Intel and MediaTek today announced a strategic partnership to manufacture chips using Intel Foundry Services' (IFS) advanced process technologies. The agreement is designed to help MediaTek build a more balanced, resilient supply chain through the addition of a new foundry partner with significant capacity in the United States and Europe. MediaTek plans to use Intel process technologies to manufacture multiple chips for a range of smart edge devices. IFS offers a broad manufacturing platform with technologies optimized for high performance, low power and always-on connectivity built on a roadmap that spans production-proven three-dimensional FinFET transistors to next-generation breakthroughs.

"As one of the world's leading fabless chip designers powering more than 2 billion devices a year, MediaTek is a terrific partner for IFS as we enter our next phase of growth," said IFS President Randhir Thakur. "We have the right combination of advanced process technology and geographically diverse capacity to help MediaTek deliver the next billion connected devices across a range of applications."

Today ASML Holding NV (ASML) has published its 2022 second-quarter results. Q2 net sales of €5.4 billion, gross margin of 49.1%, net income of €1.4 billion. Record quarterly net bookings in Q2 of €8.5 billion. ASML expects Q3 2022 net sales between €5.1 billion and €5.4 billion and a gross margin between 49% and 50%. Expected sales growth for the full year of around 10%.

The value of fast shipments*in 2022 leading to delayed revenue recognition into 2023 is expected to increase from around €1 billion to around €2.8 billion.
"Our second-quarter net sales came in at €5.4 billion with a gross margin of 49.1%. Demand from our customers remains very strong, as reflected by record net bookings in the second quarter of €8.5 billion, including €5.4 billion from 0.33 NA and 0.55 NA EUV systems as well as strong DUV bookings.

STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, and GlobalFoundries Inc., a global leader in feature-rich semiconductor manufacturing, today announced they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create a new, jointly-operated 300 mm semiconductor manufacturing facility adjacent to ST's existing 300 mm facility in Crolles, France. This facility is targeted to ramp at full capacity by 2026, with up to 620,000 300 mm wafer per year production at full build-out (~42% ST and ~58% GF).

ST and GF are committed to building capacity for their European and global customer base. This new facility will support several technologies, in particular FD-SOI-based technologies, and will cover multiple variants. This includes GF's market leading FDX technology and ST's comprehensive technology roadmap down to 18 nm, which are expected to remain in high demand for Automotive, IoT, and Mobile applications for the next few decades. FD-SOI technology has origins in the Grenoble (France) area. It has been part of ST technology and product roadmap in its Crolles facility since the early beginnings, and it was later enabled with differentiation and commercialized for manufacturing at GF's Dresden facility. FD-SOI offers substantial benefits for designers and customers, including ultra-low power consumption as well as easier integration of additional features such as RF connectivity, mmWave and security.

Back in January, Intel overturned an antitrust ruling by the EU and didn't have to pay the $1.2 billion fine, but it seems like the company isn't satisfied with getting out of having to pay a huge fine, but is now asking the EU to compensate the company for interest lost. As such, Intel has filed for "payment of compensation and consequential interest for the damage sustained because of the European Commissions refusal to pay Intel default interest" with the EU General Court. The sum of money Intel is asking for is based on the European Central Bank's refinancing rate and as the original fine was levied back in 2009, Intel claims they're owed more than half of the value of the fine.

Intel is also expecting further interest on the money, if the payment is late from the EU. It should be noted that the European Commission has already paid Intel €38 million in interest on the fine that was paid back in 2009, but Intel is clearly not happy and is asking for a much greater sum. However, the battle between the European Commission and Intel isn't over, as the Commission is working on appealing the ruling, so depending on the outcome of that appeal, Intel might have to pay back the fine to the EU. For those that don't remember the original reason for the antitrust fine, Intel was accused of giving rebates to certain partners and system integrators to make sure they didn't use AMD products in their systems, among other things.

Graphics card prices have been on a steady decline in the past few months, following their peak in May of last year when we saw double and triple pricing compared to the baseline MSRP value. According to the 3DCenter.org report, which tracks graphics card prices in Germany and Austria, we have information that AMD GPU prices have dipped below MSRP, while NVIDIA GPUs are very close to baseline listed prices. The report tracks Ethereum mining profitability and displays it in the yellow line. As the line is declining, so are the GPU prices. For AMD, the prices are now 8% below the 100% of MSRP. At 92%, consumers can find AMD GPUs at a slight discount. While AMD cards are slightly cheaper, NVIDIA GPUs are now at 102% of the MSRP, the lowest price point since the launch.

Recent news suggests that TSMC isn't too interested in setting up a fab in Europe, but it appears there are other interested parties that are now courting the EU, namely a potential joint venture between GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics. The two companies are hoping to get a slice of the same cake as Intel, namely the European Chips Act, to help subsidise the cost of the proposed fab. Although GlobalFoundries are headquartered in New York and STMicroelectronics in Geneva, the latter being a French-Italian conglomerate, the planned location for the new fab will be somewhere in France.

It's highly unlikely that this will be a cutting edge or even a leading edge fab, as neither company is in the business of producing products in those market segments. ST makes a wide range of chips from MCUs and other types of microprocessors, to specialised memory products, a wide range of sensors, MEMS based devices and all kinds of electronics for electrical vehicles, as well as highly specialised components for the space industry. GloFo obviously stepped off the competitive foundry ladder some years ago and have been focusing on specialised processes and nodes since then, such as FD-SOI, a technology, something the two companies announced a joint partnership around earlier this year. As such, it's likely that this potential fab will focus on making parts needed for the automotive industry in Europe, among other things. There's still a long way to go and neither company has made any kind of official statement about the potential partnership as yet.

JUPITER, the first European exascale supercomputer, will be hosted by the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany. Exascale supercomputers are systems capable of performing more than a billion billion calculations per second and represent a significant milestone for Europe. By supporting the development of high-precision models of complex systems, they will have a major impact on European scientific excellence.

Lenovo has today officially opened the doors to its first in-house manufacturing facility in Europe. Based in Ullo, Hungary, the factory focuses primarily on building server infrastructure, storage systems and high-end PC workstations used by customers throughout the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. Extending Lenovo's international manufacturing operations, the investment represents significant economic potential for both the private and public sectors in Hungary, with increased production capacity, greater potential for collaboration with local vendors, and the creation of new job openings. The site already employs over 1,000 full-time staff in a variety of engineering, management & operational roles, with numbers continuing to increase as the facility moves towards full capacity.

Strong infrastructure, skilled labor and a location at the center of Europe made Hungary the natural location for Lenovo's first European in-house manufacturing facility. In addition, part of Lenovo's investment has been supported with local government incentives through the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA). Francois Bornibus, Senior Vice President and EMEA President, at Lenovo, commented: "With our manufacturing facility in Hungary officially open, we've reached a profound milestone in our global manufacturing network optimization and evolution. Hungary's well-connected location puts us much closer to our European customers so that we can fulfil and sustain their needs while remaining at the forefront of innovation. As our business continues to grow around the world, this incredible new facility will play a key role in our plans to ensure future success and bring smarter technology for all to Europe more sustainably, quickly and efficiently."

Global fab equipment spending for front-end facilities is expected to increase 20% year-over-year (YOY) to an all-time high of US$109 billion in 2022, marking a third consecutive year of growth following a 42% surge in 2021, SEMI announced today in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report. Fab equipment investment in 2023 is expected to remain strong.

"The global semiconductor equipment industry remains on track to cross the $100 billion threshold for the first time as shown in our latest update of the World Fab Forecast,"said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. "This historic milestone puts an exclamation point on the current run of unprecedented industry growth."

German media is reporting that Intel will be receiving some €6.8 billion in subsidies for its planned Magdeburg fab. Some €2.7 billion has already been set aside for the 2022 federal government budget and the remaining money will be allocated in the 2023 and 2024 budgets. The Magdeburg member of the Bundestag, Martin Kröber, who announced the budget allocation to the local media, said that Intel's establishment in Magdeburg should be a boost for the entire Saxony-Anhalt area.

Intel's total investment in Magdeburg has a budget in excess of €33 billion, which means that the German government is pitching around a fifth of the total investment. That said, the first fab will only end up somewhere around the €17 billion mark, with space for a further two fabs on the location Intel has selected. Production at the new fab is estimated to begin sometime in 2027. In related news, TSMC is said to have decided on skipping Europe for the time being, largely due to lack of local customers, according to Reuters.

Lawmakers in the European Union have formally agreed to make USB Type-C the standard charging port in the union and although there are still a couple of minor hurdles ahead of it becoming a legal requirement, it's expected to be a requirement by the autumn of 2024. For it to become EU wide legislation, the EU parliament and Council still needs to approve the new law, but considering all sides seem to have largely agreed on the details, this is said to be largely formality at this point. However, the new law isn't just about making USB-C the standard used for charging mobile phones, tablets and other types of portable electronics, including laptops, but it also covers chargers and this is where things get a bit tricky.

The EU is legislating for what it calls a "harmonised fast-charging technology", which means that proprietary fast charging technologies might be out. The USB Power Delivery standard already supports fast charging, but it's still limited compared to some of the proprietary charging standards that are coming out of China, where some companies offer a full charge in 15 minutes. This may in itself not be that big of a deal, as all of these standards still use USB-C connectors and can rely on USB PD as a fallback charging method, but the EU also wants to unbundle chargers from devices. This means that any device that requires a proprietary charger to reach its optimal charging performance, will require consumers to buy a charger that used to come bundled with said device. This might not be a major hassle, but it's still an inconvenience in those cases and it's likely this will lead to higher prices for some products as well.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) today announced its ongoing commitment in Europe by building its first factory in the region for next-generation high performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) systems to accelerate delivery to customers and strengthen the region's supplier ecosystem. The new site will manufacture HPE's industry-leading systems as custom-designed solutions to advance scientific research, mature AL/ML initiatives, and bolster innovation.

The dedicated HPC factory, which will become the fourth of HPE's global HPC sites, will be located in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic, next to HPE's existing European site for manufacturing its industry-standard servers and storage solutions. Operations will begin in summer 2022.

Apple today announced Self Service Repair is now available, providing repair manuals and genuine Apple parts and tools through the Apple Self Service Repair Store. Self Service Repair is available in the US and will expand to additional countries—beginning in Europe—later this year.

The new online store offers more than 200 individual parts and tools, enabling customers who are experienced with the complexities of repairing electronic devices to complete repairs on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups and iPhone SE (3rd generation), such as the display, battery, and camera. Later this year the program will also include manuals, parts, and tools to perform repairs on Mac computers with Apple silicon.

This past week, the EU's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee agreed on adopting USB Type-C as the union's standard charging connector, with 43 votes in favour and two against. It's part of the Radio Equipment Directive and it means that USB-C is now very close to becoming the de facto connector for charging a wide range of consumer electronics. The charging standard will apply to what the committee calls small and medium-sized electronic gadgets and include mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers. Exemptions will apply for devices that are too small to incorporate a USB-C port, such a smart watches, health trackers and some sports equipment.

The directive still has to be approved by the EU parliament, which is expected to happen in May during the plenary session. There will be an initial transition period and the new requirements aren't expected to start to apply until early 2024. In addition to the new directive, the MEPs also want to see clear labelling on devices in terms of how much power they can deliver, since this can sometimes be hard to figure out as a consumer. They also want to see clear labelling on product packaging if a charger is supplied or not. Furthermore, the MEPs want the European Commission to present a strategy with regards to wireless chargers by the end of 2026, to make sure there's some kind of minimal interoperability between the various wireless charging standards. This is said to be to try and avoid market fragmentation, as well as to reduce e-waste and to try and prevent consumer "lock-in" to proprietary charging standards. The EU is said to end up with 11 to 13-thousand tons of e-waste from chargers alone on a yearly basis, so it's not hard to see why the union wants to see a unified charging standard for most electronics.

Last week Intel finalised the installation of its first EUV tool in Fab 34, which is located in Leixlip, Ireland. That comes just two months after Intel started installing its first chipmaking equipment in the fab. The EUV tool is made by ASML, but was shipped to Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon, USA first, before being sent back to Europe. It's unclear why it was shipped to the US first, but it's possible that Intel tested the equipment there and made sure it was to its spec, before shipping it to its new fab.

This is the first of several machines from ASML that are expected to be installed in Fab 34 and Intel says it's "a key enabler of Intel 4 process technology". The ASML machine required four unspecified Boeing aircrafts to ship, as well as 35 trucks to bring it to Fab 34. The machine, or tool as Intel calls it, has been sent in parts since December last year and has only now been completely assembled. For more details, see the video after the break.

After months of rumors and speculations, it looks like we are finally going to receive official information from Intel regarding the exact country the company plans to do semiconductor R&D and manufacturing in within Europe. Today, the company published its media alert post, showing that we are finally going to receive exact information tomorrow. As we have previously reported, the current round of suggestions led to Intel building a fab inside Germany; however, it still remains to be confirmed. Once the information is out, we are going to report on it and finally see where team blue is headed next. You can find the announcement below.

As part of its IDM 2.0 strategy, Intel is committed to investing in research and development (R&D) capabilities and manufacturing capacity to meet the surging demand for advanced semiconductors and to build a more resilient, globally balanced supply chain.

Join a webcast with CEO Pat Gelsinger where he will share details of Intel's latest plans for in semiconductor R&D and manufacturing in Europe.

When: 6 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. CET), Tuesday, March 15
Where: Watch live on the Intel Newsroom.
Event Replay: A video replay will be available on the Intel Newsroom following the webcast.

These days, routers are quite complex devices that are doing much more than just routing data and are often the main security device on a home network. As such, we've seen a surge in third party services such as Asus' AIProtection that runs software from Trend Micro and Netgear Armor in cooperation with Bitdefender. Chinese TP-Link is likewise offering similar services, some in partnership with Trend Micro and some with Avira. It now appears that TP-Link's HomeCare service—that the company is offering in partnership with Avira—is sending data to Avira even when disabled in the UI, based on a thread over at Reddit.

The standard Avira features are meant to offer protection against malicious content, network intrusions and even against infected devices on the network that are said to be quarantined from other devices on the network. It also incorporates some basic parental control features, such as automatic content filtering and time controls. However, in this case, the issue isn't the functionality itself, but the fact that there apparently is no way to turn off the HomeCare feature, since even when seemingly disabled in the UI of the affected routers, it sends data to Avira. It seems to be a fairly large amount of data being sent as well, with the initial poster claiming over 80,000 requests in a 24 hour period. According to a review of a TP-Link product over on XDA-Developers from May last year, TP-Link said that they were working on a firmware update that would allow the Avira service to be turned off permanently.

With Intel still not having announced where in Europe they'll set up shop next, but with Magdeburg, Germany being the hot ticket, Italy is now trying to figure out how they can win over some chip makers, least not Intel. The country is working on a €4 billion chip fund of its own to entice chip makers to set up shop in the nation. However, it seems like the fund is going to spread out over time, as it'll run until 2030, the same time frame as the EU's €15 billion chip fund is going to run. Italy will apparently divide the money in chunks of €500 million per year from 2023 to 2030.

Italy was apparently considering giving it all to Intel, according to Reuters, plus another €4 billion in other incentives, over a 10 year period. If that is still the case, isn't clear, especially as the nation is said to be in talks with STMicroelectronics, MEMC Electronic Materials, Tower Semi (now Intel) and others. Reuters claims that negotiations with Intel are very tough, as the company has a lot of demands. The Italian government is also said to be promoting "research and development of microprocessor technology and investments in new industrial applications of innovative technologies".

As we've known for a few months now, Intel is looking at setting up shop, or should that be fab, somewhere in Europe. The company already has fabs in Ireland, but now it looks like its second destination will be Magdeburg in Germany, at least if a story by MDR in Germany is to be trusted. The news outlet claims that the official announcement will take place sometime next week. It's not clear what kind of fab it'll be at this point in time, but hopefully we'll get more details once Intel makes an official announcement.

Magdeburg was apparently not the only location scouted by Intel in Germany, as Dresden was also in the running, the home of the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology among several other Fraunhofer Societies based in the city. Dresden also has twice the population of Magdeburg, which makes Intel's choice somewhat peculiar, as Magdeburg doesn't appear to have any particularly stand-out features that would make it the ideal choice of a semiconductor fab or even a packaging facility. It's possible that Intel chose the location based on the local supply chain, but that's just speculation at this point.

Today, the Commission proposes a comprehensive set of measures to ensure the EU's security of supply, resilience and technological leadership in semiconductor technologies and applications. The European Chips Act will bolster Europe's competitiveness, resilience and help achieve both the digital and green transition. Recent global semiconductors shortages forced factory closures in a wide range of sectors from cars to healthcare devices. In the car sector, for example, production in some Member States decreased by one third in 2021. This made more evident the extreme global dependency of the semiconductor value chain on a very limited number of actors in a complex geopolitical context. But it also illustrated the importance of semiconductors for the entire European industry and society.

The EU Chips Act will build on Europe's strengths - world-leading research and technology organisations and networks as well as host of pioneering equipment manufacturers - and address outstanding weaknesses. It will bring about a thriving semiconductor sector from research to production and a resilient supply chain. It will mobilise more than €43 billion euros of public and private investments and set measures to prevent, prepare, anticipate and swiftly respond to any future supply chains disruption, together with Member States and our international partners. It will enable the EU to reach its ambition to double its current market share to 20% in 2030.

The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has launched 3 new research and innovation projects. The projects aim to bring the EU and its partners in the EuroHPC JU closer to developing independent microprocessor and HPC technology and advance a sovereign European HPC ecosystem. The European Processor Initiative (EPI SGA2), The European PILOT and the European Pilot for Exascale (EUPEX) are interlinked projects and an important milestone towards a more autonomous European supply chain for digital technologies and specifically HPC.

With joint investments of €140 million from the European Union (EU) and the EuroHPC JU Participating States, the three projects will carry out research and innovation activities to contribute to the overarching goal of securing European autonomy and sovereignty in HPC components and technologies, especially in anticipation of the European exascale supercomputers.

The expansion of the only computer memory factory in Europe is underway. The factory in question produces Goodram branded memory and is located in Łaziska Górne. In the south of Poland, there is a unique technological company that stands out in Europe. The said company is Wilk Elektronik SA, which is the manufacturer of the well-known in Europe Goodram computer memory brand as well as the IRDM gaming line. Nine months after the symbolic groundbreaking, the scale of this private investment is already visible. The impressive 14-meter high structure of the building is not accidental. The extended part of the company is going to have a high storage warehouse and a new production hall. Thus, the company surface will be expanded from the current 3000 m² by 1140 m² in the warehousing and logistics section and 1200 m² in the production area.

In a surprising outcome, Taiwanese GlobalWafers purchase of German Siltronic has failed, due to the German Ministry for Economic Affairs having failed to approve the deal. The €4.35 billion deal had been approved by all other regulators globally, but the German Ministry for Economic Affairs claims that they didn't have enough time to go over the review process locally by the deadline that was set. It appears that they're blaming their counterparts in the PRC for having been too slow in their approval process, as the Germans wanted to go over the Chinese approval, before committing to their own approval.

The deal might not be dead in the water though, but it looks like GlobalWafers is going to have to make a new offer and start the entire process over again. Had the deal gone through, GlobalWafers would've become the world's second largest 300 mm silicon wafer producer, behind Japanese Shin-Etsu, overtaking Sumco, which is also based out of Japan. GlobalWafers already owns a majority stake in Siltronic, but the question now is if GlobalWafers will maintain that share, or look to invest elsewhere. One option on the table for GlobalWafers is apparently the US, but at the same time, the majority shareholder of Siltronic wants to sell, ideally to GlobalWafers. Although it's only speculation at this point, it has been suggested that the German government wanted to retain Siltronic as a local company, especially due to growing interest by the EU to expand foundry type businesses in Europe. GlobalWafers is said to make an announcement by the end of this week as to whether they will continue with the Siltronic purchase or not.

Tachyum today announced that it was selected by the Slovak Republic to participate in the latest submission for the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI), to develop Prodigy 2 for HPC/AI. Prodigy 2 for HPC/AI will enable 1 AI Zettaflop and more than 10 DP Exaflops computers to support superhuman brain-scale computing by 2024 for under €1B. As part of this selection, Tachyum could receive a 49 million Euro grant to accelerate a second-generation of its Tachyum Prodigy processor for HPC/AI in a 3-nanometer process.

The IPCEI program can make a very important contribution to sustainable economic growth, jobs, competitiveness and resilience for industry and the economy in the European Union. IPCEI will strengthen the EU's open strategic autonomy by enabling breakthrough innovation and infrastructure projects through cross-border cooperation and with positive spill-over effects on the internal market and society as a whole.

NVIDIA's RTX 3090 Ti is hot on the presses, and while actual product availability is anyone's guess, the card has already been made available for order (in extremely limited quantities, as one might expect). That said, the lack of a clear pricing messaging from NVIDIA seems to have left the door open for truly egregious pricing practices, which are likely added to at every step of the supply chain from the green team's AIB (add-in-board) partners and their custom RTX 3090 Ti graphics cards. Case in point: European, Swiss retailer Top Preise has started listing the latest NVIDIA halo card at a cool, not at all jaw-dropping average of €3,600 ($4,000). This is easily the highest-ever-pricing practiced on a consumer-level graphics card, so if anything, 2022 seems to have at least brought us that particular record-setting. Of course, pricing of a single retailer doesn't prove a pricing trend; but the fact that the cards are priced at untidy values does seem to indicate these aren't placeholder values.

This is much the case as has happened with NVIDIA's recent launch of the RTX 3080 12 GB - that card too didn't receive public MSRP guidance from NVIDIA, leaving its board partners - and retailers - to carve whatever pricing philosophy they deem adequate, considering the current state of the market, expected demand for NVIDIA's latest and greatest, and, of course, additional profits. Considering how the RTX 3080 12 GB has been found in store shelves for around $1,700 (remember the original MSRP for the RTX 3080 8 GB was set at $699), an upgrade to the RTX 3090 Ti would be a very expensive, $2,300 proposition for a relatively small performance improvement.