Finally, foreign semiconductor companies investing to produce chips in the United States are getting the help they need to recruit local talent for their supply chain.
ASE CEO Tien Wu said at the company's 2024 shareholder meeting on June 26 that the semiconductor industry will have better performance in the second half of 2024, thanks to the demand created by new applications including Artificial Intelligence (AI), robots, electric vehicles, energy and the Internet of Things (IoT).
The global rare earth supply chain is undergoing a restructuring as countries actively invest in the sector to reduce their reliance on China, especially for permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, and drones.
Onsemi has announced plans to establish a state-of-the-art, vertically integrated Silicon Carbide (SiC) manufacturing facility in the Czech Republic. The site would produce the company's intelligent power semiconductors essential for improving the energy efficiency of applications in electric vehicles, renewable energy, and AI data centers.
Lumai, a spin out from the University of Oxford, was founded by a team with expertise in optics over two years ago, aiming to develop a new type of AI processor.
Microcontroller unit (MCU) supplier Megawin Technology is working with its foundry partner to develop Ultra-Low-Power (ULP) MCUs, with production slated to kick off in 2025.
TSMC's second-quarter sales may surpass the target, seeing customers' AI and HPC-related orders flowing in. In July, chips for Apple's iPhone 16 and Intel's 3nm chips will start mass production. TSMC is also accelerating capacity expansion due to strong demand from customers in Taiwan and abroad, boosting the business of its fab tool and equipment partners.
Energy consumption issues and the heat generated by AI training and inference computing have the semiconductor industry looking for Silicon Photonics partners such as Bay Photonics to develop solutions to solve the problems.
According to a recent Reuters report, Apple's "Apple Intelligence" technology has been rumored to use Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) accelerators for early-stage training, illustrating the close cooperation between Apple and Google in the AI sector. Apple may even be using Google Cloud services.
Passive component maker Walsin Technology is anticipating AI-driven demand for end-user devices in the second half of 2024, with the third quarter outperforming the second, and leading into a stable fourth quarter, says vice chairman Lee Ku. Utilization rates currently hover at 70–80%, mainly due to longer certification times required for the company's automotive products.
As demand for automotive MOSFETs surges with the rapid increase of electric vehicles, Taiwan-based power IC firms have been actively expanding their presence in the automotive market.
Elephantech Inc., the first company in the world to successfully manufacture Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) using metal inkjet printing, is seeking strategic partners to scale up manufacturing in light of rising demand.
Cloud AI not only received major attention at Computex 2024 but the network communication chip business opportunities arising from cloud AI data centers were also further pushed to the forefront and became the talk of the town. This is mainly because major chipmakers like Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and even MediaTek, all mentioned various network communication technologies required for cloud AI in their keynote speeches.
The AI wave is propelling the semiconductor industry towards new growth momentum. Besides companies directly supplying and manufacturing AI PCs and AI servers, IC distributors are now recognizing the strong demand for High-Performance Computing (HPC).
Taiwan's major passive components supply chain players, including Yageo and Ample Electronic Technology reported impressive business performance for May and the first five months of the year, driven by their strategic foray into AI applications.
Apple's iOS 18 has updated its satellite communication capability, which is expected to inject momentum into the satellite market and boost demand for GaN power amplifiers.
Spearheaded by Innovate UK and the British office, a delegation of 9 UK-based semiconductor companies has come to Taiwan to find local collaboration partners.
In March, China Resources announced the stunning news of acquiring SMIC's shares of JCET Group, a packaging and testing firm invested by China's National IC Industry Investment Fund (the "Big Fund"). The deal is a delicately calculated move rendering China Resources control over JCET and Sandisk.
