TSMC chipmaking factories rocked by magnitude 7.0 earthquake that was the strongest in 27 years, but facilities escaped unharmed — company’s earthquake protection measures pay off

Yesterday, the ground shook off the coast of Taiwan, slamming the country with the strongest earthquake in 27 years. The seismic wave registered 7.0 in Taiwan’s scales, or 6.6 to 6.7 according to the USGS standard. Thankfu…

, ,
Nexperia China seeks new wafer suppliers amid legal standoff with Dutch parent, could take 6 months for qualification — chip shortages have suspended some automotive production lines as Nexperia faces wafer shortage

Nexperia’s China unit is moving to line up new wafer suppliers over the next six to nine months amid a deepening legal and operational dispute with its Dutch parent company.
…

, ,
How reality crushed Ÿnsect, the French startup that had raised over $600M for insect farming

French insect farming company Ÿnsect was recently placed into judicial liquidation for insolvency, despite raising over $600 million.

, , , , , , ,
Intel displays tech to build extreme multi-chiplet packages 12 times the size of the largest AI processors, beating TSMC’s biggest — floorplan the size of a cellphone, armed with HBM5, 14A compute tiles and 18A SRAM

Intel Foundry has released a video of a multi-chiplet 2.5D/3D processor with a 10,296 mm^2 silicon footprint, including leading-edge technologies such as 14A and 18A.
…

, ,
China chipmaker SMIC raises wafer prices by about 10% as memory demand tightens capacity

The adjustment comes as China’s largest foundry runs near full utilization and faces sustained demand from domestic customers building inventories of memory and logic chips.
…

, ,
TSMC’s Christmas Card evokes a retro 8-bit winter wonderland — ‘pixelated’ kids play Breakout with snowballs, carving out a festive scene

TSMC has shared a super-cool digital greetings card with a retro-nostalgic 8-bit style gaming animation.

, ,
Researchers discover that some biodegradable electronics produce microplastics as they degrade — the investigated material is commonly used in medical research

Researchers from Northeastern University discovered that PEDOT:PSS, which is typically used in medical research, breaks down into harmful microplastics.
…

,
China’s reverse-engineered Frankenstein EUV chipmaking tool hasn’t produced a single chip — sanctions-busting experiment is still years away from becoming operational

A reported attempt by a covert Chinese lab to reverse-engineer an EUV lithography scanner underscores that, despite access to scattered components, replicating ASML’s EUV tools is effectively impossible without recreating …

, ,
Trump administration announces new tariffs on Chinese chips and electronic components — but fresh sanctions won’t take effect until 2027, and rates remain unknown

The United States has slapped a fresh set of tariffs on Chinese electronic components, but their implementation has been delayed until 2027.
…

, ,
Nvidia prepares shipment of 82,000 AI GPUs to China as chip war lines blur — H200 shipments with 25% tax to begin as US loosens restrictions

Nvidia is preparing to deliver up to 80,000 H200 AI chips to China before the Lunar New Year holiday, marking the first time this level of silicon would be legally exported to the country since 2022.
…

, ,