Opinionated - China Chipping Away to Semiconductor Dominance

[Shotgunner51]

Toshiba NAND bid hits $30 billion mark. TSMC bows out, leaves Foxconn in the lead

Paul Taylor 3 days ago Channel, Tech News

Reports have surfaced in the Japanese press that TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp) has quit on its bid to buy Toshiba’s rather precious NAND-flash business, leaving Foxconn in the lead position. Foxconn has offered to pony-up 3 trillion Yen (around $30 billion), or $21.2 billion more than what Reuters had reported as the sought-after selling price.

TSMC’s dropping out of the race, according to industry sources, was due to management’s belief the sale would go State-side rather than Taiwan, because of regulators’ concerns in Japan. This has left Foxconn and Broadcom (note: Broadcom was acquired by Singapore's Avago Technologies Ltd in 2015, the $37 billion deal was dubbed as the biggest tech M&A ever; together with Silver Lake Partners, a PE) as the likely contenders in a bidding war which will continue in late May with a second round of bids, says the Asahi Shimbun. Original bidders for the NAND business were cited to have included the likes of Korea’s SK Hynix (which has just successfully developed the industry's first 72-layer 3D NAND, ahead of rival Samsung), Google, Amazon, Apple, Broadcom, Western Digital and Micron.

There is, however, good reason for all the fanfare and interest: Toshiba’s NAND flash unit is the second-largest NAND Flash memory producer in the world, right after Samsung, and demand for NAND has skyrocketed in the past few years, with supply being consistently on allocation since early 2016.

You will have noticed by now that SSD pricing has been going up, month after month.

Toshiba had decided to bite the bullet and spin off the goose which lay the golden eggs to make up for a massive $6.3 Bn write-down earlier this year, triggered by its failing US nuclear energy business, Westinghouse Electric. Tensions had been high at a shareholder meeting in February when the company addressed the big glowing radioactive elephant in the room. And rightly so, selling off the most valuable asset in the company – without an alternative – can jeopardize the long term viability of the company as a whole.

KitGuru Says: Hon Hai had, last summer, already snapped up Sharp for $3.5 billion, and while Japanese regulators have tentatively given the go-ahead on the Toshiba NAND sale, authorities may raise concerns if a Taiwan-owned, China-operated conglomerate takes over another key business in Japan.

http://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/pa...ark-tsmc-bows-out-leaves-foxconn-in-the-lead/

___________________________________________________________________

I'm anxious to see how this gigantic deal in semiconductor goes, amount of which may even break the $37B record set in 2015 when Singapore Avago acquired Broadcom!

Check competitive scene, SK Hynix not so keen on M&A (they just launch first ever 72-layer 3D NAND), Samsung being largest they're not even bidding at all, so Koreans are no big worries for Foxconn, but Avago-Broadcom definitely is, see the world record they set in 2015. Masayoshi Son may back his buddy Terry Gou, but after £24.3bn deal to acquire ARM, Softbank is already leveraged. Now that TSMC backs out, IMO, Mainland funds or IC companies (NICIIF, Tsinghua Unigroup, Jack Ma or even SWF) should seriously back Foxconn in bidding.

 

[cirr]

China-Backed Fund to Acquire Xcerra for $580 Million

By REUTERS APRIL 10, 2017, 12:15 P.M. E.D.T.

NEW YORK — A unit of a large China-based semiconductor investment fund has agreed to acquire U.S. semiconductor testing company Xcerra Corp for $580 million in cash, the companies said on Monday.

The move comes after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a government panel that reviews acquisitions by foreign entities for potential national security risks, has cracked down on technology deals related to the semiconductor industry.

Chinese suitors have faced intense scrutiny from regulators in their pursuit of U.S. chip makers, resulting in some failed deals in recent years.

The buyer is Unic Capital Management, a subsidiary of Sino IC Capital that was founded last year, according to the news release. Sino IC Capital was established in August 2014 and has approximately RMB 138.7 billion ($20.9 billion) in funds under management to invest in the semiconductor space.

Xcerra, based in Norwood, Massachusetts, designs and manufactures equipment to test semiconductors and circuit boards. It does not make semiconductors, according to the news release.

The deal is subject to CFIUS approval and is expected to close by the end of the year.

"Sino IC Capital and Xcerra will work closely together with regulators, in an open and transparent manner, as they evaluate the merits of the transaction," Jun Lu, president of Sino IC Capital, said in a statement.

Unic is paying $10.25 per share in cash for Xcerra. Xcerra shares were trading at $9.69 at midday on Monday, up about 8 percent. That was still below Unic's offer price, which indicates some market skepticism about the deal closing.

Xcerra is able to seek other buyers for next 35 days in a so-called go-shop provision of the merger agreement.

Xcerra was advised by Cowen and Company LLC and Latham & Watkins LLP. Sinoc IC was advised by Grant Thornton International and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/04/10/business/10reuters-xcerra-m-a-unic.html?_r=0

 

[cirr]

China fab toolmakers targeting advanced-node production

Claire Sung, Shanghai; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES

[Wednesday 12 April 2017]

Naura Technology (formerly Beijing Sevenstar Electronics) has started shipping ion etch equipment for the manufacture of 14nm chips to chipmakers, while Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) is being engaged in the development of etch tools for the production of 5nm chips, according to industry sources.

Naura has also secured continued orders from Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), the largest China-based pure-play foundry, said the sources. SMIC has become an important client of Naura, which has already obtained orders for advanced-node manufacturing from the foundry's 12-inch fabs, the sources indicated.

SMIC plans to enhance its 28nm process variants to meet customers' various needs, while expanding production capacity at its 12-inch facilities. With China pusing its self-sufficiency rate for production of chipmaking equipment, Naura and other China-based fab toolmakers are being pinpointed as the major beneficiaries of SMIC's 12-inch fab expansion, the sources said.

Naura CEO Zhao Jinrong was quoted in previous reports as saying China's semiconductor equipment industry growth will be driven by the development of the country's homegrown IC industry supply chain. China's self-sufficiency rate for production of semiconductor equipment is still lower than 10%, but the proportion is expected to reach 30% within the next three years, according to Zhao.

Naura's sales generated from the semiconductor sector grew to CNY810 million (US$117 million) in 2016 from CNY520 million in 2015 - a 56.2% jump. The company expects to continue enjoying impressive revenue growth in 2017 driven by new orders.

AMEC is also among SMIC's major equipment suppliers in China. AMEC has been engaged in the development of 5nm etching tools for five years, and is expected to roll out the new product line at the end of 2017, according to industry sources. The availability of AMEC's 5nm etch equipment will be a milestone for China's homegrown chipmaking equipment industry.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20170412PD200.html

@Bussard Ramjet IC designs, fabs, assembly and testing services, and now chipmaking equipments, China is determined to take a prominent seat at the semiconductor value chain table. India?

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

Developing memory technology in-house: Q&A with Tsinghua Unigroup executive VP Charles Kau
Josephine Lien, Wuhan; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Friday 14 April 2017]
The global reaction to the aggressive investment strategy adopted by China-based Tsinghua Unigroup in the semiconductor industry is mixed, and the role being played by its subsidiairy Yangtze River Storage Technology is also unclear to people outside China.

Digitimes recently conducted an exclusive interview with Charles Kau, former chairman of Inotera Memories, who joined Tsinghua Unigroup over a year ago and now serves as executive VP at the company as well as acting chairman of Yangtze River Storage, to hear his own account on why he decided to join Tsinghua Unigroup, and the goals he wants to accomplish at the memory storage company.

Q: What prompted you make the decision to join Tsinghua Unigroup?

A: I was not acquainted with Tsinghua Unigroup chairman Zhao Weigou previously. He approached me in 2015 when he planned to acquire Micron Technology in order to build up a national-scale memory company in China. We hit it off on our ideas on how to develop the storage industry, and we also shared a consensus of the need to reach a point where we could compete effectively with Samsung Electronics in the memory market.

Samsung's domination in the global memory chip market is in fact a global issue, and it appears that China can serve as an emerging force to balance the power of Samsung. As a result, I decided to join Tsinghua Unigroup, with an aim to help build up China's memory industry.

China's National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund originally aimed to put together resources to support one company to implement the memory-chip investment project. In addition to Tsinghua Unigroup, the Hubei Provincial Government and Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (XMC) were also interesting in undertaking the project. However, China's policy makers wanted people with different ideas on how to run the memory business to join the project. Through matching by the national investment fund, Tsinghua Unigroup and XMC agreed to merge, while I was invited to execute a project to build up a complete lineup of NAND flash technology for enabling mass production.

Q: What role does Yangtze River Storage Technology play in the memory-chip project, and what is its current status?

A: Yangtze River Storage was officially set up on July 16, 2016, and immediately acquired a 100% stake in XMC, making it a development center for memory products. Tsinghua Unigroup currently owns 51% of Yangtze River Storage, with the national investment fund taking another 25%, and a number of concerns from Hubei took 24%.

XMC currently has a total of 1,200 employees, while Yangtze River Storage has another 700, of which 500 are R&D personnel, including 50 from Taiwan.

In terms of manufacturing capacity, Yangtze River Storage has two 12-inch fabs locating in Wuhan and Nanjing, respectively, each having a production capacity of 300,000 wafers a month.

Yangtze River Storage will begin to sample 32-layer 3D NAND chips at the end of 2017, signifying a milestone in the development of related technologies in-house. Then, we will leapfrog to 64-layer which will substantially ramp up our production. We believe that the pace of development of 3D NAND chips will then slow down, enabling Yangtze River Storage to narrow its technology gap against leading players, including Samsung, SK Hynix and Toshiba, to one generation.

Q: People outside China have been skeptical about your company's plans to build foundry houses, wondering if the moves are just blind investments or simply fluffing?

A: The 12-inch fabs in Wuhan and Nanjing were planned earlier, and Yangtze River Storage will use these two fabs to fabricate memory chips. There should be no more fabs for memory.

We absolutely will not conduct blind investments and will not enter mass production until our technology is mature and competitive. We will not rush into volume production of memory chips. Yangtze River Storage will definitely develop relevant technologies in-house, and the rooting of technology should be done step-by-step.

Q: What is Yangtze River Storage's relationship with Micron?

A: While we aim to develop related 3D NAND and DRAM technologies in-house, we still maintain a certain level of flexibility and welcome cooperating partners to join us. I personally believe that Micron is the best partner for Yangtze River Storage to develop DRAM and 3D NAND chips. But now the political atmosphere is unfavorable to us, as the US is worried about the threat of the rise of China's semiconductor industry, and therefore our talks with Micron for cooperation will be prolonged.

Given that Korea currently accounts for 80% of the global DRAM market and 60% of the NAND flash market, I am worried that Korea-based companies will take control of 90% of the DRAM market in the short run, and that is terrible.

On the other hand, Micron has seen its market share decline to 18% from 28%, and its power to counter Korea-based vendors is diminishing. Cooperation between Micron and Yangtze River Storage will be the best partnership, as we have the support of 12-inch fabs.

Q: Why does Yangtze River Storage insist on developing memory technology in-house?

A: If Yangtze River Storage decides to produce DRAM or NAND flash chips under licensing agreements, it will repeat the failure and painful process that Taiwan endured previously on the development of its DRAM industry. Taiwan failed to develop its own DRAM industry because a total of 7-8 companies were fighting over a pool if insufficient resources. China needs to concentrate its resources to succeed, while also building up its own technology know-how. We definitely will not steal related technologies from others.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20170411PD212.html

@cirr @cnleio @TaiShang

This is an extremely positive good interview. My confidence in Tsinghua has suddenly increased by knowing that it is led by professionals with in depth knowledge, as well as their plan to go ahead!

 

[cirr]

China Invests US$1.4 Million To Develop Cambricon Deep Learning Chips

Funds from the Chinese Academy of Science will be used for research into both architecture and algorithms for the processors specialized in deep learning.

Rebecca Tan | April 19, 2017 | Top News

AsianScientist (Apr. 19, 2017) - The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has set aside RMB 10 million (~US$1.4 million) to develop a brain-inspired processor chip specialized for deep learning. Called Cambricon, the chip is expected to be the world's first processor that simulates human nerve cells and synapses to conduct deep learning, according to a statement issued by CAS.

Cambricon is named after the Cambrian explosion, a sudden flowering of a great diversity of new life forms that began roughly 540 million years ago.

The Cambricon research project is helmed by two brothers, Chen Yunji (陈云霁) and Chen Tianshi (陈天石), two of the youngest full professors at the CAS Institute of Computing Technology. In 2015, Chen Yunji was selected as one of MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2015. Younger brother Chen Tianshi is Founder and CEO of Cambricon Technologies Co. Ltd., a company set up in March 2016 to bring the Cambricon chips to market.

The investment from CAS will be used for basic research on both architectures and algorithms for the Cambricon system. Unlike existing neural networks which require thousands of GPU-based accelerators, Cambricon processors are designed to operate more efficiently and run on much less power.

According to an announcement made at the 3rd World Internet Conference held in China in 2016, the latest Cambricon-1A chip can handle 16 billion virtual neurons per second and has a peak capacity of two trillion synapses per second. This performance is double that of a conventional GPU but has a power consumption that is lower by one order of magnitude.

2016 also marked the year that China surprised the world with the release of the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer which immediately dominated the global TOP500 ranking. Sunway was built using homegrown chip technology following the 2015 US government ban on the sale of Intel, NVIDIA and AMD chips to China.

Read more from Asian Scientist Magazine at: https://www.asianscientist.com/2017/04/topnews/china-cas-1-4-million-cambricon-chips/

 

[JSCh]

Apr 20, 2017 02:01 PM
QUICK TAKE: NXP sells Advanced Semiconductor Stake to Chinese Buyer

​

Photo: IC​

Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV said it has sold its 27% stake in Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. Ltd., the company’s latest asset sale to a Chinese buyer as it prepares to be acquired by global giant Qualcomm Inc.

NXP said it sold its 421 million Advanced Semiconductor shares to Shanghai Pudong Science and Technology Investment Co. Ltd. for 99 Hong Kong cents (13 U.S. cents) each, giving the transaction a total value of HK$417 million, according to a company announcement on Wednesday.

Advanced Semiconductor shares have rallied by more than 30% since late March, including a 2.4% gain in Thursday trade in Hong Kong. Still, the latest price of 86 Hong Kong cents represents a 13% discount to the price paid by the Chinese buyer for NXP’s stake.

Announcement of the sale comes nearly a year after NXP said it was selling its lower-tech standard products division to China’s Beijing Jianguang Asset Management Co. and Wise Road Capital Ltd. for $2.75 billion. Since disclosing that sale, NXP has also announced it was selling itself to Qualcomm in a deal valued at $47 billion.

NXP’s actions reflect broader consolidation of the global chip sector, while the latest sale also reflects a recent buying spree of domestic and global chip assets by Chinese investors. The Chinese buyers are backed by generous support from Beijing, which is eager to build up a sector for homegrown high-tech chips that power devices as diverse as smartphones and microwave ovens.

 

[Shotgunner51]

NVIDIA Corp.'s Relationship With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Is Deepening
newsfeedback@fool.com (Ashraf Eassa) May 17, 2017 Updated May 17, 2017

For many years, NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) has relied on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE: TSM) to manufacture the graphics chips it designs. Today, most of NVIDIA's Pascal architecture-based graphics processors -- from the GeForce GTX 1060, designed for mainstream PC gamers, all the way through its cutting-edge Tesla P100 datacenter accelerators -- are manufactured by TSMC.

What's interesting, though, is that the company's entry-level gaming processor -- a chip known as GP107, and sold as the GeForce GTX 1050 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti -- isn't built by TSMC. Instead, it's built by Samsung (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) on that company's 14-nanometer LPP technology.

However, while NVIDIA is sourcing mass-market graphics chips from a rival, it appears that its relationship with Taiwan Semiconductor is deepening rather than degrading. Here are some reasons to think so.

NVIDIA's "special" 12-nanometer technology

When NVIDIA announced its new Tesla V100 accelerator -- based on a chip code-named GV100 -- it disclosed that those GV100 chips are manufactured using Taiwan Semiconductor's 12-nanometer FFN technology. NVIDIA describes that as a variant of TSMC's 12-nanometer technology (which itself is an enhancement of the company's 16-nanometer technology) customized specifically for NVIDIA's use.

This is the first time that NVIDIA has ever talked about such a customized technology publicly.

Given NVIDIA's success over the last couple of years, and its compelling vision for the future, it's not surprising that TSMC may be placing greater priority on that customer's chip technology needs than it did in the past (when mobile chips were TSMC's main driver).

Not only does such customization help NVIDIA build better products (and TSMC wins if NVIDIA can sell more TSMC-built product), but it could make NVIDIA less prone to sourcing important chips from alternative manufacturers (e.g. Samsung).

NVIDIA CEO praises TSMC

On NVIDIA's most recent earnings call, one analyst asked CEO Jensen Huang about his thoughts vis-a-vis manufacturing technology. Of course, Huang pointed out that there's more to building better computer chips than just using more-advanced chip manufacturing technology.

"If we want to advance computing performance, we can no longer rely on transistor advances alone," he said. "That's one of the reasons why NVIDIA has never been obsessed about having the latest transistors."​

He did, though, note that NVIDIA does want "the best transistors," going so far as to say that having strong manufacturing technology is "really, really important" to the company.

"I want the best, and TSMC provides us with the absolute best that we can get, and we push along with them as hard as we can," Huang concluded.​

Note that Huang specifically called out TSMC in this discussion rather than saying "the foundry landscape" of contract chip manufacturers collectively, and praised the company for delivering "the absolute best [transistors]" that NVIDIA can get.

That's a strong statement, and quite high praise for TSMC.

Expect a strong collaboration going forward

TSMC's technology roadmap looks like it should be quite compelling from NVIDIA's perspective. The 12-nanometer FFN manufacturing technology should serve NVIDIA well over the next year or so, serving as a nice "stopgap" as TSMC works to bring its 7-nanometer technology into mass production. The new tech promises a substantial area reduction, in addition to performance improvements over the 16-nanometer and 12-nanometer technologies

Then, after the 7-nanometer technology goes into production, TSMC says that it plans to follow it up with a performance-enhanced version of the technology -- called, unsurprisingly, 7-nanometer+ -- about a year afterward.

Beyond that, TSMC is planning a 5-nanometer technology.

TSMC's development pipeline looks strong, and as long as the chipmaker can continue to bring these new manufacturing technologies into volume production on time, the relationship between NVIDIA and TSMC could continue to strengthen.

http://www.pantagraph.com/business/...cle_b6a16d1e-8fcf-5763-96dc-b37aa918e127.html

 

[TaiShang]

Huaxintong to start shipping China-customized server chips in 2018
By MA SI in Beijing and ZHANG JIE, YANG JUN in Guiyang | China Daily | Updated: 2017-05-26

Guizhou Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology Co, a joint venture between Qualcomm Inc and the Guizhou provincial government, plans to start shipping China-customized server chips in 2018, a senior company executive said.

Earlier this year, Qualcomm and the Guizhou government poured another 1 billion yuan ($144 million) into the company, bringing the total investment to 2.85 billion yuan.

"We are scrambling to absorb all the licensed technologies from Qualcomm. We are also working on a customized encryption algorithm which will live up to China's security standards," said Wang Kai, CEO of Huaxintong.

Huaxintong has a R&D center in Beijing which focuses on chip design, a facility in Shanghai for chip production, and a complex in Guiyang for chip packaging.

Qualcomm owns a 45 percent stake in Huaxintong, with the Guizhou provincial government accounting for the remainder. It is part of a broad effort by Qualcomm, which dominates the smartphone chip sector, to compete with Intel Corp in server chips.

Qualcomm President Derek Aberle said in an earlier interview, that Huaxintong would be one of its biggest growth engines in five years, as China's Internet Plus strategy fuels an explosive growth of internet data centers.

The joint venture is also an example of how international companies are adjusting their strategies in China, where State-owned enterprises are embracing homegrown IT products amid increasing concerns over cybersecurity.

 

[AndrewJin]

This is in China's poorest Guizhou Province....

 

[JSCh]

China applies for 23,000 integrated circuit patents since 2008
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-23 20:28:28|Editor: Mengjie



BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- China has applied for over 23,000 domestic patents on integrated circuits since 2008, an official told a press briefing Tuesday.

Over the last nine years, the country also applied for more than 2,000 international patents on integrated circuits, often known as chips, according to Ye Tianchun, head of the Institute of Microelectronics of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

In 2008, the State Council, China's cabinet, approved a major project on integrated circuits.

Since then, more than 30 Chinese-developed devices and products have entered the market, raising some of the country's tech enterprises to world-leading levels, said Ye.

The project set the country's business innovation on the right track, as China previously relied heavily on imported integrated circuit products, said Chen Chuanhong, an official at the CAS.

"When our chips thrive, our economy will also prosper," he added.

 

[cirr]

By David Manners 24th May 2017

China chips looking chipper

In Q1 the output value of China’s IC design industry was $5.1 billion, says the China SIA, and the output value of China’s backend industry was $4.88 billion.



The design output figure was 23.8% up on Q1 2016

The backend output value was up 11.2% on Q1 20162

The output value of China’s IC manufacturing industry was $3.86 billion – up 25.5% on Q1 2016.

The overall Q1 output value of China’s semiconductor sector was $13.85 billion – up 19.5% from Q1 2016.

https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/china-chips-looking-chipper-2017-05/

 

[Shotgunner51]

MediaTek Launches MT7622, World's First 4x4 802.11n/Bluetooth 5.0 System-on-Chip with Dedicated Network Accelerator
The MT7622 delivers unmatched performance and confirms MediaTek's leadership position in networking

HSINCHU, Taiwan, May 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MediaTek Inc. today introduced the world's first 4x4 802.11n and Bluetooth 5.0 system-on-chip featuring a dedicated Wi-Fi network accelerator. The MediaTek MT7622 was created for premium networking devices including routers and repeaters, whole home Wi-Fi, and home automation gateways that pre-integrates audio and storage features.

With versatility at the core of its design, the MT7622 chipset is a single platform for 4X4 dual-band and tri-band premium networking devices and introduces several best-in-class features including Bluetooth 5.0 and Hardware NAT, Hardware QoS and a dedicated Wi-Fi engine － MediaTek's Wi-Fi Warp Accelerator.

Delivering speed and networking efficiency are key for networking device manufacturers. MediaTek's Wi-Fi Warp Accelerator eliminates bottlenecks by connecting the Gigabit+ class 802.11ac networking with multi-Gigabit internal pathways. It also features the ability to offload the CPU from multiple-users throughput and QoS calculations, all with lower power consumption. The end result is the ability to sustain high-performance for multiple, simultaneous heavy users.

"Based on MediaTek's Adaptive Network technology, the MT7622 features easy setup, network self-healing, roaming, band steering, smart quality of service, and advanced security for whole home Wi-Fi," said Alan Hsu, General Manager of Home Smart Device Business Unit, MediaTek. "For manufacturers looking for flexibility in the design of innovative networking devices, this chipset couples high performance and extensively integrated functionality." ​

The MT7622, with the power a 1.35GHz rated, 64-bit dual-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, provides a host of advanced connectivity options like SGMII/RGMII, PCIe, SATA and USB, and 4x4 802.11n FEM integration.

To meet the growing demand for applications using audio and voice controls, the MT7622 includes essential audio interfaces such as I2S, TDM and S/PDIF. MT7622 also delivers a rich array of slow I/O in addition to the integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee co-existence for home automation gateways.

For additional details on the MediaTek MT7622, please refer to: https://www.mediatek.com/products/homeNetworking/mt7622

About MediaTek Inc.

MediaTek Incorporated (TWSE: 2454) is a global fabless semiconductor company that enables 1.5 billion connected devices a year. A market leader in developing innovative systems-on-chip (SoC) for mobile device, home entertainment, connectivity and IoT products. Our dedication to innovation has positioned us as a driving market force in several key technology areas, including highly power-efficient mobile technologies and advanced multimedia solutions across a broad range of products such as smartphones, tablets, digital televisions, OTT boxes, wearables and automotive solutions. MediaTek empowers and inspires people to expand their horizons and more easily achieve their goals through smart technology. We call this idea Everyday Genius and it drives everything we do. Visit www.mediatek.com for more information.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...-dedicated-network-accelerator-300465160.html

 

[Shotgunner51]

Sharp forecasts first profit in four years, confirms Toshiba chip bid
Fri May 26, 2017 | 4:51am EDT By Makiko Yamazaki | CHIBA

Hon Hai Precision Industry chairman Terry Gou (C), Vice President Tai Jeng-wu (R) and Sharp President Kozo Takahashi (R) shake hands during the signing ceremony on April 2, 2016 in Sakai, Osaka, Japan. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, will buy 66 percent of Sharp, with 388.8 billion Japanese yen.

Japan's Sharp Corp (6753.T) on Friday forecast its first net profit in four years following cost-cutting under new Taiwanese owner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (Foxconn) (2317.TW), and said it would resume making active investments.

With Foxconn turning around the struggling liquid crystal display (LCD) maker since last year's $3.8 billion acquisition, Sharp is now looking to invest in future growth drivers.

It has teamed up with Foxconn to bid for the chip unit of Toshiba Corp (6502.T), sources previously told Reuters, and last week said it would invest up to $1 billion in SoftBank Group Corp's (9984.T) technology-focused $100 billion Vision Fund.

"We have joined the bidding" for Toshiba's chip unit, Sharp Chief Executive Tai Jeng-wu said at a briefing, in Sharp's first official confirmation of its involvement. "But we cannot comment further as we are in the middle of the (auction) process."​

Toshiba, the world's second-largest NAND chip maker, is depending on the sale to cover billions of dollars in cost overruns at its now bankrupt U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse.

Tai also said Sharp wants to build an LCD factory in the United States if conditions are met and competitiveness assured.

"The United States is the biggest panel market, but there are no panel plants there," Tai said.​

The LCD maker forecast net profit of 59 billion yen ($530 million) for the year through March, reversing a loss of 24.9 billion yen a year earlier.


The outlook compared with the 41.9 billion yen average of nine estimates from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Sharp also released its first midterm business plan since Foxconn's acquisition, targeting operating profit of 150 billion yen for the year ending March 2020. That would compare with 62.5 billion yen in the year ended March.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sharp-outlook-idUSKBN18M0I0

@TaiShang

 

[JSCh]

ARM To Set Up JV In China
May 23, 2017, 8:07:48 am HKT

British-based ARM and China's HOPU-ARM Innovation Fund signed a memorandum of cooperation in Beijing aiming to set up a joint venture in Shenzhen and develop it into an important Chinese holding integrated circuit core intellectual property development and service platform.

HOPU-ARM Innovation Fund was jointly founded by China Investment Corporation, Silk Road Fund, Temasek, Shenzhen Shum Yip Group, Hopu Fund, and ARM. It was officially launched on January 24, 2017. With fund scale of USD800 million, HOPU-ARM Innovation Fund is managed by Hopu Fund and ARM.

ARM will provide its integrated circuit design core intellectual properties, technical support and training to the new JV. Relying on ARM's global innovation ecological system and technical standards and combining the demands of the Chinese market, the new JV will develop and sell various advanced integrated circuit design intellectual property product, covering graphics processing, artificial intelligence, and secure Internet services.

Masayoshi Son, chairman and president of SoftBank Group, said at the signing ceremony that ARM is a partner of Apple and Samsung and it also has more than 100 cooperating partners in China. In 2016, ARM shipped over 17 billion architecture chips. With the establishment of the joint venture, they will make new products together in the future and deliver those products to the entire world through Chinese engineers and enterprises.

 

[Shotgunner51]

HOPU-ARM Innovation Fund was jointly founded by China Investment Corporation, Silk Road Fund, Temasek, Shenzhen Shum Yip Group, Hopu Fund, and ARM. It was officially launched on January 24, 2017. With fund scale of USD800 million, HOPU-ARM Innovation Fund is managed by Hopu Fund and ARM.

Good news! I covered the setup of this fund previously https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/new-...st-sovereign-funds.328675/page-4#post-9175722

由中投公司、丝路基金、新加坡淡马锡、深圳深业集团、厚朴投资与ARM公司共同发起设立的厚安创新基金在北京正式成立启动，该基金管理人首次亮相。厚安创新基金由半导体知识产权提供商ARM公司及厚朴投资负责管理。基金将结合ARM的全球产业生态系统，专注于投资移动互联、物联网、人工智能等多个关键领域具有潜力的技术公司。