Rapidus, a chipmaker backed by the government of Japan, has announced its new plans for advanced semiconductor technology. The company is seeking to build 2nm prototype process line by the year 2025.

In other words, the Japanese chip venture might be seeking to catch up to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC. For those unaware, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is set to start risk production of its next gen 2nm process in 2024. Furthermore, mass production for this cutting edge semiconductor process is also set to begin sometime in 2025. Similarly, even Samsung is rushing to begin production of its 2nm process line by the same year.

Unfortunately, the company has only announced its prototype line’s timeline. The mass production of the advanced process is only slated to begin sometime in the late 2020s. Although, even with this schedule, the Japanese government backed firm is still not too far behind the industry giant, TSMC. The company will also officially finalize its plans regarding the site location for the prototype facility in March. Notably, this site will also be responsible for the mass production later down the road.

Some of the key factors that will influence this decision is the availability of stable water and robust electrical infrastructure. This location should also be able to “attract domestic and foreign talent easily,” as per Rapidus President Atsuyoshi Koike. He stated that “we aim to produce only advanced chips, establishing a high margin business model,” further adding that “We want to bring in engineers from areas that different companies specialize in, in order to create new value”.

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(Source)

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Samsung has managed to achieve a notable feat in the semiconductor industry. The company is now the world’s largest chipmaker in terms of revenue in the second quarter of this, beating the industry’s giant Intel.

In Q2 2021, the South Korean tech giant managed to overtake Intel to become the world’s top chip manufacturer in terms of revenue. As per analysts, these positions are expected to remain the same in the near future. During this period, the known memory chips maker generated 22.74 trillion Won (roughly about 19.7 billion US Dollars) or 18.5 billion US Dollars if you subtract the contribution of a business unit that it plans on selling.

Meanwhile, Intel held the top spot for the better part of the past three decades, only losing to the South Korean brand in 2017 and 2018, during the boom of the memory chip sales. Samsung revealed its financial report last week, in which, it also reported that it saw a 54 percent year on year rise in terms of overall operating profits in the second quarter. Notably, the company attributed its great performance to higher than expected prices of DRAM and NAND chips due to pent up demand in the pandemic.

While the company currently has the lead over Intel, experts believe that this might not be true for too long as the US based firm is aggressively pushing forward with its ambitious project to become a leader in the foundry business that makes advanced chips for fabless chipmakers and chip designers.

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Xiaomi has just invested in another company. This time, the company invested in Huajing Sensing Technology, which is a chip development based firm. The investment was made through the Hubei Xiaomi Yangtze River Industrial Fund.

According to an ITHome report, the chip developed has undergone some business changes recently, with the new shareholders being Gongqingcheng Tuojin Zhonghe Investment Partnership Enterprise (Limited Partnership), Hubei Yangtze River Industry Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership), and Shenzhen Tuojin Venture Capital Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership). The registered capital has increased to around 28.59 million Yuan (roughly 4.38 million US Dollars).

The Huajing Sensing is a firm that is based around independent sensor core chip technology. This firm was established back in 2010, with its business scope including research and development, production, and manufacturing of sensor equipment, technology development, technical consulting, and technical services for the Internet of Things products.

Furthermore, the Chinese smartphone maker has also invested into a number of companies through the Yangtze River Industrial Fund including Tishen Technology, which provides flexible tactile sensors, a semiconductor Zonghui Xinguang, and even laser equipment manufacturing company Keyun Laser. So, this is likely Xiaomi’s move of investing into local tech based firms.

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New sanctions imposed by the United States on Huawei Technologies and its subsidiaries are now in effect. Japan-based companies, which supplies chips to the Chinese giant, are now scrambling to replace Huawei, facing the risk of losing billions of dollars in revenue.

The ban isn’t hitting only the Japanese companies but has also made the situation worse for companies in South Korea and others. In the latest sanctions, the U.S. has banned all exports to Huawei for semiconductors made with American technology.

As per the data revealed by research firm Omdia, Japanese companies supplied parts worth around $10.4 billion to Huawei last year. Because of the ban, Sony trimmed its capital spending plan for three years, as there’s now a gap of billions of dollars in sales from supplying image sensors to Huawei.

Sony is reportedly planning to apply for a license with the United States to continue doing business with Huawei. To replace Huawei, the Japanese company could sell its sensors to Apple and other Chinese companies. It is also looking to expand beyond mobile phones and develop sensors for a broader range of applications.

EDITOR’S PICK: SMIC applies for a licence with the US to continue supplying chipsets to Huawei

Similarly, Renesas Electronics has now stopped supplying semiconductors for 5G network base stations to Huawei. Toshiba-backed Kioxia has also suspended shipments of flash memory, following the same route as Mitsubishi Electric.

Chinese giant Huawei has already stockpiled necessary components that should help the company continue operating normally at least for a few months. But the company’s production ability will take a hit after some time, as it starts running out of components. It remains to be seen what the company has planned to keep its business afloat.

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SMIC, the Chinese chipmaker, became one of the most valuable publicly listed companies as its shares witnessed a surge of 246 percent at the opening on its first day of trade in Shanghai, China.

The company, which is at the center of China’s plan to become self-sufficient in chipmaking, had already secured around $7.6 billion in pre-IPO share sales. Half of the company’s shares were initially sold to 4.3 million retail investors.

But there were more clamoring to get in when trading started, which resulted in the trading opening at 95 yuan (~$14) compared to the offer price of 27.46 yuan (~$4). The company’s listing has also attracted a wide range of retail investors such as Zhou Ziqing.

The share sale is the biggest on the mainland in a decade since Agricultural Bank of China’s more than $22 billion dual Hong Kong-Shanghai listing in 2010. It will be interesting to see SMIC’s first week of trading given that the Shanghai Star board has no limit on stock price movements in the first five days.

In an FT report, a senior official at the Shanghai stock exchange noted that the government plans to use its domestic capital markets to raise money towards China’s goal of technological self-sufficiency. The official added: “SMIC is benefiting from US-China tensions. We hope to compete with Nasdaq for Chinese tech companies.”

EDITOR’S PICK: Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra may feature dynamic refresh rate switching between 60Hz and 120Hz

SMIC is a contract chip manufacturers, which means that the company makes the semiconductors designed by other firms. It directly competes against the likes of Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.

However, the current technology used by SMIC is far behind its rivals. While others are manufacturing chips on the 5nm node, the Chinese company is still stuck on the 14nm node. But it seems to have started working on improving and advancing its technology.

Recently, as per the reports, Chinese smartphone maker Huawei shifted orders of its 14nm chips from TSMC to SMIC. The resultant chipset — Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 710A — became the first pure Chinese chip with independent intellectual property rights.

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(Source)

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City of Wuhan in Central China’s Hubei Province remains under quarantine because of the coronavirus outbreak. Despite this, chipmakers Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) and its 12-inch foundry subsidiary Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing (XMC) claims to have been unaffected in terms of production and shipments.

The companies say that the deliveries of their chip remains normal despite coronavirus outbreak in their locality. The company’s spokesperson has said that it is maintaining normal production and operations, and its raw material supplies and shipments are also running smoothly.

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YMTC says that it has undertaken a number of scientific preventive measures to ensure that its employees remain safe. The measures taken by the company include publicising quarantine procedures, offering medical masks, temperature checks, enhanced disinfecting, and remote meetings.

There are numerous reports claiming that the production and supply chain of several smartphones in the China could get hit amid coronavirus outbreak. Recently, it was reported that supply chain of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S20 lineup could be affected. Prior to that, it was said that production of the upcoming Apple iPhone 9 as well as AirPods might face issues but Foxconn claimed that everything is working smoothly.

Apart from coronavirus outbreak and the extended Chinese New Year holidays, the Chinese government has officially extended the holiday season as a way to battle the spread of infection. Thus, a lot of factories have already suspended operations and will stay out-of-business for a while.

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(Via)

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The United States has increased its pressure on the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company aka TSMC for producing its military-use chips in the country. This is being done to ensure that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker can manufacture the high-security components free from potential Chinese interference.

This isn’t the first time the company is facing similar security requests from the United States and the company sidelined them. For those who are unaware, along with being a key supplier for Apple and Huawei, TSMC also makes computer chips used in American F-35 fighter jets.

TSMC, which holds about 50 percent share of the world’s chip foundry business, supplies computer chips to Huawei and American tech giants such as Google, Qualcomm and Intel. The company also supplies high-performance chips for U.S. military suppliers such as Xilinx, which in turn makes components for American F-35 fighter jets and satellites.

In addition to the F-35 jets, TSMC makes U.S. Defense Department-approved “military grade” chips that may be used by some of its other American clients for classified military purposes.

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As per the report, American officials talked with TSMC “several times” ahead of last weekend’s election in Taiwan. The Pentagon has long worried about risks regarding Taiwan and China’s connection and last year contacted several TSMC customers, warning them about the security implications of offshoring production to a Taiwanese company.

On the other hand, while TSMC has not given in on the demand of the United States, the company has repeatedly said that it would not rule out building or buying a high-specification plant in the U.S. to assuage such concerns. However, the company has also cautioned that such a move would need to be weighed carefully given the higher operating costs involved.

The United States accounts for about 60 percent of TSMC’s sales, but the company operates only its subsidiary WaferTech there, which produces chips for mature technologies while the majority of TSMC’s production remains in Taiwan.

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(Source)

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According to a new report, Samsung might be looking into Vietnam as a potential site for its new chip-making plant. In a private meeting in Seoul, the Prime Minister of Vietnam asked the Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics to consider building a chip manufacturing facility in the country.

The South Korean tech giant has already set up numerous plants and assembly lines for its mobile phones and IoT devices in the country. Additionally, the offer from the political leader is reported to carry certain benefits and incentives for the company. Samsung will also further benefit from lower labor costs in the Southeast Asian country and its economic growth prospects. Unfortunately, the exact details regarding the incentives being provided are still unknown but the deal may be a winning strategy for both sides.

However, news of the deal actually going through for a new plant is still uncertain due to the basic requirements of the semiconductor business, according to sources and economic experts. Instead, Samsung has promised to hire 3000 Vietnamese engineers for its Samsung Research and Development center which is currently under construction in Hanoi.

Editor’s Pick: Samsung leads in global TV sales while Xiaomi holds 5th spot as sales decline

Before setting up a plant, chipmakers require local talent (engineers), clients to work with, and also need to be closer to their target markets. Currently, Samsung has chip plants in Xian, China, and Austin, Texas. Austin, in the US, is home to top-level engineering students while the country is the biggest market for Samsung. Similarly, the reason Samsung still operates in China is not for low labor costs but due to market significance and huge potential for growth.

Thus, it is unlikely that Samsung takes the Vietnamese Prime Minister’s offer for a new chipmaking plant. The company already has set up advanced smartphones and IT manufacturing facilities (with over 58 percent of Samsung smartphones being sold globally are made in Vietnam). Hence, it might not need another chip plant in a country that is less crucial than either China or the US.

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(Source)

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Intel, which has been dominating the chip manufacturing market for about 25 years, has now lost its crown to South Korean giant Samsung. According to the new reports coming in, Samsung Electronics has surpassed Intel in 2017 to become the world’s biggest chipmaker.

While Intel reported $62.8 billion in annual revenue, Samsung surpassed by the $69.1 billion generated by the company’s semiconductor division. However, it is not a straightforward comparison given that Intel mainly focuses on x86 processors and Samsung’s strength is in producing memory and flash storage.

In the x86 processors market, Intel still remains the leader by a great distance. Intel’s chips may be used in about 90 percent of the world’s computers, but it missed the mobile boom. Samsung saw high demand for high-performance products like DRAM memory and NAND flash as well as for chipsets designed for “automotive electronics and AI.”

Currently, Samsung is among the top TV, home appliance, smartphone display, and smartphone vendors in the world. According to the company, one of the biggest contributing factor to its fourth-quarter earnings was “driven by the components business, with the largest contribution coming from the Memory business that manufactures DRAM and NAND.”

Overall, Samsung’s entire business reported a full-year profit of KRW 53.65 trillion (approximately $50.7 billion) on revenue of KRW 239.58 trillion (about $225 billion). For the final quarter of 2017, revenue was KRW 65.98 trillion (~$62 billion) with KRW 15.15 trillion (about $14 billion) in operating profit.

Now, the South Korean giant is trying to expand its business into areas such as cloud services, AI, and automotive technology. The company has also confirmed that it is now making hardware designed to mine cryptocurrencies.

Read More: Samsung Galaxy S9 And S9 Plus Press Render Leak Shows Minor Design Changes

The company has also said that it plans to adopt “cutting-edge technologies” like foldable displays for its smartphones. Samsung said also that it would continue to develop its smart services with a focus on its Bixby smart assistant and the upcoming 5G technologies.

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Broadcom recently made an unsolicited $130 billion bid for the acquisition of chipmaker Qualcomm, which would be the single largest pure technology deal in history and create a $200 billion manufacturing giant.

The offer, which includes $25 billion of net debt, evaluates Qualcomm at about $70.00 per share — which is a premium over the company’s $61.81 valuation after the end of trading last Friday.

However, experts believe that the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China may block or restrict the merger even though both companies agree to the consolidation deal.

The deal is expected to come under particular regulatory scrutiny in China as authorities are focusing on protecting domestic players in a key industrial sector.

A Hong Kong-based technology lawyer, who remains unnamed, said to FT:

Given China’s ambitions in the chip and mobile telecoms space, I can’t see the Chinese authorities taking kindly to a Broadcom-Qualcomm merger. It would likely create the biggest and most powerful player in the mobile chip market.

The Chinese regulator would likely organise a full-fledged review of a Qualcomm-Broadcom merger deal. The process takes place in three major phases and can span up to six months, possibly even longer in case of justified delays or a lack of cooperation from any entities being reviewed.

While Qualcomm and Broadcom aren’t Chinese companies, their consolidation is subject to the review of the commerce ministry’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau. China’s ministry of commerce requires all deals involving parties to apply for Chinese merger approval if the combined global turnover of the company is exceeding $1.5 billion or combined China income exceeding $300m — an unusually low filing threshold.

And since Qualcomm and Broadcom’s combined China income surpasses 2 billion yuan ($300 million) and their combined global revenues in the last year were over 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), the Chinese government has enough to legally warrant an investigation.

Sources claims that Qualcomm is adamant to resist the $130 billion hostile takeover attempt that it believes undervalues the company and will recommend its shareholders to reject it. The company is currently reviewing the unsolicited bid and has not reacted to the offer apart from acknowledging its existence.

Read More: Qualcomm Vs Apple: Qualcomm is Suing Apple For Alleged Breach Of Contract

The acquisition offer from Broadcom comes when Qualcomm is faces legal battles in multiple countries over its business practice. The company was recently fined a record NT$23.4 billion ($774 million) by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission.

Qualcomm has also been fined $854 million in South Korea and $975 million in China. The company is also facing lawsuits from Apple and the Fair Trade Commission in the United States. The key matter in almost all lawsuit is that the company uses its dominant position to charge unfair royalty rates.

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Broadcom is reportedly planning for an unsolicited bid to acquire smartphone chip maker Qualcomm for over $103 billion in what would be the largest acquisition deal in this space.

People aware of the development says that Broadcom is currently speaking to advisers about the potential deal and the bid could be announced in the coming days, probably creating a roughly $200 billion company.

While the valuation of the bid from Broadcomm has not been decided yet, it is believed that the offer of around $70 to $80 per share is being contemplated. At $70 a share, an offer would value Qualcomm at around $103.2 billion — a premium of around $27.5 percent.

This comes at a time when Qualcomm is trying to close its pending acquisition of NXP Semiconductors worth $38 billion. According to the sources, Broadcom is also prepared to buy NXP Semiconductors in addition to Qualcomm as it aims to emerge as a global chipmaking giant.

It is noteworthy that a source has also stressed that no final decision has been made yet related to the deal. So there is still a chance for Broadcom to not proceed with a bid.

The development also comes when Qualcomm is faces legal battles in multiple countries over its business practice. The company was recently fined a record NT$23.4 billion ($774 million) by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission.

Qualcomm has also been fined $854 million in South Korea and $975 million in China. It is also facing lawsuits from Apple and the FTC in the United States. The key matter in the allegation is that Qualcomm uses its dominant position to charge unfair royalty rates.

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Broadcom has recently announced it would move its corporate headquarters from Singapore back to the US. The company is a major supplier of iPhone parts and counts Apple among its largest customers. It is not clear what would happen to Qualcomm’s legal fight with Apple if this deal goes through but it’s likely that Broadcom would settle the dispute.

However, getting clearance for such as huge deal is not an easy task, and apart from the financial challenges, the deal may also encounter close regulatory scrutiny. The combined entity would be the world’s third-largest chipmaker, just behind Intel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co.

(Source)

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In yet another blow to its business model and patent licensing practice, Qualcomm — one of the leading chipmaker for smartphones, has been fined a record NT$23.4 billion ($774 million) by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission.

The Taiwan Fair Trade Commission is accusing Qualcomm of abusing its dominant position. The commission said that the company’s dominance in CDMA and LTE chips, as well as its key patent holdings for such technologies, let the company abuse its position and refuse to license necessary patents.

Regulators claimed that Qualcomm had been violating antitrust rules for at least seven years. They further said that during those seven years, it sold chips worth of around $30 billion to local companies and collected about $13 billion in licensing fees from them.

The penalty is the largest handed out to a single company since the Taiwanese antitrust authority was established. The ruling comes as another blow to the chipmaker which is currently facing an international wave of regulatory and legal challenges.

Besides the fine, the Fair Trade Commission also told Qualcomm to withdraw previously signed deals that forces competitors to provide price, customer names, shipment, model name and other such information.

However, Qualcomm disagrees with the decision and says that it will appeal the FTC’s decision in the Taiwanese court. It plans to call for a stay on “any required behavioural measures”. In a statement, the company said,

The fine bears no rational relationship to the amount of Qualcomm’s revenues or activities in Taiwan, and Qualcomm will appeal the amount of the fine and the method used to calculate it.

Read More: Snapdragon 855 Already In Works on 7nm Chipset, Codenamed as Hana V1.0

Qualcomm has been fined $854 million in South Korea and $975 million in China. It is also facing lawsuits from Apple and the FTC in the United States. European regulators have also expressed antitrust concerns over its $38 billion bid to buy NXP Semiconductors.

While the regulatory and legal attacks over Qualcomm differ in some details, the key matter is the allegation that Qualcomm uses its dominant position in the market to charge unfair royalty rates for its patents.

(source)

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Samsung Electronics has proved its mettle as the world’s largest smartphone maker and the company was recently crowned as the world’s most profitable company. The South Korean company has now added another feather to its cap as market data released Friday showed the company has edged out Intels from the top spot as the world’s number one chip maker in the world in terms of sales and operating profits in the second quarter of this year.

Samsung lead, even though just in the second quarter only, is a significant one as Intels Corporation has held on to the foremost position as the top chipmaker in the world for the past 24 years. The successful Q2 2017 result was made possible by Samsung’s proactive approach to a rapidly changing market. The company recently developed next-generation techs for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips and NAND flash memory in addition to CPU. This versatile approach resulted in a quarterly operating profit of 8.03 trillion won ($7.1 billion) in the second quarter as the demand for server DRAMs and SSD products. The company is said to have recorded overall sales estimated at 17 trillion won ($15 billion) from the chip business.

Related: Xiaomi May Dethrone Samsung in Indian Smartphone Market; Vivo & OPPO Also Growing Rapidly

On its part, Intels has been unsuccessful in its bid to manufacture chipsets for mobile devices and was not quick to capture the emerging and growing smartphone, tablet and wearables segment. Intels posted a total revenue of $14.8 billion and an operating profit of $3.8 billion for the same period. This growth could play out again in the annual revenue posting as Samsung is predicted to topple Intel in overall sales this year. Samsung’s growth in the chip business could also see some help from its adoption of connected chips for IoT devices and automobiles among its portfolios.

(source)

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