Free Republic

The Chinese semiconductor industry faces a critical barrier in scaling up chip production, primarily due to the lack of lithography equipment in fabs. This limitation has confined firms like SMIC to a specific production volume and prevented them from scaling up significantly for several years now. Apart from developing in-house alternatives, it seems like Chinese engineers were actually keen to 'reverse engineer' ASML's DUV equipment, according to a report from The National Interest. Now, in the process of opening up the equipment, the individuals broke down the DUV machinery. This is actually interesting and hilarious at the same time. While...

Texas Instruments is building a $60 billion U.S. manufacturing megaproject where Apple vows to make "critical foundation semiconductors" for iPhones and other devices. CNBC went to Sherman, Texas, for an exclusive first look inside the newest fab of seven TI's building in Utah and Texas to provide U.S.-made chips to customers like Nvidia and Ford. TI shares have suffered amid tariff concerns, and it's lost analog market share for several years, but top leaders are confident about the huge spend. Why Texas Instruments Is Betting $60 Billion On Making Cheap Chips In The U.S. | 15:41 CNBC | 4.01M subscribers...

There are rumors that Intel and TSMC might team up to produce chips, and this news has stirred strong reactions from experts, industry insiders, politicians -- and, naturally, Intel employees, too. For example, one Intel engineer, Joseph Bonetti, posted on LinkedIn (though he later deleted his post) that Intel is about to reclaim its leadership in chip-making and win over more customers. He warned that giving TSMC control over Intel's manufacturing would be a big mistake.Intel is also leading in another area by using advanced machines from ASML -- a toolset with which only Intel has experience [sic]. Although Intel's...

Last month, during the thick of the holidays, I found myself in a rare though not totally unprecedented predicament: I wasn’t sure which way to bet on the stock market in the year ahead. In my December column, I told you there were three possible 2025 outcomes – all of them seemingly likely, and to a vexingly similar degree. I also told you that I’d come back to you when I could conclude which is, in fact, the most likely. Well, I’m back – and with an answer that has surprised me in more ways than one. Recall the three...

World trade is truly global and interconnected. Perhaps the chip industry exemplifies this most. Apple sells phones around the world that rely on manufacturing by TSMC who is in turn supplied by a Dutch company few investors know anything about. And it’s that little-known Dutch company that quite possibly triggered Warren Buffett to make a huge purchase in its most recent quarter. You’re about to discovery why.Back Up a SecondLet’s back up a moment and examine what happened. In its latest 13F filing, Warren Buffett announced that his holding company Berkshire had initiated a new position in TSMC, the world’s...

NEW YORK – China’s semiconductor industry has lagged the US in patents and lagged South Korea and Taiwan in fabrication, but it hopes to leapfrog its competition by adopting revolutionary new chip design technologies. Advanced chips used in 5G smartphones and some workstations squeeze billions of transistors onto a fingernail-sized chip by shrinking the dimensions of the transistor itself to 3 to 5 nanometers. Most chips have gate widths of 28 nanometers and higher. Etching tiny circuits on silicon is enormously difficult. Only the Dutch manufacturer ASML makes the lithography machines that use the short wavelengths at the extreme end...

SEOUL – The middle ground between China and the United States is collapsing under South Korea’s feet as it is torn in opposite directions by the two giant economies it seeks to balance between. On the one hand, it is being “requested” to submit detailed information on its flagship industrial sector to the United States – which is also pressuring the country’s number-two memory chipmaker to halt shipments of advanced machinery to China. That move could halt an upgrade to a major DRAM fab, in a sector where large-scale capital investment is crucial. On the other hand, the country’s diesel...

The great computer chip shortage of 2021 will likely get worse before it gets better. This conclusion was reached following brief study and anecdotal review. Moreover, while COVID lockdowns may have initially triggered the shortage, several decades of shortsighted decisions and simmering geopolitical tensions make it much more than a matter of fixing a few broken links in the supply chain. Here’s why… The world’s top two leading chip companies are Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics. These two Asian firms, combined, control more than 70 percent of the semiconductor manufacturing market. The U.S., which was once a leader,...

China Wants a Chip Machine From the Dutch. The U.S. Said No. Biden administration, continuing a Trump policy, seeks to stop ASML from selling China machines crucial to advanced microprocessors. https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-wants-a-chip-machine-from-the-dutch-the-u-s-said-no-11626514513 .