The NAND Flash industry benefitted from strong demand for PCs and servers in 2Q20 as the COVID-19 pandemic caused a demand surge for cloud services and technologies that are related to working from home, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. This, in turn, kept demand high for SSDs. However, the smartphone and consumer electronics markets had not recovered from the impact of the pandemic. The demand for these products therefore declined compared to the previous quarter. In 2Q20, total NAND Flash bit shipment and ASP both experienced a minor increase of about 3% QoQ, while NAND Flash revenue reached US$14.5 billion, a 6.5% increase QoQ.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, announces unaudited financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2020 (1H 2020). "2020 has been a year like no other for all of us around the world. Despite the global market uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Razer has had a spectacular start to the year, driven by dominant brand position, user base expansion and stay-at-home trends," said Min-Liang Tan, Co-Founder and CEO of Razer.

"The global "stay-at-home" situation has boosted user engagement with gaming and esports to record levels. With our gamer/ youth-centric ecosystem of hardware, software and services, Razer is well-positioned to capture the opportunities of these secular trends. The fundamentals of our business remain as solid as ever, thanks to our entrenched brand leadership, compelling offerings across hardware, software and services and strong execution. We are confident that these factors, coupled with our strong operating cost discipline and our strong cash position of over US$500 million, put us in good stead, even during times of challenging global economic conditions," he added.

The last cyclical upturn in DRAM contract prices began at the start of 2020 and was led by server DRAM, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. In 2Q20, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic shocked the global economy, but OEMs maintained or even stepped up procurement of components because they feared disruptions in the supply chain. As a result, DRAM suppliers' bit shipments surpassed expectations for the quarter, in turn widening the overall increase in DRAM ASP and raising the global DRAM revenue by 15.4% QoQ in 2Q20 to US$17.1 billion.

Nevertheless, TrendForce indicates that server OEMs are now carrying a rather high level of DRAM inventory after aggressively stocking up for two consecutive quarters. At the same time, customers of enterprise servers are holding back on procurement because the economic outlook is getting bleaker and more uncertain. Since server DRAM has the unique role of leading cyclical changes, this category is going to be first to experience price drop in the next downturn and thereby pull prices down for other types of DRAM products. As such, TrendForce forecasts at best a flattening of product shipments and decrease in DRAM prices in 3Q20, with DRAM suppliers suffering a decline in profitability.

Apple is now valued at two trillion dollars! The tech giant became the world's most valuable company, clocking unfathomable growth in value. "It took Apple 42 years to reach $1 trillion in value. It took it just two more years to get to $2 trillion," writes the New York Times. Almost all of Apple's second trillion dollars in valuation came in just the past 28 weeks, as the world reeled with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Much of Apple's rise is attributable to measures by the U.S. Federal Reserve this March, allaying investor fears as capital markets crashed around the world, as governments clamped down on normal economic activity. Tech stocks have particularly benefited from the measures, as investors find them to be the next new "flight to safety" (a safe investment option in the face of calamity, akin to gold bullion). At $2 trillion, Apple is valued higher than the annual nominal gross domestic product of all but 7 countries (IMF measurement).

Lenovo Group (HKSE: 992) PINK SHEETS: LNVGY) today announced Group revenue in the first quarter of US $13.3 billion, up almost 7% year-on-year (up 10% year-on-year excluding currency impact). Pre-tax income grew 38% compared to the same quarter a year earlier, to US $332 million, while net income also increased by 31% year-on-year to US$213 million. Basic earnings per share for the first quarter were 1.80 US cents or 13.95 HK cents.

"Our outstanding performance last quarter proves that Lenovo has quickly regained momentum from the impact of the pandemic and is capturing the new opportunities emerging from remote working, education and accelerated digitalization," said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo Chairman and CEO. "While the world continues to face challenges, Lenovo is focused on delivering sustainable growth through our core businesses as well as the new services and solutions opportunities presented by our service-led intelligent transformation."

Samsung Electronics reported today KRW 52.97 trillion in consolidated revenue and KRW 8.15 trillion in operating profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020. Even as the spread of COVID-19 caused closures and slowdowns at stores and production sites around the world, the Company responded to challenges through its extensive global supply chain, while minimizing the impact of the pandemic by strengthening online sales channels and optimizing costs.

Quarterly operating profit rose 26 percent from the previous quarter and 23 percent from a year earlier, thanks to firm demand for memory chips and appliances, as well as a one-off gain at its Display Panel Business. A partial recovery in global demand since May also helped offset some COVID-19 effects, resulting in higher earnings than initially expected. Revenue in the quarter fell 4 percent from the previous quarter and 6 percent from a year earlier due to reduced sales of smartphones and other devices.

AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) today announced revenue for the second quarter of 2020 of $1.93 billion, operating income of $173 million, net income of $157 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.13. On a non-GAAP basis, operating income was $233 million, net income was $216 million and diluted earnings per share was $0.18. "We delivered strong second quarter results, led by record notebook and server processor sales as Ryzen and EPYC revenue more than doubled from a year ago," said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. "Despite some macroeconomic uncertainty, we are raising our full-year revenue outlook as we enter our next phase of growth driven by the acceleration of our business in multiple markets."

Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) (the "Company" or "Seagate") today reported financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended July 3, 2020. "The June quarter was led by robust cloud and data center demand, which drove record exabyte shipments for our nearline mass capacity drives and strongly contributed to the Company's overall revenue and solid free cash flow generation. However, continued economic uncertainty and COVID-19 related disruptions impacted demand in other key end markets including video and image applications, mission critical and consumer markets and also impacted profitability as we incurred higher logistics and labor costs which together weighed on our fourth quarter results," said Dave Mosley, Seagate's chief executive officer.

"We are focused on managing the business well and executing on what we can control. Fiscal 2020 marked a strong year of progress as we grew mass capacity storage revenue by 25% and increased our overall revenue. We executed our technology roadmap, strengthened our balance sheet and delivered on our capital return program. Entering fiscal year 2021, the level of macro uncertainty remains high and we will continue to carefully manage our cash and expenses. However, we anticipate demand across our end markets to improve within the next six months and currently model revenue to be fairly flat in fiscal year 2021, supported by the strength of our mass capacity product portfolio. Longer-term, the unabated growth in data at the edge and in the cloud is driving secular demand for mass capacity storage and we believe Seagate's financial strength and innovative product portfolio position us well for these trends."

The 2021 edition of the International CES has been cancelled, organizers CTA announced. The 2021 edition, like almost every other edition, was scheduled to take place between January 6-9, 2021. The CTA will now work to set up an "all digital experience" working with all its exhibitors. The show is now expected to only make a comeback in 2022, provided the COVID-19 situation improves. The pandemic still wreaks havoc across the globe, with most nations experiencing community spread. Mass vaccination before the turn of the year seems unlikely, with most vaccine developers yet to test their vaccine candidates.

"Amid the pandemic and growing global health concerns about the spread of COVID-19, it's just not possible to safely convene tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas in early January 2021 to meet and do business in person," CTA president and CEO Gary Shapiro said in a statement. Despite fears of the pandemic looming on exhibitors' and visitors' minds, the 2020 edition of CES drew more than 170,000 visitors and over 4,400 exhibitors (that's just for the official exhibitors, not counting the many more exhibiting in nearby locations).

Today, Intel CEO Bob Swan announced changes to the company's technology organization and executive team to accelerate product leadership and improve focus and accountability in process technology execution. Effective immediately, the Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group (TSCG) will be separated into the following teams, whose leaders will report directly to the CEO:

Technology Development, led by Dr. Ann Kelleher. An accomplished Intel leader, Kelleher has been head of Intel manufacturing, where she ensured continuous operations through the COVID-19 pandemic while increasing supply capacity to meet customer needs and accelerating the ramp of Intel's 10 nm process. She will now lead Intel technology development focusing on 7 nm and 5 nm processes. Dr. Mike Mayberry, who has been leading Technology Development, will consult and assist in the transition until his planned retirement at the end of the year. Mayberry has a 36-year track record of innovation at Intel, during which he has made key contributions in technology development and as the leader of Intel Labs.

Manufacturing and Operations, led by Keyvan Esfarjani. Esfarjani most recently led manufacturing for Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group (NSG), in which role he set the vision and strategy for Intel's memory manufacturing and led a rapid expansion of capacity. He will now lead global manufacturing operations and continue Kelleher's work driving product ramp and the build-out of new fab capacity.

AZIO, the company that created the popular Retro Classic Line, announced today the Antimicrobial & Waterproof Product Line. Building from the success of its Large Font keyboards, AZIO has taken account of the ongoing situation with COVID-19 and added features to combat these concerns.

As COVID-19 grips the world, the need for health and safety has grown immensely. For those who work in medical, industrial or food services where dirt, liquids or germs are a concern, antimicrobial products reduce the risk of cross-infection by inhibiting the growth of bacteria on the product. For those outside of these industries, the potential for exposure has increased significantly and the ability to wash an item is more important than ever.

The University of Florida and NVIDIA Tuesday unveiled a plan to build the world's fastest AI supercomputer in academia, delivering 700 petaflops of AI performance. The effort is anchored by a $50 million gift: $25 million from alumnus and NVIDIA co-founder Chris Malachowsky and $25 million in hardware, software, training and services from NVIDIA.

"We've created a replicable, powerful model of public-private cooperation for everyone's benefit," said Malachowsky, who serves as an NVIDIA Fellow, in an online event featuring leaders from both the UF and NVIDIA. UF will invest an additional $20 million to create an AI-centric supercomputing and data center.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 64.8 million units in the second quarter of 2020, a 2.8% increase from the second quarter of 2019, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. After a significant decline in the first quarter of the year due to COVID-19-related supply chain disruptions, the PC market returned to growth as vendors restocked their channels and mobile PC demand increased.

"The second quarter of 2020 represented a short-term recovery for the worldwide PC market, led by exceptionally strong growth in EMEA," said Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner. "After the PC supply chain was severely disrupted in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the growth this quarter was due to distributors and retail channels restocking their supplies back to near-normal levels.

AAEON, a leading manufacturer of AI and IoT platforms, has worked with partners and developers to create solutions designed to address COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. While the current pandemic is winding down in some areas, many companies are rethinking what it means to do business in a world where it is key to be aware of how disease spreads. One key sector is in banking, where many kinds of customers may visit on a daily basis. In Southeast Asia, AAEON is partnering with developers to deploy the BOXER-8170AI and SCA-M01 IoT Node Board in body temperature and meeting room monitoring.

TAITRA, organizers of Computex, the year's biggest PC industry-related tech expo that highlights Taiwan's vibrant computer hardware and consumer electronics industries, announced that they have formally cancelled the 2020 edition of Computex. Originally slated for June as almost every edition prior, Computex 2020 was hit hard by the COVID-19 global pandemic that caused exhibitors to pull out. TAITRA scrambled to postpone the 2020 edition to September, a move that apparently didn't do enough to bring back exhibitors. With the COVID-19 crisis showing no signs of waning by September, TAITRA did the only thing it could: can the 2020 edition. The company did put up a brave face and hoped that the 2021 edition will go ahead as planned, scheduled for June 1-5, 2021. One of our industry partners shared with us a copy of the email TAITRA sent to its exhibitors.The TAITRA press-release follows.

2021 is poised to mark a banner year for global fab equipment spending with 24 percent growth to a record US$67.7 billion, 10 percent higher than the previously forecast US$65.7 billion, and all product segments promising solid growth rates, according to the second-quarter 2020 update of the SEMI World Fab Forecast report. Memory fabs will lead worldwide semiconductor segments with US$30 billion in equipment spending, while leading-edge logic and foundry is expected to rank second with US$29 billion in investments.

The 3D NAND memory subsegment will help power the spending spree with a 30 percent jump in investments this year before tacking on 17 percent growth in 2021. DRAM fab investments will surge 50 percent next year after declining 11 percent in 2020, and fab spending on logic and foundry, mainly leading edge, will trace a similar but more muted trajectory, rising 16 percent 2021 after an 11 percent drop this year.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has forced immediate, profound lifestyle shifts for consumers around the world, many of whom have turned to gaming for much-needed distraction and social connections. According to a new report released today by Unity Technologies, the world's leading platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D (RT3D) content, there has been an increase of nearly 50% in daily active users of HD games due to COVID-19. The report's findings stem from a cross-platform study focused on COVID-19's impact on consumer gaming for the period from January 1 to mid-May 2020 as compared to the same period in 2019, including an analysis of player behaviors in games, and how games have thus far proven to be stable revenue generators during a global economic crisis.

The data in the report was sourced globally from mobile games that deploy Unity's monetization platform as well as games made with Unity for PC and mac OS, Android, and iOS, and Unity's deltaDNA which provides sophisticated player engagement tools for game-makers powered by deep data analytics. Unity Ads are seen by more than 114 million end users every day.

According to the latest investigations from the WitsView research division of TrendForce, issues with the NB (notebook computer) panel supply chain, such as material shortage, labor shortage, and logistic disruptions, were gradually resolved starting in April. The resolution of these issues, combined with rising WFH and distance education demand brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in a strong wave of panel demand in 2Q20. TrendForce projects 2Q20 NB panel shipment to reach 53.3 million units, a 17.7% increase YoY and 33.6% increase QoQ.

Far Cry 6, the sequel to Ubisoft's popular franchise of Far Cry games, is supposedly launching on July 12th. Thanks to the report from Gamereactor.dk, they have obtained information that Ubisoft will unveil the latest game sequel at the Ubisoft Forward event. In translation, the website said: "The last [Ubisoft] game scheduled to be released before April (unless Ubisoft decides it's this game that should be postponed due to COVID-19 or that there are too many AAA releases in a fairly short window) is set to be a Far Cry. I don't want to ruin Ubisoft's plans by giving you all the information, but I can say with certainty that those of you who didn't like Far Cry 5's North American setting are likely to find this game more interesting when it's officially unveiled during Ubisoft Forward on July 12."

The game is said to be available sometime in 2021, however, that information could very well be not true, as the game launch is happening much earlier than that. It could be that Ubisoft is preparing to launch this with the wave of next-generation consoles, so we have to wait and see how it plays out.

Intel CEO Bob Swan, in his Virtual Computex YouTube stream, advocated that the industry should focus less on benchmarks, and more on the benefits of technology, a line of thought strongly advocated by rival AMD in its pre-Ryzen era, before the company began getting competitive with Intel again. "We should see this moment as an opportunity to shift our focus as an industry from benchmarks to the benefits and impacts of the technology we create," he said, referring to technology keeping civilization and economies afloat during the COVID-19 global pandemic, which has thrown Computex among practically every other public gathering out of order.

"The pandemic has underscored the need for technology to be purpose-built so it can meet these evolving business and consumer needs. And this requires a customer-obsessed mindset to stay close, anticipate those needs, and develop solutions. In this mindset, the goal is to ensure we are optimizing for a stronger impact that will support and accelerate positive business and societal benefits around the globe," he added. An example of what Swan is trying to say is visible with Intel's 10th generation Core "Cascade Lake XE" and "Ice Lake" processors, which feature AVX-512 and DL-Boost, accelerating deep learning neural nets; but lose to AMD's flagship offerings on the vast majority of benchmarks. Swan also confirmed that the company's "Tiger Lake" processors will launch this Summer.The Computex video address by CEO Bob Swan can be watched below.

AMD and technology partner Penguin Computing Inc., a division of SMART Global Holdings, Inc, today announced that New York University (NYU), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Rice University are the first universities named to receive complete AMD-powered, high-performance computing systems from the AMD HPC Fund for COVID-19 research. AMD also announced it will contribute a cloud-based system powered by AMD EPYC and AMD Radeon Instinct processors located on-site at Penguin Computing, providing remote supercomputing capabilities for selected researchers around the world. Combined, the donated systems will collectively provide researchers with more than seven petaflops of compute power that can be applied to fight COVID-19.

"High performance computing technology plays a critical role in modern viral research, deepening our understanding of how specific viruses work and ultimately accelerating the development of potential therapeutics and vaccines," said Lisa Su, president and CEO, AMD. "AMD and our technology partners are proud to provide researchers around the world with these new systems that will increase the computing capability available to fight COVID-19 and support future medical research."

In response to the ongoing digitization of events that has been put on an accelerated course due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Summer Game Fest aims to keep the gaming scene fresh with announcements and developer deep-dives. The aim is to bring the world up to speed in game announcements and development amidst cancelled floor-like shows such as GAMESCOM and E3, and the event lasts from May through September. One of the recent announcements in the lineup for the Summer Game Fest is none other than the most awaited game of 2020 (and probably the last decade) in the form of Cyberpunk 2077.. Developer CD Projekt Red has announced a special Cyberpunk 2077 continued revel event which it's calling "Night City Wire", which will take place in a TBD hour on June 11th. Expect new trailers for the game, likely a played mission showcasing the games' systems, and a developer dive into the creation of Night City.

That same day, EA will be running their "EA Play Live 2020" event, which aims to bring new game announcements and extended information on already-announced games. According to the company, "EA Play Live 2020 is about connecting players around the world and bringing them closer to the game franchises they love. During this year's digital event, we'll showcase our games through a live broadcast, community content, and more." The EA Play show runs on June 11th as well, from 4pm PST on June 11. It surely won't coincide with CD Projekt Red's deep dive into Cyberpunk 2077.

NVIDIA today reported revenue for the first quarter ended April 26, 2020, of $3.08 billion, up 39 percent from $2.22 billion a year earlier, and down 1 percent from $3.11 billion in the previous quarter. GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were $1.47, up 130 percent from $0.64 a year ago, and down 4 percent from $1.53 in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1.80, up 105 percent from $0.88 a year earlier, and down 5 percent from $1.89 in the previous quarter.

NVIDIA completed its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies Ltd. on April 27, 2020, for a transaction value of $7 billion. It also transitioned its GPU Technology Conference to an all-digital format, drawing more than 55,000 registered participants, while NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang's keynote videos were viewed 3.8 million times in their first three days.

Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in data storage and management solutions, today announced that it has signed the Open COVID Pledge. The pledge grants free access to all of Seagate's patented technologies to help enable diagnosing, preventing, containing, and treating of COVID-19.

The mission of the Open COVID Pledge is to provide access to every tool at the disposal of businesses and society toward the goal of rapid development and deployment of technologies in a massive scale without impediment, in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Seagate's mission is to maximize the potential of humanity," said Seagate's CEO Dr. Dave Mosley. "Never has that been more important than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collaboration is going to be key in the efforts to fight the disease and minimize the lasting impact. The Open COVID Pledge is another of the amazing ways we can all work together, and Seagate is proud to be a part of this pledge to help enable critical access to powerful solutions for the good of humanity."

With the COVID-19 global pandemic forcing entire payrolls to work from home, the demand for pre-built computers handed out by companies, or those purchased by workers at their own expense, has hit an all time high. ASUS expects a massive 30% surge in notebook shipments in Q2-2020, with Q1 having mopped up inventories across the globe. For Q1-2020, ASUS reported $2.12 billion in revenues, down 28.27% sequentially, and 23.3% YoY. ASUS expects that the surge in notebook sales started toward the end of March, and could go on until June.