Industry News

Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent recently debuted high-performance microchips that they designed in-house. The new components will help both conglomerates optimize their respective digital ecosystems and further China’s semiconductor industry goals.

AMD recently revealed it agreed with Meta to supply it with server chips to support Facebook and its other products. That development will have two significant impacts on the broader semiconductor industry that could benefit smaller manufacturers.

ABF substrate, a critical semiconductor raw material, is in increasingly short supply, negatively impacting multiple leading chipmakers. The scarcity of the resource could extend the global chip shortage.

Samsung recently revealed it will be tripling its chip manufacturing capacity by 2026. The company is also launching a groundbreaking new component fabrication process to bolster its foundry services market share.

The chief executives of AMD, Nvidia, and Intel expressed the belief the global chip crunch would drag on into 2023. Industry leaders believe the ongoing bottleneck will negatively impact the 2021 holiday shopping season.

Micron Technology, the world’s third-biggest DRAM manufacturer, plans to spend $150 billion over the next decade to expand its research and development and production capabilities. The firm is looking to build a new fab in Europe, Japan, Taiwan, or the United States.

Oppo, the world’s fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer, is reportedly designing 3nm processors for its premium handsets. The firm tapped TSMC to handle fabrication and intends to launch its new SoCs in 2023 or 2024.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), the world’s fifth-largest foundry service provider, will nearly double its overall production capacity by 2025. Notably, the company will significantly grow its revenue without advancing its technology.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced plans to build an $8.8 billion chip fab in Japan with financial support from its government. While the new factory will bolster the foundry’s production capacity, it will also likely increase component prices.

DigiTimes reported that the average lead time for integrated circuits had reached a record 22 weeks. In addition, industry leaders and market watchers expect the global chip shortage could persist past 2022.