To align with global space industry development trends and establish comprehensive solutions for Taiwan's space industry, Taiwan Accelerator Plus (TAcc+), a Taiwanese government-sponsored startup accelerator has formed cooperation with international accelerators and organizations to invite overseas SpaceTech startups to visit Taiwan for a whole month, starting August 15.
A Taiwan-US supply chain partnership forum held in Taipei alongside the US Business Day on September 19 saw delegations of government and corporate representatives from both sides exploring investment and cooperation opportunities in the fields of cybersecurity, 5G communication and electric vehicles. Key American delegates included Laurie Locascio, director of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and concurrently the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, as well as Arizona governor Katie Hobbs and New Mexico governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Huawei's Mate 60 Pro has been shown to be equipped with only locally-produced SoCs and no peripheral chips from US-based companies. This revelation is part of the greater trend in China to source materials locally.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd (TSMC) signed an agreement with the Saxon Science Liaison Office Taiwan and TU Dresden on September 19 in Taipei to address the semiconductor talent shortage problem in Europe and prepare for its future operations in Germany.
At the ongoing Intel Innovation 2023 conference, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced a number of the company's important AI progress initiatives, including the upcoming launch of its 14th Gen Meteor Lake CPUs, which will power tens of millions of PCs due to ship next year.
Semiconductor manufacturers worldwide are projected to increase 200mm fab capacity by 14% from 2023 through 2026, adding 12 new 200mm fabs as the industry reaches a record high of more than 7.7 million wafers per month, according to SEMI.
Chinese server vendor Inspur has announced its investment in Shanghai Yunsilicon Technology, a startup that develops and innovates cloud datacenter ASIC products.
Taiwanese network IC suppliers are optimistic about demand from India, which requires extensive infrastructure upgrades as it solidifies its position as a key technology product manufacturing base, according to industry sources.
At a time when Huawei's breakout Kirin 9000S processor is widely celebrated in China, Huawei's rotating chairman, Xu Zhijun, admitted at the 2023 World Computing Congress that Huawei believes China's semiconductor manufacturing technology is in a state of "lagging behind" and "catching up." He emphasized that this situation will persist for a "considerable period of time" and cautioned against having any illusions about the future.
Honor is seen by the outside world as Huawei's 'alter ego.' In the past few years, while Huawei experienced a significant decline in the Chinese smartphone market, Honor quickly rose and gained a substantial market share that Huawei had lost. With the introduction of Huawei's new smartphones, there is speculation about whether Honor's newfound "autonomy" in the China's domestic supply chain will also impact its efforts in developing its own smartphone chips.
China-based Transsion Holdings, which primarily targets the African handset market, has expanded into new markets along with its chip partners MediaTek and Unisoc, according to industry sources.
Professor Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli is a legend of the electronic design automation (EDA) industry, but his stories were seldom told. DIGITIMES Asia is privileged to have this exclusive interview to share his wisdom and insights for the semiconductor industry during uncertain times in Part 1 of the interview. In Part 2, he recounts the founding of the world's two largest EDA tool companies that he co-established, and shares some exciting tech innovation projects that he is currently engaging with:
To strengthen its position in data centers, Intel invested US$16.7 billion in 2015 to acquire FPGA manufacturer Altera, actively integrating Xeon processors with FPGA technology, which has gradually paid off in recent years.
Semiconductor material distributors, such as Niching Industrial, Chang Wah Technology (CWTC), Topco Scientific, and Wahlee Industrial, continue to observe relatively stable demand for automotive chips and advanced packaging, while demand for mass-market consumer devices remains slow, according to industry sources.
IC design company Weltrend Semiconductor has seen operations recover quarter by quarter as it moves inventory at a healthy pace. The company sees promising futures for both its main product lines: USB-PD chips are expected to benefit from a steady increase in notebook shipments, while fan motor driver chips are aimed at the rising demand for AI servers.
In a recent announcement, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) says it will allocate NT$800 million (US$25 million) from its budget to subsidize R&D efforts at small and medium-sized IC design companies, in accordance with the National Science and Technology Council's Chip Innovation Initiative. The MOEA notes that the funding is aimed to help IC manufacturers in Taiwan progress to sub-28nm nodes.
Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, professor and Edgar L. and Harold H. Buttner Chair of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of California, Berkeley, sat down to an exclusive interview with DIGITIMES Asia at the sidelines of SEMICON Taiwan 2023 on September 8. As a legend who created two of the world's most prominent electronic design automation (EDA) companies and who has accumulated decades of knowledge and experience in the semiconductor industry, Professor Sangiovanni-Vincentelli shed light on how far generative AI can go as a tool to advance the semiconductor industry. He also shared his thoughts on the solution of geopolitical tensions surrounding the semiconductor supply chain. Here is part one of the interview:
With SoftBank-backed IP giant Arm launching a blockbuster IPO (initial public offering) on the US Nasdaq market on September 14 at a unit share price of US$51, its CEO Rene Haas bears a fresh mission of finding a new profitable formula for the company, and licensing customized system-on-chip (SoC) solutions rather than just standard IP products could be a new way to boost profits after the IPO.
Huawei's progress in successfully producing self-developed chips may have inspired another Chinese smartphone brand company's decision to restart its smartphone system-on-chip (SoC) development. Xiaomi has started posting job vacancies related to self-developed SoC on its official website.
When the world is de-globalizing, it is the best time for Taiwan to re-connect to the global market. When a Taiwan-based IC distributor is moving toward the European and American markets via acquisition, how can Taiwanese fabless companies not gauge the pulse of this important trend?
IC packaging leadframe suppliers are bracing for on-year profit decreases in 2023, as demand for automotive chips cannot offset the impact of diminishing consumer chip demand, according to industry sources.
Competition between the Arm architecture and open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) RISC-V has heated up recently and become a focal point as TSMC invests in Arm. Premium and strategy flexibility are the two main topics in the race.
IC design firms are aware of a rising pattern of Chinese clients shifting orders to domestic competitors in favor of homegrown chips, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
