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February 9
- The Enigmatic Chip Company: Apple's Supply Chain Strategy and Its Impact on Suppliers
➀ Apple's supply chain management has been recognized as the best in the world since 2010, with Tim Cook further reducing suppliers to 24.
➁ Apple's supply chain diversification strategy helps reduce supply risks and strengthens control over the supply chain.
➂ Suppliers like Imagination and Dialog have faced challenges due to Apple's shifting supply chain strategy.
➃ Cirrus Logic, an Apple key supplier, provides high-quality audio chips and has a long-standing partnership with Apple.
➄ Cirrus Logic's SoundClear technology is used by Amazon Voice Service for high-fidelity audio playback.
➅ Apple's supply chain strategy involves self-developed chips and maintaining a diverse supplier base.
➆ The high dependency on Apple poses risks for suppliers like Cirrus Logic.
February 8
- 张忠谋17年来首场2小时深度访谈！揭秘与老黄冲突，锐评“没有人喜欢英特尔”
➀ Zhang Zhongmou reflects on his later life in a 2-hour in-depth interview;
➁ He discusses the challenges faced by TSMC over the past few decades, including layoffs, the 40nm production crisis at NVIDIA, and the early difficulties with Apple's partnership;
➂ He reveals his considerations behind the appointments of TSMC's former and current executives.
- 5 SiC Projects Rush for Production: Over 360,000 Sheets and 350,000 Sets
➀ Changhong Advanced Technology's Wuhan base is expected to achieve mass production by April or May;
➁ Jinyang Microelectronics' IGBT and SiC power module technical transformation project has been completed;
➂ Xinhua Electronics' annual output of 300,000 vehicle-grade SiC modules will be put into production;
➃ SK Group's 8-inch SiC project is scheduled for production this year;
➄ India SiCSem's SiC factory has been laid;
➅ India's Bhubaneswar School of Engineering and private company SiCSem have established a SiC research and innovation center.
February 7
- New U.S. Semiconductor Restrictions on China Take Effect: TSMC Suspends Shipments to Some IC Design Firms!
➀ The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued new export control regulations (EAR) targeting China, requiring more due diligence procedures for chips manufactured using advanced processes of 16/14 nanometers or below.
➁ The new export control regulations, which were announced 15 days before their formal publication, have already taken effect and are impacting the production and delivery of advanced process chips for some Chinese chip manufacturers.
➂ TSMC and other wafer fabs on the whitelist will not be restricted when manufacturing advanced process chips for chip design companies on the whitelist. Chip design companies not on the whitelist must apply to the U.S. Department of Commerce or have their final packaging and testing done byAT companies on the whitelist.
- Another 8-inch SiC Factory to Be Completed and Launched
➀ Wolfspeed's second 8-inch SiC factory, the Chatham Materials Factory, is set to be completed and launched.
➁ The factory is expected to be fully taken over by Wolfspeed by March 2024 and will begin production in June 2024.
➂ The factory, covering 220 million square feet, is currently undergoing final construction work, and Wolfspeed is testing SiC ingot production.
- DeepSeek Chip Ecosystem Partnerships
➀ DeepSeek has partnered with numerous companies across various sectors, including chip enterprises, cloud service and AI computing companies, AI infrastructure enterprises, and application end enterprises.
➁ The chip enterprises include SiBase Flow, Huawei Ascend, Wallenius Technology, Muxi, TianShu Zhixin, etc., which are working on new adaptive AI chip solutions for edge computing scenarios.
➂ Cloud service and AI computing enterprises such as Huawei Cloud, Tianyi Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Baidu AI Cloud, and JD Cloud have integrated DeepSeek models into their platforms.
➃ AI infrastructure and application end enterprises like SiBase Flow, Wuwen Xingqiong, Lenovo, DaoTong Technology, and Sunyuan Technology are also collaborating with DeepSeek for various applications and optimizations.
February 6
- SiC Industry's Big Moves in Early 2024: 8 Companies and Institutions Announce New Developments
➀ Infineon expands its SiC collaboration in the automotive sector with Forvia Hella's next-generation 800V DC/DC charging solution.
➁ Mitsubishi Electric joins the EU's 'FLAGCHIP' project to develop new SiC power module technology for wind power generation systems.
➂ SiChuangzhi Technology's SiC modules enter commercial storage applications, improving efficiency.
➃ BMW and Porsche to release new SiC vehicles with significant energy savings and improved performance.
➄ Chinese Academy of Sciences' self-developed SiC devices pass aviation verification for space applications.
➅ Southern Grid and Fraunhofer iSE accelerate the development and application of SiC in power grid facilities.
- Apple to Launch New Chip: 3nm, Mixed Bonding, and 2.5D Packaging
➀ Apple has begun mass production of the next-generation M5 processor for desktops, laptops, and high-performance tablets.
➁ The new SoC is expected to use a performance-enhanced N3P manufacturing process.
➂ The M5 series is rumored to include M5, M5 Pro, M5 Max, and M5 Ultra processors.
➃ The M5 processors will use organic substrates with 'flavor enhancer ABF film' to increase interconnect density and reduce SoC packaging thickness.
➄ High-end M5 Pro, Max, and Ultra versions will use mixed bonding and 2.5D packaging technology.
➅ The SoC will use TSMC's N3P manufacturing technology, which allows for a 4% performance increase or a 9% power consumption decrease at the same clock speed.
➆ Apple's M5 chips are expected to offer significant performance advantages over the M4 CPUp>
- Gree Semiconductor to Spend Heavily on Acquisition of Japan's Shibaura Electronics
➀ Gree Semiconductor announced its intention to acquire all shares of Shibaura Electronics, a Japanese electronics peer, with a transaction value exceeding 65 billion yen ($426 million);
➁ The acquisition offer, priced at 4,300 yen per share, is 37% higher than Shibaura's closing price on Wednesday and is scheduled to start on May 7th;
➂ Shibaura's board has not yet approved the acquisition proposal, and Gree expressed confidence in the combined advantages, growth opportunities, and integration benefits after thorough understanding of Shibaura.
- Arm China's CEO Resigns, New Leader Appointed Amidst Turmoil
➀ Arm China's joint venture, Unigroup AMLOGIC, has appointed Chen Feng, former Deputy General Manager of Rockchip, as its new CEO.
➁ The previous co-CEOs, Liu Renchen and Chen Xun, have stepped down but will remain as advisors until the end of February to assist with the transition.
➂ Chen Feng resigned from Rockchip on January 22, 2023, due to personal reasons.
➃ Liu Renchen and Chen Xun, who were appointed as co-CEOs in April 2022, have held multiple positions outside of Arm China.
➄ The appointment of Chen Feng may mark the end of Arm China's turbulent period and help the company adapt to the changing market environment.
- Chinese SSD Market: New Opportunities Driven by AI-Driven Storage Revolution and Breakthrough
➀ The rise of AI and the global increase in computing power are accelerating the upgrade of data storage. Huawei predicts that by 2030, the amount of data used for model training will increase 1000 times to 400EB for every 1YB of new data added globally.
<>➁ The demand for storage performance, power consumption, and cost efficiency is increasing due to AI, leading to a shift from traditional HDDs to enterprise SSDs in data centers.➂ According to IDC data, the global market share of all-flash arrays in enterprise storage systems is expected to exceed 50% by 2028.
February 5
- China Announces Export Controls on Tungsten, Tellurium, Bismuth, Molybdenum, and Indium-Related Items
➀ China has decided to impose export controls on tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum, and indium-related items to safeguard national security and interests and fulfill international obligations related to non-proliferation.
➁ The announcement requires exporters to apply for licenses from the Ministry of Commerce in accordance with relevant provisions of the Export Control Law of the People's Republic of China and the Regulations on the Export Control of Dual-Use Items.
➂ These metals are of significant strategic and industrial value, widely used in various industries and considered as important strategic resources.
- Exclusive Interview with DeepSeek Founder Liang Wenfeng
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!
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!
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
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%
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
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%
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
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
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?
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
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
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!
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
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
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
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
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!
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).