Honda and Nissan have broken negotiations for their merger. Now another buyer appears on the horizon: the iPhone manufacturer

Both companies believe that the most appropriate is to cease negotiations With these words, Honda and Nissan have confirmed that they have not reached an agreement and that, therefore, they put an end to their negotiations to add forces. What in March 2024 was exposed as a collaboration agreementat the end of the year was taking fusion form. Until, finally, there were clear that Honda would buy an important part of Nissan. Although there has been talk of Japanese government pressures to force the merger between both companies and try to get Nissan out of a financial hole that points to 9,000 layoffsthe truth is that Honda does not seem completely willing to merge from equal to equal. In recent days, the clearest option seemed to buy Honda of the totality or an important part of Nissan for turn it into a kind of subsidiarysomething that has ended up breaking negotiations. Nissan is now in a complicated situation but has preferred to maintain some independence in its future development. At the moment, it has to face the thousands of dismissals mentioned above but that will be nothing more than the confirmation that the company will fulfill its reduction in production by 20%. They are demanding but mandatory measures now that the profits of profits for the fiscal year that ends soon in Japan 70% have been adjusted compared to the original forecasts. At the moment, companies have announced that they are still open to collaborations for the development of potential future products although there is nothing written about this. Both companies face a future challenge with the electric car. Beyond Japan, the United States aims to be its strongest market but Nissan has fallen hard in the countrywhile putting Great efforts to jump into the electric car in the medium term. In Europe, where the road to the electric car has been paving from the political spheres, Nor has he received the expected support. To all of the above you have to add a context that has further complicated things. In Europe the idea begins to slide They will delay pressure measures to manufacturers to jump into the electric car. In the United States, Donald Trump is determined to end the promotion of this technology that Joe Biden had promoted with large tax incentives. Steel and aluminum tariffs They can be the icing to make the product more expensive and hinder its economic viability. In all this jaleo, a new player appears on the horizon. Foxconn and the car, the eternal desired Since the economic difficulties that Nissan is going through, Foxconn has been seen, he would see that he would be interested in buying an important part of the company and starting to manufacture its vehicles. The Taiwanese company is known for the production of iPhone But he has long since assured that his experience producing all kinds of technological devices may be sufficient to produce your own vehicles. Intentions are clear for years: produce platforms with all the integrated hardware necessary to make each manufacturer contributing its distinctive point with the software. To assert its position, Foxconn has been insisting that this way of working is perfect for launching electric cars at a low price. In December 2022Liu Young-Way, his CEO, said that the company’s strategy went to reach between 40 and 50% of world car production. The first milestone was marked by 2025 when they aspired to produce 5% world vehicles. Obviously, this will not happen but aware of the difficulties Nissan has, Foxconn has been interested in at least, with the shareholding that Renault keeps in the Japanese company as a consequence of the alliance, Woven under the mandate of Carlos Ghosnand its subsequent agreements that have been diluting participation of the French. With the negotiations between Honda and Nissan, foxconn again gained strength after Nissan will confirm last week which was open to new collaborations, including that of the Taiwanese company. Since then, the Rumors They have been taking strength although their managers have been elusive. In his last statements, Foxconn has made it clear that his true intention with Nissan would be framed within a collaboration and not of the purchase from your shareholders. These statements, of course, came before the publication of the cessation of negotiations between Honda and Nissan. Photo | Sling In Xataka | Nissan pointed to the electric car as a future plan. It will fire 9,000 employees and prove Toyota

The benefits of Chips chips manufacturer have fallen 45% in 2024. US sanctions have injured

In the middle of last January we tell you that during 2024 the semiconductor industry of China has produced 12.5% more than in 2023. Not bad at all, especially if we are in mind that US sanctions And his allies prevent Chinese integrated circuit manufacturers access lithography equipment for extreme ultraviolet (UVE) produced by the Dutch company ASML. And since the beginning of 2024 they cannot buy more machines from deep ultraviolet lithography (UVP). At the current situation it is reasonable that we ask ourselves what kind are the integrated circuits that Chinese manufacturers are massively producing. And the answer is very revealing: these are chips derived from mature integration technologiesusually 28 nm or less advanced. After all, the semiconductors that we find mostly on electronic devices, appliances or cars, among other products, have been produced using them. The sanctions hinder the production of avant -garde chips to SMIC A good part of Chinese chip manufacturers, such as Hua Hong Semiconductor, China Resources Microelectronics or Guangzhou Zensemi, is manufacturing integrated circuits of 28 Nm or with even more mature technologies. And the company Beijing Yandong Microelectronics (YDME) will build A plant of 4.6 billion dollars expressly to produce 28 Nm semiconductors in 300 mm wafers. It is evident that these companies would not turn in this way in the manufacture of mature chips if it was not a profitable strategy, and, above all, necessary to support the Chinese industry of the integrated circuits at such a critical moment as the current one. SMIC has the ability to manufacture integrated 7 nm circuits. And probably also 5 nm However, the business of SMIC (Semiconductor manufacturing international corp), which is the largest Chinese manufacturer of semiconductors with a fee in the world market of about 5%it goes for other paths. This company currently has the ability to manufacture Integrated 7 Nm circuits. And probably also 5 nm. We know it with total certainty because this company manufactures, for example, the soc Kirin 9000s integrated into the smartphone Mate 60 Pro of Huawei, which has been scrupulously analyzed by several laboratories aligned with the US, such as the Canadian Techinsights. Unlike most of Chinese integrated circuit manufacturers, SMIC does not live from mature chips. Your business revolves around the avant -garde semiconductors. To manufacture the 7 NM circuits that is delivering to Huawei and other customers using the UVP lithography equipment that has in its possession has been forced to resort to a technique known as Multiple patterning. And this strategy has two problems: it has an upward impact on the cost of chips and the decrease in production capacity. In addition, it is important that we do not overlook that the sanctions deployed by the US and the Netherlands prevent SMIC from buying more UVP teams from ASML. And it also does not have access to some maintenance and support services. These circumstances have caused their performance and competitiveness for 2024 They have deterioratedand as a consequence Its benefits have fallen 45%: Of the 902.5 million dollars that reached in 2023 to 492.7 million in 2024. There is no doubt that it is a hard blow for a company with the size that SMIC has, so it will be interesting to verify how it reacts for 2025 To improve your competitiveness. More information | SCMP In Xataka | China prepares for the worst scenario: fears that the US prevents TSMC to give it chips for cars and smartphones

Philips was the second largest chips manufacturer on the planet. Now it is out of a market led by its creation: ASML

What we have promised you in the head of this article is strictly true. As Marc Hijink explains in his highly recommended and fresh out of the oven ‘Focus: The Asml Way’during the decade of the 70s of the last century Philips was the second largest manufacturer of semiconductors of the world. The leader in this market at that time was the American company Texas Instrumentsbut the Dutch firm had a long career in the field of innovation and technological development. In the early 70th Philips had more than 400,000 employees, and approximately 90,000 worked in the Netherlands. At that time his business was mainly held on The design and manufacture of televisionsradios, medical equipment, appliances and lighting solutions. His Porfolio was not but that nothing wrong, although his true strength was that absolutely everything was designed and manufactured within Philips. Today this strategy would be impracticable. Anyway, if we stick to the production of integrated circuits, the interesting thing is that the lithography equipment used at that time had also been devised and manufactured by engineers of the company itself. In fact, its first flirting with the semiconductors dates back to the late 50s of the last century. At that time the Philips Board of Directors realized of the enormous potential the chips had And he decided to create several research centers, as well as collaborate with technological universities and laboratories. ASML is the result of an inspired alliance During the decades of the 60s and 70th Philips was already a great technological emporium. In the early 80s he had acquired a lot of experience in the field of semiconductor manufacturing, but the industry sued smaller and capable chips. These requirements represented a technical challenge for company engineers who were responsible for the design of photolithography equipment, so in 1984 the Philips directive dome made a very important decision: he decided to associate with the Dutch company ASM International (Advanced material semiconductor). Currently all companies that produce advanced semiconductors have in their plants the UVP or ASML UVE machines The purpose of this alliance was to take advantage of Philips’s extensive experience in the set -up Design and manufacture avant -garde photolithographic equipment. The result of this collaboration was the birth of ASML (Advanced Materials Semiconductor), the Dutch company that leads the production industry of these machines thanks to the enormous success that their teams have had extreme ultraviolet lithography (UVE). Currently all companies that produce advanced semiconductors have in their plants the machines of deep ultraviolet lithography (UVP) or extreme ultraviolet asml. Some of them are TSMC, Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix, Micron Technology, SMIC or UMC. However, once we have reached this moment it is reasonable that we ask ourselves why Philips is no longer a relevant actor in the integrated circuit manufacturing industry. In ‘Focus: The Asml Way’Marc Hijink tells us that after the creation of Asml Philips he settled. Its chips factories lost competitiveness and little by little they ceased to be able to develop the semiconductors required by the market. Jon Yu, the person in charge of the Newsletter The Asianometrysuggests essentially the same During the conversation who has maintained with Ben Thompson, the author of the interesting publication Stratechery. “As they count on ASML, Philips failed. It was a company with Too much bureaucracy and too much clinging to their customs. It is something similar to what happened with the Japanese in the 90s. Philips had already fulfilled his cycle and deserved to conclude, although he apparently sold his participations too soon. “It is a pity. And it is because there is no doubt that in the Current situation to Europe would have two leading companies in semiconductors. * Some price may have changed from the last review Image | ASML BIBLIOGRAPHY | ‘Focus: The Asml Way’by Marc Hijink More information | The Asianometry In Xataka | 2024 has been a year full of uncertainty for chip designers. So much that the market has changed leader

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