The demand for AI accelerators is going strong, and the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, TSMC, has just confirmed that with its July 2024 revenue report. According to its latest July 2024 data, TSMC has reported a consolidated revenue of NT$256.95 billion, or about $7.94 billion at the time of writing. This represents a massive 23.6% jump from June 2024 and a 44.7% from July 2023, when revenue came in at NT$207.869 billion and NT$177.616 billion, respectively. For revenue throughout the year, measured from January to July, TSMC booked NT$1.523 trillion, or about $47 billion at the current rate. For this 7-month period, TSMC's revenue has increased by 30.5% Year-on-Year (YoY), showing great demand and an uptick in the company's production capabilities.

Of course, this is possible thanks to the massive demand driving AI chip sales from various startups and established giants like NVIDIA and AMD. Another vital customer for TSMC is Apple, which produces smartphone and Mac chips at Taiwanese facilities. The solid financial results from TSMC suggest that other fabless chip designers in its ecosystem may also experience positive outcomes in their earnings. It's worth noting that the semiconductor supply chain operates on a long-term planning basis, with arrangements made months in advance. As such, we can expect advanced silicon solutions to reach new customers in the coming months, further driving growth in the sector.

Samsung Electronics today reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2024. The Company posted KRW 74.07 trillion in consolidated revenue and operating profit of KRW 10.44 trillion as favorable memory market conditions drove higher average sales price (ASP), while robust sales of OLED panels also contributed to the results.

Memory Market Continues To Recover; Solid Second Half Outlook Centered on Server Demand
The DS Division posted KRW 28.56 trillion in consolidated revenue and KRW 6.45 trillion in operating profit for the second quarter. Driven by strong demand for HBM as well as conventional DRAM and server SSDs, the memory market as a whole continued its recovery. This increased demand is a result of the continued AI investments by cloud service providers and growing demand for AI from businesses for their on-premise servers.

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) today announced preliminary financial results for its first quarter ended June 30, 2024. "EA delivered a strong start to FY25, beating net bookings guidance as we continue to execute across our business," said Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA. "Our focus on delivering bigger, bolder, and more connected experiences for our players has never been sharper and is illustrated by the record-breaking launch of EA SPORTS College Football 25 as we head into another historic Q2 sports season at EA."

"Strong execution, live events and continued player engagement across our experiences, delivered Q1 results above expectations," said Stuart Canfield, CFO of EA. "Looking ahead, the remarkable success of our launch week for College Football, combined with the upcoming launches for EA SPORTS Madden NFL, EA SPORTS FC and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, is building momentum for FY25 and beyond. We are well positioned to deliver our multi-year financial objectives."

Seagate Technology Holdings plc, a leading innovator of mass-capacity data storage, today reported financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year ended June 28, 2024.

"Seagate delivered robust financial performance for the June quarter amid an improving cloud demand environment, capping off a fiscal year of strong execution against our financial goals. Q4 revenue grew 18% year-over-year, non-GAAP gross margin expanded to nearly 31%, and non-GAAP EPS exceeded the high end of our guidance range," said Dave Mosley, Seagate's chief executive officer. "In fiscal 2025, we are remaining focused on driving profitability and maintaining supply discipline while continuing to execute our mass capacity product roadmap, anchored by our HAMR technology. Our data storage solutions offer our cloud and enterprise customers with cost, power and space advantages that support their investments in critical AI and other data-driven initiatives," Mosley concluded.

TrendForce's latest report on the memory industry reveals that DRAM and NAND Flash revenues are expected to see significant increases of 75% and 77%, respectively, in 2024, driven by increased bit demand, an improved supply-demand structure, and the rise of high-value products like HBM.

Furthermore, industry revenues are projected to continue growing in 2025, with DRAM expected to increase by 51% and NAND Flash by 29%, reaching record highs. This growth is anticipated to revive capital expenditures and boost demand for upstream raw materials, although it will also increase cost pressure for memory buyers.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) today announced results for its third quarter of fiscal 2024, which ended May 30, 2024.

Fiscal Q3 2024 highlights

• Revenue of $6.81 billion versus $5.82 billion for the prior quarter and $3.75 billion for the same period last year
• GAAP net income of $332 million, or $0.30 per diluted share
• Non-GAAP net income of $702 million, or $0.62 per diluted share
• Operating cash flow of $2.48 billion versus $1.22 billion for the prior quarter and $24 million for the same period last year

"Robust AI demand and strong execution enabled Micron to drive 17% sequential revenue growth, exceeding our guidance range in fiscal Q3," said Sanjay Mehrotra, President and CEO of Micron Technology. "We are gaining share in high-margin products like High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), and our data center SSD revenue hit a record high, demonstrating the strength of our AI product portfolio across DRAM and NAND. We are excited about the expanding AI-driven opportunities ahead, and are well positioned to deliver a substantial revenue record in fiscal 2025."

Liquid cooling solutions OEM Asetek saw its stock price drop by over 40% on Wednesday (12th June 2024), as investors responded to the company's announcement of suspending its profitability and revenue guidance for 2024. The release offered an explanation behind this decision. "Based on these new forecasts, the expected increase in demand in the second half of 2024 of the company's liquid cooling products may not materialize. This will result in a significant decline in Group revenue and profitability for 2024 compared to the revenue and profitability guidance issued on March 8, 2024."

The company also stated that it expects the negative trend in the company's revenue may continue into 2025. "The management team and board of directors of Asetek will consider the long- and short-term consequences of the weakened and uncertain market situation. The assessment today is that the negative trend in revenue may continue into 2025. Based on this, a plan containing initiatives to navigate the short and long-term challenges will be developed and then communicated as soon as possible," it said. Asetek is a pioneer in the all-in-one, closed-loop liquid CPU cooler that's popular in the gaming PC segment, but the company should also be in a position to lead the server CPU cooling market given the upward trend in processor cooling needs; but the company is underperforming. This is probably also due to intense competition in the space.

Acer Inc. announced its consolidated revenues for May at NT$21.13 billion with 18.4% growth month-on-month and 16.8% growth year-on-year (YoY), achieving 11 consecutive months of YoY growth. Consolidated revenues for year-to-May reached NT$97.81 billion with 15.9% growth YoY, while revenues from the personal computers [1] business grew 26.0% YoY in May and 22.6% YoY year-to-May.

Acer's strategy to expand multiple business engines continued to gain momentum. Total revenues from businesses other than computers and displays contributed 26.5% of the group's total revenues in May and 29.0% year-to-May.

TrendForce reports that a reduction in supplier production has led to unmet demand for high-capacity orders since 4Q23. Combined with procurement strategies aimed at building low-cost inventory, this has driven orders and significantly boosted enterprise SSD revenue, which reached US$3.758 billion in 1Q24—a staggering 62.9% QoQ increase.

TrendForce further highlights that demand for high-capacity, driven by AI servers, has surged. North American clients increasingly adopt high-capacity QLC SSDs to replace HDDs, leading to over 20% growth in Q2 enterprise SSD bit procurement. This has also driven up Q2 enterprise SSD contract prices by more than 20%, with revenue expected to grow by another 20%.

TrendForce reports that adoption of enterprise SSDs by AI servers began in February, which subsequently led to large orders. Additionally, PC and smartphone customers have been increasing their inventory levels to manage rising prices. This trend drove up NAND Flash prices and shipment levels in 1Q24 and boosted quarterly revenue by 28.1% to US$14.71 billion.

There were significant changes in market rankings this quarter, with Micron overtaking Western Digital to claim the fourth spot. Micron benefited from slightly lower prices and shipments than its competitors in 4Q23, resulting in a 51.2% QoQ revenue growth to $1.72 billion in 1Q24—the highest among its peers.

Lenovo Group today announced Q4 and full-year results for fiscal year 2023/24. After resuming growth in Q3, the Group reported year-on-year revenue growth across all business groups in Q4, with Group revenue increasing nearly 10% year-on-year to US$13.8 billion, net income doubling year-on-year to US$248 million, and non-PC revenue mix reaching a historic high of 45%. The Group's Q4 and overall 2nd half performance demonstrates how Lenovo has navigated the past year's industry downturn, captured the tremendous growth opportunities presented by AI, and accelerated momentum across the business. Revenue for the full fiscal year was US$56.9 billion, and net income was US$1 billion. From the second half of the fiscal year, Lenovo achieved year-on-year revenue growth of 6% and net margin recovered from a first half year-on-year decline to flat in the second half.

The Group is leading in an era of unprecedented AI opportunities with its pocket-to-cloud portfolio, strong ecosystem and partnerships, and full-stack AI capabilities. Since announcing its AI strategy in October 2023 at its annual Tech World event, Lenovo has launched its first wave of AI PCs as well as AI capabilities covering other smart devices, smart infrastructure, and smart solutions and services. The Group expects the AI PC - which is defined as equipped with a personal AI agent based on natural interactions, heterogeneous computing, personal knowledge base, connected to an open AI application ecosystem, and with privacy and security protection - to grow from its current premium position to mainstream over the next three years, driving a new refresh cycle for the industry. Hybrid AI is also driving greater demand for AI infrastructure and customers are increasingly asking for customized AI solutions and services, particularly consulting, design, deployment and maintenance of AI.

AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) today announced revenue for the first quarter of 2024 of $5.5 billion, gross margin of 47%, operating income of $36 million, net income of $123 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.07. On a non-GAAP basis, gross margin was 52%, operating income was $1.1 billion, net income was $1.0 billion and diluted earnings per share was $0.62.

"We delivered strong first quarter results with our Data Center and Client segments each growing more than 80% year-over-year driven by the ramp of MI300 AI accelerator shipments and the adoption of our Ryzen and EPYC processors," said AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. "This is an incredibly exciting time for the industry as widespread deployment of AI is driving demand for significantly more compute across a broad range of markets. We are executing very well as we ramp our data center business and enable AI capabilities across our product portfolio."

Micron Technology, Inc. today announced results for its second quarter of fiscal 2024, which ended February 29, 2024.

Fiscal Q2 2024 highlights

• Revenue of $5.82 billion versus $4.73 billion for the prior quarter and $3.69 billion for the same period last year
• GAAP net income of $793 million, or $0.71 per diluted share
• Non-GAAP net income of $476 million, or $0.42 per diluted share
• Operating cash flow of $1.22 billion versus $1.40 billion for the prior quarter and $343 million for the same period last year

"Micron delivered fiscal Q2 results with revenue, gross margin and EPS well above the high-end of our guidance range - a testament to our team's excellent execution on pricing, products and operations," said Sanjay Mehrotra, President and CEO of Micron Technology. "Our preeminent product portfolio positions us well to deliver a strong fiscal second half of 2024. We believe Micron is one of the biggest beneficiaries in the semiconductor industry of the multi-year opportunity enabled by AI."

The latest TrendForce report reveals a notable 7.9% jump in 4Q23 revenue for the world's top ten semiconductor foundries, reaching $30.49 billion. This growth is primarily driven by sustained demand for smartphone components, such as mid and low-end smartphone APs and peripheral PMICs. The launch season for Apple's latest devices also significantly contributed, fueling shipments for the A17 chipset and associated peripheral ICs, including OLED DDIs, CIS, and PMICs. TSMC's premium 3 nm process notably enhanced its revenue contribution, pushing its global market share past the 60% threshold this quarter.

TrendForce remarks that 2023 was a challenging year for foundries, marked by high inventory levels across the supply chain, a weak global economy, and a slow recovery in the Chinese market. These factors led to a downward cycle in the industry, with the top ten foundries experiencing a 13.6% annual drop as revenue reached just $111.54 billion. Nevertheless, 2024 promises a brighter outlook, with AI-driven demand expected to boost annual revenue by 12% to $125.24 billion. TSMC, benefiting from steady advanced process orders, is poised to far exceed the industry average in growth.

Asetek reported fourth-quarter revenue of $16.6 million, an increase of 75% from the same period of 2022. Revenue for the year amounted to $76.3 million, an increase of 51% from 2022. The growth in both periods mainly reflects increased shipments of liquid cooling products. Gross margin was 47% in the fourth quarter and 45% for 2023, compared with 41% in each of the same periods of 2022. The gross margin increase reflects a richer product mix, reduced costs and favorable exchange rates for both periods.

"2023 represented a material rebound for our Liquid Cooling business and expansion of the SimSports product program to wide acclaim from the sim racing community. I'm proud of delivering our second-best year ever measured by revenue and profit, reflecting strong demand for our products," said André Sloth Eriksen the CEO of Asetek. "We remain confident of the long-term potential in our markets, but at the same time we continue to experience low near-term revenue visibility. However, we are adapting and have aligned our strategic priorities accordingly, and our focus in 2024 is to execute on these."

TrendForce reports a substantial 24.5% QoQ increase in NAND Flash industry revenue, hitting US$11.49 billion in 4Q23. This surge is attributed to a stabilization in end-demand spurred by year-end promotions, along with an expansion in component market orders driven by price chasing, leading to robust bit shipments compared to the same period last year. Additionally, the corporate sector's continued positive outlook for 2024 demand—compared to 2023—and strategic stockpiling have further fueled this growth.

Looking ahead to 1Q24, despite it traditionally being an off-season, the NAND Flash industry is expected to see a continued increase in revenue by another 20%. This anticipation is underpinned by significant improvements in supply chain inventory levels and ongoing price rises, with clients ramping up their orders to sidestep potential supply shortages and escalating costs. The ongoing expansion of order sizes is expected to drive NAND Flash contract prices up by an average of 25%.

Lenovo Group Limited, together with its subsidiaries ("the Group"), today announced third quarter results reporting Group revenue increasing 3% year-on-year to US$15.7 billion, and Group profitability improving quarter-to-quarter for the second time in a row. Net income was US$357 million on a non-Hong Kong Financial Reporting Standards basis, with net income margin up 0.4% quarter-to-quarter to 2.3%. The Group's diversified growth engines continued to deliver strong performance, with revenue from non-PC businesses accounting for 42% of Group revenue, up 1.3 points year-on-year.

The consistent quarter-to-quarter improvements over past quarters have been driven by the resilience of the Group's core businesses and the wider effectiveness of its ongoing transformation. The SSG business hit an important milestone of passing the US$2 billion revenue threshold, achieved a record high operating profit with operating margin of over 20% and grew revenue from managed services and project and solution services year-on-year for 11 straight quarters. The ISG business delivered quarter-to-quarter revenue growth and reached a record high US$1 billion revenue for its storage, software, and services businesses. Overall, the IDG business resumed revenue growth, outperformed the market and achieved year-on-year shipment growth for PCs, and maintained its industry-leading profitability.

TSMC (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) today announced consolidated revenue of NT$625.53 billion, net income of NT$238.71 billion, and diluted earnings per share of NT$9.21 (US$1.44 per ADR unit) for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2023.

Year-over-year, fourth quarter revenue was essentially flat while net income and diluted EPS both decreased 19.3%. Compared to third quarter 2023, fourth quarter results represented a 14.4% increase in revenue and a 13.1% increase in net income. All figures were prepared in accordance with TIFRS on a consolidated basis. In US dollars, fourth quarter revenue was $19.62 billion, which decreased 1.5% year-over-year but increased 13.6% from the previous quarter.

Worldwide semiconductor revenue in 2023 totaled $533 billion, a decrease of 11.1% from 2022, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc.

"While the cyclicality in the semiconductor industry was present again in 2023, the market suffered a difficult year with memory revenue recording one of its worst declines in history," said Alan Priestley, VP Analyst at Gartner. "The underperforming market also negatively impacted several semiconductor vendors. Only 9 of the top 25 semiconductor vendors posted revenue growth in 2023, with 10 experiencing double-digit declines."

The combined semiconductor revenue of the top 25 semiconductor vendors declined 14.1% in 2023, accounting for 74.4% of the market, down from 77.2% in 2022.

Synopsys (NASDAQ: SNPS) and Ansys (NASDAQ: ANSS) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Synopsys will acquire Ansys. Under the terms of the agreement, Ansys shareholders will receive $197.00 in cash and 0.3450 shares of Synopsys common stock for each Ansys share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $35 billion based on the closing price of Synopsys common stock on December 21, 2023. Bringing together Synopsys' pioneering semiconductor electronic design automation (EDA) with Ansys' broad simulation and analysis portfolio will create a leader in silicon to systems design solutions.

"The megatrends of AI, silicon proliferation and software-defined systems are requiring more compute performance and efficiency in the face of growing, systemic complexity. Bringing together Synopsys' industry-leading EDA solutions with Ansys' world-class simulation and analysis capabilities will enable us to deliver a holistic, powerful and seamlessly integrated silicon to systems approach to innovation to help maximize the capabilities of technology R&D teams across a broad range of industries," said Sassine Ghazi, President and CEO of Synopsys. "This is the logical next step for our successful, seven-year partnership with Ansys and I look forward to working closely with Ajei and the talented Ansys team to realize the benefits of this combination for our customers, shareholders and employees."

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.

TrendForce reports a pivotal shift in the NAND Flash market for 3Q23, primarily driven by Samsung's strategic decision to reduce production. Initially, the market was clouded by uncertainty regarding end-user demand and fears of a subdued peak season, prompting buyers to adopt a conservative approach with low inventory and slow procurement. However, as market leaders like Samsung implemented substantial production cuts, buyers' attitudes shifted toward a more aggressive procurement strategy in anticipation of a market supply decrease. This led to a stabilization and even an uptick in NAND Flash contract prices by quarter-end, driving a 3% QoQ increase in bit shipments and culminating in a total revenue of US$9.229 billion, marking an approximate 2.9% increase.

The story unfolds with Kioxia and Micron—the only two to witness a dip in revenue rankings this quarter—while Samsung maintained its robust performance. Despite sluggish demand in the server sector, Samsung's fortunes rebounded thanks to a boost in consumer electronics, especially with high-capacity products in PCs and smartphones. Samsung emerged from a trough in Q3, with strategic inventory replenishments fueling further strategic stocking, and a shift in operational focus toward maximizing profit. This led to a minor 1-3% decrease in shipped bits, but a 1-3% increase in ASP, stabilizing Q3 NAND Flash revenue at US$2.9 billion.

TrendForce investigations reveal a significant leap in the DRAM industry for 3Q23, with total revenues soaring to US$13.48 billion—marking 18% QoQ growth. This surge is attributed to a gradual resurgence in demand, prompting buyers to re-energize their procurement activities. Looking ahead to Q4, while suppliers are firmly set on price hikes, with DRAM contract prices expected to rise by approximately 13-18%, demand recovery will not be as robust as in previous peak seasons. Overall, while there is demand for stockpiling, procurement for the server sector remains tentative due to high inventory levels, suggesting limited growth in DRAM industry shipments for Q4.

Three major manufacturers witnessed Q3 revenue growth. Samsung's revenue increased by about 15.9% to US$5.25 billion thanks to stable demand for high-capacity products fueled by AI advancements and the rollout of its 1alpha nm DDR5. SK hynix showcased the most notable growth among manufacturers with a 34.4% increase, reaching about US$4.626 billion and significantly narrowing its market share gap with Samsung to less than 5%. Micron's revenue rose by approximately 4.2% to US$3.075 billion—despite a slight drop in ASP—supported by an upswing in demand and shipment volumes.

Samsung Electronics today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. Total consolidated revenue was KRW 67.40 trillion, a 12% increase from the previous quarter, mainly due to new smartphone releases and higher sales of premium display products. Operating profit rose sequentially to KRW 2.43 trillion based on strong sales of flagship models in mobile and strong demand for displays, as losses at the Device Solutions (DS) Division narrowed.

The Memory Business reduced losses sequentially as sales of high valued-added products and average selling prices somewhat increased. Earnings in system semiconductors were impacted by a delay in demand recovery for major applications, but the Foundry Business posted a new quarterly high for new backlog from design wins. The mobile panel business reported a significant increase in earnings on the back of new flagship model releases by major customers, while the large panel business narrowed losses in the quarter. The Device eXperience (DX) Division achieved solid results due to robust sales of premium smartphones and TVs. Revenue at the Networks Business declined in major overseas markets as mobile operators scaled back investments.

TrendForce reports that consumer appetite for electronic products took a hit from high inflation, with global DRAM module sales in 2022 reaching US$17.3 billion—a 4.6% YoY decline. Revenue performance varied significantly among module makers due to the different domains they supply.

TrendForce's data indicated that the top five memory suppliers in 2022 accounted for 90% of total sales, with the top ten collectively capturing 96% of global market revenue. Kingston maintained its dominant market share of 78%. Even with a slight revenue dip, it held steadfast to its position as the global leader. Despite poor end-market demand, Kingston's robust brand scale, along with its comprehensive product supply chain, limited its revenue decline to a modest 5.3%, keeping it firmly at the top of market share rankings.