Today's Semiconductors Pulse
AMD CEO says AI boom revives focus on CPUs
AMD CEO Lisa Su said the rapid expansion of AI workloads is refocusing attention on central processing units. AMD also announced it will invest more than $10 billion in Taiwan’s ecosystem to accelerate AI infrastructure deployment.
Infineon Launches EU Flagship Project Moore4Power
Infineon is leading the EU‑backed Moore4Power project, uniting 62 European partners to develop heterogeneous power‑electronics platforms that blend silicon, SiC and GaN with sensing, control and communication functions. The initiative targets high‑impact sectors—wind turbines, electric‑vehicle charging and railway propulsion—to boost efficiency, cut CO₂ emissions and shrink device footprints. By leveraging AI‑assisted models, digital twins and automated workflows, Moore4Power aims to reduce the time from first fab sample to datasheet release to just one week. An embedded Digital Product Passport will deliver real‑time health data, supporting longer lifetimes and circular‑economy goals.
EC Approves €66m for German SiC Facility
The European Commission has approved a €288 million (≈$314 million) state‑aid package for two German semiconductor projects. €66 million (≈$72 million) will fund Zadient Materials Europe’s new plant in Bitterfeld to produce high‑purity silicon‑carbide (SiC) source material using a circular gas‑recovery process. The remaining...
Nvidia Beats Estimates, Raises Dividend 2,400% as AI Chip Demand Soars
Nvidia reported record $81.6 billion revenue, an 85% year‑over‑year increase, and lifted its quarterly cash dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 per share – a 2,400% hike. The earnings beat came with an $80 billion share‑repurchase authorization, prompting a mixed market reaction but...
Google Commits $190 B to AI, Says CFO Ruth Porat at I/O
At the I/O developer conference, Google president and chief investment officer Ruth Porat detailed a $190 billion AI budget for 2026, allocating roughly 40% to data‑center expansion and 60% to custom chips. The pledge underscores a full‑stack strategy that CTOs must...
Amkor Expands Arizona Packaging Plans as AMD Joins Advanced Packaging Customers
Amkor Technology announced the acquisition of an additional 67 acres adjacent to its existing 104‑acre campus in Arizona, paving the way for a new advanced‑packaging fab slated to begin production in 2028. The company confirmed a partnership with AMD to...
IBM and U.S. Commerce Dept. Launch $1 B Quantum Foundry, Part of $2 B CHIPS Initiative
IBM and the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a $1 billion grant to create America’s first purpose‑built quantum foundry for superconducting wafers. The award is part of a $2.013 billion CHIPS and Science Act package that also funds GlobalFoundries and other firms,...
Imec Says AI Scaling Needs More Orchestration Across Research, Design, Manufacturing
At ITF World 2026, imec CEO Patrick Vandenameele likened AI scaling to a violin that needs an orchestra, stressing that research, design, and manufacturing must operate in concert. He urged deeper collaboration among foundries, fabless firms, EDA vendors, equipment suppliers,...
ST Gate Drivers Ensure High Energy Efficiency in Battery-Operated Equipment
STMicroelectronics introduced the STDRIVE102 family of gate‑driver ICs for three‑phase brushless motors, adding SPI‑enabled STDRIVE102P and STDRIVE102BP variants. The devices operate from 6 V to 50 V, drive six external N‑channel MOSFETs, and feature an ultra‑low 50 nA standby current to maximize battery...
Intel Begins Mass Production of 288‑Core Xeon 6+ “Clearwater Forest” CPUs on 18A Process
Intel announced today that its next‑gen Xeon 6+ “Clearwater Forest” processors are in full‑scale production on the 18A node. The chips pack up to 288 Darkmont E‑cores, 576 MB of on‑package L3 cache and a 450 W TDP, promising a 38% reduction...
Samsung's AI‑Driven Growth Tops $1 Trillion, Workers Secure Bonus Boost in Tentative Deal
Samsung Electronics, now valued at over $1 trillion thanks to AI‑driven memory chip demand, reached a tentative agreement with unions to scrap a 50% bonus cap and allocate 10.5% of semiconductor division profits to bonuses. The pact, reached hours before a...
HM - FMFM _ Fleetscale Memory Fault Management - Workstream - (2026-01-13)
The FMFM workstream convened to review progress on Fleetscale Memory Fault Management, focusing on logging requirements, standards adoption, and recent research presented by Roy. Participants debated whether to prioritize DDR5 or LPDDR logging, noting DDR5’s easier integration with existing specifications...
Angstrom Era Resets Semiconductors; LAM Accelerates New Geometries
Enjoyed kicking off the day with @LamResearch CEO Tim Archer and discussing why this moment for semis is different, how the angstrom era is causing a reset in semis, and what LAM is doing to help accelerate the adoption of...
Scaling Intelligence Through the Memory Hierarchy with Solidigm
Kapil Kirkra, senior principal engineer at Solidigm, argued that scaling AI intelligence requires a third, often overlooked axis: memory capacity. While larger models and more compute dominate headlines, the talk demonstrated how the memory hierarchy—from high‑bandwidth HBM to NVMe SSD...
Jensen Huang on U.S.-China Relations Following His Trip with Trump
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO, addressed U.S.-China relations after returning from a trip with President Trump, focusing on the stalled approval of the H200 AI accelerator for Chinese customers. He emphasized that neither he nor the company can predict when Chinese...
Meta, Broadcom and Others to Launch $125 Million Semiconductor Research Hub at UCLA
Meta, Broadcom, Applied Materials, GlobalFoundries and Synopsys are investing $125 million to launch a five‑year Semiconductor Hub at UCLA's Samueli School of Engineering. The center will support research across chip design, equipment, software and manufacturing, aiming to accelerate AI‑powered chip innovations....
Nvidia Beats Earnings but China Bans RTX 5090D V2, Sparking Valuation Concerns
Nvidia reported record semiconductor revenue and topped earnings estimates, but a Chinese customs ban on its RTX 5090D V2 gaming chip and stalled H200 AI chip approvals have raised valuation worries for investors. The ban comes as China’s share of...
US To Award $2 Billion To Quantum Companies, Take Equity Stakes
The U.S. Department of Commerce is set to award roughly $2 billion in grants to nine quantum‑computing firms, with the federal government taking equity stakes in each recipient. IBM will receive the largest portion—about $1 billion—and will pair it with an equal...
Can a Sparse-AI Hardware Architecture for Data Centers Work?
Weight‑pruning and activation sparsity can compress neural networks up to 50× and reduce compute by 2‑10×, creating a theoretical two‑order‑of‑magnitude MAC reduction. The Sparse Computing Core Technology (SCCT) architecture leverages a multibus design with private SRAM per lane, offering three...