As one of the key cases in the US-China tech war, American memory giant Micron Technology had mend relations with China. Recently, Micron said a global settlement agreement with state-backed competitor Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit (JHICC) concerning intellectual property theft lawsuits.

According to Bloomberg’s report, on December 24th, Micron has indicated that it has reached a global settlement agreement with Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit. A Micron spokesperson stated in an email, “The two companies will each globally dismiss their complaints against the other party and end all lawsuits between them.” However, no further information or details were provided.

In March of this year, the Cyberspace Administration of China conducted a cybersecurity review of Micron products, and in May, it cited cybersecurity concerns as the reason for prohibiting Chinese operators of “critical infrastructure” from using Micron’s chips.

Micron stated that the Chinese restrictions have affected approximately half of its sales related to Chinese customers. Accordingly, Micron derives about a quarter of its global revenue from China and Hong Kong.

Reportedly, industry insiders believe that following the settlement between the two parties, it is not anticipated to have a significant impact on the upward trend of memory prices.

Appeared to have attempted to pacify Beijing, Micron announced in June an increased investment in China, planning to invest over CNY 4.3 billion in the next few years in its packaging and testing facility located in Xi’an, China.

Micron has decided to acquire the packaging equipment of Powertech Semiconductor (Xi’an), planning to construct new facilities at the Micron Xi’an plant and introduce state-of-the-art and high-performance packaging and testing equipment.

In 2017, Micron filed a lawsuit in the United States against Fujian Jinhua and its Taiwanese partner United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), accusing these two companies of stealing trade secrets related to Micron’s memory.

A year later, as the U.S. Department of Justice intensified actions against China in economic espionage cases, Fujian Jinhua and UMC were charged with conspiring to steal Micron’s trade secrets. The Trump administration at the time placed Fujian Jinhua on the so-called Entity List, prohibiting U.S. component sales to this Chinese DRAM maker.

In 2021, UMC and Micron announced a settlement. UMC admitted guilt in an agreement with U.S. prosecutors, and the prosecution agreed to drop the charges of economic espionage and conspiracy.

Nevertheless, the case against Fujian Jinhua by the US Department of Justice remains pending.

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(Photo credit: Micron)

Samsung Electronics and South Korean internet giant Naver have joined forces to invest in an artificial intelligence semiconductor solution. According to BusinessKorea’s report, the energy efficiency of the first solution chip from the two companies is expected to be roughly eight times higher than competitors like NVIDIA H100.

This new solution is based on a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) customized for Naver’s HyperCLOVA X large language model.

Samsung and Naver began their collaboration at the end of 2022, utilizing Samsung’s advanced process technology, expertise in memory technologies like computational storage, processing-in-memory (PIM) and processing-near-memory (PNM), as well as Compute Express Link (CXL). Naver’s strengths in software and AI algorithms are also leveraged in this collaboration.

Samsung has already produced and sold various types of memory and storage technologies for AI applications, including SmartSSD, HBM-PIM, and memory expansion modules with CXL interfaces, all crucial for the upcoming AI chips.

“Through our collaboration with NAVER, we will develop cutting-edge semiconductor solutions to solve the memory bottleneck in large-scale AI systems,” said Jinman Han, Executive Vice President of Memory Global Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics.

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(Photo credit: Samsung)

In a significant move to regulate online and mobile games, China’s National Press and Publication Administration has issued a draft regarding online game management measures, with the intention of soliciting public opinions.

It is stipulated that online games are prohibited from offering inducement rewards such as daily login bonuses, first-time recharge perks, and consecutive recharge incentives. This directive directly challenges the prevailing business and monetization models in the current landscape of online and mobile gaming.

The regulation further mentions that, game publishers are forbidden from providing or tolerating high-priced transactions of virtual items through speculative or auction formats. All online games must implement user recharge limits, which should be publicly disclosed in their service rules.

For users engaging in irrational consumption behavior, there should be pop-up warning reminders. When providing random draw services, online game publishers must reasonably set the draw frequency and probabilities, avoiding inducing users to overspend.

Additionally, alternative methods such as virtual item exchanges and direct purchases with in-game currency should be offered to users to obtain items with similar functionality and value-added services.

The regulations also emphasize that the online game publishers should announce the termination of publishing or operating the game at least 60 days in advance. Refunds or exchanges should be conducted in legal currency or other methods accepted by users, based on the proportion of user purchases.

The regulations stipulate that online game publishers must have the necessary technical equipment, related servers, and storage equipment located within the territory of China.

(Photo credit: Unsplash)

In the latest financial report and guidance released on the 20th, U.S. memory chip giant Micron outperformed analysts’ expectations for both the last quarter and the current quarter. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra believes that product pricing will rebound next year, with the upward trend continuing until 2025, as Micron aims to return to a path of operational innovation and reach new record levels by 2025, according to The Economic Daily.

Mehrotra anticipates a price recovery in memory prices next year, and rise further in 2025. He reiterated in a statement that 2024 will be a year of recovery for the memory industry setting the stage for record results in 2025.

Micron expects the supply of PC, mobile devices, and other chips to approach normal levels in the first half of next year. Despite two consecutive years of declining PC shipments, Micron forecasts low to mid-single-digit percentage growth in 2024, with signs of a recovery in smartphone demand.

TrendForce also anticipates that the upward momentum in DRAM products is expected to continue until 2025.

The reason behind this is the continuous benefit to the DRAM market from the increasing penetration of premium products such as HBM, DDR5 and LPDDR5. This is expected to have a positive impact on the overall memory prices.

Simultaneously, TrendForce believes that 2025 will witness the emergence of more edge AI applications, such as AI on smartphones or PCs. This is expected to result in an increase in DRAM capacity, becoming the driving force for the next wave of growth in DRAM demand.

(Image: Micron)

One of the shareholders of Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group (SMEE), Zhangjiang Group, recently posted on WeChat, claiming that SMEE had successfully developed a 28nm lithography machine. However, the mentioned text was deleted shortly thereafter.

According to reports from Bloomberg and HK01, recently, Zhangjiang Group posted on the WeChat public account “Hello Zhangjiang,” stating, “As the only domestic enterprise mastering photolithography machine technology, SMEE has successfully developed a 28nm lithography machine.”

However, shortly afterward, the text was modified to “As the only domestic enterprise mastering photolithography machine technology, SMEE is committed to developing advanced lithography machines.”

Reportedly, the lithography machine developed by SMEE is named SSA/800-10W, representing a significant breakthrough for the company.

Tom’s Hardware indicated that SMEE’s successful development of 28nm lithography machine signifies ‘a major leap in China’s quest to close the technological gap in the global chip industry’. However, it is currently unclear when SMEE will be able to mass-produce these devices.

Additionally, the deletion of the information raises questions about the success of mass production once again.

The report further indicates that TSMC has been using 28nm process since 2011, and SMIC adopted it in 2015. Both companies chose equipment from ASML to manufacture chips.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce blacklisted SMEE. Since then, SMEE has been seen as China’s best hope for pursuing the development of advanced manufacturing processes.

The existing SSA600 series from the company can utilize 90nm, 110nm, and 280nm process. The latest equipment from the company is expected to narrow the gap with ASML, potentially reducing the initial lag of at least 20 years.

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(Photo credit: SMEE)