Samsung has been strengthening its alliance regarding the semiconductor packaging technology, attempting to narrow the technological gap with TSMC, according to the latest report by Business Korea.

Citing industry sources, Business Korea noted that Samsung is expected to expand its 2.5D and 3D MDI (Multi Die Integration) Alliance to include 30 partners this year, an increase of 10 within just one year.

The MDI Alliance, launched by Samsung Electronics in June, 2023, was established to address the rapid growth in the chiplet market for mobile and HPC applications, in which Samsung will collaborate with its partner companies as well as major players in memory, substrate packaging and testing.

According to Samsung’s press release, the MDI Alliance leads innovation in stacking technology by forming a packaging technology ecosystem for 2.5D and 3D Heterogeneous Integration. Together with partners across the ecosystem, Samsung will provide a one-stop turnkey service to better support customers’ technological innovation.

As demands from AI and data centers have been heated up, stacking and combining different chips are viewed as more cost-effective and efficient than further reducing the circuit size within a chip, which makes 2.5D and 3D IC packaging technology coveted by tech giants like NVIDIA and AMD.

Business Korea further stated that while Samsung does benefit from offering a ‘one-stop’ solution that integrates foundry, HBM, and packaging, successful collaboration is crucial to address the various software challenges that arise from chip integration. That is to say, to overcome this challenge, Samsung has formed a coalition with design firms, post-processing companies, and EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tool providers.

On the other hand, TSMC, the current market leader in 2.5D IC and 3D IC packaging, announced the new 3Dblox 2.0 open standard and its major achievements of its Open Innovation Platform (OIP) 3DFabric Alliance in September, 2023, while AMD confirmed its collaboration with TSMC on 3D IC packaging for the GPU giant’s MI300 AI accelerators, according to a press release by TSMC.

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(Photo credit: Samsung)

The New York Times reported on June 5th that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have reached an agreement, led by senior officials of both agencies, over the past week. The DOJ will investigate whether NVIDIA has violated antitrust laws, while the FTC will examine the conducts of OpenAI and Microsoft.

Reportedly, Jonathan Kanter, who is said to be the top antitrust official in the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, highlighted at an AI conference at Stanford University last week that AI’s reliance on massive amounts of data and computing power gives dominant companies a significant advantage. In a February interview, FTC Chair Lina Khan stated that the FTC aims to identify potential issues in the early stages of AI development.

As per Reuters’ report, Microsoft, OpenAI, NVIDIA, DOJ and FTC did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.

In a May interview with CNBC, Appian co-founder and CEO Matt Calkins stated that AI might not be a winner take all market. He suggested that if alliances could secure victory in the AI race, Google would already have won.

Per a report from Roll Call on May 15th, a bipartisan Senate AI working group led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released an AI roadmap, calling for the federal government to invest at least USD 32 billion annually in non-defense-related AI systems.

In March, The Information reported that Microsoft does not want its hiring of Inflection AI’s two co-founders and the majority of its 70-member team to be perceived as an acquisition.

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(Photo credit: NVIDIA)

Dutch semiconductor equipment giant ASML has hinted at the potential for receiving significant orders from key customer TSMC in the coming quarters, according to a June 5th report from Reuters.

Reuters, citing information disclosed at a Jefferies-hosted investor call, noted that ASML’s CFO, Roger Dassen, expressed optimism about the progress of commercial discussions with TSMC, suggesting they are close to concluding. Reportedly, it is anticipated that ASML could receive significant orders for 2-nanometer related equipment as early as the second or third quarter. The report also mentioned that TSMC is expected to receive ASML’s latest High-NA EUV lithography equipment sometime this year.

According to the report, ASML predicts strong demand continuing until 2026, driven primarily by government-subsidized fabs being built around the world.

As per Reuters, each High-NA EUV machine costs over EUR 350 million, and ASML has already received dozens of orders from customers, including Intel, TSMC, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron. Among these, Intel was the first to place an order and will be the first to receive the equipment.

Per a report from Bloomberg, TSMC had previously expressed concerns about the high pricing of ASML’s latest equipment. Kevin Zhang, Senior Vice President of Business Development at TSMC, stated during a technical symposium in Amsterdam on May 14th that the next-generation process “A16,” scheduled for release in the second half of 2026, may not necessarily require the use of High-NA EUV lithography equipment.

Dr. Kevin Zhang further remarked that while he appreciates the capabilities of High-NA EUV, he finds its price tag to be unlikeable.

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(Photo credit: ASML)

Driven by the rapid growth in demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) fueled by artificial intelligence (AI), memory manufacturers are vying for market opportunities. According to a report from CNA, Micron has announced its target to achieve a 20% to 25% market share in HBM by 2025.

Targeting the swiftly growing demand for HBM, along with its better product pricing and profitability, the three major memory manufacturers—SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung—are all aggressively advancing in this area. Currently, SK Hynix holds the leading position, but Micron is also making significant progress.

Micron stated that its progress of HBM3e could be contributed to the company’s advanced packaging and design capabilities, along with the integration of its own processes. The company is also developing the next generation HBM4 products.

Regarding Micron’s global capacity expansion plan, the memory heavyweight has been considering Hiroshima, Japan, as one of the potential sites. The company’s HBM capacity in fiscal year 2024 has already been sold out, of which is expected to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

As for its ambition regarding HBM, Micron stated that it aims to capture 20-25% market share by 2025.

Notably, per a previous report from the South Korean newspaper “Korea Joongang Daily,” following Micron’s initiation of mass production of the latest high-bandwidth memory HBM3e in February 2024, it has recently secured an order from NVIDIA for the H200 AI GPU. It is understood that NVIDIA’s upcoming H200 processor will utilize the latest HBM3e, which are more powerful than the HBM3 used in the H100 processor.

During the press conference on 5 June, Micron announced the launch of its GDDR7 graphics memory, which is currently being sampled. Utilizing Micron’s 1-beta technology, GDDR7 offers more than a 50% improvement in energy efficiency compared to the previous generation GDDR6, effectively addressing thermal issues and extending battery life.

Micron highlighted that the GDDR7 system bandwidth is increased to 1.5TB per second, 60% higher than GDDR6. Its applications range from AI and gaming to high-performance computing. The product is expected to start shipping in the second half of this year.

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(Photo credit: Micron)

Amid tightening U.S. chip export controls to China, Shanghai-based AI chip companies, MetaX and Enflame, have rumored to downgrade chip designs to TSMC in late 2023 in order to comply with the U.S. export requirements, according to a report by Reuters on 5 June.

Regarding this rumor, TSMC declined to comment, Reuters stated.

In recent years, the U.S. has continuously introduced measures to limit China’s access to high-end chips, chip manufacturing equipment, and advanced processors.

MetaX and Enflame, which formerly claimed that their chips can rival NVIDIA’s GPUs, are recognized as “Little Giants,” a title given to startups with potential for development in key areas and valued by the Chinese government.

MetaX was founded in 2020 by former senior executives from AMD and has multiple R&D and wafer fab projects in China. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Reuters disclosed that the company reportedly developed a downgraded product, C280, in order to be manufactured by TSMC, while its inventory of its most advanced GPU, C500, was sold out earlier.

Enflame, established in 2018, counts Chinese tech giant Tencent among its backers and raised $2.7 billion last year. The company sells its products to state-owned enterprises and collaborates on projects with various local governments, Reuters reported.

In October last year, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced a new package of export control measures, and giving specific details on the chip specifications under restriction. For instance, any chip with a total processing performance of 4,800 or higher, or a performance density of 5.92 or more, is prohibited from being shipped to China.

For context, GPU giant NVIDIA’s A100 and the even more potent H100, were banned from export to China in late 2022. The less powerful A800 and H800 chips, tailored by NVIDIA for the Chinese market, were also subject to bans last October. According to a report by Asia Times, A800’s performance is approximately 70% of the A100’s.

(Photo credit: TSMC)