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February 5
- Exclusive Interview with DeepSeek Founder Liang Wenfeng
Dark Current Journal
➀ DeepSeek's V2 model sparked a fierce price war in the large model industry;
➁ Liang Wenfeng discusses the unexpected success and pricing strategy of DeepSeek;
➂ The focus on model architecture and the pursuit of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence);
➃ DeepSeek's commitment to open-source and community contribution;
➄ The challenges and opportunities in the AI industry, including competition with tech giants;
➅ The future of AI and the importance of original innovation.
- Rapidus Announces Trial Production of 2nm Chips on April 1st!
XinZhiXun
➀ Rapidus, a Japanese wafer foundry startup, is building a 2nm wafer factory in Hokkaido with a target to start trial production in April 2025 and mass production in 2027;
➁ Rapidus CEO Koike Atsuyoshi stated that the factory construction is proceeding smoothly and trial production will begin on April 1st;
➂ Rapidus aims to achieve an estimated cumulative revenue of 18 trillion yen from mass production between 2027 and 2036;
➃ TSMC is leading in the mass production of 2nm chips, but Rapidus has advantages in process speed, yield, and performance, and aims to catch up with TSMC;
➄ Rapidus, founded in August 2022, is a joint venture of eight Japanese companies, including Toyota, Sony, NTT, NEC, SoftBank, Denso, and Mitsubishi UFJ, with a target to mass produce 2nm processes by 2027;
➅ Rapidus plans to use robots and AI to create an automated 2nm production line in northern Japan, aiming to reduce delivery times by a factor of three compared to competitors;
➆ Rapidus has become the first company in Japan to receive EUV lithography machines, with the first batch of EUV lithography equipment arriving in Japan on December 14, 2024;
➇ Rapidus' fully automated factory gives it a competitive edge, as the back-end processes of chip manufacturing, such as interconnection, packaging, and testing, are labor-intensive;
➈ CEO Atsuyoshi Koike states that this will provide higher performance and faster delivery times for the same 2nm products compared to other companies.
- NXP Plans to Lay Off 1,700 Employees Globally!
XinZhiXun - Langke Jian
➀ NXP announced plans to lay off approximately 1,800 employees globally due to increased tariffs in the US and market pressures.
➁ The decision is not directly related to concerns about potential trade wars but is related to broader market conditions.
➂ NXP expects its workforce to 'slightly decrease', with the number of employees reduced no more than 5% globally.
➃ NXP's President and CEO Kurt Sievers commented on the company's performance in 2024, noting a 5% decline in revenue and a focus on managing growth strategies.
➄ NXP obtained a €1 billion loan from the European Investment Bank to accelerate semiconductor innovation.
- The Global Race for Diamond Semiconductor
icbank
➀ Diamond semiconductors are poised to become the future king of semiconductor materials due to their exceptional physical properties like hardness, acoustic velocity, thermal conductivity, and Young's modulus.
➁ Diamond semiconductors are highly suitable for power semiconductors due to their excellent dielectric breakdown strength, high thermal conductivity, and high-frequency operation capability.
➂ Japan is leading in the research and development of diamond semiconductor materials, with companies like Orbray and Saga University making significant breakthroughs.
➃ Diamond semiconductors have potential applications in communication satellites, nuclear power, and quantum computing.
➄ The United States and Europe are also actively investing in diamond semiconductor research and development, with companies like Diamond Foundry and DIAMFAB making advancements.
➅ China is also making progress in diamond semiconductor research and development, with companies like Hefeng Diamond and Shangtian Xuan Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. leading the way.
- TSMC Plans to Increase Prices by 15%
Semiconductor Industry Observation
➀ TSMC is planning to increase the price of its most advanced semiconductor wafers by up to 15% this year.
➁ The increase is attributed to rising production costs and potential U.S. tariffs.
➂ The price hike could further deviate the final product from the Moore's Law curve.
➃ TSMC is expected to start raising prices from the 7nm node, with the cost of a wafer approximately $10,000.
➄ The company's most privileged client, Apple, currently pays $18,000 per 3nm wafer.
➅ The new tariffs could push the price of 3nm wafers up to $20,000 to $23,000 per wafer.
➆ Higher wafer prices have already led to higher equipment prices, but performance improvements have been less impressive.
➇ The recent iPhone chip did not significantly outperform its predecessor, and the Nvidia RTX 50 series is one of the most disappointing graphics cards in recent years.
➈ TSMC plans to start producing 4nm chips in Arizona this year and aims to produce 3nm and 2nm nodes in the next decade.
➉ There are rumors that TSMC will build a 1nm super wafer factory in Tainan, Taiwan.
- Google's Deep Dive into TPU
icbank
➀ TPU is a specialized computing core for matrix multiplication (TensorCore) connected to a stack of fast memory (HBM);
➁ TensorCore consists of MXU (Matrix Multiplication Unit), VPU (Vector Processing Unit), and VMEM (Vector Memory);
➂ TPU is very fast in matrix multiplication and has high FLOPs/s;
➃ TPU has various network configurations like ICI and DCN for efficient communication.
- Wafer Foundry Forecast: Growth of 20%
icbank
➀ The global wafer foundry industry is expected to grow by 20% this year, driven by the surge in demand for advanced semiconductor processes due to the AI boom.
➁ TSMC, the leading wafer foundry company, is expected to outperform the industry average growth rate.
➂ TSMC's stock price rebounded and reached over 28 trillion New Taiwan Dollars, with revenue growth projected to be between 24% and 26% in 2025.
➃ The global semiconductor revenue is forecasted to grow by 13.4% this year, reaching a peak of $714 billion.
➄ AI applications are driving the demand for AI/HPC chips and storage, with high bandwidth memory (HBM) demand particularly strong.
➅ Despite the growth potential, geopolitical and trade tariff factors may pose negative impacts on the semiconductor industry.
- AMD Issues Warning, Stock Price Plummets
icbank
➀ AMD's stock price plummeted after disappointing data center business outlook;
➁ Despite strong overall revenue growth in the fourth quarter, data center performance overshadowed other achievements;
➂ Concerns about AMD's weakened momentum in the AI device field were confirmed with DeepSeek, a Chinese startup, entering the market at a lower cost, further exacerbating worries;
➃ AMD's total revenue grew 24% to $7.66 billion in the fourth quarter, exceeding expectations;
➄ AMD remains optimistic about 2025, predicting double growth in revenue and EPS.
- Semiconductor Industry: One Acquisition, One Sale Plan
Semiconductor Industry Observation
➀ Teradyne is acquiring technology and development team of automatic test equipment from Infineon Technologies, which will allow Teradyne to continue supporting Infineon with manufacturing support services.
➁ The 80-person team based in Regensburg, Germany, will help Teradyne accelerate the development of power semiconductor test systems.
➂ Magnachip Semiconductor, after being blocked by the US government from being acquired by a Chinese private equity firm four years ago, is seeking to sell again.
➃ Potential buyers for Magnachip include Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, LX Group, Doosan Group, and DB HiTek Co.
February 4
- Who is Investing in Cambrian Era?
远川投资评论
➀ Cambrian Era has been striving to become the Chinese version of NVIDIA for nine years, with investors already enjoying the stock price surge;
➁ Yuanhe Yuandian, an early investor, was confident in Cambrian Era's potential due to its technology and market prospects;
➂ Huawei's support accelerated Cambrian Era's commercialization, but the company faced challenges after losing Huawei as a major customer;
➃ Cambrian Era's revenue mainly comes from government-led projects, raising concerns about its sustainability;
➄ Despite challenges,公募基金 and ETFs have been investing in Cambrian Era, driven by the AI sector's growth and domestic substitution trends.
- DeepSeek Gains Support from Three Domestic GPU Powers: A Significant Lesson for the World
智东西
➀ DeepSeek has reached a new record with over 20 million daily active users in its first 20 days;
➁ DeepSeek has become the fastest-growing AI app globally, surpassing ChatGPT in terms of user growth;
➂ Chinese tech giants Alibaba Cloud and Baidu AI Cloud have announced support for DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 models;
➃ China's chip companies such as Huawei, Tencent, and Alibaba are also supporting DeepSeek.
- 张忠谋两万字访谈：谈黄仁勋、28nm、苹果和其他
半导体行业观察
➀ Zhang Zhongmou discusses his relationship with Jensen Huang and the special relationship between TSMC and NVIDIA, including how they met and how they resolved conflicts.
➁ He shares the behind-the-scenes story of TSMC's cooperation with Apple, the bet on 28nm technology, and the success of TSMC's 28nm technology.
➂ He talks about the challenges faced by TSMC during the economic crisis in the early 2000s, the impact of layoffs, and the importance of research and development.
- Cerebras CEO: DeepSeek Triggers Surge in Enterprise Demand for AI Chips!
XinZhiXun (芯智讯)
➀ Cerebras Systems' wafer-scale AI chip (WSE-3) outperforms the fastest GPUs by 57 times in executing DeepSeek-R1 models with 70 billion parameters.
➁ Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman states that enterprise clients are highly enthusiastic about DeepSeek's new R1 inference model, with a surge in demand within ten days of its launch.
➂ The WSE-3 chip, made on a 12-inch wafer with TSMC's 5nm process, has 4 trillion transistors, 900,000 AI cores, 44GB on-chip SRAM, and a total memory bandwidth of 21PB/s, with a peak performance of 125 FP16 PetaFLOPS.
➃ DeepSeek-R1 offers performance comparable to advanced inference models from OpenAI at a low training cost and has been open-sourced, allowing tech firms to build AI applications and chip manufacturers to optimize for the model.
➄ Andrew Feldman emphasizes that while DeepSeek poses some risks, users should exercise basic judgment, as seen with the use of electric saws.
January 28
- DeepSeek's New Model Janus-Pro-7B Shakes the Market
未知
➀ DeepSeek's new model Janus-Pro-7B was quietly released on New Year's Eve.
➁ The release caused a significant drop in Nvidia's stock price and affected other major chip stocks.
➂ DeepSeek's cost-effective strategy has raised concerns about the investment returns of large tech companies in AI development.
January 27
- DeepSeek Founder Interview: China's AI Can't Always Follow, Someone Must Stand at the Forefront of Technology
深度学习与NLP
➀ DeepSeek V3 model became popular for being open-source with a training cost 1/11th that of Llama 3.1 405B while outperforming it.
➁ The founder, Liang Wenfeng, discusses how DeepSeek became a price disruptor and how they prioritize research over commercialization.
➂ DeepSeek is committed to original innovation and sees the future of AI in China requiring someone to stand at the forefront of technology.
- How to Properly Use DeepSeek: A Comprehensive Guide Before the Spring Festival
未知
➀ DeepSeek's most important secret is to abandon prompt templates and focus on real scenarios and specific needs.
➁ The 'Say Human Language' feature can make DeepSeek's responses more accessible and understandable.
➂ DeepSeek has a powerful depth thinking skill that can be enhanced with specific prompts like critical thinking and reverse consideration.
- Deepseek Advanced Usage Guide
槽边往事 和菜头 出品
➀ Using Deepseek, an AI model for inference, to generate poetry in different styles (e.g., Li Bai, Su Dongpo).
➁ Utilizing Deepseek to create bedtime stories for children.
➂ Explaining complex concepts like 'reflexivity' using simple language with Deepseek's help.
January 25
- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) Most Production Lines Resume Operations on January 23rd, UMC Resumes Work on January 24th!
芯智讯
➀ The Southern Taiwan Science Park has resumed normal operations after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake on January 21st.
➁ TSMC's production lines have largely been restored as of January 23rd, while UMC resumed work on January 24th.
➂ The earthquake caused damage to around 60,000 wafers at TSMC, with an estimated loss of over 3 billion NT dollars (approximately $91.5 million USD).
- Chen Feng, Former Vice President of Rockchip, Set to Join ARM China!
芯智讯
➀ Chen Feng, former vice president of Rockchip, is reportedly set to join ARM China.
➁ ARM China's recent performance has faced challenges with a significant drop in net profit.
➂ Chen Feng's experience at Rockchip could help ARM China as they seek new leadership.
January 19
- HaiNengDa Pleads Guilty to Stealing Motorola's Trade Secrets
芯智讯
➀ HaiNengDa pleads guilty to stealing Motorola's trade secrets related to digital mobile radio technology.
➁ HaiNengDa will be fined up to $60 million and must pay additional compensation to Motorola Solutions.
➂ The civil litigation continues, with HaiNengDa seeking to overturn previous judgments and appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
- The Bittersweet Symphony of AI Chip Companies on the Eve of IPOs
雷锋网
➀ An engineer named Hao Tian gave up his 8 million yuan worth of stock options and quit before his company's IPO.
➁ Senior engineer Jun Yuan is optimistic about the company's future and believes that the company will achieve a good financial status after going public.
➂ Sales representative Han Lin faces significant pressure to sell AI chips, which must be operational for the company to generate revenue for IPO approval.
January 18
- Export Revival: Can China's Semiconductor Companies Escape the Trap of Internal Competition?
AI芯天下
➀ The semiconductor industry in China faces severe internal competition and low-profit margins despite market share growth.
➁ Restrictions on advanced technology and equipment from the US have led mainland China to focus more on mature processes (28nm and above).
➂ Despite these challenges, China's semiconductor exports are growing, with storage devices and processors being key export categories.
January 17
- The Behind-the-Scenes Capital Tug-of-War Behind Zhao Ming's Exit from Honor
旭日大数据
➀ Zhao Ming resigned as CEO of Honor due to health reasons, with Li Jian taking over;
➁ Honor completed its shareholding restructuring and is preparing for an IPO;
➂ Li Jian, the new CEO, has extensive experience in strategic management and is seen as a response to capital and market needs;
➃ Honor is focusing on overseas markets and high-end markets with the appointment of new leaders;
➄ Zhao Ming's leadership was crucial for Honor's independent growth and strategic adjustments;
➅ Frequent personnel changes and concerns about the IPO process have raised market concerns;
➆ The exit of Zhao Ming and the capital struggle may be due to issues with the distribution of interests and strategies after the shareholding reform;
➇ The smartphone industry capital logic and the future of Honor are discussed.
January 12
- Who is Investing in China's Version of NVIDIA and AMD?
WeChat Official Account
➀ Two Chinese startups, known as the 'Chinese versions of NVIDIA' and 'AMD', are striving for IPOs.
➁ Both companies have raised over 5 billion yuan in funding, with top-tier investors like Sequoia China, Tencent, and Deep Venture Capital involved.
➂ White Road Capital, founded in 2015, has invested in over 100 projects, with a focus on semiconductor and smart manufacturing.
January 8
- Semiconductor Giant Reshuffles Staff, Postpones Salary Increase!
微信公众号：半导体技术天地
➀ Renesas Electronics, a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer, plans to lay off hundreds of employees this year due to weak demand for chips.
➁ The company, which serves major automotive manufacturers like Toyota and Nissan, has canceled its salary increase plan for employees scheduled for this spring.
➂ Renesas expects its revenue to decline by 9% to approximately 1.33 trillion yen (US$ 13.4 billion) in 2024, with an operating profit margin expected to drop by 5 percentage points to 28.9%.
- Canon's NIL Technology Competes with EUV Lithography
IEEE Spectrum
➀ Canon has delivered the first commercial version of a technology that could one day revolutionize the manufacturing of the most advanced silicon chips.
➁ NIL (nanoimprint lithography) can draw circuit features as small as 14 nanometers, matching the level of processors produced by Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA.
➂ Canon's approach is different from the EUV lithography system produced exclusively by ASML of the Netherlands.
- 8 New SiC Collaborations: Guangqi/Shanghai Auto Orders, 8-inch Product Delivery
Unknown
➀ Xilinx Integration and Guangqi Aion have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to establish a joint laboratory for automotive semiconductor technology research and development.
➁ XiZhi Technology has achieved a delivery milestone of over 20,000 units of its 800V platform high-end electric drive SiC-DCM power modules.
➂ Jingchi Machinery has successfully passed customer verification for its 8-inch SiC resistive crystal growth furnace.
January 5
- Academician Huang Ru No Longer Serving as President and Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party Committee of Southeast University
Not specified in the provided content
➀ Academician Huang Ru has ceased to serve as the President and Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party Committee of Southeast University;
➁ Huang Ru is a female Hui ethnic Chinese born in November 1969, from Nan'an, Fujian Province, a member of the Communist Party of China, with a doctorate in science, a professor, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and an academician of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. She is a member of the Central Committee of the 20th Party Congress.
➂ Huang Ru has a bachelor's and master's degree from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Southeast University, and a doctorate from the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Peking University.
- The Secret Weapon Behind Broadcom's Breakthrough to Trillion
优分析
➀ Broadcom, with decades of experience in communication chips, is making a significant shift towards AI, with AI-related revenue accounting for 41% of its semiconductor business.
➁ Broadcom focuses on customized AI accelerators (XPUs) and related network connection technologies, avoiding direct competition with NVIDIA in the general AI acceleration chip market.
➂ Broadcom's XPU platform covers a full range of solutions from AI design process, AI IP, to SoC packaging, enabling rapid response to customer needs.
- CPU Market Gears Up for Two New Competitors
icbank
➀ NVIDIA and MediaTek are expected to enter the PC CPU market this year, increasing competition.
➁ Intel's CEO acknowledges the increased competition and emphasizes the need to stay alert.
➂ Arm's CEO predicts that Arm-based CPUs will challenge Intel and AMD's x86 architecture in the coming years.
➃ Reports suggest that NVIDIA and MediaTek are developing new Arm architecture CPUs for PCs.
➄ The entry of these companies is driven by the rise of AI PCs and the growing demand for more efficient and powerful processors.
➅ Microsoft's role in encouraging the development of new CPU architectures for Windows PCs is highlighted.