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☆ Biden is touting a multi-billion-dollar chip factory in Arizona as a way to save the global economy from China threats — but an invasion of Taiwan would still wreak chaos
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Experts disagree on how much this will protect the US economy in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. "These investments are helping us build and strengthen the supply chain here in America," Biden said, adding that "American manufacturing is back." "That's the definition of supply chain resilience. "Ultimately, creating a more resilient supply chain for semiconductors involves more than fab plants." To truly achieve supply chain resilience, Rasser says, the US must only boost production further, but needs similar investments in all areas of the chips supply chain, from raw materials to packaging.

Starting with the Trump administration, the United States has been tightening the noose around China's high-tech ambitions. But why worry about older chip technology? “28 nanometer” refers to a chip technology commercially used since 2011. But it is a giant in older technology, including chips that regulate power flows in electronics. The importance of older chip technology hit the industry in the face in 2021 as a shortage of those chips prevented manufacturing of millions of cars and consumer electronics.

☆ India and Vietnam could benefit as chipmakers shift away from China
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Weilun Soon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Yuichiro Chino | Moment | Getty ImagesU.S. curbs on chip exports to China are the latest shakeup prompting companies to consider moving some of their chipmaking capabilities to nearby Vietnam and India. In October, the U.S. began requiring companies to obtain licenses to export advanced semiconductors or related manufacturing equipment to China. Shift from China to AsiaThe curbs are the latest in a series of upheavals for the $600 billion global semiconductor industry. China firmly in the leadDespite Asia's rising attractiveness for chipmakers, experts point out that China still maintains a lead over regional economies in terms of its competitiveness in chipmaking. In its "Made in China 2025" blueprint released in 2015, the country laid the groundwork for technological self-sufficiency in chipmaking.

☆ TSMC expects $10 billion in annual revenue from Arizona fabs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Jane Lanhee Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PHOENIX, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC (2330.TW) on Tuesday estimated annual revenue of $10 billion when its two planned chips fabrication plants open in Arizona. TSMC said Tuesday it was more than tripling its planned investment in the factories to $40 billion. U.S. President Joe Biden and others, including the CEOs of major TSMC customers, are attending a "tool-in" ceremony for the symbolic moving of the first equipment onto the shop floor of the new $12 billion facility. "When completed with both fabs, we will manufacture over 600,000 wafers a year, representing $10 billion in yearly revenue and with our customers product sales over $40 billion a year," said TSMC Chief Executive Mark Liu. Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O), and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.O), all major TSMC customers, said they expected their chips to be made in the new Arizona plants.

☆ British lawmakers say business at risk from lack of chip support
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Britain must support its semiconductor industry to win inward investment and secure supplies of the chips essential to its industrial and economic prospects, a group of lawmakers said. Spurred by a global shortage, governments in the United States and Europe have ploughed tens of billions of dollars into semiconductors, including building new manufacturing "fabs". "The government is putting UK plc at significant risk by failing to take action in support of the semiconductor industry," said Darren Jones, chair of the business, energy and industrial strategy committee. The committee said Britain should cooperate with the United States under its CHIPS act, and engage with Taiwan, which is the world's biggest manufacturer of advanced chips. The lawmakers said while Britain's semiconductor industry was relatively small, it had world-leading capabilities in fields such as design, intellectual property and compound and advanced material semiconductors.

☆ How AMD became a chip giant and leapfrogged Intel after years of playing catch-up
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Katie Tarasov | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

After AMD and Intel parted ways, AMD reverse engineered Intel’s chips to make its own products that were compatible with Intel’s groundbreaking x86 software. Intel sued AMD, but a settlement in 1995 gave AMD the right to continue designing x86 chips, making personal computer pricing more competitive for end consumers. For those, AMD turned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which now makes all of AMD’s most advanced chips. AMD’s data center customers include Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft Azure. And so now it suddenly makes sense to do more customized solutions.”Former Xilinx CEO Victor Peng and AMD CEO Lisa Su on stage in Munich, Germany, at the AMD

☆ Apple will buy processors from factory in Arizona, CEO Tim Cook reportedly says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Apple CEO Tim Cook holds the new iPhone 14 at an Apple event at their headquarters in Cupertino, California, September 7, 2022. Apple will buy some of its chips from a factory in Arizona, Apple CEO Tim Cook said last month at an internal company meeting in Germany, according to Bloomberg News. Apple currently sources all of its processors from factories in Taiwan. TSMC said earlier this month that it is planning a second chip factory in Arizona because of "strong customer demand." Cook reportedly said that Apple was considering buying chips from factories in Europe, too.

☆ ASML CEO: Would not change 2030 growth targets if China excluded
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

AMSTERDAM, Nov 11 (Reuters) - ASML Holding NV (ASML.AS), a key supplier to semiconductor manufacturers, would not change its 2030 forecasts much if Chinese chipmakers are unable to expand their capacity beyond current levels, CEO Peter Wennink told investors on Friday. Speaking at a meeting with investors, Wennink said "if the geopolitical situation is such, which I would not expect, but that, for instance China would absolutely be excluded from any growth, the demand is there. "So it doesn't change the 2030 picture that much." ASML on Thursday upgraded its long term forecasts for 2025 and 2030, saying it expects demand for its products to be strong in the coming decade. It expects sales to grow to 44-60 billion euros in 2030, from 18.6 billion euros in 2021.

☆ China’s second-largest chipmaker poised for $2.5 billion IPO in Shanghai
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHANGHAI, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Chinese chip manufacturer Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (1347.HK) has received regulatory approval for an 18 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) IPO in Shanghai, according to a filing published late on Friday on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The proceeds from the IPO will also go to upgrading the latter fab, according to its prospectus. Hua Hong’s Shanghai IPO will follow that of China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) (0981.HK), which, like Hua Hong, went public on Shanghai’s tech-centric STAR market in 2020 after it listed in Hong Kong years earlier. Hua Hong’s planned IPO comes after Washington passed unprecedented export controls on Chinese chip makers. Hua Hong specializes in mature technology, and generates most of its revenue making chips using 55-nanometer process technology.

☆ Our guide to semiconductor companies and how their chips run our everyday lives
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +17 min

Semiconductor companies are also in the news a lot lately, whether it's the U.S. government cracking down on chip exports to China or innovations in connected cars and artificial intelligence. Since these companies don't need to invest in expensive fabrication facilities, they can run a more agile asset-light business model. Memory : The two main categories of memory chips are NAND and DRAM. Examples include those used for 5G, WiFi, Bluetooth, radiofrequency chips, near field communication chips (NFC), application-specific integrated circuit chips (ASICs), and so on. These chips are made by companies like Qualcomm, Marvell Technology, Broadcom (AVGO), ON Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductor (NXPI), and others.

☆ The US is spending billions to boost chip manufacturing. Will it be enough?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

US-based fabs, or chip manufacturing plants, currently only account for 12% of the world’s modern semiconductor manufacturing capacity, according to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association trade group. Some 75% of the world’s modern chip manufacturing is now concentrated in East Asia – a majority of that in geopolitically-vulnerable Taiwan. Now, simply having the facilities already set up to produce or expand chip manufacturing gives Asia a big advantage. This is not yet the case in places like Arizona and Ohio, where plans to build massive chip manufacturing plants are already underway. If not, even the billions of dollars committed by the private and public sector may not be enough to reshore semiconductor manufacturing.

☆ Intel's Mobileye targets $15.9 billion valuation in IPO
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Intel 's self-driving subsidiary, Mobileye, is targeting an IPO that would value it at nearly $16 billion. Mobileye shares will be traded on the Nasdaq. It will hold over 750 million shares of Class B stock which has 10 times the voting power of Class A stock. In total, Intel expects there to be 796.26 million shares of Mobileye outstanding that, if priced at $20 at the high end of the range, would give the self-driving division a valuation up to $15.9 billion. The filing shows strong revenue growth for Mobileye from $879 million in sales in 2019 to $1.39 billion last year.

☆ China chip industry group 'troubled' by U.S. export curbs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHANGHAI, Oct 13 (Reuters) - China's top trade group for the chip sector said on Thursday it was "disappointed" by recent U.S. export controls and warned they could put more stress on global supply chains. Last week, the U.S. Commerce Department passed a sweeping set of regulations aimed at kneecapping advancements in China's semiconductor industry. If enforced broadly, the regulations could bar research labs and commercial data centres' access to advanced AI chips, prevent Chinese chip fabs from purchasing critical manufacturing equipment, and force U.S. nationals working at advanced Chinese chip companies to resign. Share prices of Chinese tech giants and chip companies with facilities in China plunged in response to the U.S. curbs. read moreRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Tom Hogue and Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Globally critical chip firm tells U.S. staff to stop servicing China customers after Biden export curbs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Dutch firm ASML makes one of the most important pieces of machinery required to manufacture the most advanced chips in the world. U.S. chip curbs have left companies, including ASML, scrambling to figure out what the rules mean in practice. A fab is a another name for a chip manufacturing plant. Last week, the U.S. government enacted sweeping rules that aimed to cut off China from key chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Washington is concerned in particular about China obtaining access for the most advanced chips that can be used in military applications, artificial intelligence or super computing.

And as of midnight Tuesday, vendors also cannot support, service and send non-U.S. supplies to the China-based factories without licenses if U.S. companies or people are involved. The company said the change would help avoid disruptions to the supply chain and that the authorization is for a year. Licenses for Chinese chip factories were likely to be denied. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.(2330.TW) and Intel Corp (INTC.O) also operate chip factories in China. The Chinese chip facilities are not expected to get any reprieve.

Shares of Asia’s largest semiconductor makers and suppliers declined Tuesday as investors expressed fear about broad ramifications on the sector from new U.S. restrictions on exporting chips and related equipment to China. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s biggest contract chip maker, dropped 8.3% to its lowest closing in more than two years. TSMC has chip fabrication facilities—or fabs—in China, including in the eastern city of Nanjing.

☆ Exclusive: KLA to stop sales and service to China to comply with U.S. export curbs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Josh Horwitz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The move underscores huge business headwinds facing chipmakers and chip equipment makers around the world, as the Biden administration published a sweeping set of export controls on Friday aimed at slowing China's progress in advanced chip manufacturing. The source added that the company would also cease supplying China chip plants owned by Intel (INTC.O) and SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chipmaker. SK Hynix reiterated its stance that it would seek a license under new U.S. export control rules for equipment to keep operating its factories in China. Another source at an overseas chip equipment company told Reuters that all of the major suppliers to fabs were working round-the-clock to assess the long-term impact of the regulations. Shares in KLA tumbled nearly 5% on Monday, hit by the latest U.S. export control measures.

☆ 'India has a big role to play': New Delhi is trying to turn the country into a chip powerhouse
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Foundries are facilities that manufacture chips that other companies design. So there aren't many giant Indian chip firms and certainly no leading-edge manufacturing companies. "I have no doubt that India has a big role to play," Kotasthane said. Semiconductor design requires large numbers of skilled engineers and this is where India's strength lies," he added. So now, the next step is the effort to build an ecosystem where there is some Indian IP (intellectual property) by Indian companies," Kotasthane said.

☆ Chip-Making Push Expected to Boost U.S. Innovation
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

U.S. efforts to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing will have a beneficial impact on homegrown innovation, in part by ensuring tech startups have the resources they need to scale emerging technologies, industry experts said. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CIO Journal The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. PREVIEWMs. Levine, speaking Tuesday at The Wall Street Journal’s CIO Network online summit, said a robust domestic semiconductor industry can help unlock downstream innovation. The bipartisan Chips and Science Act, which Congress approved in July, goes a long way to boost innovation, Ms. Levine said. But in a capital-intensive industry like semiconductor fabs, where other countries have long supported private manufacturers, “it’s problematic that the U.S. isn’t involved,” Mr. Burns said.

☆ China had a plan to dominate tech and become the world's most powerful country. It's all gone wrong.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-08 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Semiconductor chips are the tiny brains that power our technological world, from cars and cellphones to fighter jets and advanced missile systems. Right now China is awash in money for tech, but you need the right people and customers that trust you. Why China needs the chipsThe Chinese economy is big, but it isn't wealthy. In other words, China needs a more lucrative line of business the same way someone with credit-card debt needs a raise. The Made in China 2025 plan lays out a goal for domestically manufactured chips to meet 70% of China's semiconductor needs within three years.

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