Today's Semiconductors Pulse
SMIC clears final hurdle for $5.97B takeover of SMNC
China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) secured regulatory approval to acquire the remaining 49 % of its Beijing‑based unit SMNC, valuing the stake at 40.6 billion yuan (≈$5.97 bn). The transaction will be funded by issuing 547.2 million A‑shares at ¥74.20 ($10.91) each, with a 12‑month lock‑up for sellers, making SMNC a wholly‑owned subsidiary.
ADIOS First Order Tops $1 Million as Supply Risks Rise
ADIOS Electronics, the new outsourcing and broker unit of Anglia Components, secured its first $1 million order less than a year after launching. The company positions itself as a hybrid between traditional authorised distributors and flexible brokers, holding stocked inventory of analog semiconductors from ADI, Linear Technology and Maxim. The milestone arrives as the industry faces tightening component availability, price increases of 5‑15% and lead times extending beyond 20 weeks. Analysts view the order as a proof point for alternative sourcing channels amid growing supply risks.
Artilux Unveils Inception Hybrid Optoelectronic AI Architecture
Artilux introduced Inception, a hybrid optoelectronic AI architecture that replaces traditional digital compute blocks with a photonics‑electronics systolic array. The design delivers orders‑of‑magnitude improvements in power and area efficiency while using mature CMOS processes and eliminating the need for active...
Wonik QnC to Expand Gumi Plant to Meet Surging Semiconductor Demand
Wonik QnC announced an expansion of its Gumi plant in South Korea, with construction slated to begin next month and production ramp‑up expected in the first half of next year. The project represents an investment of less than 5% of...
Liquid Cooling Option STR Provides SLT and BI Solution for HPC, AI and Automotive Devices
Advantest unveiled the TAS 7038 Single Test Rack (STR), a compact, liquid‑cooled system‑level test platform aimed at AI, automotive and high‑performance computing devices. The STR retains full compatibility with the larger 7038 family while shrinking the footprint to a single‑rack configuration,...
Meta Hikes Quest 3 and Quest 3S Prices as RAM Shortage Squeezes VR Costs
Meta announced a price increase for its Quest 3 and Quest 3S VR headsets effective April 19, citing a global shortage of DRAM that has driven component costs higher. The move underscores mounting supply‑chain pressures on consumer‑tech hardware and could...
Quantum Stocks Surge Over 50% as Nvidia Unveils Open‑Source AI Models
Nvidia's launch of open‑source AI models built to accelerate quantum workloads sent quantum‑computing stocks soaring. Xanadu Quantum Technologies led the charge, jumping 54% to a $7.9 billion market cap, while D‑Wave, IonQ and others posted double‑digit gains. The rally underscores growing...
SemiLEDs’ Quarterly Revenue More than Halves
SemiLEDs Corp reported fiscal Q2 2026 revenue of $1.064 million, a drop of more than 50% from the $2.57 million earned in the prior quarter and sharply below the $10.87 million a year earlier. The decline stems from the absence of any buy‑sell equipment...
Why Anthropic's Custom Chip Plans Could Benefit Broadcom
Anthropic, a fast‑growing large language model developer, saw its annual revenue run rate jump from $9 billion to over $30 billion between late 2025 and early 2026. To support this expansion, it is using Broadcom’s TPU‑based AI compute, accessing 3.5 GW of capacity...
Jensen Vs. Dwarkesh on China Chips
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and analyst Dwarkesh Patel sparred over China’s access to advanced chips. Huang argued that retaining a U.S.‑centric technology stack and collaborative research would keep China dependent, while Patel warned that supplying the world’s best GPUs makes...
Yageo Sees Steady AI Demand Supporting High-End Passive Component Growth
Yageo reported that AI‑related demand continues to underpin its Q2 outlook, with AI applications accounting for roughly 13%‑15% of Q1 revenue and order momentum staying steady. Tantalum capacitors, especially polymer‑based types, showed the strongest growth, and the company expects this...
TSMC Expands Global 3nm Capacity to Meet Rising AI Demand
TSMC announced an accelerated rollout of its 3nm process across three continents to satisfy surging AI and high‑performance computing demand. A new 3nm fab at the Tainan GIGAFAB site in Taiwan will begin mass production in the first half of...
The Intel Arc Pro B65 Is Launching, and Intel Is Deliberately Positioning the Workstation Graphics Card Closer to the Gaming...
Intel introduced the Arc Pro B65 workstation GPU, a 32 GB GDDR6 card that blurs the line between professional and gaming graphics. The card ships with 20 Xe cores, 160 XMX engines, 608 GB/s bandwidth, a 200‑W TDP and PCIe 5.0 ×16 support. A WHQL driver...
Intel Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” Processor Family Launched for Entry-Level Laptops and Edge AI Systems
Intel officially launched the Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” processor family, its first hybrid AI‑ready Core line aimed at entry‑level laptops and edge AI devices. The SoC combines two performance cores with four efficiency cores, up to 2‑core Xe3 graphics, up...
Samsung Foundry VP Joins Intel Foundry
Samsung Foundry executive vice president Shawn (Seung Hoon) Han will join Intel Foundry Services as senior vice president and general manager in May, succeeding Kevin O’Buckley. Han will report to Intel’s EVP Naga Chandrasekaran and brings three decades of Samsung...
Anthropic May Add AMD MI450 GPUs to Stack
Rumour: Anthropic is planning to incorporate $AMD GPUs into their hardware stack for the first time starting from MI450.
RAM Crisis Fuels Fake SSDs and CPU Sales Slump
More fake SSDs and a CPU sales slump — the casualties of the RAM crisis are piling up, sadly. https://t.co/sdQQblnVyL
Amazon Pledges $200 Billion AI‑driven Data‑center Buildout, Reshaping Power Demand
Amazon announced a $200 billion investment in AI‑centric data‑center capacity, shifting to a supply‑led buildout that locks in power, land and silicon ahead of demand. The move raises questions about utilization, grid strain and the pace of sustainable energy procurement.
Compute Shortage Drives AMD, Amazon, Cerebras Deal Rush
Chatter being $AMD could get a deal with Anthropic which makes total sense given the compute shortage. I have been saying for a while I think Amazon is a good candidate also for Helios. Bottom line, all available viable compute will...
GPU Is the New X86; TPU Dominates AI
The reality is that that the GPU is the new x86. It’s general purpose. It has to be able to do a lot of things fairly well, but it’s an expert at nothing. The TPU is purpose built to run...
Wellcome Leap Announces $2M Prize in $50M Quantum for Bio Challenge Program
Wellcome Leap announced that Algorithmiq earned the $2 million prize in its $50 million Quantum for Bio (Q4Bio) Challenge, marking the first end‑to‑end quantum‑classical workflow that simulates a photosensitizer drug for photodynamic cancer therapy. The program, launched in 2023, devoted $40 million to...
Nvidia's AI Demand Shifts to Massive Deployment Wave
Nvidia's AI story is getting a major upgrade. Analysts are now convinced as demand shifts from just training models to the massive, long-term phase of deploying them everywhere. This "second wave" could be even bigger. AI
The Latest News In IC Packaging & Test
The semiconductor packaging and test ecosystem saw a wave of strategic investments and acquisitions in early 2026. Morocco’s RifSol Corp. announced a $1.7 billion 200 mm fab aimed at automotive‑grade legacy nodes, while India’s Kaynes Semicon opened an OSAT campus in Gujarat...
No Detuned GPUs Pushes China to Build XPUs Faster
Agree 100% with Gavin on this one. 1/ Yes China has its own aspirations. The question was how quickly they needed an alternative and the mandates and investment. 2/ NOT selling detuned GPU editions means they’re forced to do the...
How Controlling Light Inside a Tiny Resonator Could Speed AI Chips and Secure Communications
KAIST researchers unveiled a dual‑bus integrated photonic resonator that can precisely shape the spectrum and phase of light, overcoming the limitations of traditional single‑bus designs. The device enables engineered interference, allowing optical signals to be customized for high‑performance computing. Led...
Nvidia's $2 B Marvell Deal Highlights AI Infrastructure Surge and a Quiet Edge Play
Nvidia poured $2 billion into Marvell Technology to embed its NVLink Fusion interconnects in data‑center fabrics, cementing a high‑bandwidth AI backbone. The partnership also shines a light on Nokia, which is set to receive a $1 billion Nvidia investment for its AI‑RAN...
Chinese Chip Tool Makers Hit Record 2025 Revenues
Chinese domestic semiconductor equipment suppliers posted record revenues for the first three quarters of 2025, with Naura reporting roughly 27.1 billion yuan (about $3.8 billion), while AMEC and Piotech saw revenues rise more than five‑fold and 13‑fold respectively since 2020. The surge...
Our First Ryzen AI 5 430 Benchmarks Are in and They're a Mixed Bag
AMD’s new Ryzen AI 5 430, the latest mid‑range Zen 5 mobile processor, replaces the 2025 Ryzen AI 5 330 in budget‑to‑mid‑range laptops such as the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 2‑in‑1 15. Benchmarks show the 430 delivers up to 30% faster single‑threaded performance and a 1.5‑2× jump in integrated graphics speed...
Genesem Wins 6 Billion-Won HBM Backend Equipment Order From SK Hynix
Genesem announced a 6 billion‑won ($4.4 million) contract with SK Hynix to supply high‑bandwidth memory (HBM) backend equipment, roughly 10.6% of its prior‑year revenue. The order, running through Sept. 15, is expected to center on vacuum mounters that protect ultra‑thin DRAM wafers. Payment terms...
ASML Targets More Than Doubling EUV Output Capacity by 2027
ASML announced plans to more than double its low‑numerical‑aperture (Low‑NA) EUV lithography output, targeting at least 80 systems by 2027 versus 44 shipped in 2023. The company says improvements in component supply, faster assembly, and higher wafer‑throughput (260 wafers per...
Samsung Tests Domestic EUV Mask Blanks in 4nm Foundry Production Line
Samsung Electronics has begun testing EUV blank masks from South Korean supplier S&S Tech in its high‑volume 4‑nanometer foundry line, marking the first use of domestically produced masks in mass production. The move follows earlier R&D‑level trials and targets a...
WEBINAR: Beyond Moore’s Law and The Future of Semiconductor Manufacturing Intelligence
The SemiWiki webinar on April 23 2026 gathered leading AI, EDA and fab executives to discuss how semiconductor manufacturing is moving beyond Moore’s Law. Speakers highlighted AI‑driven digital twins, predictive metrology, agentic AI and generative design as tools to tame the complexity...
Intel Rumored to Extend LGA1700 Platform with Raptor Lake Refresh Until 2027
Intel plans to extend the LGA1700 desktop platform through early 2027 by launching a Raptor Lake Refresh family. The new CPUs will fit existing motherboards and support both DDR4 and DDR5, letting users boost performance without a full system overhaul....
AMD Reportedly Plans Ryzen 7 5800X3D Anniversary Edition Comeback for AM4
AMD is reportedly preparing an anniversary‑edition of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D for the AM4 socket, reviving the 2022 chip without hardware changes. The processor retains its 8‑core/16‑thread design, 3.4 GHz base clock, 4.5 GHz boost and a massive 96 MB 3D V‑Cache. By re‑launching on the...
Google Shows Axion ARM CPUs Cutting Energy Use and Boosting Performance on GKE
Google Cloud executives Jago Macleod and Abdel Sghiouar told KubeCon Europe that a year of production with the company’s custom Arm‑based Axion processors has made moving container workloads to Arm a routine scheduling decision. The firm claims 50% higher performance,...
Span and Nvidia Launch XFRA: Distributed AI Nodes for Homes Target 1 GW by 2027
Smart panel maker Span and chip giant Nvidia announced a partnership to roll out XFRA, a network of backyard AI compute nodes. A proof‑of‑concept of 100 nodes will be installed in new‑construction homes in the Southwest in Q3 2026, with a...
Chip Packaging: The Glue Powering Modern Electronics
Inside every laptop or desktop is a circuit board filled with tiny electronic components, many of which are silicon chips. These chips may look like simple rectangular blocks, but on their own, they cannot do much without being connected to...
Below the Surface: From Substrate to System—Why Integration Is the Real RF Breakthrough
Chandra Gupta argues that the true breakthrough in RF engineering lies not in the ceramic substrate alone but in the seamless integration of substrate, package, and module. Modern RF packages are treated as electrical elements, with engineered transitions that preserve...
The System Architect’s Sketchbook: The Coherency Wall
Deepak Shankar, founder of Mirabilis Design, released a cartoon titled “The system architect’s sketchbook: The coherency wall” to illustrate the growing challenges of memory‑coherency in modern multi‑core chip designs. The illustration, shared on EDN, visualizes how increasing core counts create...
Wilkinson Divider/Combiner Reduces Insertion Loss
Vishay introduced the WLKN-000, a two‑way Wilkinson power divider/combiner that covers 15 GHz‑20 GHz with a center frequency of 18 GHz. The surface‑mount device delivers insertion loss below 0.5 dB under 19 GHz and return loss between 10 dB and 15 dB, while maintaining output‑to‑output isolation better...
Digital Isolators Strengthen Industrial Systems
Diodes introduced the API782x series, a dual‑channel digital isolator that delivers 5.7 kVRMS isolation for one minute per UL 1577. The devices meet VDE, UL and CQC standards, offering 8 kV peak isolation and 12.8 kV surge capability, with a predicted 40‑year operational life....
Limited Chip Exports Preserve US Edge, Fuel China’s Future AI
Jensen's arguments against chip export controls didn't make a ton of sense to me, but here's a steelman: selling a limited quantity of n-1 generation chips to China could undercut their domestic industry, while retaining a 10x American compute advantage. Totally...
China Doubles AI‑Science Compute Without US Chips
China doubles ‘AI for science’ computing scale in 2 months using no US chips | South China Morning Post https://t.co/3H0S5aW1UM
Rebellions Supplies 'Rebel100' AI Chip to KT for LLM Inference
South Korean AI chip startup Rebellions has delivered its second‑generation Rebel100 NPU to telecom giant KT, aiming to boost cost efficiency for large language model (LLM) inference. The 4‑nanometer, HBM3E‑equipped chip can perform up to one quadrillion operations per second...
Intel Nears ATH; Terafab Deal May Redefine Foundry Landscape
Intel ~9 % away from ATH. I also think the terafab deal may be more consequential in many respects than is realized today. Wait until you see my foundry model :)
AMD's Massive Growth Won’t Require Nvidia Share
$AMD doesn’t have to take share from $NVDA to achieve massive DC growth. This was always going to happen. 👏🏻
Intel Formally Announces Core Series 3 "Wildcat Lake"
Intel officially launched its Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” low‑end mobile processors, the first 18A chips positioned below the Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” SoCs. The lineup targets value‑oriented laptops, commercial devices and edge hardware, promising 47% higher single‑thread, up to...
TSMC's Historic Quarter: What Happened and What’s Next
Join the Culpium substack chat in 4mins. TSMC's historic quarter. What just happened, and what's to come. Subscribers only (but it's free) https://t.co/vqv9GQYyVZ
TSMC Signals New LPU Bid, Samsung's Groq Order Uncertain
TSMC hints at next-gen LPU bid, stokes speculation that Samsung's Groq order may not last https://t.co/hGNZ3E1yBn
Mission Accomplished: Infineon Technology Proves Reliable Once Again in Space on Artemis II
Infineon Technologies’ radiation‑hardened semiconductors performed without fault during NASA’s Artemis II Orion capsule mission, which spent ten days in deep space and set a new distance record for crewed flight. The company highlighted its long heritage, dating to the 1970s, of...
CargoSense Lands Strategic Investment From MegaChips to Scale AI‑Driven Supply‑Chain Platform
CargoSense announced a strategic investment from Japan's MegaChips Corporation, forming a partnership to bring its autonomous supply‑chain execution platform to data‑center construction and pharmaceutical logistics. While the financial terms were not disclosed, the deal signals rapid adoption of AI‑driven coordination...