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Commentary / Analysis

• DRAM Price Erosion Expected Through the End of 2020 (Wednesday Oct. 28, 2020)
  IC Insights’ October Update to The McClean Report showed the monthly average selling price (ASP) of DRAM started on a steep downward trend in the second half of 2018 that eventually bottomed out at $3.04 in December 2019
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts September 2020 Billings (Monday Oct. 26, 2020)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.75 billion in billings worldwide in September 2020 (three-month average basis)
  
  
• TSMC Sees HPC As Next Inflection Point (Thursday Oct. 22, 2020)
  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) expects the main driver of its growth in the next several years to be high-performance computing (HPC), overtaking its current smartphone business.
  
  
• GlobalFoundries Offers Ambitious Tech Plans, While Eying an IPO (Thursday Oct. 22, 2020)
  GlobalFoundries has a unified growth vision for the whole company as well as local strategies to develop its major manufacturing clusters in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.
  
  
• Global Silicon Wafer Shipments on Track for 2020 Recovery and 2022 Record High, SEMI Reports (Thursday Oct. 15, 2020)
  Global silicon wafer shipments are set to increase 2.4% year-over-year in 2020, with growth continuing in 2021 and shipments reaching a record high in 2022, SEMI reported today in its annual silicon shipment forecast for the semiconductor industry.
  
  
• China Forecast to Represent 22% of the Foundry Market in 2020 (Wednesday Oct. 14, 2020)
  China was responsible for essentially all of the total pure-play foundry market increase in 2018. In 2019, the U.S./China trade war slowed China’s economic growth but its foundry marketshare still increased by two percentage points to 21%.
  
  
• AMD and Xilinx: A Match Made in Silicon Valley? (Monday Oct. 12, 2020)
  Once again, the chip company acquisition rumors are back! In this acquisition rumor AMD is in negotiations to buy Xilinx. And, again, this story comes from the Wall Street Journal, just as the rumor of NVIDIA buying Arm was, the veracity of which was later substantiated.
  
  
• AMD-Xilinx Deal: Bringing The Fight To The Data Center (Monday Oct. 12, 2020)
  AMD is rumored to be in talks to buy Xilinx for close to $30 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Does an AMD-Xilinx deal make sense, and why is AMD interested in Xilinx?
  
  
• AMD Reported to Be Negotiating Purchase of Xilinx (Monday Oct. 12, 2020)
  AMD is said to be negotiating to buy Xilinx, and a deal could come as soon as next week. If the two companies agree, the deal would likely be worth approximately $30 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
  
  
• Huang "Confident" Nvidia-Arm Deal Will Get Past Regulators (Thursday Oct. 08, 2020)
  Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is confident that the Nvidia-Arm deal, the biggest in semiconductor history at $40 billion, will get past global regulators.
  
  
• ESD Alliance Reports Strong Electronic Design Automation Industry Revenue Growth for Q2 2020 (Monday Oct. 05, 2020)
  Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industry revenue increased 12.6% in Q2 2020 to $2,783.9 million, compared to $2,472.1 million in Q2 2019, with most categories logging double-digit increases, the Electronic System Design (ESD) Alliance Market Statistics Service (MSS) announced today.
  
  
• Intel's Roadmap: A Closer Look at Process Technologies and Production Plans (Monday Oct. 05, 2020)
  At its Architecture Day last month Intel Corp. disclosed some additional details about its upcoming process technologies and how they will affect its product lineup from 2020 and onwards.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 4.9 Percent Year-to-Year in August (Monday Oct. 05, 2020)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors were $36.2 billion in August 2020, 4.9 percent more than the August 2019 total of $34.5 billion and 3.6 percent higher than the July 2020 total of $35.0 billion.
  
  
• China's Semiconductor Industry to Brace for Impact as SMIC Assesses Export Restrictions Placed by U.S., Says TrendForce (Monday Oct. 05, 2020)
  On October 4, 2020, SMIC made formal announcements assessing the Commerce Department’s notification to SMIC's suppliers that they will be restricted from shipping certain U.S.-originated equipment, components, and raw materials to the Chinese foundry.
  
  
• Two Acquisitions Make 2020 Second-Highest Year for Semi M&As (Wednesday Sep. 30, 2020)
  After a slow start, Analog Devices' agreement to buy Maxim and Nvidia's deal to acquire ARM raise the total value of M&A deals this year to more than $63.0 billion.
  
  
• Washington clamps down on SMIC (Monday Sep. 28, 2020)
  Washington has clamped down on SMIC – ruling that machinery orders by the Chinese foundry have to get individual clearance from the US Department of Commerce.
  
  
• Opinion: Nvidia's bad deal is not yet done (Thursday Sep. 24, 2020)
  Nvidia has pulled off a coup in gaining agreement to buy IP licensor ARM Ltd. for up to $40 billion, but similarly large deals have failed in the past and so too may this one.
  
  
• ARC: from 3D Game Chips to Licensable RISC Processor (Tuesday Sep. 22, 2020)
  Today marks the 20th anniversary of a landmark in my career, and probably a handful of others. On 21st September 2000, the 32-bit configurable RISC processor company ARC International, now an integral part of Synopsys, completed a major milestone in its history: an IPO (initial public offering) on the London Stock Exchange, at a first day market valuation of around £1.1 billion.
  
  
• Pure-Play Foundry Market On Pace For Strongest Growth Since 2014 (Tuesday Sep. 22, 2020)
  Driven by growing demand for application processors and other telecomm device sales into 5G smartphones, the pure-play foundry market is on pace to expand by a strong 19% this year, after declining 1% in 2019.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts August 2020 Billings (Monday Sep. 21, 2020)
  The billings figure is 3.0 percent higher than the final July 2020 level of $2.57 billion, and is 32.5 percent higher than the August 2019 billings level of $2.00 billion.
  
  
• Nvidia's $40 Billion ARM Purchase Will Test Current M&A "Ceiling" (Thursday Sep. 17, 2020)
  The acquisition, which is expected to take 18 months to complete (around March 2022), would top Avago’s 2015 deal to buy Broadcom for $37 billion, and SoftBank’s $32 billion purchase of ARM in 2016.
  
  
• Nvidia Begins Campaign to Close Arm Acquisition (Tuesday Sep. 15, 2020)
  Having listened this morning to Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, and Simon Segars, CEO of Arm on the media and analyst call, it was clear that Huang was really fired up by the opportunity, but that the campaign to convince regulators was going to take time – probably at least a year, if not more.
  
  
• Total Microprocessor Sales to Edge Slightly Higher in 2020 (Monday Sep. 14, 2020)
  Total microprocessor sales are forecast to grow 1.4% in 2020 to nearly $79.3 billion, following a 2.4% decline in 2019, which was the first revenue drop in the worldwide MPU market in 10 years
  
  
• Second Quarter 2020 Global Semiconductor Equipment Billings Up 26% Year-Over-Year, SEMI Reports (Tuesday Sep. 08, 2020)
  Second quarter 2020 global billings for semiconductor manufacturing equipment jumped 26% year-over-year and 8%, to US$16.8 billion, from the first quarter of the year
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 4.9 Percent Year-to-Year in July (Monday Sep. 07, 2020)
  Worldwide sales in July increase 2.1 percent on a month-to-month basis as all major regional markets post sales increases
  
  
• 2H20 Growth Expectations Vary Among Leading IC Suppliers (Monday Sep. 07, 2020)
  As expected, most IC suppliers experienced weaker demand and generally poor sales results in the first half of this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and strained U.S./China trade relations.
  
  
• Kneron's Next-Gen AI SoC Processes Video and Audio at the Edge (Monday Aug. 31, 2020)
  Kneron, the San Diego- and Taiwan-based AI silicon and IP startup, has launched an AI SoC which features an updated version of the company’s neural processing unit (NPU) IP.
  
  
• Broadcom Overtakes Qualcomm for First Place While Nvidia Scores Highest YoY Growth in 2Q20 Revenue Ranking of Global Top Ten IC Design Companies, Says TrendForce (Monday Aug. 31, 2020)
  Broadcom was able to capture number one position by surpassing Qualcomm in quarterly revenue. Despite strong demand for 5G products driven by WFH and distance education needs, Qualcomm’s upward momentum in 2Q20 was constrained due to the delayed release of Apple’s latest iPhones.
  
  
• MIPS lands up in China (Thursday Aug. 27, 2020)
  MIPS has ended up in China, reports Reuters. It got there via a tortured series of deals starting with Imagination buying MIPS in 2013 followed by China-backed Canyon Bridge buying Imagination in 2017.
  
  
• China chip imports still at $300bn (Thursday Aug. 27, 2020)
  China’s semiconductor import substitution efforts have not paid off for this year, reports Reuters.