Latest Semiconductor News Update on Feb 25 to Mar 2, 2024

KKR to acquire Broadcom's End-User Computing Division

On February 26, The global investment firm KKR has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the EUC Division from Broadcom, with a transaction value of approximately US$4 billion. Upon completion of it, EUC will become an independent company. The transaction is expected to close in 2024, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

EUC, a division of VMware before Broadcom's acquisition, provides a leading suite of digital workspace solutions that enable organizations to securely deliver and manage applications, desktops and data across any device or platform. Its flagship products include Horizon, a leading desktop and application virtualization platform, and Workspace ONE, a unified endpoint management ("UEM") platform for the enterprise, as well as common platform services for data, identity and workflow. In short, the EUC division has advanced data and intelligence to drive the scale, speed and effectiveness of today's modern digital workspaces.

Qualcomm's Acquisition of Autotalks Under Scrutiny by UK

Qualcomm Inc.’s purchase of Israeli semiconductor firm Autotalks Ltd. faces a formal probe from the UK’s antitrust watchdog over concerns the deal could hamper competition.  The Competition and Markets Authority set an April 25 deadline to decide on whether to approve the transaction or refer it to an in-depth investigation.

It was reported on August 22 last year that, according to two people with direct knowledge, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is responsible for enforcing antitrust laws, is expected to launch an antitrust investigation into Qualcomm’s acquisition of Autotalks on the 23rd. Due to the protracted investigation process, the actual completion of the acquisition may be delayed, which may reach a year or even longer. At the same time, the European Commission said last week that at the request of 15 member states including France, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands, it will review whether the case involves market monopoly and must obtain approval before the acquisition can be carried out.

Micron starts mass production of its HBM3E memory chips

Micron Technology, Inc., a global leader in memory and storage solutions, today announced it has begun volume production of its HBM3E (High Bandwidth Memory 3E) solution. The company's HBM3E known good stack die (KGSD) will be used in Nvidia's H200 compute GPU for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) applications, which will ship in the Q2 2024. As we all known, the 24 GB 8-Hi HBM3E devices are in production with data transfer rates of 9.2 GT/s and peak memory bandwidth of over 1.2 TB/s per device. HBM3E increases data transfer rates and peak memory bandwidth by 44% compared to HBM3, which is especially important for bandwidth-hungry processors like the Nvidia H200.

US, partner countries preach open, secure and resilient principles for 6G systems

The U.S. and several international partners endorsed shared principles for developing 6G wireless communication systems, the White House said Monday. The United States, Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement stating that they will work together to support an open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, resilient and secure connect. The statement also said: Cooperation and solidarity are the keys to solving the urgent challenges facing 6G development. Countries will adopt relevant policies, encourage third countries to adopt such policies, and promote research and development and application.

Qualcomm unveils the world's most advanced 5G Modem - Snapdragon X80

Qualcomm releases its latest flagship 5G modem - Snapdragon X80. This is the first modem to integrate narrowband (NB) to non-terrestrial network (NTN) satellite communication support, and is also equipped with a dedicated AI processor and integrated third-generation 5G AI Suite Gen 3. It is reported that the Snapdragon X80 has a peak download speed of 10Gbps, a theoretical upload speed of up to 3.5Gbps, and supports 5G millimeter wave and sub-6GHz.

Qualcomm claims that when the X80 is connected to a millimeter wave network, power consumption can be reduced by 10% and positioning accuracy improved by 30%. There are also reports that Qualcomm is providing samples of the X80 5G modem to partners, and commercial equipment equipped with the chip is expected to be available in the second half of 2024.

Intel launches Altera, its new standalone FPGA company

In an awesome branding move, Intel's FPGA business spin-off will be named "Altera". Along with the name, the company has a few roadmap updates. As the new head of Altera after independence, Sandra Rivera, Intel's executive vice president and CEO of the Programmable Solutions Group, is full of confidence. “Based on the Altera brand's high reputation for FPGA innovation and leadership, so the new company name is still Altera. At this stage, customers are facing increasingly complex technical challenges, and we are always committed to creating differentiated advantages, accelerating product implementation, and promoting the development of the FPGA market. We are committed to pioneering programmable solutions through a bold, flexible and customer-centric approach and delivering AI-enabled and application-friendly solutions across a wide range of applications including communications, cloud, data center, embedded, industrial, automotive and more.”

India has approved three new semiconductor plants with more than $15 billion

On February 29, the Indian government officially approved Tata Group, CG Power and other companies to build three semiconductor plants with a total investment of 1.26 trillion rupees (approximately US$15.2 billion) to achieve the goal of becoming an electronics power. Among them, one factory cooperating between Tata Group and Power Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is a wafer fab, and the other two are packaging and testing factories.

The first factory is a wafer fab jointly established by Tata Group and Taiwan Power Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (PSMC), located in Dholera, Gujarat, with a total investment of 910 billion rupees.

The second factory is a packaging and testing factory established by the Tata Group in Assam, northeastern India. It was built jointly by Tata Semiconductor Assembly, a subsidiary of the Tata Group, and Test Pvt Ltd, with a total investment of 2,700 billion rupees, with a daily production capacity of 48 million chips.

The third factory is a packaging and testing factory jointly built by India's CG Power, Japan's Renesas Electronics, and Thailand's Stars Microelectronics, with a total investment of 76 billion rupees and a daily production capacity of approximately 15 million chips.