2023 Latest Semiconductor News Released from April 23th to 29th

According to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc., global semiconductor revenue is expected to decline by 11.2% in 2023, with total total revenue reaching $532 billion.

As economic headwinds persist, weak end-market electronics demand is spreading from consumers to businesses, creating an uncertain investment environment. In addition, an oversupply of chips leading to higher inventories and lower chip prices. said, practice vice president at Gartner.

On April 26, Bosch said it would acquire the assets of U.S. chipmaker TSI Semiconductors to expand its SiC semiconductor business. Bosch also said that after finished the acquisition, it will invest $1.5 billion over the next few years to upgrade TSI manufacturing facility in Roseville, California. Starting in 2026, the first chips will be produced on SiC 200mm wafers.

According to report, Micron will invest in chip assembly, testing, marking and packaging (ATMP) facilities in India with a budget of about US$1 billion. If it can be, Micron could allocate a 300,000-square-meter piece of land between Ahmedabad and Sanand in the Gujarat, Indian.

Micron will use the facility to package memory ICs from its worldwide fabs. A Micron spokesperson previously responded: “Micron continues to evaluate opportunities for potential future assembly and test project options needed to meet long-term memory needs. However, no decisions have been made regarding the timing or scope of any expansion plans.”

The latest data released by Bloomberg shows that the buzz around ChatGPT has ignited the AI industry and its various new applications. Despite the sluggish demand for consumer electronics, the increase in chip orders has intensified the global competition for AI chips.

The surge in AI has driven increased orders from NVIDIA and AMD, which provide critical AI training semiconductors.

A few days ago, Google's parent company Alphabet said it would merge its two main AI research departments-Google Brain and DeepMind. The new called Google DeepMind, will be led by DeepMind's co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis.

Meanwhile, Jeff Dean, co-founder of the Brain team, will take over as chief scientist at Google Research and Google DeepMind. “Dean will lead the company's most critical and strategic technology projects related to AI.” Google said.

On April 23, according to the British "Financial Times" report, Arm will work with manufacturing partners to develop its own semiconductors, seek to attract new customers and promote investment after an IPO expected to be completed later this year.

More than 95% of the world's smartphones, including major manufacturers such as Apple, Qualcomm and MediaTek are using Arm's products. However, Arm does not directly produce chips, but sells the design drawings to chip manufacturers for them to implement and produce. However, Arm is recently preparing to build its own chips to attract more customers and investors. According to people familiar with the matter, the chip will be Arm's most advanced chip-making attempt ever, and the goal is to be used in mobile devices, laptops and other electronic products.

Toshiba announced on April 24 that it held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new power semiconductor manufacturing facility capable of handling 300mm wafers at Kaga Toshiba Electronics in Nomi City, Ishikawa Prefecture.

The part equivalent to the first phase of the project has started, and it is planned to start operation in 2024. At the same time, a new office building will be built to accommodate the increase in personnel brought about by the expansion of production capacity.

In addition, Toshiba has started production of power semiconductors using 300mm wafers in the existing factory in the second half of fiscal year 2022. With the operation of the new manufacturing building, the capacity demand for power semiconductors is expected to continue to grow.

According to Taiwan Electronics Times, Micron recently informed dealers that DRAM and NAND Flash will no longer accept lower prices from May, which means that Micron will no longer follow up on price reduction requests.

The news pointed out that Micron will actively initiate production reduction measures from the Q4 of 2022. Although the inventory turnover days in the second fiscal quarter as of the end of February 2023 are still rising, Micron's quotations to the market have gradually stabilized recently. And If there are other circumstances, it will make plan adjustments.