Evers (Intel's Ohio Site Manager) stated: "we are making great progress growing the Silicon Heartland. In addition to the approximately $1.5 billion investment in completed spends through 12/31/23 referenced in the report, Intel has an additional $3 billion in contractually committed spends underway, totaling $4.5 billion committed toward our Ohio One projects." Intel committed a hefty $20 billion greenfield investment into the two Ohio wafer fab sites, but the latest progress report indicates that just under a quarter of that budget has trickled out of company coffers (so far). Evers's statement continued: "this investment is growing every day as we work to establish a new manufacturing campus to build leading-edge semiconductor chips right here in Ohio." A Tom's Hardware report reminds us about Team Blue's New Albany project receiving "over $2 billion in incentives." Industry rumors posit that the US government is readying a multi-billion dollar grant for Intel's Arizona facility.

According to renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is actively working on a foldable 20.3-inch MacBook, with mass production expected to begin in 2027. In a recent post on X/Twitter, Kuo stated that this foldable MacBook is currently Apple's only foldable product with a clear development schedule. Kuo's revelation comes amidst frequent inquiries about whether Apple plans to mass-produce a foldable iPhone or iPad in 2025 or 2026. His latest survey indicates that while Apple may explore these options, the foldable MacBook is the only device with a definitive timeline. This is not the first time rumors have circulated about a potential foldable MacBook from Apple. In 2022, display industry analyst Ross Young and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman both reported that Apple was interested in launching a foldable device with a screen size of around 20 inches.

Details about the foldable MacBook's design remain scarce, but it is expected to feature a single foldable OLED display that can be used in various configurations, such as a laptop mode with a virtual keyboard on the lower half of the screen or as a large tablet when fully unfolded. While competitors like Samsung, Motorola, and Huawei have already released foldable smartphones, Apple appears to be more cautious, focusing on perfecting the technology before bringing a product to market. As the foldable device market evolves, it will be interesting to see how Apple's unique take on the form factor fares. As Apple's first foldable product, it will be interesting to see what design choices are made and what hardware configuration will be present. But we are still relatively far away from the actual release of 2027.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is set to open its new semiconductor fabrication plant in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, on February 24. This facility, known as Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (JASM), represents a significant milestone for Japan's semiconductor industry. JASM spans 52 hectares and is designed to produce mature 40, 22/28, and 12/16 nm fabrication technologies in the Fab 1. The Fab 1 has an initial monthly capacity of 40,000 300 mm wafers, scalable to 50,000 wafers per month in the near term. However, TSMC is set to expand the Kumamoto facility with Fab 2, which will produce 7 nm and 6 nm nodes and is scheduled to begin operations at the end of the 2027 calendar year. The Japanese government is set to subsidize the Fab 2 expansion with around $5 billion in aid. Combining Fab 1 and Fab 2, the JASM Kumamoto facility could produce 100,000 300 mm wafers per month once the production of Fab 2 starts. According to market research firm TrendForce, JASM provides significant additional capacity for TSMC amid a global chip shortage. It also boosts Japan's domestic chipmaking capabilities, reducing reliance on imports.

JASM is the first brand-new foreign-operated fab built in Japan. The Japanese government provided grants and tax breaks to incentivize Kumamoto Fab 1 construction as part of a national strategy to re-shore more semiconductor production and is now doing it again with Fab 2. TSMC also received subsidies from customers like Sony, SSS, DENSO and Toyota. Dr. CC Wei, CEO of TSMC, stated that JASM will "shape Japan's semiconductor landscape over the next decade." TrendForce analysts echo this sentiment, noting that JASM's advanced nodes will enable cutting-edge chip designs from Japanese automotive and consumer electronics brands. The inauguration ceremony on February 24 will be attended by TSMC partners, customers, and government representatives. JASM is expected to ramp up production over the coming year. TSMC has other non-Taiwan investments, like the facility in construction in Phoenix, Arizona, which will start mass production of chips by the end of 2027 or early 2028. At that point, the global semiconductor capacity constraints will ease significantly.

A new forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC) shows shipments of artificial intelligence (AI) PCs - personal computers with specific system-on-a-chip (SoC) capabilities designed to run generative AI tasks locally - growing from nearly 50 million units in 2024 to more than 167 million in 2027. By the end of the forecast, IDC expects AI PCs will represent nearly 60% of all PC shipments worldwide.

"As we enter a new year, the hype around generative AI has reached a fever pitch, and the PC industry is running fast to capitalize on the expected benefits of bringing AI capabilities down from the cloud to the client," said Tom Mainelli, group vice president, Devices and Consumer Research. "Promises around enhanced user productivity via faster performance, plus lower inferencing costs, and the benefit of on-device privacy and security, have driven strong IT decision-maker interest in AI PCs. In 2024, we'll see AI PC shipments begin to ramp, and over the next few years, we expect the technology to move from niche to a majority."

A new forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that enterprises will invest nearly $16 billion worldwide on GenAI solutions in 2023. This spending, which includes GenAI software as well as related infrastructure hardware and IT/business services, is expected to reach $143 billion in 2027 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 73.3% over the 2023-2027 forecast period. This is more than twice the rate of growth in overall AI spending and almost 13 times greater than the CAGR for worldwide IT spending over the same period.

"Generative AI is more than a fleeting trend or mere hype. It is a transformative technology with far-reaching implications and business impact," says Ritu Jyoti, group vice president, Worldwide Artificial Intelligence and Automation market research and advisory services at IDC. "With ethical and responsible implementation, GenAI is poised to reshape industries, changing the way we work, play, and interact with the world."

Ever since the creation of A64FX for the Fugaku supercomputer, Fujitsu has been plotting the development of next-generation CPU design for accelerating AI and general-purpose HPC workloads in the data center. Codenamed Monaka, the CPU is the latest creation for TSMC's 2 nm semiconductor manufacturing node. Based on Armv9-A ISA, the CPU will feature up to 150 cores with Scalable Vector Extensions 2 (SVE2), so it can process a wide variety of vector data sets in parallel. Using a 3D chiplet design, the 150 cores will be split into different dies and placed alongside SRAM and I/O controller. The current width of the SVE2 implementation is unknown.

The CPU is designed to support DDR5 memory and PCIe 6.0 connection for attaching storage and other accelerators. To bring cache coherency among application-specific accelerators, CXL 3.0 is present as well. Interestingly, Monaka is planned to arrive in FY2027, which starts in 2026 on January 1st. The CPU will supposedly use air cooling, meaning the design aims for power efficiency. Additionally, it is essential to note that Monaka is not a processor that will power the post-Fugaku supercomputer. The post-Fugaku supercomputer will use post-Monaka design, likely iterating on the design principles that Monaka uses and refining them for the launch of the post-Fugaku supercomputer scheduled for 2030. Below are the slides from Fujitsu's presentation, in Japenese, which highlight the design goals of the CPU.

International Data Corporation (IDC) today published its second forecast for the worldwide quantum computing market, projecting customer spend for quantum computing to grow from $1.1 billion in 2022 to $7.6 billion in 2027. This represents a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48.1%. The forecast includes base quantum computing as a service as well as enabling and adjacent quantum computing as a service.

The new forecast is considerably lower than IDC's previous quantum computing forecast, which was published in 2021. In the interim, customer spend for quantum computing has been negatively impacted by several factors, including: slower than expected advances in quantum hardware development, which have delayed potential return on investment; the emergence of other technologies such as generative AI, which are expected to offer greater near-term value for end users; and an array of macroeconomic factors, such as higher interest and inflation rates and the prospect of an economic recession.

According to a report published by Bloomberg, the German government has formed plans to create €20 billion ($22 billion) of investments to aid in the growth of local semiconductor manufacturing. The article proposes that the organization is racing to bolster the country's technology sector, and is attempting to secure essential supplies of components. Various geopolitical issues have complicated matters in recent times. Funding will be made available to German and international companies, from Germany's (now diversified) Climate and Transformation reserve, over the next four years. The finance ministry responded to Bloomberg's query, and stated: "The draft for the economic plan 2024 and the financial plan until 2027 for the Climate and Transformation Fund are currently being prepared...This process has not yet been completed." Germany's economy ministry did not provide a statement/response to Bloomberg's queries.

Around 75% of the fund is reportedly set aside for multinational semiconductor firms including Intel Corporation (USA) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC). Bloomberg believes that Team Blue is due an allocation of €10 billion for investments in its new production facility, located close to Magdeburg, Germany. The government is allegedly deep into talks with TSMC regarding the foundation of a proposed €10 billion production base in the Dresden area—the likes of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG would benefit greatly with quicker access to (localized) microcontrollers manufacturing facilities. The government could subsidize half of that total investment (€5 billion). Infineon is possibly in line to receive a €1 billion aid package, since it is building a new fab location in Dresden.

Last week the European Union agreed on the provisional adoption of a new regulation that "strengthens sustainability rules for batteries and waste batteries. The regulation will regulate the entire life cycle of batteries - from production to reuse and recycling - and ensure that they are safe, sustainable and competitive." More specific terms include: "by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement. This is an important provision for consumers." Although gaming handhelds are not referred to in specifics within the European Council's (very general) press material, Overkill (a site specializing in Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch and adjacent platforms) sought to investigate this matter further.

The publication was able to get in direct contact with an unnamed source at the European Union, who confirmed that: "the batteries of gaming handhelds are covered by the batteries and waste batteries regulation." The article proposes that future battery requirements will likely not affect current generation products—a Steam Deck successor and Nintendo's hypothetical Switch 2 are perhaps the prime candidates for internal design revisions according to EU legislation set for 2027. Overkill anticipates that portable gaming device manufacturers are going to question some of the new rules—similar to how smartphone makers have appealed against certain decisions. A compromise could be agreed upon, with slightly refashioned handhelds not conforming 100% to the new standards.

The European Parliament has greenlit new rules relating to battery technologies that are likely to cause headaches for smartphone manufacturers (in particular). The organization published their summary of this environmentally conscious and sustainable strategy on June 14: "Parliament approved new rules for the design (on Wednesday), production and waste management of all types of batteries (including non-replaceable types) sold in the EU. With 587 votes in favor, nine against and 20 abstentions, MEPs endorsed a deal reached with the Council to overhaul EU rules on batteries and waste batteries. The new law takes into account technological developments and future challenges in the sector and will cover the entire battery life cycle, from design to end-of-life."

The section for portable device batteries (for smartphones, tablets and cameras) outlines new consumer rights, with a demand for easily removable and replaceable (DIY) cells. Smartphone manufacturers including market leaders Apple and Samsung will have to go back to the drawing board and figure out ways to reformat how their batteries are mounted and connected internally. Plenty of devices have their units sealed behind protective layers, requiring specialist tools and varying levels of user expertise to access and remove in a safe manner. The European Council has more work to do following their starter announcement: "(We) will now have to formally endorse the text before its publication in the EU Official Journal shortly after and its entry into force." News outlets have interpreted that these provisional rulings will go into effect by early 2027, but they also anticipate that big time players could appeal for extensions beyond that window.