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☆ Factbox: What's on the agenda at the South Korea-US summit?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Ju-Min Park | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Yoon has been pushing to increase South Korea's say in operating "extended deterrence" while calls are growing in South Korea for it to develop its own nuclear weapons. At the summit, Biden will pledge "substantial" steps to underscore the U.S. commitment to deter a North Korean nuclear attack, a senior U.S. official said. South Korea's defence ministry said the allies have been exploring ways to support Ukraine but declined to confirm specific discussions. His comments prompted an angry exchange of words between Beijing and Seoul with South Korea summoning the Chinese ambassador. South Korea's comment on Taiwan was "the worst" since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea in 1992, China's state-run Global Times said on Sunday.

☆ Alphabet falls on report Samsung considering Bing as default search engine
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 17 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) shares fell over 4% in premarket trading on Monday after a report that South Korea's Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) was considering replacing Google with Microsoft-owned (MSFT.O) Bing as the default search engine on its devices. Google's reaction to the threat was "panic" as the company earns an estimated $3 billion in annual revenue from the Samsung contract, the report said, citing internal messages. Another $20 billion is tied to a similar Apple (AAPL.O) contract that will be up for renewal this year, the report added. Cordwell added the potential costs tied to making Google Search more competitive than AI-powered Bing could also be a cause of concern. The NYT report said Google was racing to build an all-new AI-powered search engine that would offer a more personalized experience than its current service, which is also set to be upgraded with AI features.

☆ Intel to work with Arm on chip manufacturing compatibility
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 12 (Reuters) - Intel Corp (INTC.O) on Wednesday said its chip contract manufacturing division will work with U.K.-based chip designer Arm Ltd to ensure that mobile phone chips and other products that use Arm's technology can be made in Intel's factories. Intel's turnaround strategy hinges in part on opening up its factories to other chip companies, particularly those in mobile phones. It has said firms such as Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) are planning to use its factories for future chip designs. For its part, Arm, owned by Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) and which plans to go public later this year, is a major supplier of intellectual property to many chip companies, especially in mobile phones. Arm has partnerships with major chip contract manufacturers in place to ensure that its designs will work well on their manufacturing processes.

☆ Japan aims to treble sales of domestically made microchips by 2030
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, April 3 (Reuters) - Japan's industry ministry said on Monday it aimed to treble sales of semiconductors made in Japan to 15 trillion yen ($112.55 billion) by 2030 as Tokyo strives to boost domestic microchip production following global supply chain snarls. Japan sees microchips as strategic products to strengthen its economic security and is providing hefty subsidies to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW) and others to build plants tin o Japan or have them expand existing facilities. The ministry plans to put the sales target in Japan's semiconductor and digital industry strategy, which will be updated by the middle of the year. Japan has seen its share in the global microchip market tumble from 50% in the late 1980s to around 10%, outperformed by nimbler rivals with deep pockets such as South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS). ($1 = 133.2700 yen)Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Editing by Louise HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

REUTERS/Nacho DoceTOKYO/SEOUL, March 31 (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) is considering setting up a chip test line in Japan, five people said, to bolster its advanced packaging business and forge closer ties with Japanese makers of semiconductor equipment and materials. It would be the first such test line in Japan for Samsung, the world's largest maker of memory chips. Companies are racing to develop advanced packaging techniques, which involve placing chips with different functions into a single package, to enhance overall capabilities and limit the added cost of more advanced chips. The test line would involve the so-called back-end process of chipmaking, according to the five people, which refers to a process in which semiconductors are cut and assembled into products. Samsung last year set up an advanced packaging team in South Korea.

☆ China to examine US chipmaker Micron's products for cybersecurity risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 31 (Reuters) - China's cyberspace regulator will conduct a cybersecurity review of products sold in the country by U.S. memory chip manufacturer Micron Technology Inc (MU.O), the regulator said on Friday. It gave no other details, including which Micron products it was reviewing. The Netherlands, which makes advanced lithography equipment critical for the manufacture of advanced chips, made a similar announcement earlier this month. Weak consumer demand has roiled the memory chip market, which is dominated by South Korea's Samsung Electronics (005930.KS). The larger chunk of the company's products flowing into China are being purchased by non-Chinese firms for use in products manufactured in the country, according to analysts.

☆ Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi's revenue and profit slides
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SHANGHAI, March 24 (Reuters) - Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) on Friday reported a record drop in fourth-quarter revenue as the company weathered a slowdown in consumption and disruptions due to China's COVID-19 curbs. Xiaomi's sales in the fourth quarter of 2022 reached 66.05 billion yuan ($9.6 billion), down 22.8% from 85.58 billion yuan a year earlier. Net income fell to 1.46 billion over the period, down 67.3% from 4.473 billion yuan a year earlier. The company's revenue for 2022 was 280.04 billion yuan, a drop of 14.7%, while net income came in at 8.52 billion yuan, down 61.4%. China's smartphone sales endured a record fall in 2022, down 14% to 287 million units, Canalys data shows.

While Xiaomi remained focused on selling mobile phones under 10,000 rupees ($120), Indian consumers were willing to pay up for better looking models with richer features. According to Counterpoint, the market share of the sub-$120 phones in India fell to 26% in 2022 from 41% two years ago. And premium phones - priced above 30,000 ($360) - saw their share double to 11% in the same period. Xiaomi and Samsung both count India as a key growth market, with smartphones their top selling electronic device. And premium phones accounted for only 0%-1% of Xiaomi's total India phone shipments in the last two years, when Samsung's higher-end phones more than doubled their share to 13%, Counterpoint data showed.

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO, March 15 (Reuters) - A chip plant that South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) is building in Taylor, Texas, will cost the world's biggest memory chipmaker over $25 billion, up more than $8 billion from initial forecasts, according to two people familiar with the matter. The increase in cost is primarily due to inflation, the people said, declining to be named because the information was not public. "The higher construction cost is about 80% of the cost increase," one of the sources said. Meanwhile, Intel Corp (INTC.O) announced a $20 billion chip factory in Ohio that it could expand to cost up to $100 billion. Samsung, the world's No.2 contract chip manufacturer, announced its Taylor, Texas, plant in 2021.

"Pre-installed apps can be a weak security point and we want to ensure no foreign nations, including China, are exploiting it. India has ramped up scrutiny of Chinese businesses since a 2020 border clash between the neighbours, banning more than 300 Chinese apps, including TikTok. Currently, most smartphones come with pre-installed apps that cannot be deleted, such as Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi's app store GetApps, Samsung's payment app Samsung Pay mini and iPhone maker Apple's browser Safari. While European Union regulations require allowing removal of pre-installed apps, it does not have a screening mechanism to check for compliance like India is considering. An industry executive said some pre-installed apps like the camera are critical to user experience and the government must make a distinction between these and non-essential ones when imposing screening rules.

☆ Analysis: China's chip sector needs more than state money to dull impact of US restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Josh Horwitz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The government has earmarked $140 billion that could include subsidising the purchase of domestically produced chipmaking equipment, Reuters reported in December, likely benefiting manufacturers such as China's sole semiconductor lithography specialist, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group (SMEE). Just as in the aviation industry, chipmaking equipment manufacturers work closely with clients, offering long-term services including installation, calibration, maintenance and repair of machines that can cost over $100 million each. Another former top staffer at a Chinese chipmaking equipment manufacturer recounted how while working to master the etching procedure for 3D NAND Flash, the company could not perfect a critical element, namely the channel hole, or hole size. The situation could be worsened for Chinese companies should Japan and the Netherlands agree with the United States to also restrict exports of chipmaking equipment to China. "When the sanctions came out, all the American companies followed," an engineer at a Chinese memory chipmaker told Reuters.

☆ Apple, Nvidia in the news: Here's our take on these outsized tech holdings
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Apple (APPL) and Nvidia (NVDA) made headlines Monday, with bullish implications for both Club holdings. For example, Apple's market share of the 18-to-29-year-old cohort in South Korea has increased to 52% from 44% over the past two years, the Journal report noted, citing a Gallup poll. More broadly, the Journal explained, Apple continues to take market share away from South Korea's Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker overall. That's a key reason we've expressed frustration with Qualcomm's slow progress on diversifying its revenue stream away from its heavy reliance on the smartphone market. Nvidia (NVDA) The news: Analysts at Bernstein took a crack at sizing up the market opportunity that generative AI represents, particularly as it relates to Nvidia.

☆ U.S. likely to cap level of S.Korean chips made in China- U.S. official
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SEOUL, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The United States will likely limit the level of advanced semiconductors made by South Korean companies in China, a senior U.S. official said. Estevez who oversees restrictions on tech exports to China made the comments on Thursday during a forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were not immediately available for comment. Earlier, an American official acknowledged the existence of a deal with Japan and the Netherlands for those countries to impose new restrictions on exports of chipmaking tools to China. read moreReporting by Ju-min Park and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Thursday said the government will encourage companies to build at least two advanced domestic computer chip factories employing thousands of union workers, as part of a $52.7 billion dollar initiative. The centers would also include a "robust supplier ecosystem," Raimondo said in a speech in Washington. "America needs to design and produce the world's most advanced chips right here in America," Raimondo said, adding that the United States leads in design but not manufacturing. Raimondo said the department planned to invest $11 billion in semiconductor research and development, including the creation of a public-private partnership she called the National Semiconductor Technology Center. The United States has some chip production, and signs of expansion despite a very tight labor market.

☆ China's biggest chipmaker SMIC posts record 2022 revenue but warns of a tough year ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

China's biggest chipmaker SMIC posted record revenue in 2022, despite ongoing U.S. sanctions, but warned of a more difficult year ahead given a slump in the semiconductor industry. SMIC said on Thursday that 2022 revenue totaled $7.2 billion, up 34% year-on-year while its gross margin stood at a record 38%. However, SMIC said revenue in the first quarter is forecast to decrease by between 10% to 12% versus the December quarter. It's a competitor to the likes of Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung but SMIC's technology is several generations behind. Demand for certain chips that go into consumer products has slumped, such as memory, which has badly impacted SMIC as well as bigger firms like Samsung.

☆ Huawei turns to patents for a lifeline — including those in the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

In 2022, Huawei announced it signed more than 20 new or extended licensing agreements for its patents. But the sheer number of patents filed meant Huawei ranked fourth last year by the number of patent grants in the U.S., IFI said. For Huawei, licensing its patents to other companies has the potential to claw back a bit of that revenue. Huawei did not break down specific figures, and only said it met its intellectual property revenue expectations for 2021. "I don't think they had a choice in terms of sort of boosting their licensing revenue."

"Samsung, in a roundabout way, is saying production will decrease slightly," said analyst Kim Yang-jae at Daol Investment and Securities. CHIP PROFIT TUMBLESEarlier on Tuesday, Samsung reported its lowest quarterly profit since 2014 and said persistent macroeconomic uncertainty will make for a tough first half of this year, though it expects demand to start recovering in the second half. At 4.3 trillion won ($3.49 billion), October-December operating profit was Samsung's lowest quarterly profit in eight years. Some analysts expect the chip business to book a loss in the first quarter, pulling overall profit below that of the fourth. In mobile, Samsung said fourth-quarter profit fell to 1.7 trillion won from 2.66 trillion won a year earlier, as a decline in low- and mid-end smartphone sales was greater than expected.

☆ Samsung Electronics' Q4 profit falls 69% as device demand drops
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Samsung signage is seen in a store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., Nov. 22, 2021. The world's biggest maker of memory chips and smartphones said October-December operating profit fell to 4.3 trillion won ($3.49 billion), its lowest quarterly profit in eight years, from 13.87 trillion won a year earlier. That compared with the company's own estimate of 4.3 trillion won earlier this month. Revenue fell 8% to 70.5 trillion won. ($1 = 1,232.6000 won)Reporting by Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Factbox: Chinese chipmakers caught in U.S.-China tech spat
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Josh Horwitz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

TSMC is the world's most valuable chipmaker and counts Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) among major clients. Its government-backing and ambition to make high-end chips caught the attention of the United States which put the firm on its Entity List in 2020. To date, most of SMIC's sales are made using the outdated 45 nanometer process node and above. Since late 2020, this specialisation in older chips has proven a boon due to a global shortage of lower-end chips. It produces DRAM at the 19 nanometer node and is moving into the 17 nanometer node - process nodes behind the industry leading-edge.

☆ Japan's chip equipment makers in the dark about new China export restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

TOKYO, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Japanese makers of semiconductor manufacturing machinery and materials used to make chips said on Monday they had yet to hear from Japan's government about export restrictions that could directly or indirectly affect their business in China. Without knowing the details of any new restrictions it is impossible to know their impact, he said. Its statement followed a Bloomberg report that the United States had secured a deal with the Netherlands and Japan. Among them was Tokyo Electron Ltd (8035.T), Japan's biggest semiconductor manufacturing machinery maker. Shares of Japanese semiconductor equipment makers were mostly flat on Monday, with Tokyo Electron up 0.68% while Advantest Corp (6857.T) fell 0.32%.

☆ Exclusive: Apple supplier BOE plans new factories in Vietnam
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Francesco Guarascio | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HANOI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Chinese display maker BOE Technology Group Co Ltd (000725.SZ), a supplier of both Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS), plans to invest a substantial sum to build two factories in Vietnam, two people familiar with the matter said. BOE plans to make the more sophisticated organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) screens at the site rather than liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), the person said. Apple, which included BOE in its 2021 list of manufacturing partners, uses OLED screens for its latest iPhone smartphones. The U.S. tech giant, however, plans to start making mobile screens in-house by next year, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. BOE's Vietnam plan is not specifically aimed at supplying Apple, the person said.

☆ Chip woes short-circuit Samsung's best laid plans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, Jan 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) can only defy gravity for so long. The worse-than-expected earnings guidance throws cold water on the chipmaker's aggressive supply and capital expenditure spending plans laid out in October. Analysts at Citi reckon Samsung’s memory chip capex this year will be roughly $25 billion, more than 10% lower than their earlier forecast. Samsung's best laid plans are starting to go astray. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ 7 up-and-coming battery makers vying for the $370 billion electric commercial vehicle business
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Andrew Moseman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The global electric commercial vehicle market is expected to top $370 billion in annual revenue by 2030. With a flood of new battery-powered autos set to transform the business of building passenger vehicles, it was natural that commercial vehicles would be next. The global electric commercial vehicles market is expected to surpass $370 billion in annual revenue by 2030, according to Guidehouse Insights. It also has its toes deep into electric mobility, building batteries not only for EVs but also electric buses, boats, and trucks. Now, through internal changes and acquisitions, BorgWarner is positioning itself for the electrified future, especially as that future comes to commercial vehicles.

☆ REUTERS EVENTS-Stellantis eyeing two more N. American battery plants by 2030
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DETROIT, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Stellantis (STLA.MI) will need four electric-vehicle battery plants in North America by 2030, the company's North American chief operating officer said on Tuesday. The automaker has already announced two joint-venture battery plants - one in Indiana and the other in Canada - and will need two more plants in the United States, Canada or Mexico, Mark Stewart said at a Reuters Events auto conference in Detroit. We will need four plants by 2030." Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterThe Indiana plant is a joint venture with South Korea's Samsung SDI (006400.KS), while the Canada plant will be built with South Korea's LG Energy Solution (373220.KS). Asked whether Stellantis was open to the workers at the joint-venture battery plants being represented by the United Auto workers union, Stewart said it was up to the workers but the company was open to the idea.

☆ TSMC ignores geopolitical elephant in room
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Executives at the $324 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (2330.TW) barely addressed questions regarding Washington's technology export controls on China during its earnings call on Thursday. Against a worsening geopolitical backdrop and looming global recession, such deliberate ambiguity will be cold comfort to shareholders. Analysts at Bernstein say TSMC could lose anywhere between 0.4% and 5% of its 2023 revenue. Rising tensions between Washington and Beijing, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan, will make it harder for TSMC to stay neutral and continue to sell to both sides. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

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