Manufacturers that make Arm chips license tech from British developer Arm Holdings, with the option of licensing Arm’s instruction set to build proprietary CPU designs or licensing one of Arm’s Cortex CPU designs. Amid a legal dispute that started two years ago over Qualcomm’s $1.4 billion acquisition of silicon design firm Nuvia, Arm has given its longtime partner Qualcomm a 60-day notice of its license cancellation. If the two companies do not come to an agreement in that time, Qualcomm will have to cease manufacturing Arm chips, which could have a significant impact on the global supply chain, Qualcomm’s revenue, and smartphone makers that use Qualcomm chips. Continue reading Arm Cancels Qualcomm Architecture License in Legal Dispute

Samsung Electronics saw net profit rise sixfold in Q2, surging 46 percent — to $7.11 billion — compared to Q1. The buoyant results for the South Korean electronics manufacturer were driven by its semiconductor business and the demand for advanced chips needed to fuel the global boom in artificial intelligence. Although the company is the world’s top smartphone manufacturer, more than half of the quarter’s operating profit came from chip-making for the latest reporting period. Revenue for the April through June quarter resulted in a 23.42 percent increase year-over-year, while profit soared 1,458 percent. Continue reading Demand for Advanced Semiconductors Drives Samsung Profits

This week Microsoft announced plans to help establish Southeast Wisconsin “as a hub for AI-powered economic activity, innovation, and job creation,” according to the company’s press release. As part of the broad investment package, the tech giant is planning “$3.3 billion in cloud computing and AI infrastructure, the creation of the country’s first manufacturing-focused AI co-innovation lab, and an AI skilling initiative to equip more than 100,000 of the state’s residents with essential AI skills.” Microsoft’s new data center campus will replace the failed $10 billion Foxconn LCD manufacturing center planned for Mount Pleasant, situated in Racine County. Continue reading Microsoft to Invest $3.3 Billion in Building New AI Data Center

Micron Technology has been selected to receive up to $6.14 billion in CHIPS and Science Act funding from the federal government. The Boise, Idaho-based tech firm says it will use the funds to construct four new fabrication plants — two in its hometown and two in New York State. Micron has committed an investment of up to $125 billion across both states over the next two decades as it endeavors to build a leading-edge memory manufacturing ecosystem. President Biden announced the preliminary funding agreement during a trip to the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology in Syracuse, New York. Continue reading Micron Awarded CHIPS Funds for Fabs in Idaho and New York

Samsung Electronics will receive up to $6.4 billion in funding for semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. as part of the CHIPS and Science Act. Samsung Semiconductor CEO Kye Hyun Kyung and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo celebrated the news this week at the company’s Taylor, Texas plant. The funds are earmarked for Samsung’s expansion in Central Texas to create additional manufacturing capabilities of essential chips for the AI, automotive, IoT, aerospace and other sectors. With the funds, Samsung is “strengthening the local semiconductor ecosystem and positioning the U.S. as a global semiconductor manufacturing destination,” Kyung said. Continue reading Samsung Will Receive Up to $6.4 Billion in CHIPS Act Funding

Robotics firm Figure AI is getting a lot of attention for its humanoid robot, Figure 01, which the company unveiled along with news that it has raised $675 million, for a $2.6 billion valuation, from investors including OpenAI, Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Pronounced “Figure One,” the general purpose robot looks and moves like a human, and can perform mundane tasks like serving food as well as undesirable jobs like picking up trash. It “sees” using “onboard cameras that feed into a large vision-language model (VLM) trained by OpenAI,” according to Figure co-founder and CEO Brett Adcock. Continue reading Figure Unveils Humanoid Robot, Draws Notable Investments

GlobalFoundries has been selected to receive the first major grant in the Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act program to reinvigorate U.S. chip production. The $1.5 billion in grants will be used to construct and expand facilities in Vermont and New York. Additionally, the administration plans to make available $1.6 billion in federal loans. The grants are estimated to triple GlobalFoundries’ New York state production capacity within the next 10 years. Chipmakers including Intel, Micron Technology, Samsung Electronics and TSMC have submitted grant applications for government assistance in building new or updating existing facilities. Continue reading GlobalFoundries Receives $1.5 Billion in First U.S. CHIPS Grant

Canon is gearing up to begin shipping its new nanoimprint lithography chipmaking machines, possibly this year. The equipment — which uses a stamping process Canon says will be cheaper and more energy-efficient than ASML’s light-based extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology — could be a disruptor in a market dominated by the Dutch company. Such machines, essential in manufacturing semiconductors, imprint circuitry onto silicon wafers in patterns that can be thousands of times thinner than the width of a human hair. Foundries TSMC, Samsung Semiconductor and Intel rely on ASML’s EUV machines in the manufacture of high-end chips. Continue reading Canon Could Begin Shipping Chip Stamping Machine in 2024

Canon has made a breakthrough it says can help manufacture the world’s most advanced semiconductors. The company’s latest nanoimprint lithography (NIL) system challenges Dutch firm ASML, to date the leader in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology. ASML creates tech used in TSMC’s chips made for Apple iPhones. Canon says its FPA-1200NZ2C nanoimprint semiconductor manufacturing equipment can produce chips equivalent to a 5-nanometer process, the current state of the art, and with further improvement expects to enable circuit patterning corresponds to 2nm nodes. The new equipment is also energy efficient, Canon says. Continue reading Canon Litho Breakthrough May Advance Global Chipmaking

“Robots are great specialists, but poor generalists,” according to Google DeepMind, which says models are typically trained for individual tasks, and changing a single variable can mean starting again from scratch. Now the London-based Alphabet subsidiary thinks it’s come up with a way to combine knowledge across robotics for a general purpose machine helper. In conjunction with 33 academic labs, Google DeepMind has pooled data from 22 different robot types to create the Open X-Embodiment dataset. Simultaneously, the group releases the RT-1-X robotics transformer (RT) model derived from RT-1. Continue reading DeepMind and Academics Advance General Purpose Robots

Intel has unveiled a new glass substrate technology that it says will “benefit our key players and foundry customers for decades to come.” The result of 10 years and $1 billion in development, the concept substitutes glass for the usual resin in which processors are embedded, enabling greater speed and the ability to accommodate the industry’s move toward packaging numerous “chiplets” into more powerful large processors, a configuration that has proven beneficial for the acceleration that drives artificial intelligence. This technology could potentially vault Intel ahead of competitors, some say. Continue reading Intel Has Plans to Power AI with Glass Substrates for Its Chips

Qualcomm has extended its deal with Apple to supply 5G modem chips, leading to speculation that the iPhone maker is behind schedule on its plan to bring the tech in-house. Apple has designed its own phone chips since 2013, and is currently using the A16 Bionic, manufactured by TSMC. The A16 functions as the phone’s brain but doesn’t handle external communications with cell towers. Apple has been developing its own modem chips since 2018, but apparently doesn’t feel they’re ready for prime time and, understandably, doesn’t want to risk a public debacle by rushing it. Continue reading Apple iPhones to Continue Using Qualcomm 5G Modem Chips

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote at Computex Taipei marked the official launch of the company’s Grace Hopper Superchip, a breakthrough in accelerated processing, designed for giant-scale AI and high-performance computing applications. Huang also raised the curtain on Nvidia’s new supercomputer, the DGX GH200, which connects 256 Hopper chips into a single data-center-sized GPU with 144 terabytes of scalable shared memory to build massive AI models at the enterprise level. Google, Meta and Microsoft are among the first in line to gain access to the DGX GH200, positioned as “a blueprint for future hyperscale generative AI infrastructure.” Continue reading Nvidia Announces a Wide Range of AI Initiatives at Computex

Despite moving a significant portion of its chip work in-house, Apple is extending its chip-supply contract with Broadcom in a deal estimated to be worth more than $15 billion with plans to run through 2026. The chip manufacturer will provide Apple with components for wireless connectivity, including 5G radio-frequency. There had been speculation that Apple planned to phase out Broadcom. Some see the deal as Apple’s capitulation to political pressure to source more U.S. manufacturing. Broadcom’s 5G-capable manufacturing hubs are located in U.S. cities including Fort Collins, Colorado, where Broadcom has a major facility. Continue reading Apple’s 5G Broadcom Extension Valued More Than $15 Billion

Taiwan’s TSMC, the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world, is seeking $15 billion in U.S. subsidies to help build two chip factories in Arizona, but is pushing back against terms that include sharing detailed information about its stateside operations and possibly profits. Some South Korean semiconductor firms are also said to have raised objections. The White House contends the criteria are in place to protect American taxpayers and ensure the subsidies are being spent as intended. TSMC has pledged $40 billion of its own funds for the project. Continue reading TSMC Seeks $15 Billion in U.S. Incentives to Build Foundries