Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 1

The US government is awarding Samsung up to $6.4 billion in grants to expand its chip production facilities in Texas, USA, to boost US-based semiconductor chipmaking.

The new $6.4 billion in funding is being fed through the 2002 CHIPS and Science Act, which will assist in the first two chip production facilities, an advanced packaging facility, and a research and development center planned by Samsung. These new facilities will be located in Taylor, Texas, USA.

These new funds will also help Samsung expand its semiconductor facility in Austin, Texas while boosting chip output for aerospace, defense, and auto industries while bolstering national security, administration officials told reporters and reported by Reuters.

Samsung Electronics co-CEO Qing Guixian reportedly visited Taiwan recently in a "low-key manner," according to a new report from UDN.

It was reported that his first priority was to promise Samsung's HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), which is used in AI GPUs; the faster and more, the better. Samsung has been focusing on pushing high-end DRAM technologies, including HBM (HBM3, HBM3E, and next-gen HBM4) and DDR5, where it needs help from Taiwanese ODM manufacturers, expanding outsourcing of mature and niche products.

Samsung met with both TSMC and Quanta Group subsidiary Werder, reports UDN. According to the sources, the Samsung co-CEO had 'two major tasks during this trip': promoting Samsung's HBM and possible AI cooperation with Taiwanese manufacturers.

Japanese video game developer Koei Tecmo officially filed a lawsuit against Youzu (Singapore) (Yoozoo Games) in Tokyo court on April 8.

The iconic Japanese video game developer has alleged that Youzu (Singapore) has been using content such as music, images, and trademarks from two of its titles, "Nobunaga's Ambition" and "Taiko Risshiden". The suit alleges Youzu (Singapore) has been continuously using Koei Tecmo's intellectual property in web advertisements for 成り上がり～華と武の戦国, which roughly translates to "The Uprising: The Warring States of Flowers and War," Infinity Kingdom, and Dynasty Origins, all of which are published by Youzu (Singapore).

The suit states that Koei Tecmo has warned Youzu (Singapore) multiple times via letters but alleges the company has continued to infringe on its intellectual property. Koei Tecmo is seeking an injunction as well as compensation for damages, but it's not immediately clear if Youzu (Singapore) will lose the case as Japan isn't a part of the Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgements Regime Act, meaning before any enforcement takes place, the claims will have to be first filed in Singapore.

Google has slapped down $1 billion to construct two new cables designed to link the US and Japan. These cables are called Proa and Taihei.

According to the announcement, the new cables will be subsea and will be built by Japanese tech giant NEC Corp. More specifically, the company has planned to route Japan, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and then Guam, with reports indicating that Google is already working on the Taiwan-Philippines-US (TPU) cable system, which will also be getting an extension to CNMI. Current plans for the TPU system are in the name - connect Taiwan, the Philippines, and the United States, with estimates putting its completion sometime in 2025.

As for Taihei, this cable system will be a direct connection between Hawaii and Japan. Moreover, Google has planned an extension of its Tabua cable system to Hawaii on its way to from the US to Fiji and Australia. The Tabua cable is being built by SubCom. Google has also said it will be constructing an interlink cable between Hawaii, the CNMI and Guam to "connect the transpacific routes, improving their reliability and reducing latency for users in the Pacific Islands and around the world."

Intel is well aware that it faces multiple obstacles in its course to becoming the biggest in the semiconductor foundry industry; where we're hearing Intel is talking to Taiwan-based factories that have worked with TSMC, to help its Intel Foundry business.

In a new report from DigiTimes, the outlet says that the strength of Intel's R&D power shouldn't be underestimated. The R&D technology -- including ASML's bleeding-edge EUV lithography machine delivered to its US operations at the cost of $380 million and split into a new Intel Foundry business -- is as good as and even ahead of TSMC with some of its revolutionary, innovative technologies.

The hurdles that Intel faces are a few: companies don't have the same trust in Intel to fab their chips as they do with TSMC, with high manufacturing costs, yield rates, efficiency, and on-schedule in terms of mass production aren't close to what TSMC is, and has been capable of over the years.

TSMC's list of its biggest customers has been teased. The top seven customers are Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom, and Intel, in that order.

In a new media report from Ctee citing unnamed investors, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) has 7 main customers with their chips being fabbed in Taiwan: Apple with 25% of revenue for TSMC in 2023, NVIDIA is second with 11% and AMD third with 7% revenue generation for TSMC.

These companies -- Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom, and Intel -- all use TSMC's newer advanced processes. The report says that 5nm market share sits at around 70-80% while 3nm market share over 90%, which is thanks to the insatiable demand of high-performance computing (HPC) which includes AI chips like NVIDIA's A100 and H100 AI GPUs, AMD's new Instinct MI250 and MI300 series AI GPUs.

Microsoft has just announced it will invest $2.9 billion over the next two years in Japan, increasing its hyperscale cloud computing and AI infrastructure in the country.

The company will also boost its digital skilling program, aiming at providing AI skilling to over 3 million people in the next three years, to open its first Microsoft Research Asia lab in Japan, and increase its cybersecurity collaboration with the Japanese government.

Microsoft's various investments will support Japan's "key pillar to tackle deflation and simulate the economy by expanding the infrastructure, skilled talent, and security required to accelerate Japan's digital transformation and adoption of AI". This new $2.9 billion investment will be Microsoft's single largest investment in its 46-year history in Japan, which is also the site of Microsoft's first international office.

Samsung and SK hynix are reportedly reconsidering the construction of domestic semiconductor plants in South Korea after promising tens of billions of dollars into their operations in the United States.

The US government has been shoveling billions of dollars to semiconductor companies, including TSMC, Samsung, SK hynix, Intel, NVIDIA, and others through its CHIPS Act. Now, South Korean companies are slowing down with domestic semiconductor operations.

Korea JoongAng Daily reports that Samsung is "reorganizing its investment plan from last year" and that "speed control should be inevitable".

LG Energy Solution has announced that construction on its new battery factory in Arizona, Texas, USA, has started, with 7.2 trillion won (around $5.5 billion USD) ready to go.

This will be LG's second factory in the US, with plans to manufacture cylindrical batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) as well as lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for energy storage systems (ESS). LG's second factory will be operational by 2026, with an annual capacity of 53GWh, 36GWh for cylindrical batteries, and 17GWh for ESS LFP batteries.

LG Energy Solutions is already building a battery plant in Michigan, while it has built two factories jointly-run with customer General Motors. LG also works with Honda, Hyundai Motor, and Stellantis to build joint factories.

Samsung is expected to be awarded more than $6 billion from the Biden administration and the US government's huge CHIPS Act, to expand its chip output at its Taylor, Texas-based facility, and more.

In a new report from Reuters, we're to expect that the $6 billion+ subsidy will be unveiled by US Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo, with the funding to go into the construction of four facilities in Taylor. One of these facilities is a new $17 billion chipmaking plant that Samsung originally announced in 2021, while another advanced packaging facility makes up another factory, and the third will be a new research and development (R&D) center.

Reuters adds that these billions of dollars from the US government and into Samsung's coffers will be used as an investment in "another disclosed location," according to the sources. As part of this new deal, Samsung will more than double its investments in the United States to over $44 billion.