Latest Semiconductor News Update on Nov 26 to Dec 2, 2023

Amkor to invest US$2bn in US chip packaging

Amkor Technology Inc said it will spend $2 bn to build a new advanced semiconductor packaging and testing fab in Peoria, Arizona, which will create up to 2,000 jobs and is expected to start production in the next two to three years. The fab will package and test chips produced at nearby TSMC factories.

It is reported that TSMC is spending US$40 bn to build a large-scale chip manufacturing plant in Arizona, which will be operational in 2024. And a second nearby factory is expected to open in 2026 to produce 3nm chips.

Renesas unveils the first generation of own 32-bit RISC-V CPU Core

Renesas Electronics has announced the launch of its first fully in-house developed processor core based on the RISC-V architecture. While the company has yet to reveal full product details of it, but has confirmed some technical details about the cores themselves. Block diagram shows a single 32-bit RISC-V core with performance-enhancing dynamic branch predictor, hardware multiplier/divider, vectored interrupt controller, stack monitor register, independent instruction and data buses, and compact JTAG (cJTAG) /JTAG debugging capabilities.

AMD Inaugurates its Largest Global Design Center in India

US chipmaker AMD on Tuesday opened its largest global design center in Bengaluru, expanding its research, development and engineering operations in India.

The state-of-the-art campus plans to hold approximately 3,000 engineers over the next few years, focusing on the design and development of semiconductor technologies, including 3D stacking, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, the company said in a release. Also AMD said it is part of the company's $400 million investment in India over the next five years.

Broadcom to lay off 1300 VMware employees in California

Broadcom plans to lay off nearly 1,300 employees after completing acquisition of VMware. The company said in a filing with the California Employment Development Department that the layoffs will begin on January 26, affecting approximately 1,267 positions at VMware's Palo Alto headquarters, which will remain open.

The chipmaker is following its usual pattern of eliminating support roles after acquisitions to cut costs. CEO Hock Tan has built one of the largest companies in the semiconductor industry through a series of deals that have increasingly focused on software.

Netherlands backs Chinese-Owned Nexperia’s Takeover of Nowi

Nexperia's acquisition of chip company Nowi has been approved by the Dutch government, which has been investigating it on national security grounds.

According to reports in June this year, the Dutch government is planning to investigate the acquisition of the start-up company, Nowi BV, by Chinese company Nexperia under the national security law that took effect on June 1. If the acquisition is found to affect national security, the government may order the deal to be reversed.

Foxconn invests US$1.5 billion in India to expand its facilities

Foxconn said on Monday it would invest $1.5 billion in India in its latest expansion plan. The company announced the investment plan in a stock exchange filing but did not provide any further details. Another company executive said in September that Foxconn aims to double its workforce and investment in India in 2024.

Japan’s semiconductor equipment sales have declined for five consecutive months

Preliminary data on semiconductor manufacturing equipment for October released by the Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) on November 24 showed that sales of Japanese manufacturing equipment (including exports) fell by 3.7% month-on-month (298.738 billion yen in September 2023) to 287.54 billion yen, down 17.1% from the same period last year (347.054 billion yen in October 2022).

This is the fifth consecutive month that Japanese semiconductor equipment sales have shrunk year-on-year, and the fifth consecutive month that monthly sales have fallen below 3,00 billion yen. Although the decline has been smaller than the previous month (a 21.6% decline in September 2023) , but it has experienced double-digit percentage declines for four consecutive months.

Global chip market is rebounding

According to Semiconductor Intelligence, the global chip market is currently rebounding and will achieve an annual growth rate of 16% through 2024. The figure is in the middle of a range of growth figures given by forecasters, which range from 9% to 20%. Among them, IDC said that the global chip market will surge by 20% in 2024.

But growth forecasts are polarizing. Mainly because the prospects of chip makers focusing on automotive, industrial and IoT (Texas Instruments, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, NXP, ADI, Renesas) are relatively weak. In contrast, the strongest revenue growth in 2024 is expected to come from memory companies (Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron) and companies in smartphones and computing (Nvidia, Intel, AMD, MediaTek, Qualcomm).