China prepares to lead the manufacture of chips for advanced weapons

China monopolizes gallium production. In fact, Up to 2022 monopolized 98% of the world gross Gallic, and this figure presumably has barely varied since then. For the country led by Xi Jinping This metal has a strategic value comparable to the one for the US due to its potential in military applications. And, in addition, Gallium export control allows China to respond to the sanctions to which the US and their allies are subjecting this Asian country in the scope of the semiconductor industry. Gallium is a very special metal. Its physicochemical properties make it suitable to be combined with other metals with the purpose of manufacturing a special type of integrated circuits called broadband semiconductors. These chips have three properties that make them very valuable to intervene in the manufacture of Advanced military teams: They support voltages, temperatures and frequencies higher than integrated conventional silicon circuits. During the 70s the US Advanced Defense Research Projects (Darpa) He dedicated many resources to the development of semiconductors in which Gallium was involved due to the potential he had in military technology projects. He Gallium Arseniuro (GAAS) played a fundamental role in the development of the global positioning system (GPS), and also in Radark tuning and precision weapons. China has taken a very important step forward Currently, Gallium Nitruro (GAN), which also has Darpa’s backing, is being used to make state -of -the -art radars that are capable of accurately identifying smaller, fast and numerous objects at more distance. Each of these radars incorporates several thousand chips in which the gallium intervenes. Everything we have just seen invites us to reach an obvious conclusion: Gallium is an essential metal for the US. But this country is not the only military superpower on the planet. The Chinese army and research institutions have been working with Gaul for many years and developing technologies that allow you to use it Third generation advanced semiconductors. As we have seen, China has Gallium in abundance, but producing integrated circuits with this metal is not easy. Neither for the country led by Xi Jinping nor for which Donald Trump is currently governing. Modifying electrons energy levels, it is possible to accurately control climbing and reduce defects To manufacture gallium nitruro, silicon and sapphire substrates are often used, but the effectiveness of the processes used so far was moderate because the hexagonal atomic structure of the GAN causes the appearance of a defect known as climbing. In broad strokes this curious phenomenon triggers the displacement of groups of atoms in a certain region of the crystal, which affects its structure and reduces its properties. In fact, GAN manufacturing defects cause electric leaks, reduce their thermal stability and reduce the performance of semiconductors. Until now the researchers who work with GAN had difficulty understanding why these defects appear in the crystalline structure of this material. And also to deal with them. But the team of scientists led by Professor Huang Bing at the University of Beijing (China) has identified the cause which triggers the production of defects during the growth of the Gan Crystals. What these scientists have discovered is that modifying the energy levels of electrons it is possible to accurately control the climbing and reduce defects. “Traditional strategies to avoid defects include the use of different substrates and the adjustment of crystallization temperatures, but these approaches only address symptoms, not the cause,” Professor Huang Bing explained. If China manages to get this research from the laboratory and bring to production chains this technology will have the ability to manufacture cheapest GAN -GAN semiconductors, of more quality and a much larger scale. And at this juncture it will not be unreasonable to anticipate that it will be done with the leadership of the application of 3rd generation semiconductors in the military field and 5G technologies. Image | TSMC More information | SCMP In Xataka | This semiconductor is spectacular. So much so that for the MIT is its nº 1 candidate to replace the silicon

So far Arm only designed chips. Now you will manufacture one for data centers, and goal will be your first big client

There is a lot of money invested in data centers. Maybe too much. And that is a juicy cake in which many companies want to enter. One of them is ARM, which throughout its history He had limited himself to designing chips that others then licensed and manufactured. Now they will go further, and AI is the main reason. THE FIRST CHIP ARM. As revealed In Financial TimesARM will reveal his first chip this summer. Until now, Arm had remained outside a career in which Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Qualcomm or Apple have been the protagonists, but now they want to enter that fight. Data centers in the spotlight. SoftBank, which has a majority participation in ARM, has ambitious plans in the data centers segment. It has allied with Openai and other companies for the colossal Stargate projectwhich will make them theoretically invest 500,000 million dollars in data centers in the US. And the company wants ARM to be part of that project with own chips that govern the servers of those data centers. Goal as a great first client. This chip is expected to be a CPU for servers and that it is created so that it can then be customized by companies as a goal. In FT they indicate that in fact the company of Mark Zuckerberg is already the first big client of ARM in this initiative. TSMC could be in charge of the production of chips, according to sources close to the plans. Acquisition of ampere in sight. We speak these days of the alleged advanced negotiations that They could end SoftBank buying ampere. The firm specializes precisely in the use of ARM architecture in multinuk chips Oriented to data centers. Threat to Intel and AMD. These two companies (especially Intel) and architecture X86 have always dominated the segment of servers and data centers. However, chips with ARM architecture have begun to be an interesting option, and the alleged appearance of these Arm’s own chips could further boost their market share. And Varapalo for Qualcomm. Qualcomm socate are references in our mobiles, but the company also takes time Working in chips for servers. In the last months Qualcomm and Ar had maintained a litigation that finally closed a few days agoand it is about to see what is the impact of this ARM project on the Qualcomm roadmap, which apparently He was also in negotiations with goal to provide chips for their data centers. Image | ARM In Xataka | West tries to block China in technology while giving him his greatest opportunity in decades

We already know when and where will 1 nm chips manufacture

The economic results that has reached TSMC for 2024 They have been extraordinary. In fact, their income has broken a record by increasing 34% compared to those obtained in 2023. Only during last December the 8,400 million dollarsa figure that represents an increase of 57.8% compared to the same month of the previous year. The engine of these figures are semiconductors for applications of artificial intelligence (AI) that TSMC manufactures for Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom and other customers. However, the arrival of Donald Trump to the US government pours some clouds over this Taiwanese company. During the electoral campaign he promised that he would make the decisions that were necessary to reinforce the business of US companies within the US. And he also assured that he would sanction tariffs all those countries that threaten the interests of the nation that leads since January 20. As soon as he has been in the government for three weeks, and he is already doing both. “In the very close future we will impose tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors and pharmaceutical products to return the manufacture of these essential goods to the US (…) went to Taiwan; now we want them to return. We do not want to give them Millions of dollars in the ridiculous Biden program. 100%”, Donald Trump recently declared during a conference that was held in Florida (USA). Punta technology is the best TSMC asset The express mention to Taiwan that the US president has made is a very clear allusion to TSMC. On this Asian island there are other semiconductor manufacturers, such as UMC (United Microelectronics Corporation) or PSMC (Powerchip semiconductor manufacturing corporation), but its relevance in the chips market is much lower than that of the company currently leads CC Wei. TSMC dominates the integrated circuit market with A quota of approximately 60%so your leadership in the chip manufacturing industry is indisputable. TSMC is developing its infrastructure in the US to protect your business in the US market Anyway, the passing step that the US administration is going to give will not take TSMC by surprise. This company has been outlining its strategy for more than four years to extend its semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure Beyond Taiwan’s borders. And he is doing it for two reasons. On the one hand it is an effective way to protect your business if at any time it is triggered A war conflict between China and Taiwanand their plants on the island were useless. And, in addition, TSMC is significantly developing its infrastructure in the US to protect your business in the US market. However, this is not all. The newspaper Taiwan Economic Daily He has published a report in which he ensures that TSMC plans to tune up a cutting -edge semiconductor plant that will be expressly designed to produce 1 Nm chips. It will be housed in the Taiwanese town of Tainan, and will be called ‘Fab 25’. He will work with 12 -inch wafers, will have six production lines and start large -scale manufacturing in 2030. It may seem that there is still a long time left, but it is not so. Building a state -of -the -art chips factory usually requires at least three years. And then TSMC engineers will have to purify and Optimize your 1 Nm production nodes. We will see if this company finally fulfills its purpose, but there is no doubt about one thing: the most effective protection against the measures that the administration led by Donald Trump approves in the future is having the best technology in the semiconductor industry. This is precisely what TSMC pursues. Image | TSMC More information | Taiwan Economic Daily In Xataka | Intel was about to snatch Apple as a client from TSMC. Having achieved its story would be another

Spain will manufacture the electric car that Europe needs. And Stellantis’ commitment to Vigo and Zaragoza is the proof

It had been a while since it was rumored but it has been a official communication from Stellantis which has settled the matter: the STLA Small multi-energy platform is awarded to Spain. The Vigo and Zaragoza plants have their future guaranteed by producing the smallest electric or electrified cars of the automotive group. In addition, Stellantis has also confirmed that it is working on a project to modernize the Villaverde plant in Madrid and give it life beyond the current production of the Citroën C4. The announcement of this award is really important for the Galician and Aragonese plant that in recent years They have feared for the future of their jobs. Furthermore, without leaving Aragon, the confirmation that Stellantis will manufacture its electrified B segment cars there is an endorsement of the joint plans that it maintains with CATL to build a huge battery plant for electric cars next to Zaragoza. The electric car that Europe needs to succeed In your path towards cleaner mobilityIn 2025, Europe will have one of its first touchstones. The new emissions regulations will force us to significantly reduce the combustion car market and increase, even if artificially, the market share of electric and plug-in hybrids. Even if this requires reducing the production of vehicles with combustion engines. Manufacturers who do not act in this way will have to face billion-dollar fines which will be calculated from 95 euros for each gram of CO2 exceeded (the fleet average must not be higher than 93.6 gr/km of CO2) and car sold. In addition to balance your production, Stellantis will pay Tesla to reduce their polluting emissions and present themselves to the European Union under the same group. With this panorama, Europe will have to take a breath and cross its fingers before checking If the customer is willing to pay what the manufacturers ask for for smaller electric cars. The reception of those of 25,000 euro vehicles will be key to understand if the goals set regarding emissions are realistic or, on the contrary, have been overestimated. In that price range, compact and smaller electric cars are the ones that will have to be attractive enough to convince potential clients. These cars are the ones that Stellantis will manufacture on the platform STLA Smalla base that allows vehicles mounted on it to achieve ranges of up to 500 kilometers. But, above all, they have the advantage of being multi-energy and, therefore, offering hybrid versions (plug-in or not) of the same car. This platform has been the one that has been awarded to Vigo and Zaragoza. It is an especially important announcement since they keep alive two plants that last year produced 890,000 vehicles (one in every three cars of all national production), according to Five Days. The economic newspaper assures that, although there is no official data, Stellantis’ investment in modernizing the Vigo and Zaragoza lines for its STLA Small will be around 900 million euros and that, in total, 5,000 million euros will be invested in our country if added to the amount of the new CATL battery plant in Zaragoza. This combo of a car production plant and batteries for said cars is great news for workers. It must be taken into account that, beyond European trends, countries such as France They are betting heavily on electric vehicles of the size that Vigo and Zaragoza will manufacture. It is not only a question of how many electric cars are sold in Spain. Furthermore, Spain is positioned as an interesting country to produce automobiles that, in addition to having a lot to gain from customers, are of special interest to manufacturers. The new regulations will force them to sell more electric vehicles, so greater competition is expected at the most reasonable prices. The award of STLA Small also confirms that Spain is making a especially competitive gap between countries willing to manufacture cars that leave very little profit margin for manufacturers. The smaller and more electrified a car is, the less profit a company can make from it, which is why Spain feared that part of the production of these cars would end up in Eastern Europe. Morocco either Türkiye. As is now happening with Stellantis, the Volkswagen Group also confirmed that Martorell will be the indicated factory to produce its smaller electric cars. An investment that also adds a billion-dollar battery plantthat of Sagunto. The energy and labor costs in Spain are being quite an attraction for manufacturers who have important conflict fronts open in Italy either Germanywhere they propose thousands of layoffs or factory closures. Photo | Stellantis In Xataka | The ghost of PureTech engines haunts Stellantis: it will pay for repairs from 2022 to 2024 if these conditions are met

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