According to the latest investigations by TrendForce, the combined revenues of the top 10 foundries increased by more than 20% YoY in 2Q20. This growth took place as there was not a massive reduction in wafer start orders in 1Q20, while foundry clients expanded their orders in 2Q20 due to both increased production of existing devices and new applications generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The comparatively low base period in 2Q19 also contributed to the YoY increase in foundry revenue in 2Q20.
According to the 1Q20 revenue ranking of global top 10 IC design companies compiled from TrendForce’s latest data, Qualcomm was able to stop the trend of continuous YoY revenue declines, which lasted for the six previous consecutive quarters, because of its effective 5G product strategy and the considerable growth in WFH and distance learning demand. On the other hand, Broadcom’s semiconductor business displayed negative growth for five consecutive quarters because of market competition and the China-U.S. trade war, subsequently trading places with Qualcomm on the revenue ranking list in 1Q20.
According to the latest investigations by the DRAMeXchange research division of TrendForce, NAND Flash bit shipment in 1Q20 was relatively on par with 4Q19. The overall ASP of NAND Flash products also climbed during the period. As a result, the global NAND Flash revenue for the quarter went up by 8.3% QoQ to US$13.6 billion.
According to the latest investigations from the DRAMeXchange research division of TrendForce, both NVIDIA and AMD are planning to release new GPUs in 3Q20, and both Microsoft and Sony are expected to release new gaming consoles in 4Q20. Since all of these products will be equipped with high-density GDDR6 memory, their releases are expected to create a wave of demand for Graphics DRAM, in turn propping up its prices relative to other DRAM applications.
Regarding the impact on the wafer foundry industry from the latest specifications publicly announced by the Bureau of Industry and Security on May 15th, the latest analysis of DRAMeXchange from TrendForce has pointed out that despite the extra interpretation room for the relevant regulations, the known specifications state that additional volume of wafer orders after May 15th will require approval. In addition, the US has not ruled out the possibility in enhancing the normative intensity on Huawei or overall Chinese brands, thus the subsequent impact on wafer foundries may not be optimistic.
