➀ SK hynix is rumored to deliver a significant HBM memory order to Broadcom in 2025; ➁ Broadcom is developing new AI chips for Google, Meta, and ByteDance; ➃ SK hynix will increase its HBM production capacity to meet the demand.
Recent #AI Chips news in the semiconductor industry
➀ TSMC's 2nm chip yields exceed expectations in trial runs; ➁ Mass production is scheduled for 2025; ➂ The 2nm node introduces nanosheet architecture, a first in the semiconductor industry.
➀ NVIDIA has confirmed that Blackwell GPUs are in full production despite cooling challenges; ➁ The company's AI chips have significantly contributed to its success; ➂ NVIDIA's AI data center business accounted for a staggering $30.7 billion of its quarterly earnings.
➀ AMD is reportedly set to produce next-gen, high-performance HPC AI chips at TSMC's new Arizona fab; ➁ This makes AMD the second major client for the new fab after Apple; ➂ Production is expected to begin in 2025 at TSMC's 5nm process node.
1. Samsung Foundry secures its first 2nm AI chip order from a Japanese company, Preferred Networks. 2. This move marks a significant shift from TSMC to Samsung for Preferred Networks. 3. The collaboration highlights Samsung's 2nm GAA process technology and Advanced Package technology.
1. NVIDIA has reportedly placed additional orders with TSMC for its Blackwell platform chips, including GB200, B100, and B200, due to high demand for AI chips. 2. The increased production volume has led to a surge in orders for back-end packaging and testing plants, with ASE Investment Holdings and KYEC experiencing a doubling of related order volume. 3. The complexity and testing time for NVIDIA's new Blackwell chips have increased, positively impacting the average selling price and gross profit margin of third-party companies involved in the testing process.
1. SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron are expanding their HBM production to meet the growing demand from the AI market. 2. The order strength for HBM3 and HBM3E from these major DRAM manufacturers is expected to last until the end of 2025. 3. US equipment vendor Applied Materials is receiving increased orders for equipment and components to support this expansion.
1. A senior US official will visit Japan and the Netherlands to ask for new restrictions on China's semiconductor industry; 2. The US wants to ban HBM memory for AI chips; 3. US Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, Alan Estevez, will meet with Tokyo Electron and ASML to discuss curbing Chinese chip factories developing HBM chips; 4. Chinese companies like Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Huawei Technologies Co., and ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. are reportedly developing HBM; 5. Gregory Allen highlights the importance of Japan and the Netherlands in the global semiconductor equipment industry and the limitations of current export restrictions.
➀ Industry groups criticize the lack of consultation on new US export controls for AI processors; ➁ The new regulations may negatively impact US companies and shift market share to international competitors; ➂ The restrictions could hinder China's development of AI processors and bolster the efforts of other countries to produce sovereign processors.
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.
➀ TSMC, the world's leading contract chipmaker, announced a suspension of production for advanced AI chips for Chinese customers; ➁ The suspension is in response to a U.S. Department of Commerce directive; ➂ The directive is pending an investigation into potential violations.
➀ U.S. AI giant NVIDIA is reportedly planning to collaborate with India to develop AI chips;
➁ NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang proposed the idea during a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi;
➂ The Economic Times reports that India is in discussions with NVIDIA about jointly developing an AI chip.
➀ TSMC's 5nm process contributed 32% of its revenue in the third quarter of 2024;
➁ The 3nm process, since its mass production in 2022, has significantly contributed to TSMC's revenue;
➂ Major chip manufacturers, such as Apple, Qualcomm, and NVIDIA, are racing to adopt the 3nm technology for their new products;
➃ TSMC is leading the 3nm market due to its high yield rate and advanced technology, with a significant revenue contribution in the third quarter of 2024;
➄ The rising demand for AI chips is driving the adoption of advanced processes like 3nm, due to the increasing complexity of AI models and the need for high performance and energy efficiency.
➀ The advantages of NVIDIA's AI chips are summarized in five points: performance, ease of use, market recognition, versatility, and scalability. ➁ The market share of NVIDIA in China's AI chip market is over 90%, with Huawei being the main competitor. ➂ The performance gap between NVIDIA and domestic AI chips is evident in terms of chip power, memory, memory bandwidth, and interconnect bandwidth. ➃ The domestic AI chip ecosystem lags behind NVIDIA's CUDA ecosystem in maturity and user coverage. ➄ The actual application of domestic AI chips in large-scale clusters is still not mature.
➀ China is pressuring domestic companies to buy homegrown AI chips instead of NVIDIA products to promote the localization of the semiconductor industry in response to US sanctions. ➁ Regulatory agencies have advised companies against purchasing NVIDIA's H20 chips for AI model development and operation. ➂ The policy is not a direct ban but implemented through guidance, aiming to avoid harming domestic AI startups and escalating tensions with the US.
➀ The growth of Nvidia's data center GPU shipments in 2023 is explosive, with a total of about 3.76 million units shipped; ➁ The GPU market is expected to see a decline as alternative technologies emerge; ➂ Customized AI chips developed by large cloud providers like Amazon and Google are challenging the dominance of GPUs; ➃ The future of AI models may require a combination of different types of chips, including GPUs and specialized chips.
1. Trainium and Inferentia are Amazon's names for its AI chips, designed for training and inferencing AI programs respectively. 2. The article suggests that future AI chips could be designed to reflect human personality traits, making interactions with humans more enjoyable. 3. The author imagines a scenario where AI chips could evolve to mimic human behaviors, potentially transforming the consumer market for AI.