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Commentary / Analysis

• SMIC Revenue Soars as Chinese Market Sours (Thursday May. 19, 2022)
  Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) saw sales grow by more than 66% during the first three months of this year as the company warned of weakening demand in China, its home market.
  
  
• China-Based IC Production to Represent 21.2% of China IC Market in 2026 (Thursday May. 19, 2022)
  Foreign companies (e.g., Samsung, SK Hynix, TSMC, etc.) are expected continue to comprise more than 50% of IC production in China through 2026.
  
  
• How real is TSMC's bid for conversion to 1.4-nm process node? (Thursday May. 19, 2022)
  The industry reports about TSMC converting its 3-nm process R&D into a 1.4-nm process in June is likely to spark another round of process node duel between Taiwan’s leading pure-play fab and Samsung. However, it’s still not clear how this ambitious conversion to 1.4-nm process geometry will actually work.
  
  
• Samsung raising foundry prices (Monday May. 16, 2022)
  Samsung is reported to be talking to foundry customers about a rise in prices of between 15% and 20% to take effect in H2.
  
  
• TSMC hikes prices (Thursday May. 12, 2022)
  TSMC has told customers it plans to raise its prices by “single-digits” by the start of 2023, blaming increasing costs.
  
  
• India Prepares to Build Nation's First Chip Fab (Thursday May. 12, 2022)
  India is edging toward the construction of its first IC fab in the southwestern state of Karnataka following ISMC’s recent announcement.
  
  
• 2023 IC market to fall 22%, says Penn (Thursday May. 12, 2022)
  The semiconductor industry has passed the peak of the rollercoaster market cycle and is beginning its descent, said Malcolm Penn CEO of Future Horizons at IFS2022 in London yesterday.
  
  
• Industry R&D Spending To Rise 9% After Hitting Record in 2021 (Friday May. 06, 2022)
  New update shows Intel continues to lead research and development ranking, the top 10 raised spending 18% last year, and 21 companies invested $1 billion or more on R&D in 2021.
  
  
• ARM China staff post open letter pledging loyalty to Allen Wu (Wednesday May. 04, 2022)
  Following ARM’s announcement that it had ousted Allen Wu as CEO of its China subsidiary ARM China staff have posted an open letter on the subsidiaries website opposing the change. On April 29 processor intellectual property licensor ARM Ltd., Hopu Investment, and SoftBank Group, the principal shareholders in ARM China,…
  
  
• India set for fab (Monday May. 02, 2022)
  Indian Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Digital Fab (ISMC Digital Fab) – a jv between Intel subsidiary Tower Semiconductor and Orbit Ventures of Abu Dhabi – is to build a $3 billion fab for abalogue ICs in the Indian state if Karnataka.
  
  
• Worldwide Silicon Wafer Shipments Edge Higher to New Record in First Quarter 2022, SEMI Reports (Monday May. 02, 2022)
  Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments in the first quarter of 2022 surpassed the previous record high set in the third quarter of 2021, rising 1% quarter-over-quarter to 3,679 million square inches, according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 23% in Q1 2022 Compared to Q1 2021 (Monday May. 02, 2022)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors totaled $151.7 billion during the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 23.0% over the first quarter of 2021, but 0.5% less than the fourth quarter of 2021.
  
  
• How eFPGA IP suppliers are all set to raise the SoC design game (Monday May. 02, 2022)
  The embedded FPGA (eFPGA) technology continues to build momentum as system-on-chip (SoC) designers look to incorporate reconfigurability into their communication and data center chips. Then there are the Internet of Things (IoT), industrial, consumer, and aerospace/defense industries, taking advantage of eFPGA technology by enabling a single SoC to service multiple applications, each with slightly different requirements.
  
  
• Tackling the challenges of RISC-V (Monday May. 02, 2022)
  
  
  
• Intel's foundry foray and its influence on the EDA, IP industries (Thursday Apr. 28, 2022)
  Intel continues to bolster its foundry business while making a concerted effort to get the company back on track in offering leading-edge silicon processes to fabless customers. Like IC design, the EDA and IP industries are an intrinsic part of the IC manufacturing ecosystem; and fabs spearhead it. That begs a fundamental question: How will Intel’s fab business influence these two significant semiconductor industry segments?
  
  
• Top 10 Companies Hold 57% of Global Semi Marketshare (Wednesday Apr. 27, 2022)
  In 2021, the top 50 semiconductor suppliers, not including the pure-play foundries, represented 89% of the total $614.6 billion worldwide semiconductor market, up eight points from the 81% share the top 50 companies held in 2010.
  
  
• Localization of Chip Manufacturing Rising. Taiwan to Control 48% of Global Foundry Capacity in 2022, Says TrendForce (Monday Apr. 25, 2022)
  In 2022, Taiwan will account for approximately 48% of global 12-inch equivalent wafer foundry production capacity. Only looking at 12-inch wafer production capacity with more than 50% market share, the market share of advanced processes below 16nm (inclusive) will be as high as 61%.
  
  
• Wafer Capacity Forecast to Climb 8.7% As 10 New Fabs Enter Production (Monday Apr. 25, 2022)
  The 8.7% jump in IC industry capacity forecast for 2022 will come primarily from the addition of 10 new 300mm wafer fabs that are scheduled to open this year (three less than were added in 2021). The biggest increases in capacity are expected to come from the large new memory fabs of SK Hynix and Winbond as well as the three new fabs (two in Taiwan; one in China) from TSMC, the world’s largest pure-play foundry.
  
  
• How Investments in Manufacturing will Benefit the Semiconductor Ecosystem (Thursday Apr. 14, 2022)
  2022 has seen a steady stream of large–scale investments from some of the world’s largest chip manufacturers
  
  
• Gartner Says Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue Grew 26% in 2021 (Thursday Apr. 14, 2022)
  Worldwide semiconductor revenue totaled $595 billion in 2021, an increase of 26.3% from 2020, according to final results by Gartner, Inc.
  
  
• Total IC Unit Shipments Forecast to Climb 9% This Year (Thursday Apr. 14, 2022)
  In the 2Q Update, IC Insights forecasts worldwide IC unit shipments will increase 9.2% this year to 427.7 billion units and resume tracking with the long-term IC unit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4%.
  
  
• 2021 Global Semiconductor Equipment Sales Surge 44% to Industry Record $102.6 Billion, SEMI Reports (Wednesday Apr. 13, 2022)
  Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in 2021 surged 44% to an all-time record of $102.6 billion from $71.2 billion in 2020
  
  
• 200mm Semiconductor Fab Capacity Set to Surge 21% to Mitigate Supply-Demand Imbalance, SEMI Reports (Monday Apr. 11, 2022)
  Semiconductor manufacturers worldwide are on track to boost 200mm fab capacity by 1.2 million wafers, or 21%, from the start of 2020 to the end of 2024 to hit a record high of 6.9 million wafers per month.
  
  
• Top Five Leaders Continue Expanding Share of Global IC Fab Capacity (Monday Apr. 11, 2022)
  At the end of 2021, 57% of the industry’s total monthly wafer capacity was owned by the top five companies. One year earlier the share was 56% and back in 2018 it was 53%. A decade ago, the share held by the top five was about 40%.
  
  
• Taipei Puts Case for Being Close to Core of Semiconductor Ecosystem (Monday Apr. 11, 2022)
  Taiwan is well known as home to the world’s top semiconductor manufacturing company, so it’s no surprise that the electronics industry is also the largest sector for foreign direct investment (FDI) into Taiwan. The electronics sector represented around 16 percent of greenfield FDI projects in Taiwan in 2019–20, more than any other sector, according to GlobalData
  
  
• Chiplets Get a Formal Standard with UCIe 1.0 (Monday Apr. 11, 2022)
  The recently announced Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) 1.0 specification covers the die–to–die I/O physical layer, die–to–die protocols, and a software stack model leveraging PCI Express (PCIe) and Compute Express Link (CXL) industry standards.
  
  
• The Art of Predictability : How Axiomise is Making Formal Verification Mainstream (Friday Apr. 08, 2022)
  In this week’s Fish Fry podcast, Ashish Darbari (Founder and CEO at Axiomise) joins me to chat about the past, present and future of formal verification.
  
  
• RISC-V startup recruits former Agile Analog CEO Ramsdale (Thursday Apr. 07, 2022)
  High-performance RISC-V processor startup Rivos Inc. has hired Tim Ramsdale, formerly CEO of analog IP licesor Agile Analog Ltd., as the manager of its UK subsidiary.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 32.4% Year-to-Year, 3.4% Month-to-Month in February (Wednesday Apr. 06, 2022)
  SIA today announced global semiconductor industry sales were $52.5 billion in the month of February 2022, an increase of 32.4% over the February 2021 total of $39.6 billion and 3.4% more than the January 2022 total of $50.7 billion.
  
  
• Chinese Companies Hold Only 4% of Global IC Marketshare (Tuesday Apr. 05, 2022)
  U.S. companies captured 54% of the total worldwide IC market in 2021, propelled by a 47% share of IDM sales and a 68% share of fabless sales.