2023 Latest Semiconductor News Released from May 7th to 13th

In May 2023, Fujifilm announced that it would acquire CMC Materials KMG Corporation, Entegris' group company in the United States, which handles the process chemicals business for semiconductors. It is planned to invest US$700 million to acquire all shares of KMG in 2023.

The acquisition of KMG is part of Fujifilm's plans. Their aim is to further accelerate the growth rate of the electronic materials business by expanding the product lineup, strengthening the ability to make recommendations to customers, and building a stronger global manufacturing system.

On May 11, at the Google I/O conference, Google announced an AI supercomputer A3 with 26,000 GPUs, which belong to Nvidia H100 Hopper GPUs. For reference, the world's fastest public supercomputer, Frontier, has 37,000 AMD Instinct 250X GPUs. This indicates that Google is also accelerating AI development after Microsoft put OpenAI's technology into Bing search and office productivity apps.

On May 11, Micron Technology announced the appointment of Betty Wu as general manager of Micron China, and continued to serve as vice president of DRAM packaging and testing operations.

Betty Wu will ensure that Micron China's goals and strategic direction are aligned with the company's overall goals and mission. As part of her role, she will be committed to strengthening Micron's customer and community partnerships and fulfilling the company's relentless commitment to China's local technology ecosystem, business operations and people from all walks of life.

Recently, analysts from the consulting firm SemiAnalysis tweeted that Intel plans to cut its budget by 10%, which will affect the Customer Computing Group (CCG) and Data Center Division (DCG), with up to 20% layoffs. In this regard, according to Tom's Hardware, Intel issued a statement saying that Intel is working hard to accelerate its strategy while responding to a challenging macroeconomic environment. Intel said that they are focused on reducing costs and improving efficiency through a number of initiatives, including headcount reductions in some businesses and specific functions across various areas of the company.

Also they will continue to invest in core areas of its business, including manufacturing in the United States, to ensure the company is well-positioned for long-term growth.

Facing the uncertainty of the global economy and mobile phone market, OPPO decided to terminate the ZEKU business after careful consideration. The company stated that this is a difficult decision, and they will properly handle related matters, and will continue to make good products and continue to create value.

On May 10, according to industry sources, Samsung Electronics is accelerating the expansion of a new foundry producing line at its Pyeongtaek Plant 3 (P3), with the goal of starting its first mass production in Q4 this year, and trial run in May at the earliest.

Samsung’s aggressive investment in foundry facilities stands in stark contrast to the downturn in the semiconductor market. The semiconductor industry has been going through a major crisis since the second half of 2022, when rising global interest rates and inflation lead to a sharp drop in demand for information technology (IT) products. Samsung Electronics is certainly no exception. In the Q1 of 2022, the company posted a loss of 4.58 trillion won ($3.44 billion) due to a sluggish memory business, where memory chips account for 60% to 70% of Samsung Semiconductor's sales. Then, in April, the company officially announced plans to cut memory production.

On May 11, Infineon plans to expand its recruitment in South Korea, according to chipmaking industry sources. By 2030, the company will employ 1.5 times as many employees here, doubling the number of newbies and hiring more experienced mid-career workers. The chipmaker will hold student job fairs at Daegu Kyungbuk Institute of Science and Technology and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology on May 18-19, 2023.

On May 10, UMC, a major wafer foundry, and DENSO, a supplier of automotive electronics, announced that the insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) produced by the two parties have been manufactured in USJC, a subsidiary of UMC in Japan. The 12-inch wafer fab entered mass production, which is an important milestone after the two parties established a strategic partnership on key power semiconductors for electric vehicles last year.

South Korean media reported that Samsung will launch the 2nd-generation 3nm process in 2024, and informed sources revealed that the performance is more than 20% faster than the current 4nm process. South Korean industry insiders believe that this development may threaten TSMC.

The Pulse reported that Samsung will hold an international seminar on ultra-large-scale integrated circuit technology in Japan next month, and will use a briefing to explain the performance of the second-generation 3-nanometer process, which is 22% faster than the current 4-nanometer process and saves energy. The degree has been increased by 34%, and the chip size has been reduced by 21% compared with the 1st generation.