Intel's Private Equity CEO Lip-Bu Tan is shaking up the company’s organizational structure and cutting costs but isn’t remaking its strategy. “I think it’s a fair assessment that Lip-Bu isn’t thinking about massive changes,” CFO David Zinsner told a J.P. Morgan conference in Boston. Intel spent months in limbo after its board forced out ex-CEO Pat Gelsinger in early December. Company executives openly discussed the possibility of breaking up the business, separating its chip design business from Intel’s manufacturing arm.  Once the world’s largest chipmaker, Intel is trying to recover from an extended decline in sales and a $19 billion loss in 2024. A plan pushed by Gelsinger, and only later embraced by Tan, aims to open Intel’s factories to make chips for other companies.  Since Intel hired Tan in March, he's emphasized taking steps to improve Intel’s decision-making and has said nothing about splitting the business. Instead, Tan has said he plans to reduce the layers of management and implement “several months” of job cuts to cut costs and flatten the organization. “When he looks at the business, what he feels is the biggest issue at this point is a lack of execution”.  Intel hasn’t said how many jobs it will cut altogether. But telling factory workers last week that it is making layoff decisions this month and will notify staff by the middle of June.  Tan said, “We must balance our reductions with the need to retain and recruit key talent. Removing layers of management will give engineers more voice in product design, and a closer connection with Intel customers. He also said fewer layers of management will provide Tan a clearer view of how the company is operating.  “What he wants is the lowest level of the organization to be closer to him,”  Intel has been slow to attract customers to its contract manufacturing business, (Intel Foundry). Intel doesn’t have significant commitments from potential clients yet for its new 18A manufacturing node. Intel still expects its factory business will break even in 2027, Zinsner saying it's “a little bit embarrassing” that Intel hasn’t been delivering better products to customers. Intel cut 15,000 jobs in 2024, and employees say privately that morale is low this spring with the prospect of additional layoffs to come. Some employees are also unhappy with Tan’s decision to order workers back to the office 4 days a week. Zinsner blamed remote work for some of the company’s issues. “We did have a number of the team that was not working on site full time,”  “I think to some degree that has inhibited us and impacted our ability to execute on road maps and process.”  Intel is now walking a narrow path, cutting costs, jobs and employee perks while trying to retain and recruit top technologists to improve its products. Zinsner said Tan is “a magnet for talent” stating it will become apparent soon that Intel is again a destination for top-level professionals in the semiconductor industry.

“We have lost talent at the company, and we do need to rebuild that.”

Huawei cannot legally obtain advanced chips made by TSMC, the company used shell companies last year to obtain compute chiplets for its Ascend 910 AI chips. The conspiracy was discovered by TechInsights and TSMC, which ceased to ship chiplets to Huawei's proxies and initiated an internal investigation. However, it was not clear how many chiplets it supplied to Huawei. According to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Huawei obtained as many as two million Ascend 910 AI chiplets. "However, TSMC manufactured large quantities of Huawei Ascend 910B chips on behalf of Huawei shell companies and shipped the chips to China in violation of U.S. export controls," the report by CSIS reads.

According to the report, "government officials told CSIS that TSMC manufactured more than 2 million Ascend 910B logic dies and that all of these are now with Huawei. If true, this is enough dies to make 1 million Ascend 910C units. […] Even though Huawei likely has the more than 2 million Ascend 910B logic dies made by TSMC, there is a question as to whether it has enough HBM to integrate with those dies […] It seems likely that Huawei does, however, since the U.S. plan to restrict all advanced HBM sales to China on a country-wide basis was leaked to Bloomberg in August 2024 and did not go into effect until December of that year, giving Huawei ample time to legally acquire HBM chips as part of a stockpiling strategy." Although the report seems correct about Huawei's stockpiling strategy and even gives us an insight into how many chips TSMC produced for Huawei's intermediaries, it still contains several inaccuracies that lead to wrong conclusions.  Huawei's original HiSilicon Ascend 910, which was launched in 2019, consists of a Virtuvian AI chiplet, a Nimbus V3 I/O die, four HBM2E memory stacks, and two dummy dies. TSMC produced Virtuvian chiplets for Huawei from 2019 to September 2020, using its N7+ process technology, a 7nm-class node with some EUV layers.  After the U.S. government put Huawei on its Entity List in 2020, Huawei had to redesign its Virtuvian chiplet to make it at SMIC, which used its N+1 technology (1st Generation 7nm-class process) to build it. GPUs with the new Virtuvian chiplet are called HiSilicon Ascend 910B and have nothing to do with TSMC. Later, Huawei developed a more sophisticated version of its Virtuvian chiplet for its Ascend 910C, which SMIC makes using its 2nd Generation 7nm fabrication technology (N+2). Contrary to the report, the Ascend 910C has only one compute chiplet. Again, the Ascend 910C has nothing to do with TSMC. As Huawei managed to deceive TSMC, the latter produced the original Ascend 910 chiplet for the company in 2023 – 2024, as discovered by TechInsights. Another noteworthy thing about Huawei's Ascend 910B and Ascend 910C is that their yields are not exactly high, so most parts are shipped with some compute elements disabled. Also, only 75% of Huawei's AI chips survive advanced packaging, which is not a good result. "However, the advanced packaging process by which two Ascend 910B dies and HBM are combined into a unified Ascend 910C chip also introduces defects that can compromise the functionality of the chip," the report says. "Industry sources told CSIS that roughly 75% of the Ascend 910Cs currently survive the advanced packaging process." Nonetheless, Huawei continues to acquire millions of Ascend 910B and Ascend 910C for its internal AI projects and external customers. For example, DeepSeek claims that the Ascend 910C delivers 60% of the performance offered by Nvidia's H100, which may not be enough for training large language models but is good enough for inference workloads.

A former SK Hynix employee has been formally accused of illegally transferring technologies related to advanced chip packaging used for 3D NAND, HBM, and multi-chiplet assemblies as well as CMOS image sensors to Huawei's HiSilicon division, reports DigiTimes citing the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's office. An interesting twist to this story: While working at Huawei, the suspect allegedly took IP related to CMOS image sensors (CIS) and hybrid bonding chip packaging technology that is used for 3D NAND, HBM3 / HBM3E / HBM4 memory, as well as Advanced Stacked multi-chiplet packages (e.g., TSMC's SoIC and Intel's Foveros 3D). Huawei did not explicitly ask the suspect to bring it SK hynix's trade secrets (even though the company is known for poaching highly-skilled employees from world-class companies by offering them huge salaries), but accepted them as part of the hiring process.   It is unclear whether the suspect's targets were hybrid bonding and image sensors, or 'just' hybrid bonding as modern CMOS sensors also use hybrid bonding. 

SK Hynix reportedly clarified that the leaked bonding-related information concerned general wafer-to-wafer processes and not the specific hybrid bonding technique currently being developed or used for commercial products. For Chinese companies like Huawei (which does not have access to advanced process technologies and packaging methods used by TSMC and SK hynix) as well as SMIC (which does not have access to the latest lithography equipment made by ASML), getting wafer bonding know-how from SK hynix, which had licensed such technologies from Xperi, may be considered as a major breakthrough as wafer bonding is becoming increasingly important for multiple semiconductor applications.

The individual in question, a South Korean citizen named only in the complaint by his surname, Kim, previously worked for the Chinese unit of SK hynix. Authorities allege that in 2022 he secured a position with HiSilicon and, during the hiring process, improperly accessed and misused internal data belonging to SK Hynix.  Kim reportedly printed out and captured photographs of internal files against policy. Investigators discovered that over 11,000 photographs of confidential content were taken, and steps were allegedly made to mask the origin by removing company identifiers such as brand logos and secrecy labels from the images.  Evidence indicates that Kim submitted these materials as part of job applications to two separate companies in China, using them to enhance his qualifications. Authorities now claim this was a calculated effort to secure employment using unlawfully obtained information from his former employer.  The report confirms that many technologies developed in China in general and by Huawei specifically originate from multi-national corporations. 

Word has reached SemiAccurate about the upcoming ARM branded server CPU. While the picture is not complete yet, we can now flesh out a lot of the details. SemiAccurate has long heard rumors of ARM making their own devices which on the surface appear to compete with some customers. The devices are real, they have customers, and the competition aspect is as unclear as it ever was. All this said, time to dive in.

Sunlin Chou, who passed on December 5th, 2018, played his role and made contributions to the semiconductor industry in developing a new business model for semiconductor R&D. While his legacy had faded since he retired in 2005, his career included filling Gordon Moore’s shoes as a key technologist in the 2nd Gen of Semiconductor Technical Leadership. Sunlin Chou’s last position was running the Technology side of Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group. He was in that group of “Shadow Warriors” who ran R&D. They seldom get any public light, and only the people in their company know what they do. Yet they bear a tremendous burden. They must decide among the myriad of technologies, which ones deserve attention, funding, etc. They must ply the foggy seas of the tech triangle that lie between customer need, realization in product, and manufacturability. It is a place where shipwrecks occur all too often. For Sunlin, the challenge was even greater. He had to fill Gordon Moore’s shoes. That meant not only being right, but also being above industry politics. You can learn a lot from someone who has successfully sailed these seas. At the core of Sunlin’s values was the belief that all problems should be dealt with systematically. He was one of the most systematic individuals you would ever meet, exemplary in many ways: every hair was always in a precise place, clothing all in alignment, shoes polished, and a poker stare that came from years of making many calculated gambles on future technology. This is exactly how he dealt with the issue of reviving Intel’s prowess after the 1985 debacle.  Sunlin’s role in this was to develop a new business model for R&D. While many people were looking for an outside solution, like consortia, Sunlin was looking inside to see how the process could be streamlined. Most knew the model wasn’t working well. R&D often never led anywhere for the companies that funded it (Xerox Parc being the best example). It was a money sink, because few innovations ever made it to the business side of an organization. Yet few did anything about it. -- Sunlin looked at these problems and saw the opportunity. -- Sunlin’s most important contribution is his R&D Pipeline model, where he applied the first systematic approach to the whole development cycle. Central to his method was a strong understanding of Moore’s Law and how it impacted product life cycles. It led to his decision to set technical direction based on its relentless progression. This led to node planning. What came next was truly innovative. First, he covered the horizontal time line with a flow model that started with the research infrastructure outside Intel; then feeding it inside to research; then to path finding, on to development; and finally, to manufacturing – all synchronized to the nodal clock. To do this, he had to create a Copy-Exactly infrastructure for R&D that had never existed. Plus, everything had to be tightly coupled at the hand-off points, which is where most fail. This was done with exacting business processes. Second, he also covered the vertical technology line, integrating the test, assembly, and process roadmaps into a single cohesive strategy/roadmap. It doesn’t get more systematic than this. The result was that Intel was able to shift into high gear, running on a 24-month nodal clock.

Intel’s new CTO and AI Chief Sachin Katti is taking over responsibilities of Intel’s AI road map and strategy, the business unit most recently known as the Data Center and AI Group (DC&AI) will be split apart and “refocused” so that the Data Center part will focus on CPUs. These changes were detailed in memos sent last Thursday to Intel employees by Katti, and Karin Eibschitz, the interim GM of what is now being called the Data Center Group. Lip-Bu Tan also expanded the roles and responsibilities for Katti— already a part of Tan’s executive leadership team as the head of Intel’s Network and Edge Group (NEX). This will put him in charge of Intel’s “overall AI strategy and AI product road map as well as Intel Labs and our relationships with the startup and developer ecosystems,”  Eibschitz’s division will continue to handle Data Center CPUs and Katti taking over Data Center accelerator chips such as GPUs in his newly configured AI and CTO organization.  The Data Center Group will collaborate with new horizontal engineering teams—reporting directly to Tan and led by long-time technical leaders Rob Bruckner, Mike Hurley and Lisa Peace—as well as Katti’s new CTO and AI organization. In Tan’s memo to Intel employees, said he has asked each member of his executive team to “identify opportunities” for further organizational changes in support of his goals to reduce bureaucracy and speed up decision-making. “As I said last month, Intel is going to act like a disruptor again by giving engineers the freedom to innovate,”. “We will simplify the way we work so that it’s easier to get work done. And we will empower smaller, more focused teams to create great products and delight our customers,”. “Right now, we are implementing the highest-level [organization] changes while we continue to work through further refinements,” Eibschitz said of the Data Center Group.

A significant concern has arisen following Lip-Bu Tan's appointment:

Extensive Investments in China: Through his venture capital firm Walden International and other holding companies (Sakarya Limited, Seine Limited), Tan controls +40 Chinese companies and holds minority stakes in +600 others, with these stakes valued at potentially +$200 million.  -- Critically, investments have been made in, or alongside, Chinese companies linked to the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Chinese state-owned groups, or government funds. These Concerns center on investments in firms like SMIC (China's top foundry, Tan was an early investor and board member until 2018; Walden reportedly exited in 2021 after SMIC was sanctioned by the US for military ties), Dapu Technologies (identified as a PLA contractor), HAI Robotics (reportedly bids for PLA contracts and works with surveillance firms), Intellifusion (a surveillance tech firm on a US trade blacklist for alleged human rights abuses), QST Group (whose sensors were reportedly found in Russian military drones), and Wuxi Xinxiang (supplier to YMTC, which is on US blacklists).  
 Given Intel's vital role as a US defense contractor and a key player in national technology infrastructure, Tan's deep financial integration with entities in a strategic competitor nation, particularly those with military or state ties, raises serious national security alarms and potential conflict of interest issues. Critics question his suitability to lead Intel under these circumstances. The past investment in SMIC is also seen by some as problematic for the CEO of a company trying to build its own foundry business.  -- These investment patterns have drawn scrutiny from the U.S. Congress (House Select Committee on the CCP).  While holding these investments is legal unless a company is on a specific U.S. restriction list, ethical concerns are raised regarding ties to surveillance firms or military suppliers. Intel has stated Tan completed required SEC disclosures regarding potential conflicts. There's discussion about whether divestment from potentially conflicting holdings should be required.

The paper examines the broad range of methods, tools and strategies available to designers and attempts to distill the best of each in a bid to generate a coherent, 'systematic creative design' philosophy. Although using the Soviet-originated Theory of Inventive problem Solving, TRIZ as its foundation, the proposed design method also encompasses elements of, amongst others, QFD, Design for X, Value Engineering, Axiomatic Design and Robust Design. The paper describes the ongoing process of integrating these methods and reviews their deployment on a broad spectrum of real engineering design case studies.

Some Intel investors and Wall Street analysts remain pessimistic about the prospects of a TSMC and Intel JV ending in any kind of a positive outcome.  Intel and TSMC have reached an understanding to constitute a JV that would then manage Intel's US-based fabs. The arrangement would also rope in other IC designers such as Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and Apple. TSMC would reportedly retain a 20% stake in the JV, financed via its in-kind contribution of technology and expertise.  This arrangement, however, raises quite a few questions. After all, Intel and TSMC have completely different chip fabrication processes that are barely compatible with each other, if at all, and it is for this reason that Citi has now cast serious doubts on the viability of the proposed JV:  "We do not believe TSMC operating/forming a JV with Intel would work given differences in manufacturing and operations." Citi then goes on to "question the wisdom of fabless companies investing in this JV," noting: "We believe Intel foundry has proven over the] years it cannot compete with TSMC, and forcing a company to use vastly inferior manufacturing would destroy the shareholder value of a fabless company such as Qualcomm or Broadcom."  Instead, Citi thinks Intel should exit the chip fabrication business entirely: "Given the highly unlikely chance of Intel merchant foundry succeeding and subsequent drag on cash flow, we continue to believe Intel would be best served by exiting the merchant foundry business and focusing on its core CPU business."

BofA's Vivek Arya also recently denigrated this proposal, noting that splitting up Intel "could be time-consuming and complicated given:

1) Extensive approval requirements from global (China) regulators due to Intel's dominant ~70% share of PC/server CPU

2) Mismatch between Intel and TSMC’s manufacturing processes,

3) TSMC’s ongoing fab expansion plans in Arizona with the ability to serve AI customers,

4) Broadcom's existing low-levered but high-debt ($ 58 billion net debt) balance sheet, and

5) Constraints of Intel's CHIPS Act funding (design needs to own 50 %+ of manufacturing) and ROI requirements from co-investment partners ..."

Private equity firms prioritize profits over people, buying and flipping businesses across industries, which leads to degraded services, inflated costs, and widespread corporate control that undermines competition and societal well-being. Private equity is identified as a major yet overlooked factor contributing to economic struggles. Private equity firms manage investments from wealthy individuals, often using leverage to acquire businesses. Private equity firms prioritize profit over the well-being of the businesses they acquire.

The Dimensity 9400 is substantial proof that MediaTek is no longer a company that is sidelined to deliver entry-level and mid-ranged chipsets, but that does not explain why the company has not introduced a Snapdragon X Elite competitor, or, at the very least, a Snapdragon X Plus one. Turns out it has, but this SoC will be found in a completely different set of machines for whatever reason. The Kompanio Ultra 910 is the newest release from the Taiwanese firm, and looking at its specifications, we are definitely excited about what comes next. -- Chromebooks featuring the Kompanio Ultra 910 will be available in the coming months, but the latest chipset release sounds like a missed opportunity for MediaTek  -- The Kompanio Ultra 910 is fabricated with the best available technology, with MediaTek stating that the silicon is mass produced on TSMC’s 2nd-gen 3-nm process, the same one utilized for Apple’s M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max. The Kompanio Ultra 910 sports no low-power cores, with its 8-core configuration sporting an Arm Cortex-X925 operating at up to 3.62GHz, a Cortex-X4 and Cortex-A720, the chipset can achieve a high bandwidth as it supports LPDDR5X RAM up to 8,533MHz.

The new chipset also flaunts impressive AI capabilities thanks to MediaTek’s 8th-gen NPU, which delivers up to 50TOPS AI performance and faster LLM speculative speed support. Even though the Chromebooks outfitted with the Kompanio Ultra 910 are not intended for gaming, MediaTek claims that the 11 GPU cores belonging to the Immortalis-G925 deliver ‘PC-grade raytracing capabilities’. The Kompanio Ultra 910 can also support up to two 4K external monitors to boost productivity, with the inclusion of Wi-Fi 7 up to 7.3Gbps and Bluetooth 6.0. It is surprising that MediaTek’s latest silicon will only be found in Chromebooks later in 2025. It is possible that Qualcomm’s and Microsoft’s exclusive agreement of only using the former’s Snapdragon range of chipsets prevents competitors like MediaTek from stepping foot into this realm. MediaTek has an ace up its sleeve by partnering with NVIDIA to debut an AI PC in H2 2025, with the impending release likely stirring up the competition to newfound levels.

Well, it seems like the DRAM industry is expected to witness uncertainty once again, as Samsung is reportedly planning to implement a global price rise. This surely isn't a good time for consumers at all, since, apart from all the uncertainty in the market associated with Trump tariffs, companies are reportedly trying to combat them by "front-running" the announcements and importing products in huge volumes to avoid additional taxation. Similarly, according to the Korean media outlet MK, the Korean giant plans to increase DRAM and NAND prices by up to 3%-5%, keeping in light the demand from the semiconductor industry and how competitors like Micron are increasing prices as well. Based on the data from DRAMeXchange, DDR5 memory module pricing has risen by up to 12%, and the demand was mainly from HPC servers, while NAND pricing saw a 9% rise. This has shown that demand is definitely there, but it isn't from the consumer PC segment but rather from the AI market, which is why prices have seen such a rise. With companies like Samsung and Micron announcing a price hike, this means that prices would soar further ahead, which isn't good for the consumer markets. Consumer RAM pricing could rise notably in the upcoming months, and it won't be wrong to say that now might be the best time to get your DDR5 modules, given that with Trump tariffs and trade uncertainities, the consumer PC markets will see a tremendous rise in pricing.

Microsoft has pulled back on Data Center projects around the world, Bloomberg reports, suggesting that the company is wary of expanding its cloud computing infrastructure too rapidly. Microsoft has halted talks for or delayed development sites of data centers in the U.K., Australia, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, per Bloomberg. A spokesperson told the publication that Microsoft makes its plans years in advance and that the changes demonstrate “the flexibility of [its] strategy.” As recently as February, Microsoft reiterated earlier plans to allocate more than $80 billion of its cash to capital expenditures in 2025, primarily AI data centers. As Bloomberg points out in its piece, it’s hard to know how much of the company’s recent pullback reflects its expectations of diminished demand versus temporary construction challenges, such as shortages of power and building materials. Microsoft previously said that it would shift its Data Center expansion focus for 2025 from new construction to fitting existing facilities with servers and other computing equipment.

Intel is notching up an impressive collection of bugs and flaws of late, crashing 13th and 14th Gen CPUs, the latest "Arrow Lake" chips needing a fair bit of post-launch work to get them running (not all that) optimally, all that good stuff. Now Intel has announced some exciting new bugs that afflict not just its CPUs, but also Arc GPUs.

Let's start with some familiar sounding bugs involving Core Ultra processors. "Description: Incorrect initialization of resource in the branch prediction unit for some Intel Core Ultra Processors may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable information disclosure via local access," via the official security advisory. In other words, the bad guys can gain access to your rig. Intel says it is, "releasing microcode updates to mitigate these potential vulnerabilities," which impact Core Ultra 5, 7, and 9 CPU models across both desktop and laptop. The 2nd CPU bug afflicting those same chips is described as, "a potential security ['flaw'? Even Intel's bug reports have bugs, it seems...] in the Intel Integrated Connectivity I/O interface (CNVi) for some Intel Core Ultra Processors may allow escalation of privilege."  A microcode fix is in the oven. In both cases, Intel advises that PC owners should contact their system provider for an update to fix the problem, but it's not clear if the fix has already been released by Intel.  Next up, are novel GPU flaws, one of which has been given a "HIGH" severity by Intel. "Potential security vulnerabilities in some Intel Graphics Driver software may allow escalation of privilege, denial of service, or information disclosure,".  This applies to all Intel iGPUs from 7th Gen CPUs onwards and also includes the latest Arc GPUs, like the Arc B580. And we have an advisory pertaining to Intel's Endurance Gaming Mode software. "A potential security vulnerability for some Endurance Gaming Mode software may allow escalation of privilege," 

Intel Endurance Gaming Mode is an app for laptops that monitors real-time frame rates. The idea is to keep power consumption in check by setting a target frame rate and then reducing GPU frequency and power to match, resulting in improved battery life. The fix for this is both an update to Endurance Gaming Mode version 1.5.651.0, available here, and that latest GPU driver we mentioned before, available here. All of which means if you have Intel laptop, say, with both the relevant CPU and GPU and you happen to use Endurance Gaming Mode, perhaps you'd better get patched up fast.

Taiwan is investigating whether Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), China's largest contract chipmaker and the world's third largest foundry, broke local laws by secretly recruiting engineers to get experienced staff and gain insights of Taiwanese semiconductor know how, reports Bloomberg. The investigation is part of a broader crackdown on unauthorized activities by Chinese tech companies in Taiwan, notes Nikkei. Taiwanese authorities raided 34 different locations in 6 cities between March 18th - 28th. Officials from the Ministry of Justice examined operations linked to 11 Chinese companies and interviewed +90 people in connection with suspected breaches of local laws concerning talent poaching by Chinese companies. Most of the companies under investigation are involved in the semiconductor sector. Officials said this operation had been in the planning stages since December. Around 11 companies, the majority from the semiconductor industry, violated Taiwan's cross-strait regulations. Illegally setting up office without the government's knowledge. Of the 90 interviewees, some were witnesses, while others may have broken the law.  The investigation revealed that SMIC used a company registered in Samoa to discreetly recruit engineers in Taiwan. Authorities also found that several other firms had formed unauthorized local entities to carry out hiring for work on advanced projects, including 'high-performance networking,' which is probably how business media describes silicon photonics, an area that is becoming increasingly important for next-generation AI and HPC datacenters.  SMIC has 7nm-class and preps to roll-out 6nm-class process technologies, the best production nodes available in China. It produces chips for Huawei's HiSilicon, which tends to develop competitive offerings for client devices as well as AI servers and general-purpose servers. SMIC and Huawei need technologies like silicon photonics for their next-generation offerings. However, SMIC is not the only company that allegedly poaches engineers from Taiwanese companies. A company called Clounix was found to have poached a large number of specialists from major companies like Intel and Microsoft. It reportedly first disguised itself as a local company and later as a Singapore-based chip designer to avoid oversight. However, Clounix has financial backing from Ant Group, which is affiliated with Alibaba, which is emerging as a large cloud service provider with its own custom silicon division that develop CPUs and special-purpose ASICs for its broad needs, including general-purpose processing and AI workloads. Interestingly, Chinese entities were not only interested in advanced semiconductor or processor technologies know how. A company that develops display driver ICs has allegedly set up two offices in Tainan and Hsinchu and conducted remote interviews from China to bring in Taiwanese talent. It is unclear whether they wanted Taiwanese engineers to develop DDICs in China.

Currently, Intel's Foundry division loses billions every quarter as it invests heavily in new process technologies and production capacity. However, the company hopes that the Intel Foundry unit will break even sometime in 2027, which will coincide with the rollout out Intel's 14A manufacturing technology and production start on 18A-P node. 
Intel this week reaffirmed that the first product made on its 18A (1.8nm-class) fabrication process, the client PC processor (codenamed Panther Lake), will hit the market late this year and will ramp in 2026. The manufacturing technology will also be adopted for Xeon 'Clearwater Forest' and some 3rd-party products, but from Intel's Foundry business perspective, 18A is will be a proof-of-concept for external clients. If this production node is a success, more potential customers will adopt its successors, including 18A-P, and 14A (1.4nm-class). -- "I think we do need to see more external volume come from 14A versus versus 18A, said David Zinsner, CFO, at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference.

"We have […] a bunch of bunch of potential customers, and then we get test chips, and then some customers fall out in the test chips, and then there is a certain amount of customers that kind of hang in there. So, committed volume is not significant right now, for sure. But, you know, I think we have got to partly prove ourselves a little bit with our own product and eat our own dog food here, and then […] we start to see some engagement around customers."  Zinsner admitted that if the company choses to use High-NA EUV lithography with its 14A process technology, but its costs will go up initially. Intel hopes that advantages enabled by the new fab tools will outweigh those higher costs.  The company also intends to produce more of its own silicon in house with its Panther Lake and Nova Lake CPUs, which will improve Intel's margins and its utilization of production capacities. As a result, Intel hopes that its Foundry unit will break even in 2027 and will be profitable from then on.  "We still feel on track to to hit breakeven sometime in 2027," Zinsner said. "You know, I think when we committed to it in 2024, we said, 'it is going to be somewhere between 2024 and 2030, most people kind of settled in that that must mean 2027, and that is generally kind of what we are thinking is we can be breakeven."  -- To break even, Intel Foundry only needs low- to mid-single-digit billions in annual external revenue, according to Zinsner. Most of 18A's volume will come from Intel's internal products, while 14A will require more external adoption. Intel's breakeven strategy also includes revenue from advanced packaging, mature nodes (like Intel 16), and partnerships with UMC and Tower. The company will continues to follow its 'smart capital' model, balancing internal and external wafer sourcing, and expects Foundry to compete for internal product demand to ensure efficiency and cost control.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has laid out the most detailed vision yet for the embattled chipmaker’s turnaround—but offered little clarity to employees on the scope or timeline of anticipated job cuts.
Inside the Intel reckoning: layoffs, leadership, and the long road back to relevance. Tan acknowledged both the company’s modest success in Q1 of 2025 and the significant challenges ahead.  “We are navigating an increasingly volatile and uncertain macroeconomic environment, which is reflected in our Q2 outlook.”  The internal memo followed reports earlier this week from Bloomberg that Intel plans to cut approximately 22,000 jobs, or roughly 20% of its global workforce—one of the largest rounds of layoffs in its history. Tan stated only that “these critical changes will reduce the size of our workforce,” and that the reductions would begin in Q2 2025 and continue “as quickly as possible over the next several months.”
Tan, who took over as CEO five weeks ago, is pushing for deep structural and cultural changes across Intel as it seeks to regain competitiveness amid slowing revenue growth, rising global tariffs, and increasing pressure from rivals in AI and advanced semiconductors.  Tan said in the letter. “We are seen as too slow, too complex and too set in our ways — and we need to change.” A key pillar of Tan’s plan is to refocus the company around engineering, while reducing management layers and streamlining decision-making. “We need to get back to our roots and empower our engineers,”. “That’s why I elevated our core engineering functions to the [Executive Team].”  The letter described Intel’s internal bureaucracy as a drag on innovation. “Many teams are 8 or more layers deep, which creates unnecessary bureaucracy that slows us down,”. He also criticized a corporate culture in which “the most important KPI for many managers … has been the size of their teams.”  Tan announced plans to reduce operating expenses to $17 billion in 2025, down from a previous target of $17.5 billion, and to $16 billion by 2026. CapEx spending will also be cut, with gross capital expenditures lowered from $20 billion to $18 billion in 2025. 
The memo also outlined changes to hybrid work expectations. Starting September 1, employees currently on hybrid schedules will be required to work from the office 4 days/week. The current policy of 3 days/week, has been “uneven at best” in its enforcement. Tan framed the changes as essential to rebuilding Intel’s identity. “Intel was once widely seen as the world’s most innovative company. There’s no reason we can’t get back there, so long as we drive the changes needed to improve,”. However, employees seeking concrete information on how the restructuring will affect them were left with few specifics. Tan emphasized decisions on staffing would be made by his leadership team and shared “on an ongoing basis,” but did not address which divisions or geographies would be affected. “We must balance our reductions with the need to retain and recruit key talent,” he wrote. “These decisions will not be made lightly.”  Intel currently employs around 109,000 people worldwide. The company’s Q1 2025 results showed revenue of $12.67 billion, narrowly exceeding expectations. But its forecast for the next quarter—$11.2 billion to $12.4 billion—fell below analyst estimates and sent shares down more than 7% in after-hours trading.  Intel’s transformation comes amid growing competitive threats from companies like Nvidia and AMD, as well as geopolitical tensions with China, one of its largest markets. “I came on board knowing full well this would be the most challenging job of my career,” he wrote. “But also the most motivating and fulfilling.”

The installation of new CEO Lip-Bu Tan at Intel was supposed to be a turning point. But as it turns out, it is leaving behind a new wake of uncertainty that is prompting concern. Apparently, Tan has a wide range of investments, many of which are in China…and some of which are even connected to the Chinese military. This was bad news as far as investors were concerned, and Intel shares plummeted over 7.5% in Thursday afternoon’s trading. Given that Tan put up $25 million of his own money to invest in Intel when he took the CEO slot, it should come as little surprise that he had substantial investments to begin with. Tan’s investments, reports noted, included “hundreds of Chinese tech firms.” The biggest surprise, though, was that at least 8 of these firms had direct ties to the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese military. A review from Reuters found that Tan actually controls +40 Chinese companies outright. He has minority stakes in +600 beyond that as well. And this, investors believe, may “complicate” the notion of getting Intel back up and running. Andrew King with Bastille Ventures noted “The simple fact is that Mr. Tan is unqualified to serve as the head of any company competing against China, let alone one with actual intelligence and national security ramifications like Intel and its tremendous legacy connections to all areas of America’s intelligence and the defense ecosystem.”

The penalties announced by Trump on Wednesday triggered a plunge in world financial markets and drew condemnation from other leaders reckoning with the end of a decades-long era of trade liberalization. In Japan, one of United States' top trading partners, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that the tariffs had created a "national crisis" as a plunge in banking shares on Friday set Tokyo's stock market on course for its worst week in years. Investment bank JP Morgan said it now sees a 60% chance of the global economy entering recession by year end, up from 40% previously. The U.S. tariffs would amount to the highest trade barriers in more than a century: a 10% baseline tariff on all imports and higher targeted duties on dozens of countries. That could jack up the price for U.S. shoppers of everything from cannabis to running shoes to Apple's iPhone. A high-end iPhone could cost nearly $2,300 if Apple passes the costs on to consumers, based on projections from Rosenblatt Securities. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the U.S. had abandoned its historic role as a champion of international economic cooperation. China vowed retaliation for Trump's 54% tariffs on imports from the world's No. 2 economy, as did the European Union, which faces a 20% duty.  The tariffs "clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook at a time of sluggish growth," said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, calling on Washington to work to resolve trade tensions with its partners and reduce uncertainty. American companies with significant overseas production took a hit. Nike shares lost 14% and Apple fell 9%.

"The tariff plan does not appear to be well thought-out. Trade negotiations are a highly technical discipline, and in our view these proposals do not offer a serious basis for negotiations with any country," said James Lucier, founding partner at Capital Alpha.
Economists say the tariffs could reignite inflation, raise the risk of a U.S. recession and boost costs for the average U.S. family by thousands of dollars.

Intel and TSMC have tentativiely agreed to a "joint venture" with Intel Foundry, which would allow TSMC to manage Intel's US facilities. Here's why its a bad idea for Intel and the US: 

1./ TSMC and Intel are two VERY different companies with unique management, workforce, and technology roadmap planning, meaning that fundamentals cannot be merged. And, given that TSMCs ambitions in the US, partnering up with Intel means that the company is having a pretty difficult task on its hands. The only way this could succeed is if TSMC could obtain "complete" management control, but this will be a process that will involve years if not decades. So any alleged benefits by such a JV would still be a long way off

2./ If you look at Intel Foundry's recent progress, the division has managed to find a hold on the market, having recently announced "Risk Production" of its highly anticipated 18A process, an achievement that could mark the firm's economic turnover.

3./ Supposedly part of Intel's new CEO Lip-Bu Tan, core focus will be to "build for clients," with foundry services being a priority, so a TSMC collaboration doesn't look correct or in keeping with Fiduciary Responsibility of "duty of care", "duty of obedianc", and "duty of loyalty" here as one would reasonably expect. 

Samsung has turned to Chinese technology groups to prop up its ailing semiconductor division, as it struggles to secure big US customers despite investing tens of billions of dollars in its American manufacturing facilities. The South Korean electronics group revealed last month that the value of its exports to China jumped 54% between 2023 and 2024, as Chinese companies rush to secure stockpiles of advanced AI ICs in the face of increasingly restrictive US export controls. In one previously unreported deal, Samsung in 2024 sold +3 years’ supply of logic ICs—a key component in manufacturing AI chips—to Kunlun, the semiconductor design subsidiary of Chinese tech group Baidu. The increasing importance of its China sales to Samsung comes as it navigates growing trade tensions between US and China over the development of sensitive technologies.

Samsung announced in 2024 that it was making a $40 Billion investment in expanding its advanced IC manufacturing and packaging facilities in Texas, boosted by up to $6.4 Billion in federal subsidies.  But Samsung’s contract chipmaking business has struggled to secure big US customers, bleeding market share to TSMC, which is investing “at least” $100 billion in IC fabs in Arizona.

“Samsung and China need each other,” said CW Chung, joint head of Apac equity research at Nomura. “Chinese customers have become more important for Samsung, but it won’t be easy to do business together. Samsung has also fallen behind local rival SK Hynix in the booming market for “high bandwidth memory,” another crucial component in AI chips. As the leading supplier of HBMs for use by Nvidia, SK Hynix’s quarterly operating profit last year surpassed that of Samsung for the first time in the two companies’ history. “Chinese companies don’t even have a chance to buy SK Hynix’s HBM because the supply is all bought out by the leading AI chip producers like Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and Broadcom,” said Jimmy Goodrich, senior adviser for technology analysis to the Rand Corporation research institute. “What Samsung is producing are the scraps that are inferior but still good enough for the Chinese, as there is no local HBM substitute yet.” Samsung is the “biggest supplier of HBM into China,” which is used in Huawei’s Ascend 910 series of AI chips.

Samsung's contract chipmaking business also partnered with Kunlun to produce the Core P800, an AI chip released in February that also incorporates Samsung HBM. A person familiar with Samsung’s thinking said it had hoped to work with Kunlun to produce an even more advanced AI chip, but the project had been put on hold because of new US restrictions that came into force in January.

The curbs, which cap the permitted performance of AI chips produced for Chinese customers by foreign foundries, were tightened after TSMC acknowledged last year it had mistakenly assembled AI chips for shell companies acting on Huawei’s behalf.

“Our business with Baidu has become uncertain since stronger US export controls took effect in January,” said a person close to Samsung, who added it was seeking more leeway from US authorities.  But he noted the restrictions meant that Chinese companies “will take anything they can get, either in terms of HBM or logic foundry capabilities, as Chinese indigenous players are not yet as competitive.” “Samsung producing what may be a very competitive chip for Baidu raises questions as to whether the performance thresholds of US restrictions need to be adjusted—the longer US officials wait, the more of these chips are going to be produced for China.” 

A 43-year-old Russian engineer is accused of secretly supplying sensitive technical information from ASML, NXP, and TSMC to Russia, allegedly to assist in building a 28 nm-capable fab there. The engineer, identified in court documents only as German A., earned about €40,000 and now faces 18-32 months in prison. Though German A. alone could not steal full designs for a semiconductor.  German A. is accused of supplying Russia with confidential technical materials from ASML, GlobalFoundries, NXP, TSMC, and GlobalFoundries, including semiconductor production manuals and various chipmaking machines. The investigators reportedly found that he obtained 105 internal documents from ASML and 88 files related to TSMC. The materials did not contain complete blueprints for building wafer fabrication equipment or something more significant (e.g., a fab itself or how to design a process technology). Still, they were labeled confidential and could support the setup of a basic semiconductor line capable of producing chips at 28- nm-class process technology, which is good enough for military applications. Investigators believe he shared this data via cloud storage and messaging apps and handed over a USB stick in Moscow, allegedly earning around €40,000 in the process.  Both ASML and NXP experienced breaches involving unauthorized access in the past. In late 2023, it was revealed that a cyber group linked to China had been covertly operating within NXP's systems for an extended period. ASML also battles frequent cyberattacks and insider threats: in early 2022, a former Chinese employee stole confidential data. Although that employee, just like German A., lacked access to complete designs needed to construct a fab tool or equip a fab, a broader network of similar operatives could realistically piece together enough to boost the semiconductor industries of China and Russia.