TSMC has reportedly postponed the opening ceremony of its Arizona Fab 21 facility, initially planned for December 6, amidst the changing US political landscape. The ceremony is now expected to take place after President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration in early 2025, showing that the chipmaker is taking a cautious approach to geopolitical shifts. The delay comes as TSMC finds itself at the intersection of global semiconductor politics. The company has invested heavily in its Arizona operations (estimated at $65 billion total), with Wang Yinglang, deputy general manager of wafer factory operations, leading the project. Despite initial skepticism, Wang's team has maintained an ambitious timeline, with mass production scheduled to begin in the first half of 2025.

Rumors also suggest that TSMC's decision stems from broader concerns about the incoming administration's semiconductor policies. However, TSMC maintains a strong position due to its unmatched technological capabilities, particularly in advanced manufacturing processes, which competitors like Intel and Samsung struggled to achieve. The Arizona facility represents a crucial piece of TSMC's global expansion strategy, which includes new factories in Japan and Germany. While the company faces challenges, including labor issues and rising costs in the US, its strategic importance to the global semiconductor supply chain remains unchanged. The only thing that is changing is the timeline of the opening ceremony, while high-volume production stays on track.

TSMC announced that its revenue for September 2024 reached NT$251.87 billion (US$7.80 billion), representing a 39% increase compared to the same month last year. The cumulative revenue for the first three quarters of 2024 climbed to NT$2,025.85 billion (US$62.72 billion), showing a 32% year-over-year growth. The company's third-quarter revenue amounted to NT$759.7 billion (US$23.52 billion), exceeding TSMC's own guidance of NT$706.6 billion to NT$731.5 billion (US$22.4 billion to US$23.2 billion). TSMC will report full third-quarter earnings on Oct. 17.

A report from Data Center Dynamics quotes sources saying that, due to increasing demand from NVIDIA and others, TSMC has been forced to change its CoWoS capacity expansion plan several times. In response, TSMC is building two more fabs, named P4 and P5, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, raising the company's total number of facilities in the region to five. Four months ago, the company announced that it would build a third 2 nm fab at Nanzih Technology Industrial Park in Kaohsiung. The company's P1 fab, which started in August 2022, is expected to begin mass production next year, while P2 and P3 are still in the construction phase. TSMC's CoWoS monthly capacity is expected to reach more than 40,000 wafers by the end of 2024, 65,000 wafers in 2025, and at least 80,000 wafers in 2026.

Samsung Electronics is speeding up its work on 2 nm production facilities, industry sources say. The company has started to install advanced equipment at its "S3" foundry line in Hwaseong to set up a 2 nm production line. This line aims to produce 7,000 wafers each month by the first quarter of next year. Also, Samsung plans to create a 1.4 nm production line at its "S5" foundry in Pyeongtaek Plant 2 by the second quarter of next year. This line has a goal to make 2,000 to 3,000 wafers each month. By the end of next year, Samsung will change all the remaining 3 nm production lines at "S3" to 2 nm.

As we reported earlier, Samsung has pushed back the start date for its Tyler, Texas foundry. The plant set to open by late 2024, won't install equipment until after 2026. Also, Samsung has changed its plans for the Pyeongtaek Fab 4 foundry line. Because of lower demand, it will now make DRAM instead, moreover, at Pyeongtaek Fab 3, which has a 4 nm line, Samsung has cut back production. These changes are part of Samsung's plan to make 2 nm chips next year and 1.4 nm chips by 2027. The company wants to catch up with its rival TSMC, right now, Samsung has 11.5% of the global foundry market in Q2, while TSMC leads with 62.3%. An industry expert stressed how crucial this is saying, "With the delay in 3 nm Exynos production and other issues, getting the 2 nm process right could make or break Samsung Foundry". The struggle for Samsung is real, with the company's top management, led by DS Division Vice Chairman Jeon Young-hyun, having recently issued a public apology for the division's underwhelming performance.

After Apple, we just learned that AMD is the next company in line for US-based manufacturing in the TSMC Arizona facility. Industry analyst Tim Culpan reports that TSMC's Fab 21 in Arizona will soon be producing AMD's high-performance computing (HPC) processors, with tape out and manufacturing expected to commence on TSMC's 5 nm node next year. This move comes after previously reported Apple's A16 SoC production, which is already in progress at the facility and could see shipments before the end of this year, significantly ahead of the initially projected early 2025 schedule. The production of AMD's HPC chips in Arizona marks a crucial step towards establishing an AI-hardware supply chain operating entirely on American soil, which is expected to further expand with Intel Foundry and Samsung Texas facility.

Making HPC processors domestically serves as a significant milestone in reducing dependence on overseas semiconductor manufacturing and strengthening the US's position in the global chip industry. Adding to the momentum, TSMC and Amkor recently announced a collaboration on advanced packaging technologies, including Integrated Fan-Out (InFO) and Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS), which are vital for high-performance AI chips. However, as Amkor facilities are yet to be built, these chips are going to be shipped back to Taiwan for packaging before being integrated into the final product. Once the Amkor facility is up and running, Arizona will become the birthplace of fully manufactured and packaged silicon chips.

TSMC has reportedly initiated production of Apple's last-generation A16 Bionic processors at its newly constructed Fab 21 in Arizona. This development comes significantly earlier than anticipated, with the facility's full-scale production initially scheduled for 2025. According to insights from industry expert Tim Culpan, the Arizona plant is already churning out a modest but noteworthy quantity of A16 Bionic chips. These processors are being manufactured using TSMC's NP4 4 nm semiconductor node. Culpan also hinted at a substantial increase in production capacity once the second stage of Fab 21's initial phase becomes operational.

This early start serves a critical function for TSMC, allowing the company to calibrate its advanced equipment and refine its manufacturing processes thoroughly. Using the well-established A16 Bionic design, TSMC can ensure its new facility meets the exacting standards required for next-generation semiconductor production. The news aligns with recent industry buzz suggesting that Fab 21 is already achieving yield rates comparable to TSMC's long-established Taiwanese plants—a remarkable feat for a newly launched facility. While current output remains limited, this milestone marks a significant step in TSMC's expansion into US-based chip manufacturing. With more fabs on American soil, companies can push domestic manufacturing and ensure that geopolitics don't hinder the vital supply chain.

Intel today announced that its lead products on Intel 18A, Panther Lake (AI PC client processor) and Clearwater Forest (server processor), are out of the fab and have powered-on and booted operating systems. These milestones were achieved less than two quarters after tape-out, with both products on track to start production in 2025. The company also announced that the first external customer is expected to tape out on Intel 18A in the first half of next year.

"We are pioneering multiple systems foundry technologies for the AI era and delivering a full stack of innovation that's essential to the next generation of products for Intel and our foundry customers. We are encouraged by our progress and are working closely with customers to bring Intel 18A to market in 2025." -Kevin O'Buckley, Intel senior vice president and general manager of Foundry Services

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced that the building construction of Fab2 (K2) of its industry-leading Kitakami Plant was completed in July. K2 is the second flash memory manufacturing facility at the Kitakami Plant in the Iwate Prefecture of Japan. As demand is recovering, the company will gradually make capital investments while closely monitoring flash memory market trends. Kioxia plans to start operation at K2 in the fall of Calendar Year 2025.

In addition, some administration and engineering departments will move into a new administration building located adjacent to K2 beginning in November 2024 to oversee the operation of K2. A portion of investment for K2 will be subsidized by the Japanese government according to the plan approved in February 2024.

After many back and forths, it now appears that TSMC is finally getting ready to start construction of its fab in Dresden, Germany. Multiple news outlets are reporting that TSMC is getting ready to start production on its new fab within the next few weeks, which is ahead of the expected Q4 groundbreaking. That said, TSMC has yet to announce an official date for a groundbreaking ceremony or a date when construction will start, but according to media reports TSMC's Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei will be in Germany at the end of August to sign documents with the German government and during this trip, the groundbreaking ceremony is expected to take place.

Assuming everything goes according to plan, the Dresden fab is expected to start production sometime in late 2027, but it's far from a cutting edge fab, as it'll mainly be supplying the European automotive industry with components. The new fab should start its life with two different process technologies, namely a 28 or 22 nm planar CMOS node as well as a 16 or 12 nm FinFET node. The Dresden fab is said to have a production capacity of around 40,000 12-inch wafers monthly. The new fab is expected to be an investment in excess of €10 billion for TSMC, with the city of Dresden spending an additional €250 million for a special water supply system and enhancements to the power grid. Unlike similar projects, TSMC will not be the sole owner of the new fab, as Infineon, Robert Bosch and NXP are each taking a 10 percent stake in the fab.

A recent report from Taiwan TV News has revealed that TSMC's overseas expansion plans will only contribute around 10% of the company's total silicon production capacity. TSMC's overseas expansion strategy has been a topic of significant interest in the tech industry as the company seeks to diversify its manufacturing capabilities beyond its home base in Taiwan. The company has announced plans to build new fabrication plants in the United States, Japan, and potentially other regions in an effort to mitigate supply chain risks and better serve its global customer base. However, according to the report, these overseas facilities will only account for a small fraction of 10% of TSMC's overall production capacity.

The majority of the company's manufacturing will continue to be centered in Taiwan, where it maintains its most advanced and high-volume fabs. There are also significant challenges and investments required to establish new semiconductor manufacturing facilities overseas. Building a state-of-the-art fab can cost billions of dollars and take several years to complete, making it a complex and capital-intensive undertaking. Despite the relatively small contribution of its overseas facilities, TSMC's global expansion is still seen as a crucial step in diversifying its supply chain and mitigating geopolitical risks. The company's ability to maintain its technological leadership and meet the growing demand for advanced chips will be crucial in the years to come.

Samsung Electronics is delaying construction at its planned new chip factory in Taylor, Texas. The company is considering upgrading the factory to produce more advanced 2 nm chips instead of the originally planned 4 nm chips. Samsung will make a final decision on this in Q3 2024. In April, the US government provided $6.4 billion to support Samsung's $40 billion investment in Texas chip facilities, including the Taylor factory. However, reports now suggest Samsung may skip 4 nm production at Taylor altogether.

The Taylor factory was expected to open by 2026, but equipment orders have been delayed while Samsung re-evaluates the plans. This upgrade consideration comes after Samsung recently appointed a new CEO for its semiconductor business (Device Solutions Division) to focus on new growth opportunities. While Samsung's memory chip profits surged in 2024, its previous 3 nm chip was not very successful. By going straight to 2 nm in Taylor, Samsung likely aims to leapfrog competitors in advanced chip manufacturing (TSMC, and Intel plan to produce 2 nm-class chips in the US by the end of this decade).

On June 5th, Vanguard and NXP announced plans to jointly establish VisionPower Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (VSMC) in Singapore to build a 12-inch wafer plant. TrendForce posits that this move reflects the trend of global supply chains shifting "Out of China, Out of Taiwan"(OOC/OOT), with Taiwanese companies accelerating their overseas expansion to improve regional capacity flexibility and competitiveness.

TrendForce noted that the semiconductor supply chain has been diversifying over the past two years to mitigate geopolitical and pandemic-related risks, forming two major segments: China's domestic supply chain and a non-China supply chain. Recent US tariff increases have accelerated this shift, leading to increased orders from American customers.

Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) and Apollo (NYSE: APO) today announced a definitive agreement under which Apollo-managed funds and affiliates will lead an investment of $11 billion to acquire from Intel a 49% equity interest in a joint venture entity related to Intel's Fab 34. The transaction represents Intel's second Semiconductor Co-Investment Program (SCIP) arrangement. SCIP is an element of Intel's Smart Capital strategy, a funding approach designed to create financial flexibility to accelerate the company's strategy, including investing in its global manufacturing operations, while maintaining a strong balance sheet.

Located in Leixlip, Ireland, Fab 34 is Intel's leading-edge high-volume manufacturing (HVM) facility designed for wafers using the Intel 4 and Intel 3 process technologies. To date, Intel has invested $18.4 billion in Fab 34. This transaction allows Intel to unlock and redeploy to other parts of its business a portion of this investment while continuing the build-out of Fab 34. As part of its transformation strategy, Intel has committed billions of dollars of investments to regaining process leadership and building out leading-edge wafer fabrication and advanced packaging capacity globally.

According to the report from Volksstimme.de, Intel has delayed its Magdeburg fab construction until 2025 due to difficulties in acquiring suitable land. The company had initially planned to begin construction in 2024, but the process has been slowed significantly due to the availability of suitable land. The Magdeburg plant is a significant investment for Intel, with the company planning to invest around €30 billion in the facility. The plant is expected to create thousands of jobs and play a crucial role in the company's European expansion plans. However, the delay in construction is likely to impact these plans and may result in a longer timeline for the plant's completion.

The delay is attributed to the difficulty in finding suitable land for the plant. Intel's original plan of producing a factory on the land concluded that there was humus-rich black soil up to 40 cm in the ground, which would get removed for usage by agricultural fields in Germany. However, now the top layer of black soil, which needs to be excavated, is measured up to 90 cm in depth, which doesn't allow fab construction to start and requires the removal of the soil in order to satisfy the safety regulations. This useful soil has to be extracted first before being "contaminated" with concrete and other types of foundation soils like gravel. The state of Saxony-Anhalt postponed the construction until the required soil was removed and regulations were met. This will supposedly happen by the end of 2024, and construction will start in 2025.

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation ("Toshiba") today held a ceremony to mark the completion of a new 300-millimeter wafer fabrication facility for power semiconductors and an office building at Kaga Toshiba Electronics Corporation in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, one of Toshiba's key group companies. The completion of construction is a major milestone for Phase 1 of Toshiba's multi-year investment program. Toshiba will now proceed with equipment installation, toward starting mass production in the second half of fiscal year 2024. Once Phase 1 reaches full-scale operation, Toshiba's production capacity for power semiconductors, mainly MOSFETs and IGBTs, will be 2.5 times that of fiscal 2021, when the investment plan was made. Decisions on the construction and start of operation of Phase 2 will reflect market trends.

The new manufacturing building follows and will make a major contribution to Toshiba's Business Continuity Plan (BCP): it has a seismic isolation structure that absorbs earthquake shock and redundant power sources. Energy from renewable source and solar panels on the roof of the building (onsite PPA model) will allow the facility to meet 100% of its power requirement with renewable energy.

At 07:58 local time, Taiwan was rocked by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake on the east coast which was felt nationwide and as far as to the southeastern parts of China and southern Japan. It caused some major damage in the east coast city of Hualien where the epicentre of the quake was located, as well as surrounding areas. The earthquake reportedly left nine people dead and over 900 people injured islandwide. TSMC, UMC, PSMC and Innolux all halted some of their production lines in the Hsinchu Science Park on the west coast of the island, although this is said to have been as a preventive step, rather than caused by actual damage from the earthquake.

All the above-mentioned companies also evacuated their staff from their factories due to the intensity of the quake, as it reached a magnitude of around four or five almost island wide. The semiconductor manufacturers are all inspecting their fabs now to make sure none of the equipment was damaged by the earthquake. Innolux also has a factory in the southern city of Kaohsiung and has reported that it has suspended production in Hsinchu, but that production in Kaohsiung wasn't affected. Local media in Taiwan hasn't made any mention of the likes of Micron or other chip manufacturers, but it's likely that the situation is similar, since all of these companies are located in the same areas on the island. Aftershocks have continued throughout the day and there's a risk for further big earthquakes to follow in the coming days.Images courtesy of the Taiwan Central Weather Administration (CWA).

Update 15:11 UTC: Updated with an official statement from Micron below.

According to a Bloomberg report, Intel is seeking to raise at least $2 billion in equity funding from investors for expanding its fabrication facility in Leixlip, Ireland, known as Fab 34. The chipmaker has hired an advisor to find potential investors interested in providing capital for the project. Fab 34 is currently Intel's only chip plant in Europe that uses cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. It produces processors on the Intel 4 process node, including compute tiles for Meteor Lake client CPUs and expected future Xeon data center chips. While $2 billion alone cannot finance the construction of an entirely new fab today, it can support meaningful expansion or upgrades of existing capacity. Intel likely aims to grow Fab 34's output and/or transition it to more advanced 3 nm-class technologies like Intel 3, Intel 20A, or Intel 18A.

Expanding production aligns with Intel's needs for its own products and its Intel Foundry Services business, providing contract manufacturing. Intel previously secured a $15 billion investment from Brookfield Infrastructure for its Arizona fabs in exchange for a 49% stake, demonstrating the company's willingness to partner to raise capital for manufacturing projects. The Brookfield deal also set a precedent of using outside financing to supplement Intel's own spending budget. It provided $15 billion in effectively free cash flow Intel can redirect to other priorities like new fabs without increasing debt. Intel's latest fundraising efforts for the Ireland site follow a similar equity investment model that leverages outside capital to support its manufacturing expansion plans. Acquiring High-NA EUV machinery for manufacturing is costly, as these machines can reach up to $380 million alone.

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.

Ansys has collaborated with TSMC and Microsoft to validate a joint solution for analyzing mechanical stresses in multi-die 3D-IC systems manufactured with TSMC's 3DFabric advanced packaging technologies. This collaborative solution gives customers added confidence to address novel multiphysics requirements that improve the functional reliability of advanced designs using TSMC's 3DFabric, a comprehensive family of 3D silicon stacking and advanced packaging technologies.

Ansys Mechanical is the industry-leading finite element analysis software used to simulate mechanical stresses caused by thermal gradients in 3D-ICs. The solution flow has been proven to run efficiently on Microsoft Azure, helping to ensure fast turn-around times with today's very large and complex 2.5D/3D-IC systems.

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.

TrendForce reports that from 2023 to 2027, the global ratio of mature (>28 nm) to advanced (<16 nm) processes is projected to hover around 7:3. Propelled by policies and incentives promoting local production and domestic IC development, China's mature process capacity is anticipated to grow from 29% this year to 33% by 2027. Leading the charge are giants like SMIC, HuaHong Group, and Nexchip, while Taiwan's share is estimated to consolidate from 49% down to 42%.

Expansion predominantly targets specialty processes such as Driver ICs, CIS/ISPs, and Power Discretes, with second and third-tier Taiwanese manufacturers at the forefront
Within the Driver IC sector, the spotlight is on high voltage (HV) specialty processes. As companies aggressively pursue the 40/28 nm HV process, UMC currently dominates, trailed by GlobalFoundries. Yet, SMIC's 28HV and Nexchip's 40HV are gearing up for mass production in 4Q23 and 1H24, respectively—narrowing their technological gap with other foundries. Notably, competitors with similar process capabilities and capacities, such as PSMC, and those without twelve-inch factories like Vanguard and DBHitek, are poised to face challenges head-on in the short term. This trend may also have long-term implications for UMC and GlobalFoundries.

Marking a milestone in Intel's ongoing manufacturing expansion in Arizona, the company today announced that the initial portion of the cleanroom is "weather tight" and the "blow down" phase has begun at the company's two new leading-edge chip factories on its Ocotillo campus in Chandler, Arizona. This milestone underscores Intel's dedication to advancing its presence in the state and fostering technological innovation.

"Our commitment to Arizona runs deep, and as we expand our operations, we remain dedicated to addressing the growing demand for semiconductors and helping the United States regain its leadership position in this vital industry. This milestone represents the result of great teamwork, proficient teams and exceptional craftsmanship of the tradespeople, and it's thanks to their hard work that we've made such significant progress on our site while keeping our culture of caring and the safety of all as our top priority." -Dan Doron, Intel vice president and general manager of Fab Construction Enterprise

Zero ASIC, a semiconductor startup, came out of stealth today to announce early access to its one-of-a-kind ChipMaker platform, demonstrating a number of world firsts:

• 3D chiplet composability enabling billions of new silicon products
• Fully automated no-code chiplet-based chip design
• Zero install interactive RTL-based chip emulation
• Roadmap to 100X reduction in chip development costs

"Custom Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) offer 10-100X cost and energy advantage over commercial off the shelf (COTS) devices, but the enormous development cost makes ASICs non-viable for most applications," said Andreas Olofsson, CEO and founder of Zero ASIC. "To build the next wave of world changing silicon devices, we need to reduce the barrier to ASICs by orders of magnitude. Our mission at Zero ASIC is to make ordering an ASIC as easy as ordering catalog parts from an electronics distributor."

Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's largest semiconductor companies and the only U.S.-based manufacturer of memory, will today celebrate the start of construction on the nation's first new memory manufacturing fab in 20 years. Company executives will join Idaho Governor Brad Little, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean, other community partners and team members to mark the milestone with a ceremonial concrete pour at Micron's Boise headquarters on the 45th anniversary of the company's founding.

Just over a year ago, Micron announced its plans to invest approximately $15 billion through the end of the decade to construct a new fab for leading-edge memory manufacturing, to be co-located with the company's R&D epicenter in its hometown of Boise. Through the lifespan of the project, Micron will directly infuse $15.3 billion into the Idaho economy and directly spend $13.0 billion with Idaho businesses. The project will create over 17,000 new Idaho jobs, including 2,000 Micron direct jobs, furthering the need for a diverse, highly skilled workforce.

TrendForce research indicates that in 1H23, the utilization rate of 8-inch production capacity primarily benefited from sporadic inventory restocking orders for Driver ICs in the second quarter. Additionally, wafer foundries initiated pricing strategies to encourage clients into early orders, offering solid backup. However, in 2H23, persistent macroeconomic and inventory challenges led to the evaporation of an anticipated demand surge.

Meanwhile, stockpiles in automotive and industrial control segments grew after meeting initial shortages, tempering demand. Under fierce price competition from PMIC leader Texas Instruments (TI), inventory reductions for Fabless and other IDMs were drastically inhibited. With IDMs ushering in output from their new plants and pulling back outsourced orders, this compounded reductions to wafer foundries. This dynamic saw 8-inch production capacity utilization dipping to 50-60% in the second half of the year. Both Tier 1 and Tier 2/3 8-inch wafer foundries saw a more lackluster capacity utilization performance compared to the first half of the year.