As global tech giants race to develop AI infrastructure, according to a report from Yonhap News Agency, South Korea’s top 500 companies, driven by semiconductor leaders like Samsung and SK Hynix, have experienced a significant profit surge in the second quarter, more than doubling compared to the same period last year.

Reportedly, as per data released by the corporate evaluation website CEO Score on August 15th, among South Korea’s top 500 companies by revenue, 334 companies have reported their second-quarter earnings as of August 14th.

The combined net profit of these companies reached KRW 59.4 trillion (approximately USD 43.6 billion), marking a 107.1% increase compared to the KRW 28.7 trillion recorded during the same period last year, with their profits more than doubling year-over-year.

Their revenue in total, on the other hand, amounted to KRW 779.5 trillion, reflecting a 7% year-on-year growth from KRW 728.6 trillion during the same period last year.

This significant growth was driven by the booming HBM demand from tech giants like NVIDIA, the report notes.

According to the Q2 performance report released by Samsung Electronics, the company’s operating profit reached KRW 10.44 trillion (approximately USD 7.5 billion), surging from the KRW 668.5 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Thus, per the report, this surge has solidified Samsung’s position as the most profitable company among South Korea’s top 500 enterprises in the second quarter.

On the other hand, SK Hynix also turned a profit in the second quarter, recovering from a loss of KRW 2.9 trillion  in the same period last year, with an operating profit of KRW 5.5 trillion.

Reportedly, this strong performance helped SK Hynix to become South Korea’s second most profitable company, surpassing automotive giants Hyundai Motor and Kia Corp., which reported operating profits of KRW 4.3 trillion and KRW3.6 trillion in Q2,  respectively.

Meanwhile, SK On, the battery manufacturing arm of SK Group, recorded an operating loss of KRW 460.2 billion in the second quarter, marking the worst quarterly performance in the company’s history, dragged down by the global cooling demand for electric vehicles.

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(Photo credit: Samsung)

According to a report by Nikkei, Chinese semiconductor equipment manufacturer Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. (AMEC) has announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) in a U.S. court over being blacklisted as a Chinese military-industrial company.

Reportedly, in January, AMEC was placed on the U.S. Department of Defense’s list of Chinese military-industrial enterprises operating in the United States.

Thus, the company argues that this action violates procedural due process and has severely harmed its reputation. AMEC asserts that it has never engaged in any military-related activities.

Addressing the matter, neither AMEC nor the U.S. Department of Defense has commented on the matter.

The lawsuit comes days after the Financial Times reported that the U.S. Department of Defense planned to remove Chinese automotive LiDAR manufacturer Hesai Technology from its export control blacklist.

At that time, per Nikkie’s report, Hesai had sued the DOD in May and its CEO, David Li, pointed out that allegations of military ties are ridiculous.

AMEC stated that it was previously listed as a Chinese military-industrial enterprise in January 2021 but was removed from the list in June of the same year after requesting the U.S. Department of Defense to provide sufficient facts and evidence. The CEO reportedly expressed shock at AMEC’s re-inclusion on the blacklist, calling it a mistake and baseless.

AMEC specializes in chip equipment with a focus on etching processes. The company reported first-quarter revenue of CNY 1.6 billion (approximately 223 million USD), a 31% increase compared to the same period in 2023.

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(Photo credit: iStock)

NEO Semiconductor, a company focused on 3D DRAM and 3D NAND memory, has unveiled its latest 3D X-AI chip technology, which could potentially replace the existing HBM used in AI GPU accelerators.

Reportedly, this 3D DRAM comes with built-in AI processing capabilities, enabling processing and generation without the need for mathematical output. When large amounts of data are transferred between memory and processors, it can reduce data bus issues, thereby enhancing AI performance and reducing power consumption.

The 3D X-AI chip has a underlying neuron circuit layer that can process data stored in 300 memory layers on the same chip. NEO Semiconductor states that with 8,000 neutron circuits performing AI processing in memory, the 3D memory performance can be increased by 100 times, with memory density 8 times higher than current HBM. By reducing the amount of data processed in the GPU, power consumption can be reduced by 99%.

A single 3D X-AI die contains 300 layers of 3D DRAM cells and one layer of neural circuits with 8,000 neurons. It also has a capacity of 128GB, with each chip supporting up to 10 TB/s of AI processing capability. Using 12 3D X-AI dies stacked with HBM packaging can achieve 120 TB/s processing throughput. Thus, NEO estimates that this configuration may eventually result in a 100-fold performance increase.

Source: NEO Semiconductor

Andy Hsu, Founder & CEO of NEO Semiconductor, noted that current AI chips waste significant amounts of performance and power due to architectural and technological inefficiencies. The existing AI chip architecture stores data in HBM and relies on a GPU for all calculations.

He further claimed that the separation of data storage and processing architecture has made the data bus an unavoidable performance bottleneck, leading to limited performance and high power consumption during large data transfers.

The 3D X-AI, as per Hsu, can perform AI processing within each HBM chip, which may drastically reduce the data transferred between HBM and the GPU, thus significantly improving performance and reducing power consumption.

Many companies are researching technologies to increase processing speed and communication throughput. As semiconductor speeds and efficiencies continue to rise, the data bus transferring information between components will become a bottleneck. Therefore, such technologies will enable all components to accelerate together.

Source: NEO Semiconductor

As per a report from tom’s hardware, companies like TSMC, Intel, and Innolux are already exploring optical technologies, looking for faster communications within the motherboard. By shifting some AI processing from the GPU to the HBM, NEO Semiconductor may reduce the workload and potentially achieve better efficiency than current power-hungry AI accelerators.

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(Photo credit: NEO Semiconductor)

TSMC is significantly expanding its production, continuously increasing its facilities. On August 15, as per a report from Liberty Times Net, the company announced that it had signed a contract with panel manufacturer Innolux to purchase its plant and associated facilities located in the Southern Taiwan Science Park.

The building’s total area exceeds 96,000 square meters, with a transaction value of NTD 17.14 billion, which is much lower than the rumored market price of over NTD 20 billion. TSMC announced that the facility will be used for operations and production.

Innolux recently announced the sale of 4th Plant in Tainan (5.5-generation LCD panel plant). A previous report from Economic Daily News once cited rumors, claiming that both Micron and TSMC have been actively exploring the acquisition.

Moreover, it was also reported that TSMC offered a price 20% higher than the base price, with plans to use the facility to expand its advanced process or advanced packaging capacity.

According to Liberty Times Net citing sources at the Southern Taiwan Science Park, TSMC’s original plant is located in the northwest part of the park, while the newly acquired Innolux plant is situated in the southwest, so they are not adjacent.

TSMC had previously purchased a plant from Hannstar and demolished and rebuilt it, as the planning of panel plants differs from that of fabs. TSMC also acquired a plant from E-Ton Solar Tech in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, which is currently being used as an intelligent warehouse.

Based on Innolux’s post-capital-reduction share capital of NTD 79.8 billion, the sale is expected to contribute around NTD 1.84 per share in earnings.

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(Photo credit: Innolux)

The U.S. Census Bureau released retail sales data on August 15. In July, retail sales increased by 2.7% year-over-year, higher than the revised 2% from the previous month. On a month-over-month basis, retail sales rose by 1%, significantly above the revised -0.2% from the previous month and the market expectation of 0.4%. The control group retail sales (excluding auto sales, building materials, gasoline stations, and food services) increased by 0.3% month-over-month, down from the previous month’s 0.9%. The growth was primarily driven by auto sales, which increased by 4% month-over-month, while core retail sales (excluding auto-related sales) and double core retail sales (excluding auto sales and gasoline stations) both increased by 0.4%.

Read more at Datatrack

Additionally, the initial jobless claims data was released on the same day. The number of initial claims for unemployment benefits this week was 227,000, lower than the previous week’s 233,000 and the market expectation of 235,000. This marks the second consecutive week of decline in initial jobless claims.

Read more at Datatrack

As July’s inflation data continues to normalize, consumer spending remains resilient, and initial jobless claims come in better than expected, the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut has returned to 74% (compared to last week’s peak probability of 85% for a 50 basis point cut). However, the market is still awaiting the release of the non-farm payroll data and the unemployment rate, which are currently the Federal Reserve’s top concerns, before expectations for a rate cut in September may be adjusted.