Chips and Wafers’ Lover
Taiwan’s current administration proposed a supplementary budget that would inject NT$400 billion (US$12.6B) into 2 state-owned firms, CPC and Taipower, to subsidize an electricity rate freeze enacted to combat price instability caused by US-Iran tensions. The package still requires review and passage by the legislature.
Source: Dan Nystedt
Taiwan semiconductor equipment maker Hermes Testing Solutions Inc. (HTSI) could become the highest priced IPO ever on the Taipei Exchange when it lists September 22, media report, with the base auction price for shares set at NT$1,800 each, and tentative underwriter’s price at NT$2,250. The price reflects rising gross margins and the importance of semiconductor testing in the AI era.
Source: Dan Nystedt
Broadcom 3QF26
- FY27 AI $115B, (raised from >$100B); supply secured- FY28 AI doubling to $230B; supply secured; demand > supply- 3Q XPU up >3.5x y/y = 73% of AI; networking 27% (2Q was 40%, Hock had called 30% the normal share); AI networking up >2.5x y/y- 3Q AI revenue up 55% q/q and 221% y/y to $16.7B and 4Q AI revenue will grow 30% q/q to $21.7B- 4Q both XPU and AI networking to triple y/y- networking to grow just as fast as XPUs over the next few years- Content per GW $20-30B, stable across generations since power per chip rises with ASPSource: Sravan Kundojjala
Chip Diplomacy: Taiwan ally Guatemala has tapped TSMC to manufacture its first nanometer-level chip, the El Gran Jaguar, a 65nm chip designed for research and educational purposes by students and faculty from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG), media report.
Source: Dan Nystedt
TSMC has sped up the pace of fab building 5x the historical pace and has 13 under construction in Taiwan and another 5 to 6 in progress overseas – nearly 20 in all, but still cannot meet demand, said Co-COO Cliff Hou, media report, naming construction workers as a key bottleneck. Also, TSMC’s demand for equipment has nearly doubled since the end of last year – a pace equipment suppliers cannot keep up with. $ASML(ASML.US) $Applied Materials(AMAT.US) $Taiwan Semiconductor(TSM.US) #semiconductors
Source: Dan Nystedt
Micron Taiwan plans to issue the biggest performance bonuses in company history as part of measures to avert a strike by workers, media report. Unions say around 80% of members support a strike since the current bonus structure does not reflect the company’s AI-related record-breaking revenues.
Separately, in a pre-recorded video for SEMICON Taiwan, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said the company’s Taiwan operation started as a small office 30-years ago and grew to become its biggest and most advanced manufacturing base globally, with over 15,000 employees dedicated to producing High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). $Micron Tech(MU.US) #semiconductorsSource: Dan Nystedt
Google Cloud Senior Director of Supply Chain Infrastructure Nikhil Cherian named high performance memory the primary constraint in AI servers now as it accounts for over 75% of the build of materials (BOM), media report, adding Google is using a dual hardware-software strategy to break through this ‘AI memory wall’. He made the comments during a presentation at SEMICON Taiwan. $Alphabet(GOOGL.US) $SK Hynix(SKHY.US) $SSNLF $Micron Tech(MU.US) #semiconductors
Source: Dan Nystedt
Nanya's ~$84M order disclosure from SCREEN yesterday takes total QTD orders to ~$1.89B, already ahead of Q2's ~$1.8B total with a month still to go.
YTD orders are at ~$4.4B.Source: Chips & Wafers
The US will unveil Section 301 semiconductor tariffs around the time China Chairman Xi visits the US for a summit with President Trump, media report, adding Taiwan’s tariff rate will likely be close to the 15% already negotiated with the US due to major investment commitments by Taiwan’s chip and AI stack companies. (Note: We count over US$300 billion in solid commitments). $Taiwan Semiconductor(TSM.US) #GlobalWafers #Wistron #Foxconn #Quanta #semiconductors
Source: Dan Nystedt
Google is a key co-investor alongside Nvidia in the US$3.9 billion convertible bond deal floated by MediaTek, Taiwan media highlight, due to the significance MediaTek’s work on Google TPUs, and both partnerships back a 10-year product time horizon, rather than meeting short term funding needs. #MediaTek #semiconductors
Source: Dan Nystedt
TSMC may raise prices across all process nodes by another 10% to 15% amid strong demand for AI-related chips - and Samsung’s ability to hike prices 10%-15% for its 4nm and 5nm offerings, media report, citing market expectations (NOT from TSMC). The market also reportedly sees follow on price hikes for N2, N3 and N5 advanced processes of 10% by end-2027. $Taiwan Semiconductor(TSM.US) $SSNLF #Samsung
Source: Dan Nystedt
TSMC: Demand for AI compute will 5x annually in coming years, leading overall system compute in 2029 to 50x that of 2024, media report, citing April Li, head of AI and HPC Business Development. TSMC estimates 30 to 40GW per year of AI data centers will be built per year, compared to 5 to 6GW of data centers historically. New advances are vital to keep pace, and TSMC aims to have A12 in mass production in 2029, and 14x-reticle size CoWoS packaging in 2028, and more. By 2030, a single AI chip package will hold over 1 trillion transistors, she said. $Taiwan Semiconductor(TSM.US) $NVIDIA(NVDA.US) $Alphabet(GOOGL.US) $Broadcom(AVGO.US) #semiconductors
Source: Dan Nystedt
Strong demand for Google Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), Intel outsourcing more as it focuses on EMIB, and price increases due to rising costs and demand are all converging into a boom of advanced packaging and testing orders for ASE Technology, media report, adding Google has aggressively expanded TPU volume via partners including Broadcom, MediaTek, Marvell and AMD, leading to substantial add-on orders at ASE. Estimates put Google TPU shipments at 12 to 15 million units by 2028. TSMC remains Google’s chip fabrication and CoWoS partner, with ASE also a major winner from the TPU ramp up. $Advanced Semiconductor Engineering(ASX.US) $Alphabet(GOOGL.US) $Intel(INTC.US) #semiconductors
Source: Dan Nystedt
Google is set to highlight this year’s SEMICON Taiwan (9/2-4), which is already breaking records in scale, media report. The 3-day semiconductor equipment and materials exhibition opens Wednesday, though some forums start today (Monday).
Google’s Chief Technologist for AI Infrastructure Amin Vahdat will deliver a keynote from the eyes of a custom chip developer at the event, making CSPs a new centerpiece. Over 100,000 semiconductor professionals are expected this year, with the exhibition size hitting 4,300 booths, by 1,300 exhibitors. A total of 18 nations have set up in the international pavilion, up 250% over last year, while the Startups area has doubled in size. $Alphabet(GOOGL.US) #SEMI #semiconductorsSource: Dan Nystedt
Nvidia jump starts AI PC market: Asustek’s and MSI’s initial batches of AI PCs designed around Nvidia RTX Spark processors have completely sold out in pre-order, media report, and both have already asked Nvidia for more chips, which are made on TSMC’s 3nm process. There are 2 main RTX Spark chips, the N1 for mainstream AI PCs and the N1x for high-end. $NVIDIA(NVDA.US) $Taiwan Semiconductor(TSM.US) #Asustek #MSI #AIPC
Source: Dan Nystedt
Singapore has increased their Substrate imports as they ramp packaging capacity.
But want's most interesting is where all those substrates are coming from - Malaysia.$ATS(ATS.US).VIE $222800.KQSource: Chips & Wafers
Taiwan prosecutors raided a plant owned by ABF substrate giant Unimicron on Friday over the alleged import of substrates and printed circuit boards (PCBs) made at its China plants and then re-labelling them ‘Made in Taiwan’, media report. Some employees are suspected of crimes including document forgery and product origin fraud. The head of Unimicron’s PCB division was released Saturday on bail of NT$15 million (US$475,000). Several other managers were also released for lower amounts. $NVIDIA(NVDA.US) $Alphabet(GOOGL.US) $Amazon(AMZN.US) $Microsoft(MSFT.US) $Meta Platforms(META.US)
Source: Dan Nystedt
TSMC’s 2nd quarter employee profit-sharing payout hit NT$36 billion (US$1.14B), up over-50% from the same time last year, media report, and raising the total 1st half-2026 bonus to NT$70.35B, up 54.3%. TSMC’s profit sharing bonuses are benefitting from the strong AI trend, as the chip giant’s net profit in the 2nd quarter rose 77.4% to NT$706.56B. In 2025, the bonus rose 30% versus 2024. $Taiwan Semiconductor(TSM.US) #semiconductors
Source: Dan Nystedt
Marvell QJul26
- F27 (C26) revenue raised by $500M (+45% y/y) while F28 (C27) revenue raised by $1.5B (+50% y/y); incremental largely driven optical connectivity though custom is also a part- F28 guidance already includes the Google warrant revenue; F29 and beyond will see the step-up- F27 DC growth raised to 60% y/y (vs 50% prior); F28 DC raised to >60% y/y (vs 55% prior); F28 supported by additional supply secured- F28 custom still expected to >2x y/y (not capped); F29 custom >$10B target reiterated with upside bias- Revenue up 13% q/q and 37% y/y to $2.739B at 58.9% non-GAAP GM (flat q/q); both above midpoint- QOct guided up 15% q/q to $3.15B; 4Q accelerates furtherSource: Sravan Kundojjala
Support for a strike at Micron Taiwan over bonus pay hit 80% in a preliminary survey, as the US memory giant faces trouble similar to Samsung in May, when a last-minute deal averted a strike, media report. Taiwan labor unions are pushing to replace the current bonus system with a profit-sharing scheme amid the AI-driven memory chip boom.
Unions say peers offer far higher profit-based bonuses, with Samsung paying out 10.5% of profits and SK Hynix 10%. Formal mediation talks are expected to begin by mid-September at the latest, a mandatory requirement before an official strike vote can be held under Taiwan law. (Note: Taiwan accounts for roughly 60% of Micron’s global production capacity, and anchors the bulk of advanced HBM output) $Micron Tech(MU.US) $SK Hynix(SKHY.US) $SSNLF #Samsung #semiconductorsSource: Dan Nystedt
India rolled out ‘Semicon 2.0’, the 2nd tranche of government funds aimed at building out its semiconductor industry, ₹1.275 trillion rupees (US$13.4 billion) aimed at chip design and manufacturing, media report. The figure is far higher than India’s first tranche of chip investment, ₹760 billion rupees, launched in December 2021. The first phase aimed at silicon chip fabs, compound semiconductor fabs, packaging and testing plants and chip design. That program saw 12 manufacturing deals and investments of over ₹1.64 trillion rupees. #India #Tata #PSMC
Source: Dan Nystedt
SK Hynix’s CEO said the global memory chip shortage is expected to last until the end of 2030 and that the risk of oversupply is low since memory chips are no longer “just commodities” in the AI era, media report. His comments came at a ground breaking ceremony for a US$4 billion advanced chip packaging plant in Indiana, USA, which aims to begin volume production of next-generation HBM (high bandwidth memory) chips in 2029. $SK Hynix(SKHY.US) $SSNLF $Micron Tech(MU.US) #semiconductors
Source: Dan Nystedt
Samsung Electronics aims to reach mass production on FOPLP (Fan-out Panel Level Packaging) by 2028, media report, adding its decades of work in display panels mean it’s taking a very different path than TSMC. Both are moving to rectangular shaped substrates – Samsung on 415 x 510 mm panel format, TSMC on 310 x 310 mm – but Samsung’s past work focused on mature chips. It’s expanding the effort to high-performance chips by 2028. TSMC, which calls its offering CoPoS (Chip-on-Panel-on-Substrate), is designed for high-end graphics chips (GPUs), custom ASICs, and other HPC (high-performance computing) chips. $Taiwan Semiconductor(TSM.US) $SSNLF #Samsung #FOPLP #semiconductors
Source: Dan Nystedt
Synopsys QJul26
- EDA and IP are back on track; IP is still 10% down vs previous peak- EDA at $1.28B is an all-time high, 8% above the prior $1.18B peak of Q3 FY25- On AI disruption, the company sees customer models still needing its physics and sign-off tools; AI-native design is a demand driver rather than a substitution risk, per SNPS- Record hardware revenue again; 12 new and 66 repeat hardware customers in the quarter- IP revenue $474M, up 11% y/y and 4% q/q; first y/y growth after three straight down quarters, second consecutive sequential increase, with further sequential growth expected in Q4Source: Sravan Kundojjala
ABF substrate supply is tight, and key suppliers are looking to expand capacity globally.
One interesting read through is MEC ($4971.TYO), a Japanese specialty chemicals company with an effective monopoly on the CZ series adhesion promotion chemistry used in ABF substrate manufacturing.The chemistry is critical. It enables copper circuitry to bond to the build up film and is applied at every layer of the substrate.MEC’s latest disclosures show sales to China growing far faster than to any other region.This looks like an important signal that Chinese substrate makers are investing aggressively to build the technical expertise and capacity needed to compete in ABF.Some of the increase may come from non Chinese suppliers manufacturing in China, such as AT&S and Zhen Ding.But it is hard to see that alone explaining the magnitude of the increase.The takeaway: China’s push into ABF substrates looks increasingly real, and MEC’s chemistry sales may be one of the better ways to track it.Source: Chips & Wafers
