1. Texas Instruments breaks ground on new 12-inch plant in Utah
On 3 November, Texas Instruments announced that it had broken ground on a new 12-inch semiconductor wafer fabrication facility in Lihai, Utah. The plant is adjacent to the existing 12-inch wafer fab in Lihai. Upon completion, Texas Instruments' two fabs in Utah will produce tens of millions of analogue and embedded processing chips per day at full capacity.
Texas Instruments has a long-standing commitment to responsible, sustainable manufacturing. lFAB2 will be one of Texas Instruments' highly environmentally friendly fabs, with a goal of using 100 percent renewable power and further reducing waste, water and energy consumption through the advanced 12-inch wafer equipment and processes at the Lihue facility. lFAB2's water recycling rate is expected to be projected to nearly double that of the existing Texas Instruments fab at Lihue. Nearly double the existing Texas Instruments wafer fab in Lihai.
2. Agency: China's smartphone market is bottoming out, rebound is imminent
According to IT home news, market research agency TechInsights released 2023 three-quarter analysis of China's smartphone market, shipments fell 5% year-on-year, which is the 10th consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline. The agency said the consecutive decline in shipments was the result of factors such as weak consumer demand and an uncertain economic outlook. However, the rate of decline has stabilised in the quarter, indicating that the market is bottoming out and is expected to start recovering in the coming quarters.
The top five vendors collectively held 81 per cent of the market, down from 87 per cent a year ago. Huawei's shipments soared 50 per cent year-on-year in the quarter to take a 13 per cent share, thanks to its self-sufficient 5G phones. If Huawei is able to bring 5G-enabled terminal smartphones to market and overcome supply constraints, China's smartphone market could be "reshuffled" in the upcoming quarter, the agency analysed.
3. MediaTek and other mobile phone-related IC design houses to meet the wave of additional orders
According to TechCrunch Daily quoted in Taiwan Economic Daily, non-apple mobile phone-related chip factory this quarter reported good results, in Huawei's new machine created by the recovery atmosphere, as well as emerging markets, inventory de-stocking come to an end, customers have begun to increase single, MediaTek, Lian Yong, Duntai, Tiyu, Silicon Valley, and other mobile phone-related IC factory, have the opportunity to ride on this wave of customers to increase single tide.
Mobile phone-related IC manufacturers pointed out that many mobile phone brands in the Huawei published a new machine, feel the local market may turn good atmosphere, one after another began to increase the single. Demand for the worst period has passed, the market is gradually picking up; next year in the terminal generative AI into the mobile phone market triggered by the wave of replacement, is expected to feel more obvious recovery momentum in the third quarter of next year.
4.Samsung additional packaging line for the expansion of HBM production capacity
According to the Taiwan Electronic Times, Samsung Electronics in order to expand HBM production capacity, has acquired Samsung Display Tianan plant part of the building and equipment for HBM production. Samsung Electronics plans to build a new packaging line in the plant for mass production of HBM, the company has spent 10.5 billion won to buy the above buildings and equipment, etc., and expects to make an additional investment of 700 billion to 1 trillion won.
5. Analyst: Dell doubles AI server shipments next year
According to IT Home News, Ming-Chi Kuo, after completing a new round of supply chain investigations, said Dell has asked many AI server parts manufacturers with capacity bottlenecks to dramatically expand their capacity to 200%, and predicted that Dell's server shipments in 2024 will grow by 15%.
Kuo said that Dell AI server shipments in 2023 were in the range of 10-15,000 units due to chip supply constraints, although shipments next year are forecast to reach 25-30,000 units or higher. The most important reason for Dell to stand out is to get ahead of its competitors by launching PowerEdge servers with NVIDIA AI chips and partnering with Meta to help enterprise customers deploy Llama 2 AI models locally.
6.Ericsson was exposed to lay off its entire Guangzhou R&D team
According to Fast Tech News, Ericsson's R&D centre in Guangzhou has undergone a major personnel restructuring, with the entire 5G Tool R&D team laid off and only the marketing, sales, and technical support teams retained, according to Ericsson employees who exposed the company on social media platforms. It is said that the deadline for the layoffs is 31 December, and the compensation package is N+3 plus year-end bonus.
In the third quarter of this year, Ericsson's revenue of 64.5 billion Swedish kronor, down 5 per cent year-on-year, with a net loss of 30.5 billion Swedish kronor, compared to 5.4 billion Swedish kronor net profit in the same period last year. Ericsson's network organic business revenue in North America plummeted 60 per cent year-on-year, accounting for only 23 per cent of total revenue, compared with as much as 48 per cent previously.
