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.
Computer Architecture’s AlphaZero Moment Is Here
The paper argues that computer architecture has shifted from idea scarcity to evaluation scarcity, driven by large‑language models and autonomous pipelines. The open‑source Gauntlet system reproduced authors' solutions in 48 % of 85 recent ISCA/HPCA papers and proposed alternatives in another 50 %, each in ten‑to‑twenty minutes. This demonstrates that the bottleneck is now rapid, accurate evaluation rather than idea generation. Consequently, access to real‑world telemetry and integrated evaluation infrastructure becomes the critical success factor for future chip design.
ST Launches GaN Gate Drivers with Smart Protection
STMicroelectronics has unveiled two high‑speed half‑bridge gate drivers, the STDRIVEG212 and STDRIVEG612, aimed at enhanced‑mode GaN HEMTs for motion‑control and power‑conversion markets. The drivers support up to 220 V and 600 V on the high side, respectively, and integrate linear regulators, a...
Podcast Reveals Our Candid Thoughts on Top AI Startups
https://t.co/jf50aClz4V Remember those AI companies @Sallywf and I presented on Monday? Well here's our mental download podcast on what we *actually* think. Featuring @GroqInc, @Etched, Neuchips, @SambaNovaAI, @taalas_inc, and @positron_ai. https://t.co/cSbCvDhKln
Where $1bn Is Entry-Level
ADD Partners’ Rupesh Chatwani is urging UK integrated‑circuit startups to aim for billion‑dollar IPOs rather than modest $100 million exits. He argues that semiconductor ventures now require roughly $30 million of seed funding, and only a handful need to achieve $1 bn valuations...
Two AI Compute Leaders Deliver Strong Q1, Await CASCI Data
Two companies Two revenue reports. Two major players in AI compute Two ends of the supply chain — upstream & downstream Two incredibly strong 1Q results. But there’s more to see Watch for CASCI data on Monday. At https://t.co/oyOrkAZffd https://t.co/FADUmUCAYh
Speculation Swirls as GlobalFoundries May Acquire Codasip’s Low‑End RISC‑V Assets
Codasip is divesting its low‑end RISC‑V processor design unit, and industry observers suspect GlobalFoundries could be the buyer. The potential deal would broaden GlobalFoundries’ RISC‑V offerings, positioning it to challenge Arm and AMD in embedded and edge markets.
Google Cloud Expands Intel Xeon 6 Partnership, Boosting AI Hardware Rollout
Google Cloud announced a multiyear expansion of its AI infrastructure partnership with Intel, committing to deploy the new Xeon 6 CPUs for training and inference workloads. The move strengthens Intel's foothold in AI accelerators and signals a shift toward balanced...
Marvell’s AI XPU Wins Surge, Driving $75 B Pipeline and 38% Revenue Jump
Marvell Technology announced more than 20 multi‑generational AI XPU and XPU‑attach socket wins, pushing its data‑center revenue to $1.52 billion—a 37.8% year‑over‑year rise. The company now cites a $75 billion lifetime revenue pipeline, underscoring rapid adoption by hyperscalers and enterprise data centers.
Arm CEO Rene Haas Takes Senior SoftBank Role as AI Bets Surge
Arm chief executive Rene Haas is set to assume a senior position at SoftBank Group International, overseeing much of the conglomerate's global AI strategy while retaining his role at Arm. The appointment aligns SoftBank’s $30 billion OpenAI stake and Project Izanagi...
Amazon AWS AI Revenue Hits $15 B Annual Run Rate, Signaling Enterprise Cloud Surge
Amazon announced that AWS’s AI-related revenue has reached a $15 billion annual run rate, driven by soaring enterprise demand for generative AI and custom silicon. CEO Andy Jassy said the pace of AI adoption outstrips past tech revolutions, positioning AWS as...
The Case for GaN HEMTs in Class-D Audio
Class‑D audio amplifiers are overtaking linear topologies as efficiency demands rise across consumer, professional, and automotive markets. While silicon MOSFETs have traditionally handled the high‑speed switching, their parasitic capacitances and body‑diode recovery limit performance at higher frequencies. Gallium‑nitride (GaN) high‑electron‑mobility...
Chinese AI Firm Reveals $92M Nvidia Servers, No Longer
China AI Firm Discloses $92 Million of Banned Nvidia Chip Servers to Beijing Small numbers, and no longer "banned"..... https://t.co/Z0lwcvOKem
This New Chip Could Slash Data Center Energy Waste
Engineers at UC San Diego have unveiled a hybrid DC‑DC converter that blends a piezoelectric resonator with conventional capacitors, achieving 96.2% efficiency when stepping 48 V down to 4.8 V—levels typical for data‑center GPUs. The prototype delivers roughly four times the output...
TSMC Posts 35% Jump in Q1 Revenue
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported first‑quarter revenue of $35.6 billion, a 35% year‑over‑year rise and roughly $36 billion when converted from 1.13 trillion New Taiwan dollars. March alone saw a 45.2% YoY jump to about $13.3 billion in NTD terms. The surge was driven...
South Korean Chipmaker Partners with SKT, Arm for Sovereign AI
South Korean chipmaker Rebellions has teamed with SK Telecom and UK‑based Arm to build next‑generation AI inference systems that pair Arm’s newly designed data‑center CPU with Rebellions’ energy‑efficient AI chips. The joint solution will be tested in SK Telecom’s AI...
AI Chips Are A Looming Battlefield In U.S.-China Trade. What Investors Should Know.
The United States and China are intensifying a battle over AI‑chip supremacy as trade talks loom, with both sides racing to secure advanced semiconductor capacity. Washington is tightening export controls on Dutch‑maker ASML’s lithography tools, while China pushes 7 nm production...
Snap and Qualcomm Expand Strategic Collaboration to Advance Intelligent Computing Experiences on Specs
Snap subsidiary Specs Inc. announced a multi‑year strategic agreement with Qualcomm Technologies to power the upcoming Specs AR glasses with Snapdragon XR system‑on‑a‑chip solutions. The partnership will integrate on‑device AI, high‑performance graphics and multi‑user capabilities, creating a scalable platform for...
US and Silicon Valley Racing Against Taiwan Crisis
The U.S. and Silicon Valley may be running out of time to deal with Taiwan https://t.co/wOwL9qPmFF via @FastCompany Just in case you needed one more scenario to worry about this weekend.😳
SKT Develops Its Own AI Inference Tech
SK Telecom has teamed with UK chip designer Arm and Korean AI‑chip startup Rebellions to build AI inference server solutions that pair Arm’s newly announced AGI‑class CPU with Rebellions’ RebelCard accelerator. The joint offering targets inference workloads, promising higher performance...
Amazon’s Andy Jassy Says the Company May Sell Trainium Chips to Outside Customers, Putting the Business at $50B in Annual...
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced the company may begin selling its proprietary Trainium AI chips to external customers. A full market rollout could lift the chip business from a $20 billion run rate to roughly $50 billion annually. Trainium, alongside Graviton and...
SKT Forges Alliance with Arm and Rebellions to Develop AI Servers for Data Centers
SK Telecom (SKT) has signed a strategic MoU with chip designer Arm and AI‑accelerator startup Rebellions to build AI inference servers for next‑generation data centers. The collaboration will fuse Arm’s new AGI CPU with Rebellions’ RebelCard accelerator, targeting higher power‑efficiency...
Google Cloud and Intel Expand Their Multiyear Partnership to Co-Develop Custom Chips for AI Infrastructure
Google Cloud and Intel have deepened their multiyear alliance, extending the use of Intel’s Xeon 6 processors for AI, cloud and inference workloads while expanding joint development of custom ASIC‑based infrastructure processing units (IPUs). The IPU effort, launched in 2021, targets...
TSMC Tops Q1 Sales Target On Strong AI Chip Demand
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) reported first‑quarter 2026 sales that topped analyst expectations, propelled by surging demand for artificial‑intelligence (AI) chips. The company’s revenue beat forecasts for both March and the full quarter, prompting a modest rise in its stock...
Memory Crunch Hammers Down Smartphone Shipments
A severe DRAM and NAND memory crunch, driven by AI data‑center construction, has squeezed the smartphone supply chain, pushing component prices up about 90% QoQ in Q1 2024. Apple emerged as the sole market‑share leader, posting a 21% share and...
KOSPI +1.40%: Foreign Capital Rotates Into HBM Supply Chain
Foreign investors poured into South Korea’s high‑bandwidth memory (HBM) and related AI‑infrastructure supply chain, lifting the KOSPI 1.4% as the KRW weakened. The inflow coincided with a post‑ceasefire risk‑premium compression and a 2.1% rally in the S&P 500, signaling targeted conviction...
SPINS Project Aims for Millions of Stable Semiconductor Qubits
The EU‑backed SPINS project secured a €50 million (~$54 million) investment to create a pan‑European research and production hub for semiconductor spin qubits. Coordinated by imec and involving 25 organisations, the consortium will develop three material platforms—Si/SiGe, Ge/GeSi and SOI—to deliver stable,...
Silex, Edge Impulse Team on Edge AI Development
Silex Technology and Edge Impulse have teamed up to integrate Edge Impulse’s end‑to‑end AI development platform with Silex’s EP‑200Q system‑on‑module, which runs on Qualcomm’s Dragonwing QCS6490 processor. The joint solution bundles a Wi‑Fi 7 driver and AI acceleration to simplify the...
Intel Remains the Sole US Alternative to TSMC
@LipBuTan1 brought Intel back to former glory. In reality, it is the only alternative to TSMC on the ground in the US https://t.co/XIwPsNxGo3
Chip Industry Week In Review
Intel announced three major moves: joining Elon Musk’s Terafab AI‑robotics fab targeting 1 TW of compute, expanding its multi‑year AI and cloud partnership with Google to include custom IPUs, and showcasing the world’s thinnest GaN chiplet from its foundry. Broadcom will...
Snapdragon 8 Gen 6 Pro: The 2nm Powerhouse Inside the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra
Leaks suggest Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S27 Ultra will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro, a 2 nm chipset featuring a 2‑plus‑3‑plus‑3 core layout and the Adreno 850 GPU with 18 MB of dedicated graphics memory. The device is also expected to be the first smartphone to...
China AI Firm Discloses $92 Million of Banned Nvidia Chip Servers to Beijing
Sharetronic Data Technology, a Shenzhen AI‑data‑center firm, disclosed invoices for 276 Super Micro servers equipped with Nvidia H100/H200 chips, valued at 632 million yuan (about $92 million). The hardware is subject to U.S. export bans that have been in place since 2022, yet the...
Cirrus Logic (CRUS) Valuation Check As Apple Recognition And Face ID Win Reshape Growth Outlook
Cirrus Logic (CRUS) re‑entered investor focus after Apple officially named it a supplier for the next generation of Face ID chips. The stock surged, posting a 19% gain in the past month and a 31% rise over the last 90 days,...
Jim Cramer Shows Positive Sentiment Toward Broadcom’s Google and Anthropic Deals
Jim Cramer praised Broadcom Inc. after the chipmaker announced two AI‑focused contracts, one with Google and another with Anthropic. The endorsement helped the stock surge more than 6% in after‑hours trading. Cramer highlighted Broadcom’s $1.5 trillion market cap and its broad...
The Race to Secure Data
Chip makers are racing to secure data both at rest and in motion as AI models expose software flaws faster than ever. Broadcom’s SecureHBA line now embeds post‑quantum cryptography on 64‑Gb/s Fibre Channel adapters and has taped out 128‑Gb/s silicon...
Anthropic Mulls Building Its Own AI Chips
Anthropic is weighing the development of its own AI chips as the industry grapples with a persistent silicon shortage. The move follows a surge in demand for its Claude chatbot, which pushed run‑rate revenue to roughly $30 billion, up from $9 billion...
Chiplet Architectures May Overcome Miniaturization Limits
Are Chiplet Architectures a Real Answer to Chip Miniaturization Limits? by @antgrasso #EmergingTech #Innovation #Tech #Technology https://t.co/piyQQEWYq6
Low-RDS(on) MOSFETs in Automotive Power Systems
STMicroelectronics has launched a new series of low‑RDS(on) MOSFETs built on its Smart STripFET F8 platform, beginning with the STL059N4S8AG – a 40 V, 420 A N‑channel device featuring a 0.59 mΩ on‑resistance and housed in a compact PowerFLAT 5×6 package. The technology reduces conduction...
Google's Compute Domination
Google’s Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) fleet expanded 11.5‑fold over seven quarters and now consumes more electricity than Microsoft’s entire AI compute stack. The growth rate is accelerating, with Q4 2025 adding more compute in a single quarter than xAI has built...
F&S M.2 AI Accelerator Uses NXP Ara-240 for Edge Inference Workloads
F&S Elektronik Systeme launched an M.2 AI accelerator powered by NXP Ara‑240, delivering up to 40 TOPS for edge inference. The module uses a standard M.2 Key‑M 2280 form factor, supports PCIe Gen3/Gen4 x4, and includes up to 16 GB LPDDR4 memory while drawing...
Intel Nova Lake-S Could Come with Optional 2L-ILM: Leak Suggests a Flatter IHS Contact for Enthusiast Boards
A leak from VideoCardz suggests Intel’s upcoming Nova Lake‑S platform may include an optional two‑lever independent loading mechanism (2L‑ILM) for high‑end enthusiast motherboards. The 2L‑ILM would provide a flatter contact surface between the CPU’s integrated heat spreader (IHS) and the cooler,...
TSMC Is Upgrading Japan’s Second Plant to the 3-Nanometer Process. Kumamoto Is Transitioning From a Backup Site to a True...
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has received approval to launch 3‑nanometer production at its second Japanese fab in Kumamoto, with equipment installation slated for 2026 and volume output expected in 2028. The plant will initially run at a capacity of...
SiFive Raises $400 Million; Nvidia Bets on RISC-V for Data Centers
SiFive announced a $400 million Series G financing round that values the RISC‑V IP company at $3.65 billion. Nvidia participated as an investor, reinforcing a joint plan to deliver high‑performance RISC‑V CPUs with NVLink Fusion connectivity for data‑center AI workloads. The capital will...
Scientists Develop Three-in-One Diode
Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have unveiled a GaN‑based PN junction photodiode that simultaneously handles photosensing, memory storage, and processing. By inserting an n‑AlGaN charge‑storage layer, the device can switch among three functional modes using...
Marktech Launches High Power 280nm UVC LEDs
Marktech Optoelectronics has introduced a family of high‑power 280 nm UVC LEDs available in single‑, two‑ and four‑chip formats. The devices deliver wall‑plug efficiencies up to 7% and are rated for more than 15,000 hours at the L70 degradation point. By...
Riber Delivers Strong Earnings Growth in 2025
Riber posted 2025 full‑year results showing a modest 2% dip in revenue to €40.3 million (about $44 million) but a 27% jump in net income to €5.2 million ($5.7 million). The company’s operating margin improved to 13% of sales, aided by a favorable product...
Japanese Team Achieves 2 Μm-Band PCSEL Laser Oscillation
Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM) and Kyoto University have demonstrated laser oscillation in a 2 μm-band photonic crystal surface‑emitting laser (PCSEL). The breakthrough showcases PCSEL’s ability to deliver high directionality and ultra‑narrow linewidth in a compact infrared source. By operating at 2 μm,...
QuinAs Links Memory Device Physics to AI Performance
QuInAs Technology has published research linking its ULTRARAM compound‑semiconductor memory device directly to AI system performance. The paper introduces a physics‑based compact modelling framework that captures resonant tunnelling and floating‑gate dynamics, enabling hardware‑aware benchmarking of ULTRARAM as a synaptic element...
CEA-Leti, CEA-List and PSMC Collaborate
CEA‑List, CEA‑Leti and PSMC announced a collaboration to merge RISC‑V processor IP with silicon‑photonic interconnects on PSMC’s 3D‑stacking platform, targeting next‑generation AI systems. The joint effort will embed customizable RISC‑V compute blocks and microLED‑based optical links into high‑bandwidth chiplet architectures,...
AI Compute Boom Propels Foundry 2.0 Market to $360 Billion
The AI‑driven compute boom is pushing the Foundry 2.0 market toward a $360 billion valuation in 2026, with advanced nodes and CoWoS packaging remaining scarce. TSMC raised its 3 nm capacity target to 165,000 wafers per month and aims for a 44% market...
Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Semiconductor Revenue to Exceed $1.3 Trillion in 2026
Gartner projects worldwide semiconductor revenue to exceed $1.3 trillion in 2026, reflecting a 64 % year‑over‑year increase. Memory revenue is expected to triple as DRAM and NAND flash prices surge 125 % and 234 % respectively, a phenomenon Gartner dubs “memflation.” AI semiconductors will...