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Silver Lake Capital completes acquisition of 51% equity in Altera   Altera, the global leader in FPGA innovation technology, announced that global technology investment giant Silver Lake Capital has completed the acquisition of a 51% stake in Altera, which was previously held by Intel Corporation. At the same time, Intel will retain 49% of Altera's equity, which also demonstrates the confidence of both parties in Altera's future development. The completion of this transaction signifies that Altera has become the world's largest and independent FPGA focused solution provider. By providing the software tools, development kits, IP, and design service resources needed to build a complete FPGA solution, Altera will help customers and partners accelerate innovation. Altera is committed to providing customers and developers with a full stack FPGA product portfolio that features industry-leading architecture, efficient performance, and easy-to-use and scalable software. With Agilex ™ Series products, Altera's advanced FPGA solutions make AI easier to popularize by reducing entry costs while improving performance, reliability, and security. In addition, Altera has a flexible and highly resilient supply chain by collaborating with leading process nodes and OEM partners, allowing global customers to develop products with peace of mind.   Supported by Silver Lake Capital, further enhancing leadership Thanks to operational independence and strategic support from Silver Lake, Altera will significantly enhance its flexibility and resource reserves, accelerate technological innovation, and continue to deliver leading FPGA solutions, while comprehensively enhancing its services and support to global customers and partners. With profound experience in collaborating with management teams to drive the development and transformation of industry-leading semiconductor companies, Silver Lake Capital will assist Altera in accelerating its layout in key areas such as industrial automation, audio and video, robotics, data centers, telecommunications, and edge AI.       I am delighted to collaborate with Silver Lake Capital. This far-reaching strategic investment will not only accelerate our pace of innovation, but also further enhance our leadership in the FPGA market during a critical period when AI applications continue to drive demand growth for programmable logic. In the future, we will focus on optimizing our product portfolio, fully unleashing the innovation potential and talent advantages of our organization, continuously meeting the evolving needs of our customers, and seizing the significant opportunities brought by AI. ——Raghib HussainAltera CEO   At the forefront of FPGA industry and AI evolution, Altera has always held an irreplaceable strategic position. Our investment not only demonstrates our firm confidence in its technological leadership, customer commitment, and long-term growth potential, but also represents our strong support for its future development. We are honored to be able to move forward side by side with Raghib and its outstanding team, opening this new chapter full of opportunities and challenges. ——Kenneth Hao, Chairman and Managing Partner of Silver Lake Capital

Renesas Electronics (TSE: 6723), a global semiconductor solutions provider, announced today the launch of the RAA489300/RAA489301 high-performance buck controller. This new controller adopts a three-level buck topology structure, designed specifically for battery charging and voltage regulation in USB-C systems. It is suitable for multi port USB-PD chargers, portable power supplies, PC docking stations, robots, drones, and other applications that require high-efficiency DC/DC controllers. The three-level buck converter topology used in this new IC has excellent efficiency and can significantly reduce the inductance required by the buck converter. Its innovative design can minimize power loss and reduce system size, making it an ideal choice for compact high-performance applications. Compared with traditional two-level buck converters, the three-level topology structure adds two additional switches and one flying capacitor. Flyover capacitors can reduce voltage stress on switches, allowing designers to use low-voltage FETs with better quality factors, thereby effectively reducing conduction and switching losses. In addition, this topology structure also supports the use of smaller inductors, with peak to peak ripple of about 25% of that of a two-level converter, thereby reducing inductor core and DC resistance losses. The Renesas USB-PD solution has excellent quality and safety, while also combining high efficiency and power density. As a global supplier of USB-PD solutions, Renesas offers a comprehensive product portfolio covering various applications, including turnkey solutions. With a wide range of development environments and pre certified USB-IF reference designs, we help customers shorten product time to market.   Gaurang Shah, Vice President of the Power Division at Renesas, said: "This three-level buck topology solution is a model of Renesas' outstanding position in the field of battery charging. This innovative technology includes multiple pending breakthrough patent achievements, which can bring significant advantages to our customers compared to competitors' USB-C power solutions. ” The three-level DC-DC RAA489300/RAA489301 voltage regulator has excellent thermal performance, which can reduce cooling requirements and save costs and space. This innovative approach meets the growing market demand for compact and efficient power management systems. The key features of the RAA489300/RAA489301 voltage regulator support a wide range of input and output voltages, and are suitable for integrating safety functions into battery packs and various PD adapters with different voltages; The excellent scalability of the built-in overcharge, overheat, and voltage anomaly protection mechanisms allows for easy adaptation to switch architectures optimized for different power levels and application requirements. Voltage is distributed between power switches to improve efficiency and minimize power consumption, helping to achieve greener and more sustainable designs, reduce thermal stress, enhance system reliability, and extend product life Renesas offers two successful product combinations, RTK-251-SinkCharger-240W and 240W dual port card, which can minimize the development workload required for customers to integrate USB-C battery charging function into their products. These 'successful product combinations' are based on compatible and seamlessly collaborative products, with a technically validated system architecture that brings optimized low-risk designs to accelerate product launch speed. Renesas has launched over 400 "successful product combinations" based on its product lineup, enabling customers to accelerate the design process and bring products to market faster. Renesas Power Management Technology Advantage As a globally renowned supplier of power management products, Renesas Electronics has achieved an average annual shipment volume of over 1.5 billion units in recent years. A large number of these products serve the computing industry, while the rest are widely used in industries, the Internet of Things, data centers, and communication infrastructure. Renesas has the widest portfolio of power management devices, offering unparalleled quality and efficiency, as well as exceptional battery life. Meanwhile, as a trusted supplier, Renesas has decades of experience in power management IC design, backed by a dual source production model, advanced process technology in the industry, and a vast system of over 250 ecosystem partners.

Texas Instruments' CFO revealed at an investor conference that the US equivalent tariffs did indeed drive a wave of early customer pickup earlier this year, as orders accelerated growth. However, after the tariff effect receded, the once surging demand cooled down. According to CFO Rafael Lizardi, DeYi's strong performance from January to April this year was partly due to customers placing orders before the tariffs were announced, resulting in a surge in demand. However, after that, demand cooled down. After April, the situation did indeed slow down, at least not growing as usual. Wall Street has been hoping that the analog chip industry can recover, and according to speculation, the industry's revenue has declined by about 25% from its peak. Texas Instruments' profit and revenue performance in the first two quarters of this year were better than expected, but Lizardi's remarks have raised doubts among investors about the prospects for recovery. Mike Beckman, the head of investor relations at Texas Instruments, said, "The impact of tariffs is difficult to separate because there is also a wave of recovery happening at the same time. So, how much each of these factors has played a role?" This is not the first time that Texas Instruments executives have pointed out that demand may have surged significantly. CEO Haviv Ilian said in July that it is reasonable to assume that customers with insufficient inventory may want to increase their stock due to the possibility of tariffs being imposed. (Demand) has normalized in Q2, and our current daily driving factor is mainly cyclical recovery. Texas Instruments' Q2 revenue was $4.45 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16% and a month on month increase of 9%. Q2 operating profit was $1.56 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25%, and analysts expect $1.47 billion. Expected revenue for the third quarter is between 4.45 billion and 4.8 billion US dollars, with analysts expecting 4.57 billion US dollars. Texas Instruments pointed out at the time that some customers had lower than expected demand for analog chips, and four of its five end markets were recovering. Only the automotive market was still hindered by the easing of demand rebound and broader economic uncertainty. According to Barron's Weekly analysis, Texas Instruments' current message to investors is that, apart from the automotive sector, a widespread recovery in overall demand has begun, but it will still take some time to fully grasp the full impact of tariffs. Due to the US's investment in Intel in early August and its consideration of applying this "equity for subsidy" policy to other companies, concerns have arisen about whether it will intervene in the US business world. Chief Financial Officer Rafael Lizardi responded that Texas Instruments has not discussed American investment as a condition for obtaining chip subsidies. :We have not discussed or proposed anything similar. We have also not had any contacts in this regard"

In 2024, the global MLCC market shows a steady growth trend, with a market size of approximately 100.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.0%. The booming development of artificial intelligence (AI) has driven the increasing demand for consumer electronic products such as servers, smartphones, and personal computers, which has put higher demands on the usage of MLCC. It is expected that the global MLCC market size will continue to steadily grow to approximately 105 billion yuan by 2025. By 2029, the market size is expected to reach 132.6 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.7% between 2024 and 2029, demonstrating the long-term growth potential of the market. Below we summarize the sales situation of major MLCC enterprises in China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. The relevant data is evaluated based on the official sales data provided by 2024-2025 and is for reference only. Japanese company 1. Murata: As a leading enterprise in the MLCC industry in Japan and even globally, Murata is in a leading position in technological innovation and market share. The annual sales of various capacitors exceed 40 billion yuan, accounting for more than 50% of the total revenue. Among them, MLCC has the highest global market share, exceeding 30%. Murata, with its profound technical expertise, has started to produce industry-leading 0402 size and 47uF capacity multilayer ceramic capacitors. This product can be widely used in various civilian and high-performance IT equipment, meeting the urgent market demand for miniaturization and high-capacity MLCCs. 2. Solar induced electricity: MLCC's annual sales revenue is approximately 12 billion yuan. The MLCC business of solar induced electricity is gradually growing, and related products can be used in engine ECU and other powertrain systems, achieving a maximum temperature range of 150 ° C, meeting the strict requirements of automotive electronics for stable operation in high-temperature environments. 3. Kyocera: Kyocera has consistently maintained high R&D investment and production scale in its MLCC business. Its products are widely used in multiple fields, and with stable product quality and diversified product lines, it strives to maintain competitiveness in the global MLCC market, occupying a certain market share in communication, industrial control and other fields. TDK: The sales revenue of capacitors is around 12 billion yuan, and its MLCC products have long held an important position in the automotive market, with a market share second only to Murata, accounting for over 70% of the market share, and a higher proportion in higher-level applications. Faced with the rapid changes in the market, TDK actively adjusts its business layout, increases investment in research and development in the automotive market, continuously launches new products that meet the needs of the automotive market, and continues to consolidate its market position in areas such as automotive electronics and AI to cope with fierce industry competition and constantly changing market demands. South Korean company Samsung: Samsung Electric has performed outstandingly in the field of passive components (such as MLCC), with MLCC annual sales exceeding 10 billion yuan, especially occupying the top market share in the consumer electronics sector. Samsung has successfully achieved the micro high capacitance and high voltage resistance characteristics of MLCC through dielectric ceramic powder nano technology. Stable in the global MLCC market. Taiwan, China enterprise 1. Guoju: known as the world's third largest passive parts supplier, the annual sales of MLCC business is about 6 billion yuan. Guoju continues to increase its research and development innovation efforts, launching the embedded CE series MLCC, which can achieve high-frequency circuit integration and meet the demand for high-frequency and high-performance MLCC in emerging fields such as 5G communication and artificial intelligence. 2. Huaxin Technology: Its business is quite extensive, with annual sales of around 8.4 billion yuan, and MLCC is one of its main businesses. The company focuses on research and development investment and actively expands market share. In the fields of consumer electronics, communication, etc., Huaxin Technology's MLCC products have gained recognition from customers for their good cost-effectiveness and stable quality. VISHAY, an American company, focuses on the manufacturing of electronic components and has a unique technology and product layout in the MLCC product line. The annual sales of MLCC are around 3.5 billion yuan. VISHAY's MLCC products have excellent performance and can meet the diverse needs of different customers, and are widely used in industrial, automotive and other fields. With its global R&D and production system, the company is able to quickly respond to market changes and provide customers with high-quality products and services. Chinese Mainland enterprise 1. Fenghua: MLCC's annual sales volume is about 1.8 billion yuan to 2 billion yuan. It is an old brand enterprise and the first MLCC production line in China. Stack over 1000 layers on MLCC products, covering mainstream specifications ranging from 0201 to 2220 sizes. Fenghua High tech actively expands its market, increases research and development investment, improves production capacity and technological level, occupies an important position in the domestic MLCC market, and gradually expands into the international market. 2. Third Ring: MLCC's sales are on par with Fenghua's, and we continue to invest in research and development, committed to improving the performance and quality of MLCC products. Through continuous innovation, the products of Sanhuan Group have gradually gained widespread recognition in the market and their market share continues to expand. The company stands out in the competition of the domestic MLCC market, and its products are not only applied in consumer electronics, communication and other fields, but have also made certain breakthroughs in high-end fields such as automotive electronics. 3. Micro Rong: Through continuous investment in new production capacity, the current sales revenue is around 1.5 billion yuan, with an annual growth rate of over 20%, actively expanding in the automotive MLCC market. The production capacity of microcapacitors has increased from 500 billion pieces in 2018 to around 720 billion pieces today. After the completion of the new factory in 2025, the production capacity is expected to exceed 900 billion pieces, and the plan to reach 1.2 trillion pieces by 2030 is gradually being promoted in an orderly manner. 4. Yuyang: MLCC's annual sales are around 400 million yuan, focusing on the consumer market, especially the smartphone market. Continuously improving technological level, enriching product categories, and striving to enhance competitiveness in the MLCC market. Yuyang's products are applied in multiple fields, gradually expanding their market influence through continuous technological innovation and market expansion, and achieving certain technological advantages in miniaturization and high-capacity MLCC products. 5. Torch Electronics: Continuously cultivating in various capacitor businesses such as military and consumer industries, with annual sales of around 2.8 billion yuan. The company actively expands its market channels, enhances brand awareness and product reliability, and occupies an important position in the domestic MLCC market, especially in high-end fields such as military and aerospace, providing key electronic component support for the development of national defense and high-end manufacturing. 6. Hongyuan Electronics: Annual sales are around 1.8 billion yuan. Focusing on the research and development, production, and sales of MLCC products for military use, continuously optimizing product structure to meet different customer needs. Hongyuan Electronics has won a good reputation in the domestic market with its professional technology and high-quality services in the MLCC field, especially in the military industry where it has a high market share, providing strong support for the development of military electronic equipment in China. 7. Dali Kaipu: With annual sales of around 400 million yuan, it focuses on the research and development of RF microwave MLCC production. With unique technology and product advantages, it gradually stands out in the market. Dali Kaipu continues to improve product performance and market competitiveness, increase research and development investment in high-end MLCC products, strive to break the technological monopoly of international giants, actively layout in emerging fields such as 5G communication and new energy vehicles, and is expected to occupy a place in the global MLCC market. Major enterprises, relying on their technological advantages, market strategies, and innovation capabilities, are fiercely competing in the global market, jointly driving the continuous development of the MLCC industry to meet the growing market demand and emerging application scenarios.

In the past decade, NAND flash memory has been regarded as a star in the storage industry. Whether it is the popularization of smartphones, the trend of PC replacement, or the rise of cloud computing, NAND has played a crucial role. Its high growth has also driven a global semiconductor industry expansion boom, forming several oligopolistic patterns such as Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, and Kaixia.             However, since 2024, the industry atmosphere has taken a sharp turn for the worse. NAND prices have experienced drastic fluctuations, putting pressure on corporate profits. Major manufacturers have coincidentally slowed down production expansion or even reduced investment, marking the arrival of a new cycle. At the same time, the rise of AI and high bandwidth memory (HBM) has gradually shifted the market's focus to the DRAM field, redefining the position of NAND in the storage industry landscape. The adjustments made by major giants in NAND research and development production indicate that this industry has shifted from "high-speed expansion" to "cautious investment", and a slow yet intense change is quietly taking place.     The slowdown and transfer of the two giants in South Korea     As a long-term dominant player in the global NAND market, Samsung has been known for its aggressive investments in the past. At this year's International Solid State Circuit Conference, Samsung announced the upcoming release of its V10 (10th generation) NAND flash memory. It is reported that Samsung's V10 NAND flash memory has over 400 active layers and an interface speed of 5.6 GT/s. It also adopts Samsung's exclusive and pioneering Hybrid Bonded Peripheral Unit (CoP) architecture. However, Samsung's V10 NAND mass production journey has not been smooth. It was originally expected to start mass production by the end of this year, but in June, there were reports in South Korea that Samsung was expected to conduct an evaluation of its supply chain composition before the second half of this year, and the actual large-scale production investment may not be carried out until the first half of next year. According to reports, as of June this year, Samsung has not yet finalized its supply chain for NAND core devices, including etching. The reason is that the market demand for high-level stacked NAND is unclear, and the cost-effectiveness issues brought by the introduction of new processes hinder investment promotion. The so-called "etching" refers to the process of removing unwanted substances on a wafer. In the past, when etching channel holes (similar to small holes), it was necessary to perform at a low temperature environment of about -20 ℃ to -30 ℃; But in V10 NAND, it is expected to require an ultra-low temperature environment of -60 ℃ to -70 ℃. The lower the temperature, the weaker the chemical reactivity, and the more precise etching can be achieved without the need for additional protective film. To this end, Samsung Electronics has introduced ultra-low temperature etching equipment from major front-end equipment manufacturers such as Lam Research in the United States and Tokyo Electric (TEL) in Japan, and conducted trial production and quality evaluation. However, the actual evaluation results show that ultra-low temperature etching technology is still difficult to directly apply to mass production. So Samsung is negotiating with Lam Research and TEL to try to conduct equipment evaluation again by increasing some etching temperatures. It is understood that the investment cost brought by the introduction of new devices is also considered one of the important reasons for Samsung's delay in investing in V10 NAND mass production. Samsung still mostly uses Lam Research's equipment in NAND etching processes. If TEL is included in the supply chain, it means diversification of equipment, but at the same time, it will face the problem of decreased usage of existing Lam Research equipment and the need to improve compatibility between the two devices. The difficult production of V10 NAND ultimately affected Samsung's plans for upgrading other production lines. According to South Korean media reports, Samsung Electronics has been promoting conversion investments in the Pingze P1 factory and Xi'an NAND factory since the beginning of this year, with the core being to shift the originally mass-produced 6th and 7th generation NAND to 8th and 9th generations. Compared to fully constructing a new production line, the cost of conversion investment is lower, and partial renovation and continued use of existing equipment result in higher efficiency. However, the conversion investment speed of the most advanced NAND is slowing down recently. Although the 8th generation NAND conversion of P1 factory is proceeding as planned, there have been reports of a delay in the investment for the 9th generation NAND conversion, which was originally scheduled to start as early as the second quarter of this year. The situation at the Xi'an factory is similar. The X1 production line, which is undergoing the 8th generation conversion, is nearing completion, while the X2 production line, which is undergoing the 9th generation conversion, only plans to invest in a monthly scale of 5000 wafers in the third quarter of this year, which is almost the minimum scale required for mass production of memory products. A semiconductor industry insider said, 'Samsung Electronics plans to continue mass producing older generation NAND such as V6 on its X2 production line before the first quarter of next year, and the true implementation of the 9th generation conversion will not take until at least the middle of next year,' explaining that 'this is because the demand for advanced NAND is still sluggish.'. However, Samsung remains cautious about investing in next-generation NAND and related technologies. It had originally considered applying hybrid bonding technology to V9 NAND on the Xi'an X2 production line, but has recently decided to put it on hold. Behind the delay in NAND technology is a lack of market confidence and a reconsideration of capital utilization. Compared to Samsung's high-intensity investment in HBM and DRAM, its conservative attitude in the NAND field is more prominent. Equally lacking in confidence is SK Hynix, which made it clear during the conference call that its NAND business will remain cautious and prioritize profitability. It is worth noting that SK Hynix completed the acquisition of Intel's NAND business this year and is currently restructuring its factory and related assets in Dalian, China. However, the facility investment for its second factory, which began construction about three years ago, is still on hold. Even before acquiring Intel's NAND business, SK Hynix had been discussing building a second factory in Dalian. In 2022, the company held a groundbreaking ceremony in Dalian and announced plans to continue expanding its 3D NAND production capacity in China. The industry initially expected SK Hynix to introduce infrastructure, including cleanrooms, according to its construction plan starting in mid-2023. However, due to geopolitical factors making it difficult to introduce advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment into China, and the weak performance of the NAND market, the investment plan has been postponed. Korean media pointed out that SK Hynix Dalian Second Factory has not made any equipment investment in the past three years since its foundation. A semiconductor industry insider said, "Although SK Hynix has obtained the 'Certified End User (VEU)' qualification in the United States and investment restrictions in China have been relaxed, the NAND business still faces great uncertainty due to the economic downturn and the entry of newcomers from China. ”He added, "Therefore, there have been no discussions on the specific investment for the new factory in Dalian at present In fact, over the past few years, despite acquiring Intel's NAND business, SK Hynix has still been at a relative disadvantage in this field, and now the AI driven HBM demand has exploded, allowing it to rediscover its core growth points. At present, SK Hynix holds a leading position in the HBM field, almost monopolizing NVIDIA's AI acceleration card supply chain, and its profitability has significantly improved. In contrast, its V10 NAND development progress is relatively lagging behind, and the company has also focused its resources on advanced DRAM and HBM internally. This strategic shift clearly indicates that NAND is gradually being marginalized within SK Hynix and will not be the main investment direction, at least in the short term.   American strategic contraction, Japanese pressure, domestic breakthrough     Micron's actions also confirm the difficulties faced by the NAND industry. In August of this year, Micron announced that due to the continued weak financial performance of mobile NAND products in the market and the slowdown in growth compared to other NAND opportunities, Micron will cease the development of future mobile NAND products globally, including terminating the development of UFS5 (fifth generation universal flash storage). Micron pointed out that this decision only affects global mobile NAND product development work. Micron will continue to develop and support other NAND solutions, including SSD, automotive, and other terminal NAND solutions. At the same time, Micron will continue to support the mobile DRAM market and provide DRAM product combinations. Faced with profit pressure, Micron directly withdrew from competition with Samsung and SK Hynix in the consumer market. The company will shift its focus to the enterprise SSD, automotive, and data center markets, which, although not as large as smartphones, have more stable demand and higher profit margins. At the same time, Micron has significantly increased its research and development, as well as capacity building, in HBM and DRAM, in an attempt to carve out a bigger share of the pie in the AI era. According to its financial report, since the second half of 2024, Micron has continuously raised its revenue and gross profit margin guidance, resulting in significantly better market performance than its NAND business. This differentiation pattern of "NAND sluggish, DRAM strong" reflects Micron's strategy of shrinking NAND to free up resources for future AI memory. Compared to Samsung and Hynix, the situation of Armor Hero is even more difficult. As the world's third-largest NAND supplier, Kaixia has long relied on technology and production capacity cooperation with Western Digital. However, the merger between the two companies, which has been brewing for many years, has yet to materialize, making it difficult for Kaixia to achieve economies of scale that can compete with Korean giants. The lack of scale advantage means that Kaixia is in a passive position in cost control, technological iteration, and market discourse power. At the same time, the drastic fluctuations in NAND prices directly dragged down Kaixia's financial performance, causing its performance to hover on the edge of profit and loss for years. Faced with the pressure of the capital market, Kaixia needs to maintain basic R&D and production investment to maintain competitiveness, but lacks sufficient financial flexibility to promote larger scale expansion or technological upgrades, falling into the dilemma of "unable to advance and unable to retreat". On the other hand, China's Yangtze River storage has chosen to increase investment against the trend and embarked on a differentiated development path. With the support of domestic market demand, Changjiang Storage has been able to maintain its expansion momentum during the global industry's widespread "scale reduction" phase, winning a strategic window for future competition. However, from a global perspective, the NAND market is still dominated by oligopolies, with established manufacturers such as Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, and Kaixia still firmly controlling most of their production capacity and channel resources. Even though the Yangtze River storage is rapidly catching up, it is difficult to completely shake this structure in the short term. The overall atmosphere remains cautious, with companies placing greater emphasis on risk control and capital returns in investment and expansion, awaiting the arrival of the next growth cycle with clear demand.     The 'cold wave' of equipment manufacturers     The most direct victims of the slowdown in NAND investment are undoubtedly semiconductor equipment manufacturers. In the past few years, local equipment companies in South Korea, such as SEMES (a subsidiary of Samsung), Jusung Engineering, Dongjin Semichem, etc., have relied heavily on Samsung and Hynix's expansion projects to maintain growth. Now, with the two giants delaying the mass production plans of advanced NAND projects, related equipment orders have significantly declined, and cash flow and profitability have been severely impacted. Global device giants have not been spared either. ASML's EUV lithography machines mainly serve the logic and DRAM processes, and their DUV equipment shipments are under pressure during low NAND demand; TEPCO Electronics (TEL) has a high dependence on NAND business in the fields of thin film deposition and etching, and delayed orders directly affect its performance; Applied Materials and Lam Research have felt the most obvious impact in the deposition and etching processes, especially in the demand for ALD, CVD, and high aspect ratio etching equipment for high-level NAND. This has forced both companies to lower their shipment expectations. Kokusai Electric、 Japanese companies such as Hitachi High Tech and SCREEN Semiconductor have also been hit by chain reactions. Faced with this dilemma, equipment manufacturers have to accelerate their "pivot". With the explosive demand for AI driven HBM and high-performance DRAM, as well as the continuous increase in advanced logic processes (3nm/2nm), equipment giants are gradually shifting Jusung Engineering's focus from NAND to logic chips and HBM/DRAM related devices to fill the NAND investment gap. Dongdian Electronics has repeatedly emphasized the stability of its DRAM business in its financial report, while Kelei and Applied Materials are actively promoting the layout of advanced logic and wafer level packaging equipment. At the same time, the popularization of the "conversion investment" model is also changing the industry ecology. More and more wafer fabs are choosing to purchase second-hand equipment and carry out remanufacturing or renovation to extend the service life of the equipment, in order to reduce overall capital expenditures. This trend has driven a rapid rise in the second-hand equipment market, leading to business growth for companies such as Surplus GLOBAL, AG Semiconductor, MTM, and others. However, this has further compressed the market demand for new devices, causing equipment manufacturers that previously relied on large-scale NAND expansion to feel an unprecedented chill in the short term.     NAND， How to break the deadlock     The NAND market entering a downturn is not due to a single reason, but a combination of multiple factors: On the one hand, the global shipment growth of smartphones is sluggish, the PC replacement cycle is prolonged, and the demand for traditional mobile NAND is under long-term pressure. On the other hand, the explosive growth in demand for HBM and DDR5 driven by AI has tilted capital and R&D manpower towards these emerging fields, and NAND is gradually being marginalized. In addition, NAND is also facing capital pressure. Over the past three years, the total investment in the semiconductor industry has reached a historic high, forcing manufacturers to control costs and invest limited resources in businesses with faster returns. Finally, we cannot ignore the technological challenges. Currently, the number of NAND stack layers is approaching the limit of 400, and process difficulty, yield issues, and cost control have become bottlenecks, greatly increasing investment risks. In the foreseeable future, the NAND market will continue to maintain a low speed, investment will be cautious, and manufacturers will allocate more resources to DRAM and HBM. However, in the medium term, with the popularity of AI training, edge computing, high-capacity SSDs and other scenarios, NAND may rediscover growth opportunities. For example, in the storage systems required for future generative AI, high-capacity and low-cost NAND may have unique value. Of course, NAND manufacturers are also looking for breakthrough opportunities like HBM, such as the recent collaboration between Sandisk and SK Hynix aimed at standardizing "high bandwidth flash" (HBF). HBF is a memory technology based on NAND flash memory, built into a package similar to HBM. This marks the first solid step in the industry towards integrating flash memory and DRAM like bandwidth into a single stack, with the potential to fundamentally change the way AI models access and process data on a large scale. But in the long run, the dual breakthroughs in technology and market will truly determine whether the NAND industry can reach the next turning point. On the one hand, new processes such as hybrid bonding and>400 layer stacking need to mature in order to achieve a qualitative leap; On the other hand, new application bursts must emerge on the demand side in order to free NAND from the fate of marginalization. Otherwise, this former 'star storage' is likely to continue hovering on the edge of the industry.

On August 19th, Intel Corporation and Japan's SoftBank Group announced that SoftBank will invest $2 billion (approximately 14.376 billion yuan) in Intel! According to the agreement, SoftBank will purchase Intel's common stock at a price of $23 per share. Affected by this news, Intel's stock rose 4% in after hours trading. This investment is seen as an important vote of confidence in Intel. In recent years, Intel has failed to fully seize the opportunities brought by the artificial intelligence boom in the advanced semiconductor field, resulting in poor stock price performance. In 2024, Intel's stock price fell by 60%, marking the worst annual performance since the company went public more than half a century ago. However, as of the close of this Monday, Intel's stock price has risen by 18% in 2025. Intel, as the only company in the United States capable of producing the most advanced chips, holds a crucial position in the US semiconductor supply chain. Recently, Intel has become a focus of discussion in the Washington political arena as the company is seen as a key chip supplier to the United States. However, Intel's foundry chip manufacturing business has not yet received significant customer orders, which is crucial for the stability and expansion of its business. Last month, Intel stated that it would further invest in its foundry business after receiving customer orders. At the industry level, the arrival of this funding coincides with Intel's critical transformation period. According to the second quarter financial report, Intel achieved revenue of $12.9 billion, which was basically the same as the same period last year, but suffered a net loss of approximately $2.9 billion due to restructuring, impairment, and one-time costs. To alleviate pressure, the company's management is reducing operating expenses while continuously promoting organizational streamlining, and is shifting space for wafer foundry manufacturing, chip products, and AI routes through a "cost reduction+focus" approach. Currently, the progress of capital expenditures, customer commitments, and manufacturing outsourcing business has become an important signal for the outside world to observe Intel's future trends. However, in the fiercely competitive semiconductor industry, relying solely on financial subsidies or cost control is not enough to reverse the situation. What is more crucial is technological iteration and gaining more customers. Especially Intel's decision to continue investing in its wafer foundry business (IFS) is crucial in identifying key customers and long-term foundry orders. This is related to whether the utilization rate and gross profit margin of the production line can be improved, thereby establishing a sustainable business path and forming a positive cycle for the subsequent research and mass production of nodes such as 14A/18A. SoftBank's investment has also sparked speculation in the market about the potential synergy between Arm, a subsidiary of SoftBank, and Intel. Intel is promoting its foundry business, hoping to provide wafer manufacturing services to more chip customers. If the two can collaborate, Arm's IP ecosystem and Intel's manufacturing capabilities may complement each other.

On the 15th, US President Trump stated that he will impose semiconductor tariffs within the next two weeks, with rates possibly as high as 200% or even 300%, symbolizing his readiness to intensify efforts to force chip manufacturing to return to the United States. According to reports, while flying to Alaska to meet with Russian President Putin, Trump said on Air Force One, "I will impose tariffs on steel and chips next week and the following week." Trump has repeatedly promised that tariffs on chips and drugs will be implemented within a few weeks, but has not yet announced them. The US Department of Commerce has launched an investigation into the chip and pharmaceutical industries since April, which is a prerequisite for Trump's imposition of tariffs on national security grounds. This program can be quite complex, and investigations often take months or even longer to complete. Manufacturers and artificial intelligence (AI) companies have been eager for clearer semiconductor tariff plans as chips are widely used in various modern consumer products. Last week, Trump announced at an event with Apple CEO Cook that he plans to impose a 100% tariff on semiconductors, but if manufacturers relocate production to the United States, their products will not be affected. The White House has not further explained how the exemption mechanism operates, but Trump has hinted that Apple, which has committed to a $600 billion Made in America program, may receive an exemption. On the 15th, Trump pointed out that semiconductor tariffs will initially be set at a lower level, allowing companies time to set up factories and build production capacity in the United States. After a period of time, the tariff rate will be significantly increased, possibly reaching 200% or 300%. Trump said in an uncertain tone, 'Will the tax rate I want to set be 200% or 300%?' He said he is confident that companies will set up factories in the United States instead of choosing to pay high tariffs.

In response to the recent layoffs in China by Micron, Micron has officially responded to the CFM flash memory market:   Given the continued weak financial performance of mobile NAND products in the market and the slower growth compared to other NAND opportunities, we will cease the development of future mobile NAND products globally, including terminating the development of UFS5.   Micron stated that this decision only affects the development of global mobile NAND products. Micron will continue to develop and support other NAND solutions, such as SSDs and NAND solutions for the automotive and other end markets.   Micron will continue to develop and support the mobile DRAM market globally, and provide an industry-leading DRAM product portfolio. In recent years, as large technology companies have increased their investment in artificial intelligence data centers, orders for high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips from semiconductor manufacturers such as Micron have surged due to their powerful data processing capabilities.   The company currently expects quarterly revenue of $11.2 billion, with a fluctuation of $100 million, compared to the previous forecast of $10.7 billion, with a fluctuation of $300 million.   Micron also raised its adjusted gross profit margin forecast for the fourth quarter to 44.5%, with a fluctuation of 0.5%, compared to the previous forecast of 42%, with a fluctuation of 1%.   The company stated that the revised forecast reflects an improvement in pricing, particularly for dynamic random access memory or DRAM products.   Sumit Sadana, Chief Commercial Officer of Micron, said at an industry conference on Monday, "We focus on all different end markets around the world, and price trends have been strong. We have achieved great success in raising prices   EMarketer analyst Jacob Bourne stated that supply constraints in HBM production and strong demand for artificial intelligence have enabled Micron to set higher prices for its products, representing a shift in memory chip manufacturers' history towards thinner profit margins.   In June of this year, Micron announced that it would increase its investment in the United States by $30 billion, bringing the total to $200 billion

US President Trump has stated that the CEO of Intel has a serious conflict of interest and must resign immediately. There is no other solution to this problem.   This statement also cast a heavy shadow over the future direction of Intel, which is currently undergoing changes, directly leading to a nearly 5% drop in Intel's stock price in pre-market trading.   Futurum Group's Chief Semiconductor Analyst Ray Wang said, "This is a crisis point for how Intel will handle its relationship with the US government in the future." He warned that Trump's interference could make the situation worse. Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, a financial company, expressed concern that the incident could set a bad precedent, saying, 'You don't want the President of the United States to decide who will manage the company.'. According to the data, Chen Liwu was born in Malaysia in 1959, grew up and received education in Singapore, graduated from Nanyang University with a Bachelor's degree in Physics, and then majored in Nuclear Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, obtaining a Master's and Doctoral degree. He later founded the venture capital company Walden International.   In 2017, the data analysis company Relationship Science selected Chen Liwu as one of the most connected executives in the technology industry and gave him a perfect score of 100 in the "Power Rating"   65 year old Chen Liwu took over as CEO of Intel from his predecessor Pat Gelsinger in March this year, and he is also the first Chinese CEO in Intel's history. After taking office, he proposed a series of reform measures, hoping to once again turn Intel into a customer-centric and engineering centric company. In order to achieve this goal, Chen Liwu streamlined about 50% of the management hierarchy, making management more flat, while divesting non core businesses and initiating layoffs, thus focusing resources more on core businesses. Including plans to reduce the company's workforce to 75000 by the end of the year, a decrease of approximately 22%. In addition, Intel has promised to adopt a more cautious strategy in manufacturing investments. Intel once dominated the field of chip manufacturing, but in recent years it has lagged behind its Taiwan, China rival TSMC in manufacturing technology, and has almost no share in the AI chip market, which is currently dominated by Nvidia. When Chen Liwu took over Intel, the industry generally believed that with his abilities, he could save Intel from the current "crisis". At present, Chen Liwu has only been serving as CEO of Intel for less than 5 months, and the reform of Intel is still actively underway. If Chen Liwu is forced to resign at this time, it will obviously be extremely unfavorable for Intel's future development. At the same time, this controversy undoubtedly adds new uncertainty to Intel's ongoing strategic transformation. In response to this, Intel issued a statement rejecting Trump's call for CEO Chen Liwu to resign and promising to make "significant investments" in the president's "America First" agenda.   Intel, the Board of Directors, and Chen Liwu are firmly committed to advancing the national and economic security interests of the United States and making significant investments in accordance with the President's America First Agenda, "Intel said in a statement released on Thursday Intel has been manufacturing in the United States for 56 years. We will continue to invest billions of dollars in domestic semiconductor research and manufacturing, including our new factory in Arizona, which will adopt the most advanced manufacturing process technology in the United States, and we are the only company to invest in leading logic process node development in the United States. We look forward to continuing to work with the government   In addition, regarding Trump's request for Intel CEO Chen Liwu to resign, Stacy Rasgon, a senior analyst at Bernstein Research, commented, "Chen Liwu's activities in China are not secret. He is a legendary figure in the semiconductor industry." "Intel is in a difficult situation, and when he accepted this job, they were in a difficult position, which is part of the reason why he accepted it. And if he turns losses into profits, it will be a difficult process Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon believes that Trump's dissatisfaction may stem from Chen Liwu's failure to establish a personal relationship with him, as well as Trump's possible dissatisfaction with Intel's cuts in capital expenditures and wavering in cutting-edge processor manufacturing. Intel is a significant beneficiary of the Chips and Science Act funding, having received nearly $8 billion in grants. However, the Trump administration has been trying to use these grants to encourage businesses to commit to more investment. In addition, Intel announced this year that it will postpone the production of its chip manufacturing plant in Ohio until at least the 2030s, which may contradict the government's goal of expanding semiconductor production capacity in the United States. Trump's close ally, Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, also called for Chen Liwu to resign. Chen Liwu is not the first corporate leader to resign after a conflict with Trump. One important reason for Chen Liwu's employment is his profound industry expertise and network. If he resigns, it is currently unclear who can replace him.

TSMC has ambitious plans in the United States, one of the most important of which is to produce cutting-edge N2 technology to help the country take a leading position in the chip industry. TSMC's cutting-edge chip technology is entering the United States and is currently unstoppable. Since the Trump administration took office, TSMC has seen great interest in the region, partly due to the "tariff threat" faced by this chip giant.   According to reports, TSMC is currently preparing a 2-nanometer production line at its Fab P3 factory in Arizona. It is reported that the plant is under construction and may be put into production as early as 2026, which is nearly a year later than the production line in Taiwan, China. Establishing chip factories in the United States has clearly become a trend among companies, mainly because the US government is making the bill a part of tariff agreements with countries such as South Korea. For TSMC, the company's start was indeed difficult, especially with many issues in culture and logistics. However, now, with the support of increased investment, this chip company seems to be more determined in its ambitions in the US market. TSMC is indeed aggressively attacking the US chip supply chain, indicating its desire to dominate this market. Due to the need for large technology companies to maintain close contact with the current US government, NVIDIA、 Companies such as Apple and AMD are ready to transfer their supply chains to the United States through hundreds of billions of dollars in investments, ranging from establishing production facilities to assisting supply chain partners in the transition. Since all these companies currently rely on the chips of TSMC, it is crucial for the Taiwan, China giant to establish a strong chip network in the United States. By transferring the 2-nanometer process to the United States, TSMC has indeed chosen its next business location. It is expected that in a few years, the domestic demand for chips in the United States will increase significantly, and this achievement is mainly attributed to the current government's prioritized self-reliance policy. The future development of TSMC relations in the United States is worth paying attention to, but currently, everything depends on the United States

On July 28th, according to the latest report from market research firm Counterpoint Research, the global pure semiconductor wafer foundry industry's revenue is expected to reach $165 billion by 2025, a year-on-year increase of 17%. During the period of 2021-2025, the compound annual growth rate of this industry is 12%. This growth is mainly due to the promotion of advanced process nodes. Among them, the revenue of 3 nanometer nodes is expected to increase by over 600% year-on-year, reaching $30 billion, while the revenue of 5/4 nanometer nodes will exceed $40 billion. These advanced nodes will contribute more than half of the total revenue of pure wafer fabs by 2025. The report points out that the increasing demand for high-end smartphones, AI PC solutions, AI ASICs, GPUs, and high-performance computing (HPC) solutions is the main factor driving the growth of advanced process revenue. In terms of corporate competition, TSMC has an advantage in advanced nodes, followed closely by Samsung and Intel. At the same time, UMC, Gexin, and SMIC still have strong demand in other nodes, although they may not be able to keep up with the pace of advanced nodes in terms of revenue growth rate. In addition, the backend packaging process is constantly innovating and generating revenue. For example, technologies such as HBM memory integration and migration to chip level packaging are bringing new growth opportunities to the industry. These innovations not only enhance the performance and reliability of products, but also open up new sources of revenue for semiconductor foundries.

According to SK Hynix's latest financial report, the operating profit for the second quarter was KRW 9.21 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 68.5%, exceeding analysts' expectations of KRW 8.93 trillion; Revenue was KRW 22.23 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 35.4%, exceeding analysts' expectations of KRW 20.56 trillion. In addition, on a quarterly basis, the second quarter revenue increased by 26% compared to the previous quarter, and the operating profit increased by 24%. SK Hynix stated, "As major global technology companies actively invest in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), the demand for AI oriented memory continues to grow. The company's DRAM and NAND flash memory shipments have exceeded expectations, resulting in the highest historical performance. ”The company also stated that it has expanded the sales of 12 layer HBM3E products in the DRAM business field, and increased sales in various application areas of NAND flash memory. With the highest level of competitiveness in the AI oriented storage industry and profit oriented business activities, it has continued its good performance trend. ” Thanks to this performance achievement, as of the end of the second quarter, cash and cash equivalents reached KRW 17 trillion, an increase of KRW 2.7 trillion compared to the previous quarter. The debt to net debt ratio was 25% and 6% respectively, with a significant decrease of KRW 4.1 trillion in net debt compared to the previous period. In addition, while customers increased their storage orders in the second quarter, they also increased their finished product production and maintained a stable inventory level. SK Hynix predicts that new products from customers will be launched soon in the second half of the year, and storage demand will continue to grow. SK Hynix will double the year-on-year growth in the HBM field based on its existing HBM3E product performance and mass production capabilities, thereby achieving stable performance results. HBM4 also plans to prepare timely supply according to customer requirements and continuously strengthen its competitiveness at the highest level in the industry.