The Tech week that was... Aug 26~30

Welcome to the latest edition of my weekly newsletter bringing you all the global key semiconductor and technology news from last week in one easy read

According to reports in Bloomberg,  Intel is considering options with it’s bankers to potentially split off it’s foundry business and considering scrapping plans for new factories to stem losses.  The chipmaker is reported to in talks with investment bankers over potential options and has met with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to discuss a path forward

HP is the latest company to beneficiary from CHIPS Act funding.  This week the US Department of Commerce announced plans to award US$50 million in direct funding to HP Inc to support the expansion and modernization of an existing company facility in Oregon that would boost key semiconductor technologies.  The proposed funding would support the expansion and modernization of HP’s existing facility in Corvallis, Oregon, which is part of the company’s “lab-to-fab” ecosystem in the region that spans from research and development activities to commercial manufacturing operations.

AUO has agreed to sell it’s manufacturing facility and land in Tainan for US$232million to Micron, as AUO looks to divest away from flat panel manufacturing.  In addition AUO plans to sell it’s facility in Taichung for US$21million to Micron.  Micron says it plans to convert the Tainan facility into a wafer testing facility  to support its DRAM production in Taichung and Taoyuan.

GF and Finwave Semiconductor have announced a partnership to focus on optimizing and scaling Finwave’s eGaN on Si enhancement-mode (E-mode) MISHEMT technology to volume production at GF’s 200mm semiconductor manufacturing facility in Burlington, Vermont.  Finwave is a leading innovator in GaN technology for wireless communications.

Chinese foundry SMIC plans to expand capacity with 4 new 12” wafer fabs in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Shenzhen to support demand from Chinese customers. These new fabs are expected to successively come online after 2025, adding a combined monthly capacity of 340,000 wafers, with 28nm as the most critical node to support local demand. The new fabs will be managed by SMIC's subsidiaries—Semiconductor Manufacturing Beijing Corp. (SMBC), Semiconductor Manufacturing Oriental Corp. (SMOC), Semiconductor Manufacturing Tianjin-Xiqing Corp. (SMTC), and SMIC Shenzhen.

Chinese #2 foundry, Hua Hong is also reported in Chinese media to be accelerating adding additional capacity as it’s current Fab’s are running near 100% utilization .  Hua Hong is pulling ahead the production ramp of it’s phase 2 12’ Fab in Wuxi.  the initial plan was to move the first batch of lithography equipment into Hua Hong's phase two 12-inch fab by the end of August. However, the equipment installation was completed ahead of schedule. The production line is expected to be ready for trial production by the end of 2024, with mass production and capacity release anticipated in the first quarter of 2025.

 Nvidia reported revenue of US$30billion for Q2, up 122% YoY and up 15% from Q1 as the company continues to benefit from the AI boom.  For Q3 they forecast revenue of US$32.5billion.  The company confirmed that it expects several billion in revenue from its next generation Blackwell product which will start to ramp in Q4.  Nvidia said it had to change the design to improved manufacturing yield at TSMC but this is now complete.

 TSMC is reported to be likely to generate around US$31billion in total revenue from it’s 3nm & 5nm advanced nodes in the first 3 quarters of this year , around half of TSMC’s total revenue, as the foundry continues to benefit from it’s technology lead from Samsung and Intel.  3nm node technology with a wafer price of around $20,000/wfr is expected to account for about half of the revenue. 

 In market research news…

 Worldwide smartphone shipments are forecast to grow 5.8% year over year in 2024 to 1.23 billion units, according to the latest report from International Data Corporation (IDC).  The recovery is driven by 7.1% Android growth, helped particularly by growth affordable Android smartphones in emerging markets and artificial intelligence features..  The smartphones market saw 12% growth in Q1 followed by 9% growth in Q2.

According to data released by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) this week, Japan’s semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales continue to soar, with July sales up by about 20%, marking four consecutive months of double-digit growth. Reportedly, the sales of Japan-made chip equipment in July 2024 (based on a 3-month average basis, including exports) reached US$2.4billion, a significant 23.6% Yoy increase

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