Latest Semiconductor News Released on September 3 to 9, 2023

Bosch abandons development of lidar sensors

Bosch has abandoned to develop LiDAR sensors for self-driving cars. After considering the technology's complexity and time to market, the company decided not to invest any resources in it. But Bosch still believes lidar technology is very important for fully autonomous driving and will continue to seek to integrate related products into autonomous driving functions.

Semiconductors achieve revenue growth in second quarter

After five consecutive quarters of revenue decline, the semiconductor industry turned the corner and posted revenue growth in the Q2-2023, according to the latest Omdia Competitive Landscape Tracker report.

Quarterly revenue rose 3.8% to $124.3 billion during the period, the study noted. This growth is in line with historical patterns across the semiconductor market, with second-quarter revenue rising an average of 3.4% from the Q1. However, growth in the semiconductor sector continues to deviate from historical trends. For example, the DRAM market grew 15% in Q2-2023, compared with historical growth of 7.5% year-on-year.

Foxconn teams up with STMicro for semiconductor plant in India

Taiwan's Foxconn and France's chipmaker STMicroelectronics are applying for state support to build 40-nm chip factories. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans have not been made public. This proven chip is used in cars, cameras, printers, and a variety of other machines.

Arm valued at $52 billion ahead of IPO of the year

Arm Holdings Ltd kicked off its blockbuster IPO roadshow on Tuesday as the chip designer tries to convince investors it could sell shares in what could be the biggest IPO of the year valuing the company at up to $52 billion .

Arm launched its road show in Baltimore, home to influential asset manager T Rowe Price, underscoring the fund manager's importance in large IPOs.

Intel to offer foundry services to Tower Semiconductor in a new deal

Intel Foundry Services announced a mutually beneficial partnership with Tower Semiconductor to improve production capacity and meet global customer demand for next-generation chips.

Under the companies' agreement, Tower will use Intel's manufacturing facility in New Mexico and invest up to $300 million to purchase and own equipment and other fixed assets that will be installed at the facility.

Apollo Future Mobility cancels $2 billion WM Motor acquisition

Apollo Future Mobility's (HKG:0860) announced that the relevant parties have agreed to terminate the WM Motor acquisition, so the related works will not proceed. The reasons for termination include turbulent global market conditions, continued uncertainty in the financial market atmosphere and short-term economic recovery.

This means that WM Motor’s backdoor listing on the Hong Kong stock market has come to an end.

ASML CEO warns against 'compelling China to be innovative

ASML's CEO Peter Wennink said on Wednesday it was "logical" that China would seek to develop its own semiconductor equipment during U.S export restriction. Peter shared his views on the problems in mainland China and the export controls and protectionism faced by the company in the Nieuwsuur TV program broadcast on the evening of September 4.

He has expressed his concerns about export controls and Sino-Dutch economic relations on multiple occasions.

MediaTek successfully develops first chip using TSMC's leading-edge 3nm technology

MediaTek and TSMC jointly announced that the development of the company's first Dimensity flagship chip produced using TSMC's 3-nanometer process is going very smoothly. It has been successfully tape-out and is expected to be mass-produced next year. Both have long maintained a close and in-depth strategic partnership, and give full play to their respective unique advantages in chip design and manufacturing to jointly create energy-efficient flagship chips with high performance and low power consumption.

Newport Wafer Fab blames UK government over 100 redundancies plan

Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), the UK's largest wafer fab, blamed UK government restrictions for its decision to lay off 100 people amid uncertainty over its future ownership.

In 2021, NWF was sold to Dutch chip manufacturer Nexperia for 63 million pounds ($79 million), which was acquired by Chinese company Wingtech Technology in the same year, but failed in the end.

British politicians late last year demanded that Nexperia divest at least 86% of shares. NWF later challenged the ruling in court in December 2022 and warned in March this year that funds would be needed to maintain solvency during the sale, saying employee departures could undermine the viability of production and operations.

ASML to announce next-generation EUV machine

Peter Wennink, the CEO of Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML, said the company will launch the first test tool in its next product line this year as planned, despite some supplier resistance. The high-numerical-aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, which are the size of trucks and cost more than 300 million euros (NT$10.2 billion) each, are needed by top chipmakers to be able to produce smaller chips.

AI chip shortage will last for 18 months

TSMC said on Wednesday it will take about 18 months for supply constraints on artificial intelligence chips to ease as companies continue to snap up the advanced processors needed to power generative AI applications such as ChatGPT.

TSMC Chairman, Dr. Mark Liu, also said that the tight supply of AI chips is "temporary" and may be alleviated by the end of 2024.

Apple inks new long-term deal with Arm for chip technology

Apple has signed a new deal with British chip design company Arm to license its chip technology that extends beyond 2040, reports Reuters.

"We have reached a new long-term agreement with Apple that will extend beyond 2040, continuing our long-term relationship with Apple and Apple's access to Arm architecture," Arm said in its IPO filing. "

Samsung Electro-Mechanics unveils advanced chip package

Samsung Electro-Mechanics unveils next-generation semiconductor package technology at “KPCA Show 2023”. It connects highly integrated semiconductor chips and motherboards to transmit electrical signals and power, and is becoming the key to differentiating semiconductor performance in response to changing paradigms in industries such as servers, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, metaverse and automotive use. With the continuous improvement of semiconductor performance, advanced semiconductor packages require advanced technologies such as increasing the number of internal layers, realizing microcircuit, fine matching between layers, and reducing thickness.