Semiconductor Industry News | Semiconductor Insights June 15

01 Market Dynamics and Industry Trends

1. Guangzhou Investment and Financing: Establishing a 3 billion yuan smart manufacturing industry fund focusing on semiconductor investment to accelerate the local chip industry chain layout. Exports of industrial robots increased by over 50% year-on-year in the first five months, driven by intelligent transformation, leading to a surge in demand for high-end chips.
2. Galaxy Securities: Zhongke Shuguang and Haiguang Information’s strategic restructuring to create a “chip + server + cloud computing” full industry chain, enhancing the competitiveness of domestic computing power. Integrated circuit companies on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board account for half of A-shares, with ETF scale exceeding 250 billion yuan reflecting capital’s focus on hard technology.
3. Middle Eastern Countries: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Oman are promoting semiconductor localization strategies to attract global design centers and OSAT services. Regional supply chain diversification creates new growth points, with geopolitical factors accelerating global capacity restructuring.
4. Yole: The CPO market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 137%, reaching $8.1 billion by 2030. This technology significantly enhances data center energy efficiency, addressing the challenges posed by the surge in AI computing power.
5. Industry Analysis: China’s semiconductor merger and acquisition transaction volume exceeds 400 billion yuan, covering EDA design to packaging stages. Industry consolidation responds to domestic substitution policies, strengthening supply chain resilience against global competition.
6. ETF Fund Flows: Semiconductor ETFs continue to attract capital inflows, with market confidence rebounding, indicating a recovery in the industry cycle. The simultaneous increase in liquor ETFs reflects improved investor risk appetite.

02 Chip Design and IP Cores

1. IBM: Announced the roadmap for delivering the Starling quantum system by 2029, supporting 100 million quantum gates to solve fault tolerance challenges. This architecture provides a new paradigm for high-performance computing chip design, breaking through traditional electronic bottlenecks.
2. AMD: Released the MI350X GPU using 3nm process and HBM3E memory, achieving a fourfold increase in computing power to optimize AI inference efficiency. Also previewed the EPYC Venice processor using Zen6 architecture, with a 70% performance increase in 256 cores.
3. Qualcomm: Built a CPU/GPU/IP core technology platform through the acquisition of ATI and Nuvia, enhancing cross-domain design capabilities. Launched the Snapdragon AR1+ Gen1 chip, reducing size by 26% and supporting the operation of 1 billion parameter models on the edge.
4. MIT: Developed an optical AI processor achieving 95% accuracy in wireless signal classification, taking only 120 nanoseconds. The multiplicative neural network architecture is suitable for 6G communication, providing new solutions for edge computing chips.
5. Intel: Specifications for the Bartlett Lake Core 5 120F leaked, featuring an all-P core design focused on industrial application efficiency. Continuous innovation is aimed at addressing market competition and optimizing processor efficiency ratios.
6. CounterPoint: Xiaomi 15S Pro is equipped with the self-developed Xuanjie O1 chip and MediaTek baseband, accelerating the localization of high-end SoCs. The improvement in domestic design capabilities drives breakthroughs in mobile processor performance.
7. AheadComputing: Developed a high-performance RISC-V processor core focusing on IPC improvement, providing x86/Arm alternatives for edge computing. Open-source architecture innovation lowers barriers to chip design.
8. AMD and Startups: Collaborating to optimize the ROCm software platform to shorten AI chip migration time, accelerating challenges to the CUDA ecosystem. Software collaboration becomes a key strategy to break through NVIDIA’s moat.

03 Manufacturing Processes and Wafer Foundry

1. French Government: Seeking TSMC or Samsung to build 2-10nm wafer fabs, with geopolitical factors driving the localization of advanced processes. Resource constraints require external entities to support the implementation of advanced processes, addressing supply chain security challenges.
2. Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission: Launched a two-dimensional semiconductor engineering verification line to fill the gap in materials and processes in the post-Moore era. Policy action plans accelerate the industrialization process and reduce advanced manufacturing costs.
3. Guokai Microelectronics: Acquired 94.37% of the shares of SMIC Ningbo to gain special process foundry capabilities such as RF SOI. The design-manufacturing collaborative model responds to the localization strategy, facing integration challenges in the short term.
4. TSMC: Providing advanced N3P process support for AMD’s MI350 chip with 2D hybrid bonding. Process innovations optimize transistor architecture, consolidating leadership in the foundry sector.
5. Silicon Microelectronics: Transferring Silex shares to raise funds focusing on the Chinese market, responding to changes in the international environment. Resource restructuring accelerates local production capacity construction, enhancing technological autonomy.
6. Data Centers: AI computing power drives liquid cooling technology to become standard in new centers, with energy consumption challenges promoting innovations in cooling solutions. Energy efficiency optimization impacts wafer fab design and manufacturing processes.

04 Packaging and Testing

1. NVIDIA: Promoting the CPO ecosystem, with the Quantum-X Photonics switch planned for mass production in 2025. Co-packaged optical technology enhances network energy efficiency, replacing traditional plug-in modules.
2. Huawei: Developing Ascend supernode technology to optimize AI computing power packaging solutions, enhancing heterogeneous integration capabilities. Domestic companies are actively laying out advanced packaging to respond to international competition challenges.
3. Liquid Cooling Technology: Demand for AI data centers drives innovations in solutions like the Hurricane waterless cooling plate. Advanced cooling supports high-density chip integration, becoming a key aspect of packaging.
4. Domestic Power Supply: Jinshengyang’s third-generation drive power supply meets SiC MOSFET requirements, with high isolation voltage enhancing testing reliability. The domestic replacement of equipment such as etching machines accelerates, reducing supply chain risks.
5. Wet Processing Equipment: Global supplier statistics cover 99 manufacturers, with surging demand for high-end cleaning. The reliance on equipment precision increases, affecting advanced packaging yield control.

05 Semiconductor Equipment and Materials

1. Gallium Oxide: The construction of the world’s first production line promotes the mass production of ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors, filling the gap in piezoelectric films. Material breakthroughs enhance the performance of high-frequency filters, expanding 5G/RF application scenarios.
2. EUV Lithography: Micron’s 1γ DRAM applies EUV technology, with high-k metal gates enhancing transistor performance. Lithography innovations support chip miniaturization, driving continuous upgrades in storage density.
3. Traveling Wave Tube Equipment: Compact P-band traveling wave tubes reduce volume by half, enhancing the precision of lithography and etching processes. Core equipment breakthroughs support the research and development needs of processes below 3nm.
4. Wet Processing Equipment: The surge in demand for high-end cleaning reflects the trend of process miniaturization, with material purity determining yield bottlenecks. Equipment reliability becomes a key support for special processes.

06 Storage Technology

1. AMD: The MI350X equipped with HBM3E memory has a capacity 1.6 times that of competitors, making storage bandwidth a key factor in AI computing power. The evolution of HBM technology enhances training efficiency, alleviating performance bottlenecks in data centers.
2. Micron: The 1γ process LPDDR5X uses a 0.61mm ultra-thin package, 6% thinner than competitors, optimizing mobile space. Gradually phasing out DDR4 promotes the transition to DDR5/LPDDR5, accelerating technological iteration.
3. SK Hynix and Micron: Supply LPDDR5T and UFS4.1 storage to meet high-end mobile phone demand. Innovations in mobile DRAM address AI terminal applications, enhancing low-power high-density performance.
4. Storage Market: The inflow of funds into semiconductor ETFs reflects an improvement in the inventory cycle, with HBM and 3D NAND iterations balancing supply and demand. Micron’s strategic adjustments respond to competitive pressures from Chinese manufacturers.
5. Storage Controllers: Liquid cooling technology reduces data center energy consumption, indirectly optimizing SSD main control design. Energy efficiency improvements become a new variable in supply-demand balance.

07 Key Chip Company Dynamics

1. AMD: Released the MI350 series AI chips and launched an open platform, with the CEO predicting a 60% annual growth in the data center accelerator market. Collaborating with startups like Cohere to shorten software migration time, challenging NVIDIA’s dominance.
2. Huawei: The Pura80 Pro equipped with the Kirin 9020 chip enhances performance by 36%, strengthening competitiveness in the high-end smartphone market. Self-developed SoC breakthroughs respond to global technology blockades, enhancing supply chain security.
3. Qualcomm: Merging and integrating ATI and Nuvia technologies to expand automotive and AI chip businesses, strengthening the IP core ecosystem. Increased R&D investment enhances cross-platform competitiveness, responding to changes in market dynamics.
4. Chinese Academy of Sciences: Ultra-flexible electrode chips support successful clinical trials of invasive brain-machine interfaces. Breakthroughs in neural chip technology expand applications in medical electronics, accelerating commercialization processes.
5. NVIDIA: Jensen Huang stated that due to U.S. regulations, China will no longer be included in performance forecasts, commenting that Huawei may fill the gap. Technological autonomy becomes a key strategy, with competition among giants reshaping the global landscape.
6. Weir Shares: Plans to list in Hong Kong to raise funds for chip development, with projected design revenue of 21.64 billion yuan in 2024. Capital operations support R&D expansion, enhancing investment in the semiconductor design field.
7. Ren Zhengfei and Jensen Huang: Commented on compensating for single-machine performance gaps through chip clusters, highlighting the strategic value of parallel computing. Discrepancies in technological paths reflect the direction of architectural innovation in the AI era.
8. Silicon Microelectronics: Transferring Silex shares to focus on the domestic market, responding to geopolitical risks. Resource restructuring accelerates the construction of China’s manufacturing capabilities, optimizing global layout.
9. Guokai Microelectronics: Acquired SMIC Ningbo to expand wafer foundry capabilities, facing integration challenges in the short term. Vertical integration strategies enhance localization levels, strengthening market competitiveness.

08 Policies, Regulations, and Standardization

1. French Policy: Attracting TSMC or Samsung to build factories for 2-10nm nodes, with national strategy driving supply chain localization. Technological dependence becomes a challenge for implementation, requiring a balance between external cooperation and independent innovation.
2. New York State: The RAISE Act requires AI model developers to disclose safety measures to prevent disaster risks. New regulations increase compliance costs for chip design, impacting hardware development processes.
3. Middle Eastern Countries: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Oman have launched industrial support funds and OSAT plans to accelerate global supply chain diversification. Regional policies create opportunities for capacity restructuring, attracting international investment.
4. Shanghai: Supporting the industrialization of cutting-edge technologies such as two-dimensional semiconductors, filling the gap in material standardization. Policies drive the construction of an innovation ecosystem, aiding breakthroughs in post-Moore era technologies.
5. Open Source Ecosystem: The China Open Source Conference discusses standardization in the AI era, with companies like Huawei sharing collaborative achievements. The evolution of open source lowers barriers to chip IP cores, promoting cross-enterprise technology sharing.
6. Japanese Government: Investing 100 billion yen to attract overseas semiconductor researchers, enhancing national technological competitiveness. Talent strategies respond to global technological competition, filling key technology gaps.

Did you know? Chip manufacturing is an extremely complex process that requires operation in a cleanroom to avoid the impact of tiny dust particles on circuits.

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