The Hot Take: They're the only manufacturer in an industry they monopolize. I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding...
U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick expresses concerns in a conversation with ASML executives that China has an EUV lithography system as ASML denies shipping such scanners to the PRC.
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The Hot Take: Domestic manufacturing is key.
Samsung's multi-billion dollar advanced chipmaking factory located in Taylor, Texas, is ready to start mass production of chips for clients.
The company has confirmed that everything is ready and that mass production of advanced chips for customers will begin next year.
2nm process advancement is underway as well
Margaret Han, Vice President of Samsung's foundry division in the US, said during the Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem Forum held at the company's US headquarters yesterday that “We are ready.” She added that “Customers will begin production at the Taylor fab starting next year.”
Samsung began construction on this factory back in 2022. Its total investment in the project is expected to exceed $17 billion. The company had previously said during the first quarter earnings call this year that the fab was “under construction.” It was stated that the goal was to begin operation within the year.
Tesla is among the customers who will have their chips produced at this factory. The carmaker already has a $16.5 billion deal with Samsung for the production of its AI5 and AI6 self-driving chips. Samsung will produce 2nm chips at the facility.
To further improve its technological edge at the US factory, Samsung will start building out the second-generation enhancement of its 2nm process in the near future. This process advancement has been tuned finely for AI workloads, potentially delivering a performance improvement of up to 30%.
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The Hot Take: We'll see where glass takes us, it's an interesting change for sure.
Intel Foundry is leading the race towards Glass Substrates with its Rio Rancho facility, aiming to become the world's first to initiate mass production. Glass Substrates Are The Future of Semiconductors & Intel Foundry is Well on Its Way To Become The First To Initiate Mass Production Glass Core substrates have been gaining interest, as they have several benefits over traditional organic substrate solutions. The current substrates are also facing shortages due to the AI supercycle, leading one of the biggest substrate suppliers, Ajinomoto, to raise prices. These supply constraints are pushing the industry to look into new advanced packaging solutions, and […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-foundry-rio-rancho-facility-crown-jewel-in-production-of-glass-substrates/
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The Hot Take: Will only complicate shortages once this hits.
The seemingly never-ending bonus-related saga at Samsung is now spurring a chain reaction across Asia's industrial heartland, with some TSMC employees now actively advocating for the tactics employed by Samsung's unions in recent days to counter the management's penny-pinching ways. TSMC Employees are increasingly coalescing around the idea of threatening Samsung-style strikes to defend their wage-related perks A lot of TSMC employees appear to be venting their rage in recent days on select Facebook pages, honing in on persistent rumors that TSMC might cut employee bonuses. Of course, TSMC has a special place within Taiwan's discourse, with the company often […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/tsmc-employees-are-exploding-with-rage-over-rumored-bonus-cuts-despite-a-58-profit-jump-and-are-coalescing-around-samsung-style-strikes/
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The Hot Take: We are going to need all the fabs we can get here.
ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said on Wednesday that he has spoken directly with Elon Musk about the TeraFab semiconductor project.
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The Hot Take: I feel this is FAR off, probably past PCIe 8.0 that just got written out.
Nvidia invests $300 million in Corning to help partners that deploy its hardware in the U.S. to get enough of optical fiber, grant Nvidia control over a significant chunk of domestic fiber production.
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The Hot Take: Better with less change seems to be a win!
Intel is preparing to present a refined version of its 18A process technology at the VLSI 2026 Symposium, introducing the 18A-P node as an optimized variant focused on improving power and performance characteristics without altering transistor density.
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The Hot Take: Intel winning all this business just means the domestic creation of products has accelerated to me. Only way they're going to get US Government Contracts or be able to sell in the US Borders. Prime example the router ban they just enacted.
Intel continues to see increased confidence for its upcoming Foundry technologies, such as 18A-P, 14A, and EMIB. Apple & Google Will Reportedly Leverage Intel Foundry 18A-P & EMIB Technologies, 14A Customers Also Lining Up. The Agentic AI and Inferencing boom has led to a significant surge in CPU demand. This has led major semiconductor companies such as TSMC to face severe supply constraints, all the while going on a large-scale expansion spree to meet demand. At the same time, Intel has been driving revenue up by selling off salvaged dies, but the company is also attracting the attention of various […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-18a-p-pulls-in-apple-next-m-chips-emib-reportedly-wins-google-tpuv8e/
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The Hot Take: Will be interesting to see where this goes. I'm wondering what type of cooling/heating this will bring using this medium over what it's replacing.
Amkor says that Glass Substrates, a packaging technology replacement for CoWoS spearheaded by Intel, is set for commercialization within 3 years. Intel-Partner, Amkor, Says Glass Substrates Will See First Commercialization Within Three Years Advanced Packaging is key to any major foundry business as chips are getting more and more complex to meet growing compute and memory demands. TSMC is the single-most important advanced packaging provider in the world thanks to its CoWoS 2.5D technology. Current chip requirements involve integration of HBM and logic chips in a single package & the number of HBM chips is expanding aggressively. Recently, OpenAI showcased […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-backed-glass-substrates-tech-will-be-commercilization-ready-within-three-years/
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The Hot Take: I'm wondering if they're holding out to see if China catches up to ASML's equipment as I know they are dumping boat loads of money to try and catch up to ASML's monopoly.
ASML has launched its 0.55 High Numerical Aperture Extreme Ultraviolet (High-NA EUV) in an effort to extend Moore's Law. The market had originally expected TSMC to adopt it first, but the company has held back. TSMC Senior Vice President of Global Business Kevin Zhang stated at the North America Technology Symposium that there are currently no plans to introduce High-NA EUV before 2029, mainly because "it's too expensive!" This decision also reflects how TSMC is shifting competition focus from equipment to process integration and cost efficiency.
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