TSMC

Nvidia, TSMC and SK Hynix are the most powerful chip companies on the planet. None can allow any of the others to fall

by

Nvidia dominates the global chips market for artificial intelligence (AI) with a fee that during the last three years has oscillated between 80 and 94%, according to Fourweekmba. Your leadership is supported by A very competitive hardware and a software ecosystem in which CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) It has an essential role. This technology brings together the compiler and development tools used by programmers to develop their software for NVIDIA GPUs. However, the company led by Jensen Huang has a fundamental partner: TSMC. Nvidia designs the chips for AI and this manufacturer of Taiwanese semiconductors, the eldest of the planet with A global quota close to 60%it produces them. Its iron leadership is the result of Its peak technology and its titanic production capacity. TSMC has many important clients, such as AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTak or Broadcom, among many others, but thanks to the AI ​​NVIDIA, it has established itself as Your second best customer Only behind Apple. Presumably TSMC is about to start MANUFACT 2 NM GPU For Nvidia, but this is not the only thing that this chips manufacturer is going to do for one of its best customers. And this Taiwanese company has decided to start An expansion plan for five years of its manufacturing capacity of integrated circuits using its advanced cowos packaging technology (Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate). According to Beth Kindigof the I/O Fund consultant, this technology will monopolize between 50 and 60% of the market in 2025 compared to 15% it supported during 2024. The synergy of these companies is indisputable The high demand for GPUs for AI with Blackwell MicroAritectura de Nvidia is largely responsible for the implementation of this plan. The company led by Jensen Huang can respond better to the needs of its customers and will see how its competitiveness is increased in a phase in which Depseek and other Chinese companies represent a challenge. In March 2024 TSMC officially announced which was building two cowos packaging plants in the town of Chiayi, housed in southern Taiwan. However, this is not all. He also shuffled the option to put a plant more specialized in this advanced packaging technology in Japan, presumably on the island of Kyushu, in which this company is currently building two semiconductor production plants of avant -garde. In any case, there is something else. And it is that Chiayi plants will be trained to work, in addition to the packaging cowos, With advanced Info and Soic technologies (System on Integrated Chips). Nvidia and TSMC synergy is indisputable, but this recipe requires a third ingredient: SK Hynix It is evident that TSMC wants to cover your back well and look to the future to prevent its production capacity from being threatened by a bottleneck. An interesting note: currently the Cowos packaging is being used with the AMD Instinct Mi250 chips and with the A100, H100, H200, B100 and B200 NVIDIA GPUs, as well as in its derivatives. The review used in these last two chips, the B100 and B200, is known as Cowos-L. Before the TSMC ends this year, you will be able to process no less than 60,000 wafers per month using its advanced packaging technology. The synergy of Nvidia and TSMC is indisputable, but this recipe requires a third ingredient: SK Hynix. This South Korean manufacturer of memory chips leads the HBM memories market (High Bandwidth Memory) that work side by side with the GPUs for ia with a shocking authority. Your market share Broken 70%so that the remaining 30% are distributed by Samsung and Micron Technology. After them, Chinese manufacturers of Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) and CXMT (Changxin Memory Technologies). At the end of 2024 SK Hynix took advantage of the celebration of an innovation forum organized by TSMC to publicize its mastery of the manufacture of HBM memories. According to SK Hynix itself Its MR-MUF process, which, in broad strokes, is a technology that makes possible a faster punch of the DRAM compared to the TC-NCF process that other companies use, has allowed it to achieve an efficiency 8.8 times higher than that of Samsung and Micron. This simply means that it manufactures its HBM chips much faster than its main competitors. SK Hynix is ​​manufacturing 12 -layer HBM3E memories on a large scale while Samsung and Micron have problems with their production As we can intuit, the speed at which a company that is dedicated to manufacturing semiconductors is capable of producing its integrated circuits deeply condition its competitiveness. It is evident that greater efficiency will allow you supply more guarantees to your customersespecially in an upward market like that of HBM memories. In addition, SK Hynix is ​​manufacturing 12 -layer HBM3e memories on a large scale while Samsung and Micron have problems with their production. In any case, both Samsung and SK Hynix are already working on the development of HBM4 memories with the purpose of catapulting their competitiveness. Here it is precisely where Nvidia appears. SK Hynix announced in October 2024 that he intended to deliver the first HBM4 memory chips to his clients during the second half of 2025. However, Jensen Huang asked him That the delivery advances. Chey Tae-Won confirmed itthe president of SK Group, so it is absolutely reliable information. Why does NVIDIA require so urgently the HBM4 chips? Simply because you need to support your chips for the most capable with the most available energy and energy efficiency memories. And in this field SK Hynix currently has the pan well grabbed by the handle. Image | TSMC In Xataka | South Korea fears US reprisals. To avoid their old lithography equipment, they take dust on a warehouse

China needs its own TSMC to withstand the US pressure. His best candidate already grows at a rhythm of vertigo

by

The US wants to avoid at any price that China has avant -garde photolithography equipment. These complex machines are necessary to manufacture very high integration semiconductorssuch as those used by the data centers specialized in artificial intelligence (AI). And without them the technological development of the country led by Xi Jinping has slowed down. It is fair What the US government wants. China is dedicating a huge amount of resources to the development of its own avant -garde lithography teams. Two of its largest investments They arrived in 2014 and 2019before the technological war of which we are witnessing was unleashed. In 2014, the Chinese government injected about 19,000 million dollars into its chip industry, and in 2019 this figure increased to touching 27.5 billion dollars. However, these investments pale in front of China at the end of 2023. And it is that just two years ago the government approved An investment of 41,000 million dollars expressly dedicated to manufacturers of lithography equipment. In any case, these machines are only one of the ingredients of a recipe in which the leading role is interpreted by chips manufacturers. And the best option that China has is SMIC (Semiconductor manufacturing international corp). This company has cost more than two years to refine its most advanced integration technology as necessary to produce integrated 5 nm circuitsbut your effort is already paying fruit. And is that, According to SCMPtheir income during the first semester of 2025 has increased by 22% if we compare them with the same period last year. And its benefits have grown by 35.6%. This is SMIC’s great challenge: go beyond 7 nm Dr. Kim, an expert in chips manufacturing who has worked in Samsung and currently investigating TSMC in the US, He maintains that SMIC It is about to start the production of 5 Nm chips. It is perfectly credible because, as we have just seen, we know with certainty that this company has been Working in this technology. And, in addition, Dr. Kim is a reliable source. However, this expert has pointed out something crucial that we should not overlook: the performance per wafer that SMIC has currently achieved in its 5 Nm nodes is less than 30%. When semiconductor manufacturers produce a chip wafer, some of those nuclei do not work properly. It is normal. And when they launch a new lithographic node their performance per wafer usually has a wide margin, but little by little, as engineers refine their integration processes, This parameter improves. A mature lithography can deliver to integrated circuit manufacturers a very high performance, but an incipient technology usually moves in the orbit of 50% performance, so only half of the chips produced work correctly. The 5 Nm chips that SMIC will manufacture for Huawei are possible thanks to a technology known as SAQP The problem is that for an integration technology to be profitable from an economic point of view, its performance by wafer has to be At least 70%. And, as we have just seen, Dr. Kim argues that the SMIC 5 NM node is below 30%. It is objectively a very poor performance, but we know what this low figure explains: the technique used by this manufacturer to produce these semiconductors. It is known as Multiple patterningand SMIC has used it for more than a year and a half to make 7 NM chips for Huawei and other customers. This strategy consists in transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increasing the resolution of the lithographic process. It works, but is responsible for wafer performance is clearly improvable. However, all probability Integrated 5 nm circuits that presumably SMIC will manufacture soon for Huawei are possible thanks to a technology known as SAQP (Self-alledhed Quadruple Patterning), which is nothing more than a Multiple patterning more aggressive and sophisticated than the one used to manufacture the soc Kirin 9000s of 7 nm and other chips. A report published by the Taiwanese media Economic Daily News ensures that SMIC will start the manufacture of 3 Nm semiconductors equipped with GAA transistors (Gate-alall-around) For Huawei in 2026. However, this is not all. This article also maintains that this last company has already completed laboratory tests that pursue the manufacture of integrated circuits using carbon nanotubes. Huawei’s plan presumably is to give this innovation to SMIC to adapt it to large -scale production. Image | SMIC More information | SCMP In Xataka | The US has declared the total war on Huawei: he does not want him to sell his chips for the most advanced outside of China

There are two suspicious companies of the theft of critical data of TSMC and none of them is China: the two are Japanese

by

TSMC leadership has a price. This Taiwanese company is The largest semiconductor manufacturer on the planet and has built its success on the tuning of Extremely competitive integration technologies. Your most advanced photolithography is currently The 2 Nm; In fact, it is about to start the large -scale manufacture of chips of this class. All probability of their competitors, they could know their most sophisticated processes, especially those that are linked to their 2 nm node. And, apparently, some of them are trying to get this information. As We explain three days agothe Taiwanese authorities have arrested three TSMC employees because they have allegedly stole commercial secrets of this company. As we can expect, behind this detention is TSMC itself, as He has revealed The Taiwan Superior Prosecutor’s Office in a statement. According to Nikkei Asiathose responsible for this company have realized that two employees and a former employee have been made with critical information about their photolithography of 2 Nm. This information is very valuable. In fact, it could be used by a competitor to optimize its own semiconductor manufacturing processes. Two unexpected suspects: Tokyo electron and rapidus corporation The research has not yet determined if this stolen information has reached another company, but United Daily News ensures that researchers have registered the offices of the Japanese company Tokyo Electron. The latter is specialized in the design and manufacture of wafering processing equipment, and currently its most ambitious project is the tuning of wafering engraving machines by plasma. These equipment are involved in the definition of the pattern that will later be transferred to the wafer. Rapidus is making a chip manufacturing plant in northern Japan in which it plans to produce 2 Nm semiconductors According to SCMPTokyo Electron has confirmed that he has fired an employee of his Taipéi subsidiary (Taiwan) for being involved in the theft of TSMC’s critical information. This Japanese company also ensures that He is collaborating with the Taiwanese authorities They are carrying out the investigation. “That Tokyo Electron is located in the center of attention for this incident is an unfortunate accident,” has declared ASUSHI OSANAIProfessor at the University of Waseda (Japan). However, this company is not the only Japanese company that has been involved in this conflict. And is that Money.udn.com maintains that some of the TSMC employees who have been arrested have delivered to Rapidus corporation Hundreds of photographs and data linked to their most advanced process integration techniques. This company is intended to compete from you to you with TSMC, Intel or Samsung in the chip production market. Interestingly, it is very young: it was founded on August 10, 2022 by the Japanese government with an initial capital of 7,346 million yen (just under 46 million euros) contributed by, and here comes the interesting, Sony, Toyota, Nec, Softbank, Kioxia, Denso, Nippon Telegraph and Mufg Bank. Rapidus is currently putting a circuit manufacturing plant integrated in northern Japan, in the city of Chitose (Hokkaido), in which it plans to produce 2 Nm semiconductor. The first prototypes of these chips are already ready, but large -scale manufacturing It will not arrive at best until 2027. Anyway, as in relation to Tokyo Electron, the possible implication of Rapidus in the theft of data to TSMC has not been officially confirmed. In fact, it is possible that the authors of this crime have acted on their own and have offered the stolen information to Rapidus without this last company having requested or accepted. Those responsible for the investigation will have to settle. More information | Money.udn.com | SCMP In Xataka | South Korea fears US reprisals. To avoid their old lithography equipment, they take dust on a warehouse

Industrial espionage is threatening the largest chips manufacturer on the planet: TSMC

by

It is no secret: espionage is very present in The semiconductor industry. It is in other sectors and we can be sure that a strategic industry such as integrated circuits It is not at all immune to him. On this occasion “the victim” is the Taiwanese company TSMC, The largest integrated circuit manufacturer of the planet. And, curiously, this plot of industrial espionage does not arrive at any time. And this company is about to start the large -scale manufacture of chips using its most advanced integration technology: The 2 Nm. What we know at the moment is that, According to Reutersthe Taiwanese authorities have arrested three TSMC employees because they have allegedly stole commercial secrets of this company. As we can expect, behind this detention is TSMC itself, as He has revealed The Taiwan Superior Prosecutor’s Office in a statement. According to Nikkei Asiathose responsible for this company have realized that two employees and a former employee have been made with critical information about the photolithography of 2 Nm of TSMC. This information is very valuable. In fact, it could be used by a competitor to optimize its own semiconductor manufacturing processes. The research has not yet determined whether this stolen information has reached another company, but United Daily News ensures that researchers have registered the offices of the Japanese company Tokyo Electron. At the moment this last signature has not confirmed or denied anything. Other industrial espionage frames that have given much to talk Our next protagonist is Asml. This Dutch company is the only one that is currently capable of manufacturing teams of extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE) that are necessary to produce avant -garde chips. At the end of 2023 Peter Wennink, the then general director of ASML, confirmed that a Chinese origin employee had abandoned the company in 2022 after being recruited by Huawei with the purpose of revealing this Chinese company secrets of the Dutch firm that a priori could compromise their business. According to the Dutch medium, Russia has something important in its favor: it has spies inside Asml This event was so serious that those responsible for ASML decided to include it in their 2022 annual report and Wennink was forced to Give explanations In a meeting with investors. According to this executive, the information stolen by the former Chinese employee It was partial. In fact, he described it as “one piece in a puzzle whose box is not in your power.” This Wennink statement rightly reflects The titanic complexity that have the most advanced lithography equipment produced by ASML. At the end of last year this company starred in another plot of espionage. Again as “victim.” The Government led by Vladimir Putin intends to have a prototype of UVE lithography equipment capable of manufacturing 130 Nm chips ready in 2026. And in 2028 another similar one trained to produce integrated 7 nm circuits. A priori it is difficult to believe it, but, according to the Dutch medium USRussia has something important in your favor: it has spies within ASML. Like China. In fact, one of them, a former employee of Russian origin, He has been arrested and is accused of stealing critical commercial secrets. The last plot of industrial espionage that I propose that we review is starring the South Korean company SK Hynix and the Chinese company Huawei. In mid -April 2024 a former employee of Chinese sk Hynix origin It was stopped at a South Korean airport when he was about to enter the country. The accusation that was cernia about it was very serious: it was suspected of having stolen confidential information about semiconductor manufacturing processes Used by SK Hynix to give it to Huawei. This employee decided to print 3,000 pages of technical documents, and that movement gave it away because it aroused suspicion immediately within the company. He faces 18 years in prison. Image | TSMC More information | Reuters | Nikkei Asia In Xataka | South Korea fears US reprisals. To avoid their old lithography equipment, they take dust on a warehouse

The TSMC factory in Arizona is going well, although its chips are more expensive than those of Taiwan

by

Lisa her, the general director of AMD, He has just confirmed what we suspect since the beginning of this year: semiconductors that It is already manufacturing The new TSMC plant in Phoenix (Arizona) are Between 5 and 20% more expensive that the comparable integrated circuits produced in Taiwan. AMD will receive its first chips manufactured in this plant at the end of 2025, and given the increase in costs with all likelihood its market price It will be taller than that of semiconductors from Taiwan. Even so, Smooth his He maintains that the existence of this factory in the US is good news for all, for companies and users, because it contributes to the diversification of the supply of the chips and the strengthening of the distribution chain. According to histhanks to this plant and those that will arrive in the future will be more difficult for it to occur again A semiconductor crisis As serious as the one that triggered the Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2023. Despite all the performance of the TSMC factory in Arizona it is high According to financial journalist Walter BloombergTSMC will increase the price of integrated circuits produced by 30% in the US to compensate for the costs triggered by tariffs on the production equipment of imported chips from Europe and Japan. Of course, the Government led by Donald Trump has not yet revealed how the import tariffs of photolithography machines used by TSMC, Intel or Samsung plants in the US will affect the importation tariffs. N4 and N4P lithographs are part of the TSMC Finfet Integration Technologies Family In mid -April 2024 CC Wei, the executive who at that time held the reins of TSMC, advance that the increase in costs derived from the manufacture of integrated avant -garde circuits in the plants that the company has outside of Taiwan It would be assumed by both TSMC and its customers: “If my client wants to manufacture in a specific area (out of Taiwan) then TSMC and the client himself will have to share the increase in costs (…) We are already discussing it with our customers.” Whatever it is beyond the costs linked to the production of chips in the US, The TSMC factory in Arizona is fine. This plant is manufacturing semiconductors in the N4 node (5 Nm). Lithographs N4 and N4P are part of the TSMC Finfet integration technologies family, although on paper the N4P process is a bit more refined. In any case, the plant we are talking about will not be the only one that this company will have in Arizona. The second factory will be operational in 2028 and will produce integrated circuits in N3 (3 Nm) and N2 (2 Nm) nodes. And finally, the third factory will not be listed at all until the end of this decade and It will produce chips in the node N2 (2 nm). TSMC can manufacture integrated 2 nm circuits In its US plants, although the Taiwanese administration will cauture the use of this technology in the country led by Donald Trump. “Private companies must make their own commercial decisions covered in their own technological progress (…) TSMC is building factories in the US with the purpose of serving their US clients because 60% of the world’s chip designer companies are based precisely in the US.” These words of Jw KuoMinister of Economic Affairs of Taiwan, are a declaration of intentions. It will be interesting to verify how the relationship of the US and Taiwan governments in the future prosper. Image | TSMC More information | SCMP In Xataka | The US confesses its worst nightmare: if China invades taiwan and controls TSMC the US economy will go to pique

Intel and TSMC lead the revolution of photonic chips. His problem is that China has just done fully in this war

by

Douglas Yu, a TSMC executive, The biggest chips manufacturer on the planetwith responsibility in the field of systems integration Explain clearly The disruptive capacity of integrated photonic circuits: “If we manage to implement a good system of integration of silicon’s photonics We will trigger a new paradigm. We will probably be placed at the beginning of a new era. “ The photonic silicon seeks to develop the technology of this chemical element to optimize the transformation of electrical signals into light pulses. The most obvious field of application of this innovation is the implementation of high performance links that, on paper, can be used both to solve communications between several chips and to optimize the transfer of information between several machines. Advanced packaging technologies with which the main semiconductor manufacturers work, such as TSMC, Intel or Samsung, can benefit a lot from a communication mechanism between very high performance chips. And the large data centers in which it is necessary to connect a large number of machines, too. However, there is a particular discipline to which it would be wonderful about the advantages proposed by the photonic silicon: the artificial intelligence (AI). China plans to use this technology in AI, 6G communications and quantum computers Intel and TSMC are some of the companies that have been working on the development of their technologies linked to the photonic silicon, and, as we can intuit, this innovation is no stranger to Chinese companies and research centers. In fact, in mid -May 2024 the Institute of Information Technology and Microsystems of Shanghai (China) in collaboration with the Lausanian Institute of Technology (Switzerland) reached a crucial milestone. Until that time one of the fundamental ingredients of the integrated photonic circuits was the lithium niobate. The lithium tantalate allows the manufacture of large -scale photonic chips and with much lower costs This synthetic salt intervenes in the manufacture of these integrated circuits because its physicochemical properties allow it to optimize the conversion of electricity into light, but it has a problem: the industrial exploitation of this technology is conditioned by The high cost that each wafer hasand also for the size of each of them. What these scientists have achieved is to replace the lithium niobate with other semiconductor material whose properties are even more attractive: the lithium tantalate (litao3). Ou Xin, one of the scientists who have led this project, assures That in addition to paying better than the lithium niobate, the lithium tantaloate allows the manufacture of large -scale photonic circuit and with much lower costs. This is because the manufacturing processes are similar to those currently used to produce conventional silicon semiconductors. This is the context in which, according to SCMPthe chips center for integrated photonics Xplore (Chipx) of the Jiao Tong University of Shanghai has announced that it has started the production of 6 -inch wafers for photonic chips. Interestingly, this production line Use Lithium Niobateso it still has a room to advance and take advantage of the properties of the lithium tantalate. Be as Professor Jin Xianmin, the director of CHIPX, says that the photonic integrated circuits have a huge potential not only in the training and inference of AI models, the classical supercomputing and Quantum computersbut also in the development of communications 6g. Image | TSMC More information | SCMP In Xataka | Today China and the US have parked their differences for a good reason: they will analyze together the risks of AI

break the brutal leadership of Nvidia and TSMC

by

TSMC, The largest semiconductor manufacturer on the planetproduces the GPUs for artificial intelligence (AI) that are placing in the Nvidia, AMD market and many other manufacturers of this type of chips. In fact, 90% of integrated circuits for AI available in the world market TSMC has manufactured them. In addition, in its client portfolio Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTak, and even Intel, among many other companies that are dedicated to the design of integrated circuits. We are now with Nvidia. The company led by Jensen Huang currently monopolizes about 90% of the market of the GPUs for Ia. It is likely that in the medium term its quota will be reduced against the presumable growth of competitors such as Huawei or AMD, but right now Nvidia has no reason to worry. And it does not have them because the semiconductor market to grow a lot over the next few years. According to the AMR consultant (Allied Market Research) In 2031 it will have a billing volume of more than More than 263,000 million dollars. SMIC and HUAWEI are China’s spearhead in the chips and AI industries Jensen Huang, the general director of Nvidia, has declared A few days ago, China is not behind in front of the US in AI. And the solvency of Deepseek, Ernie, Qwen, Pangu, Hunyuan or Sensenova endorses its analysis. Right now it is very difficult to determine in an objective way which country leads in AI. It is reasonable to conclude that the US is ahead of China if we stick to the joint capacity and performance of its AI models, but the really relevant thing is to determine if that capacity entails a real value. This is The line of thought that defends experts As Arthur Lai, Chief of Research for Asia of the Macquarie Financial conglomerate, or Jason Corso, professor of AI at the University of Michigan (USA). In addition, it is important that we do not overlook that the metrics that are currently used to evaluate the abilities and performance of the most advanced AI models They are less and less clarifying. And as the models improve and develop their global competitiveness, it matches. Nvidia continues to dominate the Chinese hardware market for IA despite the sanctions of the US government In any case, as we are seeing, it is evident that China is competing from you to you in the development of large language models for the US. The greatest challenges facing this Asian country do not reside in this field; They last in the field of hardware. Nvidia continues to dominate the Chinese market of the hardware for the The sanctions of the US government that prevent you from selling your best GPU for your Chinese clients. And TSMC manufactures 90% of semiconductors for this scenario of use because it has in production some of the most advanced integration technologies that exist, and, what is also crucial, the performance per candy of its avant -garde nodes is very competitive. China needs to have companies capable of Compete from you with Nvidia and TSMCand their best candidates are currently SMIC (Semiconductor manufacturing international corp) and Huawei. SMIC is the largest Chinese manufacturer of semiconductors with a fee in the world market of about 5%and currently has the ability to manufacture integrated circuits of 6 and 7 nm. However, according to Dr. Kim, an expert in chips manufacturing who has worked in Samsung and currently investigating TSMC in the US, is about to start 5 Nm chip production and plan to start Its first 3 nod nodes equipped with gaa transistors (Gate-alall-around) in 2026. Huawei, meanwhile, is determined to absorb Little by little the market share that Nvidia maintains in China. Your most ambitious hardware is now the chip Ascend 910dthat pursues overcome performance of the GPU NVIDIA H100. However, this Chinese company has also recently presented its chip Ascend 920a solution that is clearly destined to occupy in the Chinese market the gaps that it will leave The H20 GPU of Nvidia. This proposal will enter large -scale production during the second half of 2025 using 6 Nm integration technology that have presumably developed side with Huawei and SMIC side. Image | Nvidia In Xataka | Nvidia has to deal with the absolute distrust of several US legislators. His plan in China is in danger In Xataka | The US wants to end the chips for the Chinese that are sold abroad. And China knows how to defend oneself

Nvidia desperately seeks engineers for its Taiwan R&D center. They even accuse you of “stealing them” to TSMC

by

Nvidia smiles at the future. The pulse held by the US and China governments is degrading their business in the latter country because the US administration prevents them from selling its chips to its Chinese clients to artificial intelligence (Ia) more powerful. Even so, the company led by Jensen Huang currently monopolizes about 90% of the market of the GPUs for Ia. It is likely that in the medium term its quota will be reduced against the presumable growth of competitors such as Huawei or AMD, but right now Nvidia has no reason to worry. And it does not have them because the semiconductor market to grow a lot over the next few years. According to the AMR consultant (Allied Market Research) In 2031 it will have a turnover volume of More than 263,000 million dollars. It is a real barbarity, especially if we are in mind that in 2021 its business amounted to just over 11,000 million dollars. Although the NVIDIA quota is reduced during the next few years, it is reasonable to assume that its business volume will be increased by market growth. The problem facing this company is now another. This is what the engineers who hire in Taiwan pay Nvidia’s directive dome seems to be very clear about what to continue growing next to the AI ​​chips market for data centers: expand. It is about it. However, we must not overlook that this company is dedicated to the design of integrated circuits, so it does not need to invest in the construction of semiconductor manufacturing plants; What needs to expand its network of research and development centers (R&D). And Taiwan is a very attractive destination. Nvidia already has an R&D center in Taiwan, and is launching another The semiconductor industry is The main support of the island’s economywhich has caused Taiwanese universities to develop specialized training programs that seek to place the highly qualified technical staff on the labor market that They require companies such as TSMC, UMC or Foxconnamong others. Nvidia already has an R&D center in Taiwan, and is launching another. However, you are facing a very serious problem: it is having many difficulties in recruiting the highly qualified engineers you need. It is surprising, but although in Taiwan thousands of engineers are formed every year, the companies of the island have a hard time recruiting as many as they need. Even to TSMC. To solve this problem NVIDIA has chosen to offer very high wages. An engineer who has just finished his studies and, therefore, has no experience, pays him a maximum salary of $ 83,000 annually. And an experienced engineer up to 185,000 dollars a year and a very juicy bonus. According to the Taiwanese medium EBC News Nvidia’s aggressive salaries’ policy responds to the need for attract TSMC engineers highly qualified. It does not seem crazy. After all, the law of supply and demand works. Image | Nvidia More information | Tom’s hardware In Xataka | Nvidia has to deal with the absolute distrust of several US legislators. His plan in China is in danger

TSMC wants to build a chip factory in United Arab Emirates. Or convinces the US or your plan will fail

by

TSMC is evaluating the possibility of building an integrated avant -garde circuit manufacturing plant in United Arab Emirates. This Taiwanese company, The biggest chips manufacturer on the planethe has embarked on An ambitious expansion plan of its manufacturing infrastructure Beyond Taiwan’s borders to protect yourself from a possible armed conflict between China and its place of origin. It is currently building new semiconductor production plants in USA, Germany, Japan and Taiwanand this possible factory of Arab Emirates would contribute to cement its avant -garde plants network beyond the borders of the island from which it proceeds. However, the conversations that TSMC and the Emirati government are presumably holding They started many months agoin September 2024. TSMC and Arab Emirates win. It is not clear that the US also does At the end of September The Wall Street Journal and Reuterstwo media that have a proven credibility, revealed that several executives of TSMC and Samsung had moved to Arab Emirates to negotiate the possibility of building several manufacturing plants of integrated avant -garde circuits in this country of the Middle East. According to these two sources, the Emirati government is willing to take over the financing of these plants. And it is because Like Saudi ArabiaArab Emirates needs to diversify its economy in forecasting The very likely loss of relevance in the medium term of oil. And technology at the current situation It’s a safe bet. In addition, the growth potential of the semiconductor industry is overwhelming. We just need to look at the hardware market for artificial intelligence (AI) to observe it. In 2031 the Chips Market for IA will invoice more than 263,000 million dollars According to The AMR consultant (Allied Market Research) In 2031 the chips market for AI applications will have a turnover volume of More than 263,000 million dollars. It is a real barbarity, especially if we are in mind that in 2021 its business amounted to just over 11,000 million dollars. It is evident that at the current TSMC situation and Arab Emirates win. However, this project will not come to fruition if this Taiwanese company does not obtain the US approval. A good part of Photolithography teams and wafering processing that TSMC uses in its factories uses American origin technologies. And some of its production processes also They turn to patents held by the US. This agency is what gives the power to the government led by Donald Trump to support or prohibit the construction of one or several manufacturing plants of avant -garde chips not only in Arab Emirates, but also in any other country. Currently the relationship sustained by US administrations and Emirates is good, but this last nation also has a narrow link with China and Iran. If in the future the geopolitical situation causes Arab Emirates if it will move away from the US and approach these last two countries, the presence of one or more factories of avant -garde semiconductors that would not be under the control of the United States would represent a security problem for this last nation. The US government has allowed Nvidia to sell its GPU to its Emirati customers, and also that OpenAi is installed in this eastern country, but right now it seems unlikely that this TSMC project supports. Image | TSMC More information | Bloomberg In Xataka | Saudi Arabia is on the blacklist in the United States with China. You have a plan to get out of it and buy NVIDIA GPU

TSMC will open a chip design center in Germany. It will not be enough to avoid the failure of Europe

by

Just a few hours ago Paul de Bot, the president of the European subsidiary of TSMC, has announced that your company will build a semiconductor design center in Munich (Germany). This installation will be ready in a record time: During the third quarter of 2025. In fact, this Taiwanese integrated circuit manufacturer, The Major on the Planettrust that this installation starts its operations in just three months. The construction and tuning of a avant -garde chips factory requires investing at least four years in these processes before starting large -scale production, but the installation that TSMC will be tuned is not a factory: it is a design center. This is the reason why it is credible that may be ready in just three months. In fact, as its purpose is not to manufacture semiconductors does not need Nor lithography equipment No wafering processing machines. Paul de Bot has confirmed That this center will be dedicated to helping European customers from TSMC to design integrated high density, high performance and high efficiency circuits. These chips can be used by automobile industries, telecommunications or artificial intelligence (AI), among others. However, this project runs in parallel to the semiconductor production plant that TSMC is already building in Dresde (Germany). This factory is underway, but presumably will not start the operation until the end of 2027. This integrated circuit design center does nothing for Europe The arrival in Germany of this TSMC installation is good news, there is no doubt about that. However, his contribution to the aspirations of the old continent in the matter of chips production is irrelevant. On February 8, 2022 Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, announced that Europe wants to be a fundamental actor in The semiconductor industryand the first step to achieve this requires manufacturing 20% ​​of the planet chips in 2030. The new TSMC Chips Design Center will not produce semiconductors, so it will not quantitatively contribute to European aspirations It is evident that in the delicate current geopolitical situation Europe needs to be ambitious if it wants to increase its relevance in the semiconductor industry. Have ASML and Intel, Globalfoundries and TSMC facilities within its borders plays in its favor. However, The speech of European leaders It seems to be focused on quantity, and is not enough. The quality understood as the capacity of a chip to deliver added value is also fundamental. The new integrated circuit design center of TSMC presumably will deliver value to European companies, but, as we have seen, it will not produce semiconductors, so it will not quantitatively contribute to the aspirations of the old continent. It is better to have it than not to have it, there is no doubt about that, but its role in the objective of which we have spoken two paragraphs above will be inconsequential. In fact, it is very unlikely that Europe achieves its purpose. We do not say it, although we share it; The European Court of Accounts holds itwhich is nothing other than “the financial guardian” of the European Union. In The report that published At the end of last April he defends that the objective of achieving a fee of 20% in the world market for integrated circuits in 2030 It seems unattainable Because Europe is very far from the rhythm of production necessary to fill its ambitions. To achieve this production capacity, it would have to be four times higher in less than five years and is far from achieving those figures at the current development speed. Image | TSMC More information | Digitimes Asia | SCMP In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be. The machine that will manufacture them is close

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.