EDA And IP Numbers Up Again, But Numbers Are More Nuanced
Electronic design automation (EDA) and semiconductor IP revenue rose 10.3% in Q4 2025, reaching $5.466 billion versus $4.955 billion a year earlier. The CAE segment led the growth, up 9.4% to $2.083 billion, while non‑reporting IP firms—dominated by Arm—jumped 24.7% to $1.413 billion. Reporting IP companies lagged, growing only 6.8% in the quarter and 3% over the past four quarters, and physical‑design revenue slipped 2.6%. Services revenue, however, surged 19.6% to $233.9 million.
Samsung Fabs Memory Gold
Samsung Electronics reported a preliminary first‑quarter 2026 operating profit that surged 755% year‑on‑year, driven by soaring high‑bandwidth memory (HBM) prices. Revenue jumped 68% to ₩133 trillion (about $88.5 billion), while operating profit reached ₩51 trillion (roughly $37.9 billion). The profit outstrips Micron’s total quarterly...
Intel, SambaNova Bet on Split Inference as Agentic AI Strains GPUs
Intel and SambaNova announced a heterogeneous inference architecture designed for agentic AI workloads, dividing tasks among GPUs for prompt prefill, SambaNova’s reconfigurable dataflow units (RDUs) for token decode, and Intel Xeon 6 CPUs for orchestration. The three‑tier model aims to alleviate...
Google Makes It Easier for PyTorch Users to Switch to Its Own AI Chips
Google officially unveiled TorchTPU, a native PyTorch backend for its Tensor Processing Units, aiming to simplify migration from NVIDIA's CUDA ecosystem. Engineering lead Lee Howes highlighted the mature compiler stack and production‑grade reliability of TPUs as key advantages. The initiative...
Taiwanese Chip Makers Call on Government to Stockpile Helium, Liquid Natural Gas — TSIA Pleads for Strategic Supplies as US...
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, led by the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA), is urging the government to create strategic stockpiles of helium and liquefied natural gas (LNG) after a U.S.-Iran cease‑fire highlighted supply chain fragility. The island currently has only about...
Mobilint, Lotte Innovate to Pilot NPU Deployment in Industrial Sites
Mobilint and Lotte Innovate have signed a memorandum of understanding to pilot neural processing unit (NPU) deployments across Lotte Group’s manufacturing and distribution sites. The collaboration will focus on on‑device and edge AI applications, including humanoid robots that leverage vision‑language‑action...
AMD Embedded+ Platform Used to Develop AI Security System
AMD announced that its Embedded+ platform, which fuses a Ryzen embedded processor with a Versal adaptive SoC, was used by Fujisoft to build an AI‑powered industrial security system. The solution runs on a single board, leveraging the CPU for high‑performance...
Intel's New Orbit: From Chip Lag to Leading Edge
Intel announced a $25 billion Terafab alliance that places the company at the core of chip production for Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, marking a decisive validation of its foundry strategy. The news sent Intel shares up about 4% on heavy volume,...
Obsolete Xilinx IC Chips: Sourcing & Replacement Solutions
Companies needing discontinued Xilinx FPGA chips can now source them via a dedicated platform that matches requests with verified global suppliers within 24‑48 hours. The service also offers replacement options, including newer AMD‑Xilinx families, alternative vendors, or ASIC redesigns. Obsolete...
EOL Semiconductor Components: Sourcing & Replacement Solutions
End‑of‑life (EOL) semiconductor components are no longer manufactured, creating sourcing challenges and supply‑chain risk. Companies can address the gap by buying remaining inventory, executing a last‑time buy, or redesigning with newer parts. AnySilicon’s platform connects buyers with a global network...
Obsolete Semiconductors: Sourcing, Replacement & Supply Solutions
Obsolete semiconductors are components no longer produced or supported, creating scarcity and price pressure for legacy products. Companies face production delays, counterfeit risk, and costly redesigns when critical ICs disappear. The article outlines three mitigation paths—sourcing existing stock, finding pin‑compatible...
Europe at a Turning Point for PCB Base Materials
Europe’s PCB base‑material market has narrowed to a single supplier, Isola GmbH, and one copper‑foil producer, CircuitFoil, after the loss of woven electronic‑glass manufacturers. OEMs in space, aerospace and defence are now prioritising supply‑chain security and reliability over cost, shifting...
Samsung Electro-Mechanics Supplies Glass Substrate Samples to Apple
Samsung Electro-Mechanics has begun supplying glass substrate samples to Apple, expanding beyond its earlier collaboration with Broadcom. The glass core replaces organic material in flip‑chip BGA substrates, offering superior flatness and lower thermal expansion, which is critical as AI chips...
Genesem Secures Orders From Three Major Indian Semiconductor Packaging Customers
Genesem has secured three major Indian semiconductor packaging contracts, including a 5 billion‑won (~$3.8 million) order from company C and a 15 billion‑won (~$11.3 million) order from company K. The company projects Indian revenue of 20‑25 billion won (~$15‑$19 million) this year, roughly a quarter of...
Imec Receives World’s Most Advanced High NA EUV System
imec has installed ASML’s EXE:5200 High NA EUV lithography system, the most advanced tool of its kind, in its 300 mm cleanroom in Leuven. The machine enables research into sub‑2 nm logic and high‑density memory, positioning imec as a European hub for...
DTI Ramps up $110-B Semiconductor Export Plan
The Philippine Department of Trade and Industry unveiled a five‑year roadmap to lift semiconductor and electronics exports to $110 billion by 2030, more than twice today’s level. The plan targets $70 billion in semiconductor sales and $40 billion in broader electronics shipments, backed...
Blog Review: Apr. 8
The April 8 blog roundup from Semiconductor Engineering spotlights a wave of technical breakthroughs across the semiconductor ecosystem. Cadence unveils LPDDR6 with built‑in metadata, row‑hammer mitigation and three‑rail DVFS, while Synopsys and Siemens champion multiphysics and simulation‑driven digital twins for automotive...
China’s Shenzhen Activates Huawei-Powered AI Cluster
Shenzhen has activated a new supercomputing cluster built with 10,000 Huawei Ascend 910C AI accelerator cards, delivering 11,000 petaflops of performance. Combined with a 3,000‑petaflop system launched in 2025, the facility now offers 14,000 petaflops, and 92 % of its capacity...
Planet Labs Tests AI-Powered Object Detection On Satellite
Planet Labs successfully demonstrated artificial intelligence running directly on a satellite in orbit, using an NVIDIA Jetson Orin module to detect airplanes in an image of an airport captured at 500 km altitude. The onboard model processed the photo moments after...
ASUS Skips New Boards for Arrow Lake Refresh, Focuses on Next-Gen
ASUS confirmed it will not release new motherboards for Intel's upcoming Core Ultra 200S Plus refresh, opting to rely on the existing Intel 800 series boards built on the FCLGA1851 socket. The refresh offers only incremental performance gains, so manufacturers see little incentive...
Intel Serpent Lake Processors to Integrate NVIDIA RTX GPUs in 2028
Intel is planning a new processor family codenamed Serpent Lake, slated for a 2028 launch, that will integrate NVIDIA RTX graphics directly into the CPU package. The chips will combine Copper Shark performance cores with Golden Eagle efficiency cores, continuing...
Asian Tech Stocks Surge as U.S.-Iran Cease Fire Ease Hormuz Disruption Worries
Asian technology and semiconductor stocks rallied sharply after the United States and Iran agreed to a conditional two‑week cease‑fire that reopened the Strait of Hormuz. The de‑escalation eased fears over helium shortages, a critical input for chip manufacturing, prompting double‑digit...
Broadcom's Stock Jumps 6% After Chipmaker Expands Google, Anthropic Deals
Broadcom's stock jumped more than 6% on Tuesday, its second‑best trading day of the year. The rally followed announcements that the chipmaker will produce next‑generation AI chips for Google and has expanded its agreement with Anthropic, granting the startup access...
RIBER Delivers Strong Earnings Growth in 2025
RIBER reported 2025 results with revenue of €40.3 million (≈ $44.3 million), a 2 % decline year‑on‑year, while net income surged 27 % to €5.2 million (≈ $5.7 million). Gross margin rose to €15.6 million (≈ $17.2 million), reflecting a stronger product mix and pricing power. The company highlighted the commercial...
First Quantum Diamond Microscopy System Lands in US for Advanced Chip Failure Analysis
QuantumDiamonds GmbH has installed its QD m.1 quantum‑diamond microscopy system at Eurofins EAG Laboratories in Sunnyvale, marking the first North‑American deployment of a commercial QDM tool. The QD m.1 uses nitrogen‑vacancy centers in synthetic diamond to produce three‑dimensional, micrometer‑scale magnetic current maps of...
Microchip Hybrid MCU Targeted at Automotive, E-Mobility HMI Applications
Microchip Technology introduced the SAM9X75D5M, an AEC‑Q100 Grade 2‑qualified System‑in‑Package that combines an Arm926EJ‑S processor with 512 Mbit DDR2 SDRAM. The hybrid MCU targets automotive and e‑mobility human‑machine interfaces, supporting up to 10‑inch XGA displays via MIPI DSI, LVDS or parallel RGB....
Park Systems Cements Leadership in Nanometrology with New Global HQ
Park Systems Corp. has inaugurated a 27,000 m² global headquarters in Gwacheon, South Korea, featuring a 35‑system industrial cleanroom for semiconductor and advanced‑packaging metrology. The campus houses research and demonstration labs that let customers conduct live measurements on AFM, spectroscopic ellipsometry,...
G50 Corp Validates Golconda Gallium Metallurgy as Potential US Critical Mineral Supply Source
G50 Corp announced that metallurgical testing on its Golconda project in Arizona successfully concentrated gallium up to 70% and silver up to 97% using low‑cost screening and flotation methods. The same processes yielded a gold‑silver concentrate grading as high as...
Inside Taiwan’s Semiconductor Supremacy
Taiwan now supplies about 92% of the world’s most advanced logic chips (5 nm and below), cementing its role as the linchpin of the global tech supply chain. TSMC, the island’s pure‑play foundry, posted a 62.3% gross margin in Q4 2025 and...
New V2 UALink Specification Aims to Catch up to NVLink
The UALink Consortium released version 2.0 of its open‑source interconnect specification, adding a 200 Gbps data link, separate physical‑layer spec, In‑Network Compute, manageability tools and a chiplet integration model. The new common spec is designed to accelerate adoption of UALink in...
Bull of the Day: Lam Research (LRCX)
Lam Research (LRCX) dominates etch and deposition equipment, holding a near‑duopoly in two critical semiconductor manufacturing segments. The company is poised to benefit from AI‑driven demand, with earnings projected to rise 26.6% this year and 27% next year, while sales...
Top Ten (Less 5) Companies Granted Patents Last Year
In 2025, U.S. patent offices granted a record 323,272 patents, with Samsung Electronics topping the list at 7,054 approvals. TSMC followed with 4,194 patents, Qualcomm with 3,749, Huawei with 3,952, and Samsung Display secured 2,859. Asian firms dominated the landscape,...
Apple Faces 'Massive Dilemma' With Success of the MacBook Neo
Apple’s low‑cost MacBook Neo is selling faster than its supply of binned A18 Pro chips, which have a GPU core disabled to hit the 5‑core configuration. The shortage could exhaust the five‑to‑six‑million unit run before the next‑generation A19 Pro‑based model...
JEDEC Announces May Forums on Next-Gen Memory for AI, Server, Cloud, and Mobile Computing
JEDEC will host two back‑to‑back forums on May 12‑13, 2026 in San Jose, focusing on next‑generation memory for mobile, edge, server, cloud and AI workloads. The events feature keynotes from industry giants such as AMD, Intel, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and...
Intel Joins Musk’s Terafab as AI Compute Race Expands to Space
Intel announced its participation in Elon Musk’s Terafab initiative, a joint effort with Tesla, SpaceX and xAI to build massive AI chip capacity. The project targets producing one terawatt of compute per year, leveraging Intel’s design, fabrication and advanced packaging...
Intel Gets Trapped in Elon’s Reality Distortion Field as It Joins in Megafab Delusions
Intel announced it is joining Elon Musk’s ambitious Terafab project, a proposed megafab intended to produce enough chips to power orbital data‑center AI and future Tesla hardware. The company says it will help "refactor silicon fab technology," but offered no...
APEC 2026: Menlo Micro Brings MEMS-Based Power Switching on the Strength of Navy Program Milestone
Menlo Micro showcased its Ideal Switch MEMS power‑switching technology at APEC 2026, highlighting a Navy‑backed milestone that completed Task 4 of the U.S. Navy’s 10 MW Advanced Circuit Breaker Development Program. The demonstration featured a 1,000 V, 500 A panel delivering 0.5 MW, built...
Construction of $20bn Terafab Project in Austin, Texas Advances as Intel Comes on Board
Intel announced its participation in Elon Musk’s $20 billion Terafab semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas. The joint venture, involving Tesla, SpaceX and now Intel, targets a 1 TW/year compute output to supply AI, robotics and space data‑center chips. Musk envisions a nine‑month...
The Evolving Role of Silicon in Power Electronics
Silicon power devices are not on the brink of extinction; iDEAL Semiconductor’s SuperQ RESURF MOSFET architecture demonstrates renewed vigor. By expanding the conduction area and trimming on‑resistance, the new silicon MOSFET rivals wide‑bandgap rivals while preserving silicon’s manufacturing and supply‑chain...
Uber Is the Latest to Be Won over by Amazon’s AI Chips
Uber is expanding its Amazon Web Services contract, adding more Graviton ARM‑based servers and launching a trial of AWS's Trainium3 AI chip. The shift moves additional ride‑sharing workloads from Uber's own data centers and from earlier Oracle and Google agreements...
Intel Joins Elon Musk's Terafab Chip Factory Project
Intel announced a partnership with Elon Musk’s companies—SpaceX, Tesla and xAI—to co‑develop the Terafab semiconductor factory. The joint effort targets a 1 terawatt‑year compute output to feed AI, robotics and autonomous‑vehicle workloads. Intel’s stock jumped 4.2% to $52.91, approaching a $54.60...
Nanopower Moves nPZero IC Into Volume Production for Ultra-Low-Power IoT
Nanopower Semiconductor announced that its nPZero power‑saving IC has entered volume production, moving from evaluation kits to large‑scale deployment. The chip targets battery‑powered and energy‑harvesting IoT devices by handling sensor polling independently of the host MCU. By using user‑defined thresholds,...
As AMD AI Narrative Changes, Here's What Comes Next
AMD's AI narrative has shifted from future promise to tangible earnings, with data‑center revenue reaching $5.4 billion in Q4 2025 and a $10.3 billion total. The company is betting on the MI450 accelerator and Helios rack‑scale platform as the next growth engine,...
Vultr Named NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud for Achieving Performance Targets on NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs
Vultr became one of the first NVIDIA Exemplar Cloud providers, meeting the performance standards of NVIDIA reference designs on Blackwell GPUs. The validation used a 512‑node HGX B200 cluster running eleven AI models, showing high throughput and efficiency. This achievement...
Intel to Join Musk’s Terafab in Surprise Move, Lifting Stock
Intel announced a partnership with Elon Musk’s Terafab project to develop next‑generation chips for AI, robotics, and autonomous systems. The chipmaker will help "refactor" the factory’s technology, a process aimed at boosting chip performance and reliability. The surprise move aligns...
Chinese Memory Giants to Gain Market Share via Lower Prices, Expanded Capacity: Analysts
Chinese memory chipmakers YMTC and CXMT are leveraging a 15% price advantage and new production lines to capture market share amid an AI‑driven super‑cycle. YMTC plans to start mass‑producing advanced NAND in Wuhan by late 2026, positioning itself as the...
Monolithic Bidirectional GaN Switch-Based Buck-Boost Converter
A novel condensed buck‑boost (CoBB) converter replaces the traditional multilevel flying‑capacitor architecture with a monolithic GaN bidirectional switch (BDS), cutting active device count and improving efficiency. The prototype, built with Transphorm (Renesas) GaN BDS devices, delivered over 95% efficiency at...
Metasurface Enables Supersensitive, Superfast Thermal-Based Photodetector
Researchers at Duke University have created a metasurface‑enhanced pyroelectric photodetector that operates at a record‑breaking 3‑dB bandwidth of 2.8 GHz, equivalent to a 125 picosecond rise time. The device uses an ultra‑thin array of silver nanocubes atop a gold mirror, separated by...
China Actively Targeting Taiwan's Chip Talent and Technology, Security Report Says
Taiwan’s National Security Bureau warned that Beijing is intensifying efforts to lure semiconductor engineers and intellectual property from the island. The campaign targets senior chip designers, researchers, and supply‑chain specialists with attractive salaries and research grants. By siphoning talent, China...
Anthropic Signs Massive Deal with Google and Broadcom for More Compute as Devs Hit Limits
Anthropic has struck a multi‑year, multi‑billion‑dollar partnership with Google Cloud and Broadcom to dramatically expand its compute capacity. The deal will provision roughly 10,000 new TPUs and custom Broadcom AI chips, allowing the company to lift the recent restriction on...