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Commentary / Analysis

• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts August 2019 Billings (Monday Sep. 23, 2019)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.00 billion in billings worldwide in August 2019 (three-month average basis), according to the August Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI.
  
  
• Semiconductor Acquisitions Regain Momentum in 2019 (Thursday Sep. 19, 2019)
  This year’s merger and acquisition announcements are driven by deals in networking and wireless connectivity ICs and by suppliers adding products for automotive systems and other strong-growth markets into the next decade.
  
  
• ESD Alliance Reports EDA Industry Revenue Increase for Q2 2019 (Tuesday Sep. 17, 2019)
  The EDA industry revenue increased 6.6 percent for Q2 2019 to $2472.1 million, compared to $2318.5 million in Q2 2018. The four-quarters moving average, which compares the most recent four quarters to the prior four quarters, increased by 6.0 percent.
  
  
• India Branching Out into Chip Design (Monday Sep. 16, 2019)
  This week, Indian analog and mixed-signal design services firm Sankalp Semiconductor was acquired in an all-cash deal by HCL Technologies, one of the country’s leading IT outsourcing firms, for just over US$25 million. The acquisition is part of the latter’s strategic plans to expand into newer market domains and offer a wider range of services to its customers in the analog and mixed signal space.
  
  
• Fabs Valued at Nearly $50 Billion to Start Construction in 2020 (Monday Sep. 16, 2019)
  Investments in new fab projects starting construction in 2020 is expected to reach nearly US$50 billion, up about US$12 billion from 2019, according to the latest update of the World Fab Forecast from SEMI
  
  
• Second Quarter 2019 Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Billings of $13.3 Billion Down 20 Percent from 2018, 3 Percent from Prior Quarter (Thursday Sep. 12, 2019)
  Worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached US$13.3 billion in the second quarter of 2019, down 20 percent from the same quarter of 2018 and 3 percent from than the previous quarter.
  
  
• AI Chip Market to More than Double in 5 Years (Thursday Sep. 12, 2019)
  The opportunity for AI accelerator chips is much-hyped, but how big is the market, and which companies are actually selling chips today?
  
  
• Memory Forecast to Account for 43% of Total 2019 Semi Spending (Tuesday Sep. 10, 2019)
  Foundry to account for most semi capex spending in 2019 as the big wave of spending for memory fab expansions and upgrades comes to a close.
  
  
• Apple Will Be Hard-Pressed to Build a Rock Star 5G Modem (Monday Sep. 09, 2019)
  After buying Intel's modem business, Apple has a steep hill to climb to build a premium 5G modem. And it might yet have to buy an RF IC company.
  
  
• Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung Reveal Integrated 5G Chips (Monday Sep. 09, 2019)
  Mobile processors with integrated 5G modems are the flavor of the week, as Europe’s equivalent of CES kicked off in Berlin with launches from Huawei, Samsung and Qualcomm.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Decrease 15.5 Percent Year-to-Year in July (Wednesday Sep. 04, 2019)
  The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors were $33.4 billion in July 2019, 1.7 percent more than the June 2019 total of $32.8 billion, but 15.5 percent less than the July 2018 total of $39.5 billion.
  
  
• 300mm Fab Equipment Spending to Seesaw, Reach New Highs in 2021 and 2023, SEMI Reports (Tuesday Sep. 03, 2019)
  300mm fab equipment spending will slowly recover in 2020 after the 2019 downturn and take off in 2021 to log a new record high topping US$60 billion, only to lag again in 2022 and rebound to an all-time peak in 2023
  
  
• Details of Hailo AI Edge Accelerator Emerge (Tuesday Sep. 03, 2019)
  Secretive Israeli AI accelerator startup Hailo has revealed some key details of its novel compute architecture, following the launch of its first chip, the Hailo-8, in May.
  
  
• GlobalFoundries' Goal: Harass TSMC Customers (Monday Sep. 02, 2019)
  
  
  
• Global Top Ten IC Design Companies for 2Q19 Ranked by Revenue Released, with Top Five Registering Revenue Fall, Says TrendForce (Thursday Aug. 29, 2019)
  According to the newest statistics by TrendForce , the global top ten IC design companies for 2Q19 ranked by revenue have just been released, in which we see revenues of the top five all falling YoY.
  
  
• Global Foundries/TSMC Wrangle Seen Dragging Industry Down (Wednesday Aug. 28, 2019)
  The legal tiff that GlobalFoundries (GF) initiated with TSMC yesterday is yet another factor likely to impede growth and profitability in the semiconductor industry during the foreseeable future, according to analysts.
  
  
• Does Your AI Chip Have Its Own DNN? (Monday Aug. 26, 2019)
  For AI accelerators in the race to achieve optimum accuracy at minimum latency, especially in autonomous vehicles (AVs), teraflops have become the key element in many so-called brain chips. The contenders include Nvidia’s Xavier SoC, Mobileye’s EyeQ5, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving computer chip and NXP-Kalray chips.
  
  
• North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts July 2019 Billings (Monday Aug. 26, 2019)
  North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $2.03 billion in billings worldwide in July 2019 (three-month average basis), according to the July Equipment Market Data Subscription (EMDS) Billings Report published today by SEMI .
  
  
• Is It Time to Forget about Huawei? (Thursday Aug. 22, 2019)
  Is it time for the U.S. tech companies to forget about ever seeing another big Huawei design opportunity ever again? The US chip industry is certainly not giving up on China, but Huawei — and by extension China — is inclined to give up on the United States.
  
  
• Top-15 Semiconductor Suppliers' Sales Fall by 18% in 1H19 (Wednesday Aug. 21, 2019)
  In total, the top-15 semiconductor companies’ sales dropped by 18% in 1H19 compared to 1H18, four points worse than the total worldwide semiconductor industry 1H19/1H18 decline of 14%.
  
  
• Will More-than-Moore Take Off in China? (Tuesday Aug. 20, 2019)
  Most semiconductor enterprises in China are focusing on their survival and profit. It's impractical to force them to keep following Moore's Law or trying the IDM model for memory volume production.
  
  
• Microcontrollers Will Regain Growth After 2019 Slump (Wednesday Aug. 14, 2019)
  After reaching record-high sales in the last two years, the microcontroller (MCU) market slid lower in the first half of 2019 because of overall weakness in electronic systems, a slowdown in automobile sales, and no letup in the trade war between the U.S. and China
  
  
• EDA, AVs Find Common Language (Monday Aug. 12, 2019)
  Complex systems — whether a system-on-chip or autonomous vehicles — can frustrate design engineers who, after months of painstaking work, have to go back and verify that the system they just designed actually performs the way they intended.
  
  
• Arm Revenues Up, Royalties Down (Thursday Aug. 08, 2019)
  The SoftBank Group said revenues for its microprocessor business Arm increased 9.7% year-on-year to $418 million for the quarter ended 30 June 2019, despite royalty revenue falling 8% due to dampening smartphone demand.
  
  
• 76% of IC Products Expected to See Flat/Negative Growth in 2019 (Thursday Aug. 08, 2019)
  After flying high for two years, DRAM sales growth is forecast to rank last in 2019, worst among all IC categories; NAND flash sales decline close behind.
  
  
• Mid-Year Global Semiconductor Sales Down 14.5 Compared to 2018 (Tuesday Aug. 06, 2019)
  SIA today announced worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $98.2 billion during the second quarter of 2019, a small increase of 0.3 percent over the previous quarter, but 16.8 percent less than the second quarter of last year.
  
  
• Intel 10nm Chip Gets Mixed Reviews (Monday Aug. 05, 2019)
  Early reviews of Intel’s first processors made in its much-delayed 10nm node were mixed. A handful of reviewers praised their integrated graphics but said CPU improvements were modest at best.
  
  
• China, Huawei Hit Q'Comm Where it Hurts (Thursday Aug. 01, 2019)
  Chipmakers are demonstrating tangible evidence that they are feeling the effects of the U.S.-China trade war and the Trump Administration's ban on sales to Huawei Technologies.
  
  
• Startup Puts AI Core in SSDs (Thursday Aug. 01, 2019)
  Startup InnoGrit debuted a set of three controllers for solid-state drives (SSDs), including one for data centers that embeds a neural-network accelerator. They enter a crowded market with claims of power and performance advantages over rivals.
  
  
• Despite 38% Sales Decline, DRAM Expected to Remain Largest IC Market (Wednesday Jul. 31, 2019)
  Despite a 38% sales decline expected this year, the DRAM market is forecast to remain the largest of all IC product categories again in 2019 with sales reaching $62.0 billion, down from $99.4 billion in 2018. IC Insights believes the DRAM market will account for 17% of total IC sales in 2019.