Global semiconductor capacity is expected to increase 6.4% in 2024 to top the 30 million *wafers per month (wpm) mark for the first time after rising 5.5% to 29.6 wpm in 2023, SEMI announced today in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report.

The 2024 growth will be driven by capacity increases in leading-edge logic and foundry, applications including generative AI and high-performance computing (HPC), and the recovery in end-demand for chips. The capacity expansion slowed in 2023 due to softening semiconductor market demand and the resulting inventory correction.

Semiconductor industry players Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, Nordic Semiconductor ASA, NXP Semiconductors, and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., have formally established Quintauris GmbH. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, the company aims to advance the adoption of RISC-V globally by enabling next-generation hardware development.

The formation of Quintauris was formally announced in August, with the aim to be a single source to enable compatible RISC-V-based products, provide reference architectures, and help establish solutions to be widely used across various industries. The initial application focus will be automotive, but with an eventual expansion to include mobile and IoT.

TrendForce reports that 3Q23 has been a historic quarter for the world's leading IC design houses as total revenue soared 17.8% to reach a record-breaking US$44.7 billion. This remarkable growth is fueled by a robust season of stockpiling for smartphones and laptops, combined with a rapid acceleration in the shipment of generative AI chips and components. NVIDIA, capitalizing on the AI boom, emerged as the top performer in revenue and market share. Notably, analog IC supplier Cirrus Logic overtook US PMIC manufacturer MPS to snatch the tenth spot, driven by strong demand for smartphone stockpiling.

NVIDIA's revenue soared 45.7% to US$16.5 billion in the third quarter, bolstered by sustained demand for generative AI and LLMs. Its data center business—accounting for nearly 80% of its revenue—was a key driver in this exceptional growth.

Huawei's subsidiary HiSilicon has made significant strides in the independent R&D of AI chips, launching the next-gen Ascend 910B. These chips are utilized not only in Huawei's public cloud infrastructure but also sold to other Chinese companies. This year, Baidu ordered over a thousand Ascend 910B chips from Huawei to build approximately 200 AI servers. Additionally, in August, Chinese company iFlytek, in partnership with Huawei, released the "Gemini Star Program," a hardware and software integrated device for exclusive enterprise LLMs, equipped with the Ascend 910B AI acceleration chip, according to TrendForce's research.

TrendForce conjectures that the next-generation Ascend 910B chip is likely manufactured using SMIC's N+2 process. However, the production faces two potential risks. Firstly, as Huawei recently focused on expanding its smartphone business, the N+2 process capacity at SMIC is almost entirely allocated to Huawei's smartphone products, potentially limiting future capacity for AI chips. Secondly, SMIC remains on the Entity List, possibly restricting access to advanced process equipment.

TrendForce's research indicates a dynamic third quarter for the global foundry industry, marked by an uptick in urgent orders for smartphone and notebook components. This surge was fueled by healthy inventory levels and the release of new iPhone and Android devices in 2H23. Despite persisting inflation risks and market uncertainties, these orders were predominantly executed as rush orders. Additionally, TSMC and Samsung's high-cost 3 nm manufacturing process had a positive impact on revenues, driving the 3Q23 value of the top ten global foundries to approximately US$28.29 billion—a 7.9% QoQ increase.

Looking ahead to 4Q23, the anticipation of year-end festive demand is expected to sustain the inflow of urgent orders for smartphones and laptops, particularly for smartphone components. Although the end-user market is yet to fully recover, pre-sales season stockpiling for Chinese Android smartphones appears to be slightly better than expected, with demand for mid-to-low range 5G and 4G phone APs and continued interest in new iPhone models. This scenario suggests a continued upward trend for the top ten global foundries in Q4, potentially exceeding the growth rate seen in Q3.

A U.S. appeals court has overturned a staggering $2.18 billion patent infringement verdict against Intel Corporation, initially won by VLSI Technology, marking a pivotal shift in one of the most prominent patent law cases in U.S. history. The 2021 decision by a Texas jury, which found Intel guilty of infringing on a VLSI patent, was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit due to insufficient evidence. Additionally, a new trial in Texas has been ordered to determine the appropriate amount Intel owes for infringing a second patent owned by VLSI. This patent-holding company, affiliated with Fortress Investment Group and recently involved in a majority share acquisition by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment Co from Japan's Softbank, has been in multiple legal confrontations with Intel over semiconductor technology patents, which VLSI acquired from NXP Semiconductors.

The legal disputes have seen varied outcomes; Intel deflected a claim for more than $3 billion in damages in a separate Waco jury trial in 2021. However, the same year, VLSI was awarded nearly $949 million from Intel in another patent case by a jury in Austin, Texas. The companies mutually agreed to dismiss another potential multi-billion-dollar lawsuit in Delaware. With Intel's stock experiencing a downturn (-6.05% in the past five days) following the latest court ruling and the scheduled 2024 trial in Northern California, the ongoing legal battles between the two tech entities continue to influence market dynamics and the semiconductor industry at large. Detaining if the patent infringement happened is still relatively complex, as VLSI needs a team of engineers to determine if Intel used any of its patents.

Siemens AG, a leading technology company, and Intel Corporation, one of the world's largest semiconductor companies, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on driving digitalization and sustainability of microelectronics manufacturing. The companies will focus on advancing future manufacturing efforts, evolving factory operations and cybersecurity, and supporting a resilient global industry ecosystem.

"Semiconductors are the lifeblood of our modern economies. Few things run without chips. Therefore, we're proud to collaborate with Intel to quickly advance semiconductor production. Siemens will bring its entire cutting-edge portfolio of IoT-enabled hardware and software and electrical equipment to this collaboration," said Cedrik Neike, CEO of Digital Industries and member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG. "Our joint efforts will contribute to achieving global sustainability goals."

International Data Corporation (IDC) has upgraded its Semiconductor Market Outlook by calling a bottom and return to growth that accelerates next year. IDC raised its September 2023 revenue outlook from $518.8 billion to $526.5 billion in a new forecast. Revenue expectations for 2024 were also raised from $625.9 billion to $632.8 billion as IDC believes the U.S. market will remain resilient from a demand standpoint and China will begin recovering by the second half of 2024 (2H24).

IDC sees better semiconductor growth visibility as the long inventory correction subsides in two of the largest market segments: PCs and smartphones. Automotive and Industrials elevated inventory levels are expected to return to normal levels in 2H24 as electrification continues to drive semiconductor content over the next decade. Technology and large flagship product introductions will drive more semiconductor content and value across market segments in 2024 through 2026, including the introduction of AI PCs and AI Smartphones next year and a much-needed improvement in memory ASPs and DRAM bit volume.

Thanks to the TMTPost interview with the Global Vice President and China President of ASML, Shen Bo, the Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer has revealed that around 1,400 of its deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography and metrology machines are currently installed in China. The company is expected to achieve a global output of 600 DUV equipment units by the end of 2025. Shen Bo stated that the company aims to install 500-600 units of DUV machinery in China by late 2025 or early 2026. The growth in ASML's Chinese revenues was notably high, with China contributing 46% of the company's system sales in 3Q 2023, representing an 82% revenue increase from the previous quarter.

China plans to build 25 12-inch wafer fabs in the next five years, covering logic wafers, DRAM, and MEMS production. ASML currently has a substantial presence in China, with 16 offices, 12 warehouses, distribution centers, development centers, training centers, and maintenance centers. The company employs over 1,600 people for its China operations. Despite the export restrictions imposed by the US government, ASML anticipates that the new measures will have little impact on its financial outlook for 2023 as it strives to meet the growing demand for semiconductor manufacturing equipment in the global market.

Texas Instruments (TI) today broke ground on its new 300-mm semiconductor wafer fabrication plant (or "fab") in Lehi, Utah. Joined by Utah Governor Spencer Cox, state and local elected officials, as well as community leaders, TI President and Chief Executive Officer Haviv Ilan celebrated the first steps toward construction of the new fab, LFAB2, which will connect to the company's existing 300-mm wafer fab in Lehi. Once completed, TI's two Utah fabs will manufacture tens of millions of analog and embedded processing chips every day at full production.

"Today we take an important step in our company's journey to expand our manufacturing footprint in Utah. This new fab is part of our long-term, 300-mm manufacturing roadmap to build the capacity our customers will need for decades to come," said Ilan. "At TI, our passion is to create a better world by making electronics more affordable through semiconductors. We are proud to be a growing member of the Utah community, and to manufacture analog and embedded processing semiconductors that are vital for nearly every type of electronic system today."

According to a news post by Reuters, Vietnam is the latest nation that is trying to become a semiconductor manufacturing nation, albeit its plans are nothing like what China is doing, instead the nation is trying to woo existing semiconductor companies to build fabs in Vietnam. The nation has been building its high-tech industry over a few years now and although it's nowhere near some of its neighbouring nations, Vietnam is likely to become an important player when it comes to assembly in the not too distant future, alongside India. However, fabricating semiconductors is a big leap from assembling smartphones, computers and EVs and requires a highly skilled workforce, something which is already becoming an issue in nations like Taiwan and Singapore.

Reuters reports that Vietnam has approached both GlobalFoundries and Taiwanese Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, or PSMC for short. PSMC is among the top 10 foundries in the world, despite only having a mere five fabs, all of which are located in Taiwan. PSMC's main focus is the automotive industry and might be the more likely candidate to consider Vietnam of the two. Neither company has made any kind of commitment to invest in Vietnam. However, building a fab in a nation that doesn't have a semiconductor industry brings with it several challenges, least not supply chain related ones. Reuters mentioned a speech by Synopsys VP Robert Li which he held at the Vietnam Semiconductor Summit, where he mentions that building a foundry in Vietnam might cost as much as US$50 billion, which doesn't seem like a very appealing proposal to any company considering opening up a foundry in the nation.

The Chinese semiconductor industry is advancing, and interestingly, it is growing rapidly under sanctions, even with the blacklisting of companies by the US government. China's semiconductor industry is mainly represented by companies like Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) and Huawei Technologies, who are leading the investment and progress in both chip manufacturing and chip design. According to the latest interview with Bloomberg, former TSMC Vice President Burn J. Lin said that the US government and its sanctions can not stop the advancement of Chinese semiconductor companies. Currently, Lin notes that SMIC and Huawei can use older machinery to produce more advanced chips.

Even so, SMIC could progress to 5 nm technology using existing equipment, particularly with scanners and other machinery from ASML. Development under sanctions would also force China to experiment with new materials and other chip packaging techniques that yield higher performance targets. SMIC has already developed a 7 nm semiconductor manufacturing node, which Huawei used for its latest Mate 60 Pro smartphone, based on Huawei's custom HiSilicon Kirin 9000S chip. Similarly, the transition is expected to happen to the 5 nm node as well, and it is only a matter of time before we see other nodes appear. "It is just not possible for the US to completely prevent China from improving its chip technology," noted Burn J. Lin.

Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's largest semiconductor companies, today marked a historic day with the opening of its new cutting-edge assembly and test facility in Batu Kawan, Penang, alongside the celebration of Micron's 45th anniversary. A ceremony officiated by Chief Minister of Penang, Yang Amat Berhormat Tuan Chow Kon Yeow, underscored the regional significance of Micron's expansion, highlighting the company's four and a half decades of innovation and excellence.

Micron previously invested $1 billion and will add up to another billion including construction and full equipping of this new facility over the next few years in Penang to increase factory space to a total of 1.5 million square feet. This expansion enables Micron Malaysia to boost production output and further strengthen its assembly and test capabilities, allowing it to supply leading-edge NAND, PCDRAM and SSD modules to meet the growing demand for transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous or electric vehicles.

Pierre Ferragu, the Global Technology Infrastructure chief at New Street Research, has predicted a very positive 2025 financial outcome for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC). A global slowdown in consumer purchasing of personal computers and smartphones has affected a number of companies including the likes of NVIDIA and AMD—their financial reports have projected a 10% annual revenue drop for 2023. TSMC has similarly forecast that its full year revenue for 2023 will settle at $68.31 billion, after an approximate 10% fall. Ferragu did not contest these figures—via his team's analysis—TSMC is expected to pull in $68 billion in net sales for this financial year.

The rumor mill has TSMC revising its revenue guidance for a third time this year—but company leadership has denied that this will occur. New Street Research estimates that conditions will improve next year, with an uptick in client orders placed at TSMC's foundries. Ferragu reckons that TSMC could hit an all-time revenue high of $100 billion by 2025. His hunch is based on the upcoming spending habits of VIP foundry patrons encompassing: "a bottom-up perspective, looking at how TSMC's top customers, which we all know very well, will contribute to such growth." The Taiwanese foundry's order books are reported to be filling up for next year, with Apple and NVIDIA seizing the moment to stand firmly at the front of the 3 nm process queue.

This past weekend, Micron broke ground on what will be a new semiconductor assembly plant in Gujarat, India. The new facility is said to cover almost 0.4 square kilometres of land or 93 acres, on which phase one will include a 46.5 thousand square metre clean room. The first phase of the project is said to be built by Tata Projects and it's expected to start operating as early as the end of 2024, which seems somewhat optimistic considering how long it can take to build clean rooms of this size in other countries that have much more experience in building such facilities.

Micron is said to be investing a total of US$2.7 billion at the facility, although phase one has a budget of US$825 million as a first step. The full project is said to take five years to complete and is expected to bring some 5,000 direct jobs at the Micron plant. The plant will be a first-of-its-kind in India and Micron will be using it to assemble DRAM and NAND flash. Some of the investment is coming from the Indian government, but the reports don't mention how big of a share the government has contributed.

Fueled by an AI-driven inventory stocking frenzy across the supply chain, TrendForce reveals that Q2 revenue for the top 10 global IC design powerhouses soared to US $38.1 billion, marking a 12.5% quarterly increase. In this rising tide, NVIDIA seized the crown, officially dethroning Qualcomm as the world's premier IC design house, while the remainder of the leaderboard remained stable.

AI charges ahead, buoying IC design performance amid a seasonal stocking slump
NVIDIA is reaping the rewards of a global transformation. Bolstered by the global demand from CSPs, internet behemoths, and enterprises diving into generative AI and large language models, NVIDIA's data center revenue skyrocketed by a whopping 105%. A deluge of shipments, including the likes of their advanced Hopper and Ampere architecture HGX systems and the high-performing InfinBand, played a pivotal role. Beyond that, both gaming and professional visualization sectors thrived under the allure of fresh product launches. Clocking a Q2 revenue of US$11.33 billion (a 68.3% surge), NVIDIA has vaulted over both Qualcomm and Broadcom to seize the IC design throne.

The introduction of Generative AI (GAI) has significantly increased the demand for advanced semiconductor chips, drawing increased attention to the development of complex calculations for large-scale AI models and high-speed transmission interfaces. To assist the industry in grasping the key to high-end semiconductor manufacturing and integration capabilities, the Heterogeneous Integrated Chiplet System Package (Hi-CHIP) Alliance brings together leading semiconductor companies from Taiwan and around the world to provide comprehensive services, spanning from packaging design, testing and verification, to pilot production. Since its establishment in 2021, the alliance has accumulated important industry players as its members, including EVG, Kulicke and Soffa (K&S), USI, Raytek Semiconductor, Unimicron, DuPont, and Brewer Science. Looking forward, the alliance is set to actively explore its global market potential.

Dr. Shih-Chieh Chang, General Director of Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories at ITRI and Chairman of the Hi-CHIP Alliance, indicated that advanced manufacturing processes have led to a considerable increase in IC design cycles and costs. Multi-dimensional chip design and heterogeneous integrated packaging architecture are key tools to tackle this demand in semiconductors. On top of that, the advent of GAI such as ChatGPT, which demands substantial computing power and transmission speed, requires even higher levels of integration capacity in chip manufacturing. ITRI has been committed to developing manufacturing technologies and upgrading materials and equipment to enhance heterogeneous integration technologies. Achievements include the fan-out wafer level packaging (FOWLP), 2.5 and 3D chips, embedded interposer connections (EIC), and programmable packages. With both local and foreign semiconductor manufacturer members, the Hi-CHIP Alliance is establishing an advanced packaging process production line to provide an integrated one-stop service platform.

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (SSS) today announced that it has developed an energy harvesting module that uses electromagnetic wave noise energy. The new module applies technology that SSS has cultivated in the tuner development process to generate power from electromagnetic wave noise with a high level of efficiency. For example, this technology can use the constant electromagnetic wave noise generated by robots inside factories, monitors and lighting in offices, monitors and TVs in stores and homes, and the like to provide the stable power supply needed to run low-power consumption IoT sensors and communications equipment.

With attention on the challenge of providing power to the increasing number of IoT devices as they grow in popularity and sophistication, this highly efficient energy harvesting technology shows promise for a wide range of applications. SSS aims to employ the new technology as part of its effort to build a power circulation model, thereby contributing to the development of a sustainable IoT society.

Ugreen, a global leader in charging accessories, has partnered with Navitas Semiconductor, the industry leader in gallium nitride (GaN) power integrated circuits (ICs), to announce the release of the world's first 5-port 300 W GaN desktop charger—the Ugreen Nexode 300 W Desktop Charger.

"Navitas has been working closely with UGREEN for a long time, it is our relentless pursuit of innovation that continues to refresh the milestone of fast charging," said Charles Zha, Vice President and General Manager of Navitas China. "This first 300 W GaN desktop charger based on LLC structure can realize such astonishing power density with such small size, which once again propelled the revolution of GaN fast charging."

TrendForce reports an interesting shift in the electronics landscape: dwindling inventories for TV components, along with a surging mobile repair market that's been driving TDDI demand, have sparked a smattering of urgent orders in the Q2 supply chain. These last-minute orders have served as pivotal lifelines, propping up Q2 capacity utilization and revenue for semiconductor foundries. However, the adrenaline rush from these stop-gap orders may be a short-lived phenomenon and is unlikely to be carried over into the third quarter.

On the other hand, demand for staple consumer products like smartphones, PCs, and notebooks remains sluggish, perpetuating a slump in the use of expensive, cutting-edge manufacturing processes. At the same time, traditionally stable sectors—automotive, industrial control, and servers—are undergoing inventory correction. The confluence of these trends has resulted in a sustained contraction for the world's top ten semiconductor foundries. Their global revenue declined by approximately 1.1% for the quarter, amounting to a staggering US$26.2 billion.

China has sharply increased imports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in recent months, customs data reveals. The country's purchases of chip production tools surged to record highs of nearly $5 billion in June and July, a 70% increase versus the same period last year, which amounted to $2.9 billion. The spike comes right before export restrictions on advanced chipmaking equipment are implemented by the U.S. and its allies. The moves aim to slow China's technological advancement, but Chinese chipmakers are stockpiling to avoid disruptions. Much of the equipment comes from the Netherlands and Japan, which have imposed licensing requirements on certain tool exports. While it's unclear how many are affected, the rush suggests China wants to expand production capacity and buffer against supply chain issues.

Chinese firms like SMIC and YMTC rely heavily on U.S., Dutch, and Japanese suppliers for cutting-edge manufacturing equipment. They are utilizing imported tools to boost the output of mature chips not subject to controls, particularly for electric vehicles, renewable energy, and industrial applications. Significantly, imports from the Netherlands doubled as lithography machines were delivered to Chinese foundries. Purchases from Japan also rose as companies procured etching tools and wafer coaters after 2020 U.S. restrictions. Newly established foundries backed by local governments contributed as Beijing pushed chip production expansions. Despite export control challenges, China aims to keep advancing its semiconductor capabilities. The import spike highlights intensified efforts to build self-sufficiency using older technology not covered by current limits.

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (SSS) announced the upcoming release of the ECX344A, a large-size, high-definition 1.3-type OLED Microdisplay with 4K resolution which will allow for greater photo-realistic VR and AR experiences.

The new OLED Microdisplay is mainly intended for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) head-mounted display applications. It delivers 4K resolution with a 1.3-type large-size display by employing miniaturization processes that SSS has achieved while developing camera electronic viewfinders (EVFs), as well as its own pixel drive circuits. A new high-speed driver circuit is included in the microdisplay to enable a high frame rate even at 4K resolution, allowing for smooth image quality with an enhanced sense of reality. Moreover, SSS's original pixel structure makes it possible to achieve both a wide color gamut and high luminance performance.

With sequential IC sales declines beginning to moderate, the global semiconductor industry appears to be nearing the end of a downcycle and is expected to begin to recover in 2024, SEMI, in partnership with TechInsights, reported in the Semiconductor Manufacturing Monitor. In Q3 2023, electronics sales are projected to post healthy quarter-on-quarter growth of 10%, while memory IC sales are expected to log double-digit growth for the first time since the downturn started in Q3 2022. Logic IC sales are predicted to remain stable and improve as demand gradually recovers.

Headwinds will continue for the semiconductor manufacturing sector in the second half of the year, SEMI and TechInsights reported. Drawdowns of high inventory at integrated device manufacturer (IDM) and fabless companies will continue to suppress fab utilization rates to much lower levels than those in the first half of 2023. The weakness is projected to extend declines in capital equipment billings and silicon shipments for the rest of the year despite stable results in the first half of 2023.

TSMC (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM), Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY), and NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI) today announced a plan to jointly invest in European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) GmbH, in Dresden, Germany to provide advanced semiconductor manufacturing services. ESMC marks a significant step towards construction of a 300 mm fab to support the future capacity needs of the fast-growing automotive and industrial sectors, with the final investment decision pending confirmation of the level of public funding for this project. The project is planned under the framework of the European Chips Act.

The planned fab is expected to have a monthly production capacity of 40,000 300 mm (12-inch) wafers on TSMC's 28/22 nanometer planar CMOS and 16/12 nanometer FinFET process technology, further strengthening Europe's semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem with advanced FinFET transistor technology and creating about 2,000 direct high-tech professional jobs. ESMC aims to begin construction of the fab in the second half of 2024 with production targeted to begin by the end of 2027.

Semiconductor industry players Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., have come together to jointly invest in a company aimed at advancing the adoption of RISC-V globally by enabling next-generation hardware development.

Formed in Germany, this company will aim to accelerate the commercialization of future products based on the open-source RISC-V architecture. The company will be a single source to enable compatible RISC-V based products, provide reference architectures, and help establish solutions widely used in the industry. Initial application focus will be automotive, but with an eventual expansion to include mobile and IoT.