Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 4

Bernstein analysts have just lifted their price targets for TSMC's Taiwan and US-listed shares, with the new price target hitting NT$1080, up from NT$900, while US-listed shares have new price targets of $200, up from $150.

The analysts expect TSMC to surpass its 2024 guidance, which is driven by two factors: high-end smartphone demand and advanced technology nodes used by virtually every major US tech company: Apple, AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and more.

TSMC's continued data center AI revenue continues to climb, but an "unexpected boost" reports Investing.com, comes from AI's influence on smartphone upgrades. We've already got Samsung with Galaxy AI on its new Galaxy S24 smartphones, and Apple has ChatGPT-powered "Apple Intelligence" coming later this year.

South Korean lawmaker and former Samsung Electronics president Ko Dong-jim has tabled a special bill to establish and support a government-level semiconductor industry strategy that has been referred to as an "All-Out War" for South Korea and the semiconductor industry.

Ko Dong-jim is a lawmaker from the People Power Party in South Korea, Ko submitted to the National Assembly the "Special Art on Enhancing the Competitiveness of the Semiconductor Industry," which includes an establishment of a "Presidential Semiconductor Industry Competitiveness Enhancement Committee".

The "All-Out War" bill for the semiconductor industry was picked up by Business Korea, which reports that the proposed legislation aims to centralize the semiconductor industry regulations through the future committee, and fast-tracking for expedited permits.

Micron Technology, a US semiconductor manufacturing company, is being sued by South Korean company Mimir IP for infringing on its patents.

Mimir IP has filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Notably, Korea Economic Daily (KED) described Mimir IP as a non-practicing entity (NPE), which translates to a patent troll - a company that solely exists to purchase patents, hold them, and then sue companies or any entity that infringes on them.

Mimir purchased approximately 1,500 patents from SK Hynix in May, which it then used to file lawsuits that involve "circuits, voltage measurement devices, and non-volatile memory devices." The lawsuit, if it concludes in Mimir IP's favor, could earn the patent troll up to $480 million, and authorities could even force defendants to sign licensing agreements with Mimir.

A senior US official will visit both Japan and the Netherlands to ask the countries to agree to new US restrictions to curb China's semiconductor industry. This time, they want to place bans on HBM memory needed for AI chips.

US Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, Alan Estevez, will press his counterparts in both Tokyo and the Netherlands to tighten the activities in China by Dutch supplier ASML (the makers of EUV lithography machines to make the best chips on the planet) and Japan's Tokyo Electron Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter, reports Bloomberg.

Estevez's requests are part of an "ongoing dialogue with allies" that will target Chinese chip factories that are developing HBM chips, with ASML and Tokyo Electron machines used to make HBM chips. Chinese companies working on creating HBM chips include Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a subsidiary of China's leading memory chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., according to China's corporate data provider Qichacha. Huawei Technologies Co. and ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. are also reportedly developing HBM.

NVIDIA has hit quite the milestone today, becoming the most valuable company in the world with a market value of $3.33 trillion.

NVIDIA shares rose by 3.5% today which bumped the company up to a market cap of $3.33 trillion. NVIDIA recently announced a 10-for-1 split of stock, making its stock more accessible to smaller investors.

The company crossed the $1 trillion market cap milestone in 2023, and a few months ago, in February 2024, we saw NVIDIA breach the $2 trillion market cap. NVIDIA has been riding an incredibly successful and very dominant ride to the AI GPU champion, fueling its financial growth like rocket fuel.

AMD has potentially been hit by a cyberattack, after hacker "IntelBroker" allegedly stole data and has it up for sale on a hacking forum. The data includes AMD employee information, financial documents, and confidential information including future AMD products.

AMD told BleepingComputer in a statement: "We are aware of a cybercriminal organization claiming to be in possession of stolen AMD data. We are working closely with law enforcement officials and a third-party hosting partner to investigate the claim and the significance of the data".

The threat actor said in a spot on a hacking forum: "Today, I'm selling the AMD.com data breach. Thanks for reading and enjoy! In June 2024, AMD, a large computing company suffered a data breach. Compromised data: Future AMD products, Spec sheets, employee databases, customer databases, property files, ROMs, source code, firmware and finances".

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued Adobe, alleging the company has deceived consumers by trying to hide ways of canceling subscriptions.

The new lawsuit alleges Adobe has harmed consumers by enrolling them in a subscription plan that doesn't adequately inform consumers of the plans terms, and through this agreement the company then unfairly push customers to the "annual paid monthly" subscription, which if they canceled within the first year would result in them being billed for hundreds of dollars. The particular point the DOJ is concentrating on here is the early termination feeds that Adobe only discloses when a subscriber tries to cancel a subscription.

The lawsuit states Adobe has turned its early-termination free into a "powerful retention tool" that traps consumers. Moreover, the DOJ lawsuit says Adobe has purposely hidden details of the subscription cancellation stipulations behind hyperlinks and option textboxes, which the DOJ alleges proves "that are designed to go unnoticed and that most consumers never see."

TSMC has just secured orders from US tech giants Google and Qualcomm for next-gen 3nm, as Samsung Foundry is having issues with yields and power efficiency, reports South Korean media.

In a new report from Business Korea, we learn that most companies will allocate their orders to TSMC for next-gen 3nm chip designs. As of June 17, there are 7 major companies using TSMC for 3nm designs. This includes NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Google, which are prioritizing the use of TSMC's 3nm manufacturing process.

We heard rumors of Google moving to TSMC to make its next-gen Tensor G5 processor for its upcoming Pixel 10 smartphones in late-May, but it seems these deals are actually happening now as Samsung Foundry is floundering with trying to catch up (let alone match) the semiconductor dominance that TSMC holds.

TSMC plans to build two new CoWoS advanced packaging plants in Chiayi Science Park are underway, with the first of the CoWoS plants starting construction in May with geological drilling operations. However, suspected archeological ruins were discovered at the site earlier this month, and now construction has been suspended.

The news is coming from Taiwan news outlet LTN, reporting that in accordance with cultural capital procedures, TSMC has also proposed a plan to build a second CoWoS advanced packaging facility in the Southern Science Park Administration of the National Science and Technology Council, and the Southern Science and Technology Bureau expressed its "full assistance".

The South Science and Technology Management Bureau confirmed that TSMC's first new CoWoS plant in Chiayi Science Park discovered suspected remains, suspending construction, with a response strategy formed that would propose to build a second CoWoS factory first. When the suspected ruins were found, a change of development behavior was submitted to adjust the location of the park land and reduce the impact.

TSMC's 3nm supply exceeds demand right now, with major US tech companies including AMD, Apple, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and more have full production capacity, with orders expected to be filled through to 2026.

In a new report from Ctee, we're learning that TSMC's 3nm OEM price adjustment is expected to be "more than" 5%, and that the annual quotation for advanced packaging in 2026 will also increase, between 10-20% or so. TSMC's stock price closed at 922 yuan (around $129 USD or so), leading TSMC's market value to rise to a record 23.91 trillion yuan (around $894 billion USD or so).

Foreign investors have purchased around 395,000 units this year, with TSMC chairman Wei Zhejia's "value theory" cemented in, and will increase the advanced processing and packaging technologies, which is expected to be a "double success".