With the Iran conflict once again in full swing and demand for AI chips booming, industry sources expect that semiconductor raw material prices will only increase. Earlier this month, China created some turmoil in the semiconductor manufacturing raw materials supply chain when it announced that it would suspend Helium exports due to the supply chain turmoil. While China is not a key Helium exporter in terms of capacity, its role nevertheless could create trouble down the road if there is further disruption. Semiconductor Manufacturing Raw Materials Providers Raise Prices As Demand, Supply Dynamics Bite The complexity of semiconductor fabrication, which […]

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Korean chip giant Samsung is reportedly considering outsourcing orders to design a portion of Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) AI chips. Samsung is believed to be Google's manufacturing partner for the TPU chip's input/output (I/O) die. While the TPU's compute tile is expected to be manufactured by TSMC, the part on which the tile will be connected, called the I/O, is said to be Samsung's responsibility. For the I/O, Samsung is considering outsourcing the back-end design for the chip in order to ensure that Google's design is fit for its manufacturing facilities, says the Korean press. Several Korean Firms in […]

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A former TSMC executive, suspected of taking the firm's trade secrets to Intel, has had his records on Taiwan's research institute's body removed, according to reports in the local media. The executive, Wei-Jen Lo, was TSMC's senior vice president for corporate strategy and development and he played a role in helping the firm mass produce its 5-nanometer, 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer chip manufacturing process technologies. Authorities began investigating Lo last year in November after he left TSMC following allegations that the former executive took proprietary company data to Intel. Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) Removes Former TSMC Executive's Page Amidst […]

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In a first-of-its-kind move, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a state-level moratorium on data center construction. Hochul's decision follows growing concerns about the resource-intensive computing centers that are necessary to power what is being dubbed the next industrial revolution. Most AI data centers are powered by NVIDIA Corporation's GPUs, with the average data center requiring millions of gallons of water daily to perform efficiently. New York State Data Center Construction To Be Paused In Moratorium Being Signed Tomorrow In her statement, Governor Hochul outlined that the resource-intensive nature of data centers was at the center of her […]

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With the AI race in full swing, Samsung Foundry has reportedly secured a contract to manufacture Anthropic's AI chips. Anthropic has slowly shaped up to be one of the most important players in the AI industry courtesy of its advanced AI models. As the AI semiconductor sector remains highly concentrated, with the bulk of chips designed and sold by NVIDIA, major players such as Google, OpenAI and Amazon are designing custom chips. Samsung's deal with Anthropic is expected to allow the foundry business to return to growth, say the sources, and allow it to reverse a deficit. Anthropic to Purportedly […]

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NVIDIA Corporation is taking strict action to ensure that its AI GPUs only land in the hands of the right customers, reports the Financial Times. The action is to ensure that its chips do not reach China, and it follows increasing scrutiny by Taiwanese authorities on firms allegedly involved in shipping the chips to the Asian country. Previous reports have suggested that the Chinese government is interested in granting exemptions to some local firms to buy NVIDIA chips, even as firms such as Huawei claim to be able to achieve parity with Western technology in the future. NVIDIA Is Working […]

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Korean memory gains SK hynix is considering buying South Korean government bonds, according to a senior official. The report follows earlier news that had claimed that the memory company would bring back a portion of the funds generated through its American Depository Receipt (ADR) listing last week to its home country in order to invest in memory chip manufacturing facilities. The executive's comments come as the firm is expected to experience slower high bandwidth memory (HBM) price growth stemming from long-term supply agreements. SK hynix is Open to Shifting Some of Its Capital Into Korean Government Debt, Says Report SK […]

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In a surprising move, China has decided to restrict global helium supplies. The export ban appears to be blanket, but given China's limited market share of the global helium industry, it is unlikely to cause significant disruption in the semiconductor fabrication industry. Estimates from the US Geological Survey suggest that the US is the world's leading helium producer and is followed by Qatar, Russia, Algeria, and Canada. China's Helium Export Ban Could Create Tightness In Global Semiconductor Fabrication Industry Helium is used in several key phases of semiconductor fabrication. These include different categories of deposition, cooling the wafers, and etching. […]

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