Industry News

After years of planning, building, geopolitical wrangling, and workforce challenges, the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is officially starting mass production at an advanced chip-manufacturing facility in Phoenix in 2025. The fab represents the arrival of advanced chip manufacturing in the United States and a test of whether the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act can help stabilize the semiconductor-industry supply chain for the United States and its allies.

The 64th edition of the TOP500 reveals that El Capitan has achieved the top spot and is officially the third system to reach exascale computing after Frontier and Aurora. Both systems have since moved down to No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively. Additionally, new systems have found their way onto the Top 10.

A reported hefty increase in sales is no doubt welcome news for the semiconductor industry, which still remains on precarious footing given the continued supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions, especially around US-China trade relations.

Microsoft is joining with BlackRock and other private equity investors in a new AI fund that aims to eventually raise $100 billion for datacenters and their supporting power infrastructure.

The US is said to be tightening its export rules on chipmaking equipment, but will provide exceptions for allied and friendly nations.

The EU needs a strong science, research and innovation base more than ever, as it lags behind competitors in an uncertain geopolitical environment, according to this year’s 530-page stock-taking report on the Science, Research and Innovation Performance of the EU.

Chipmaking equipment suppliers haven’t had the greatest start to the calendar year, collectively reporting a sales slump in the opening three months of 2024, according to analyst figures.

Nvidia has become the most valuable company in the world after its market capitalization grew to $3.34 trillion, overtaking Microsoft at $3.32 trillion.

Nvidia shares ended trading on June 18 at $136 per share, a 3.5% increase. Since the beginning of 2024, Nvidia’s stock price has surged by more than 170%.

“Today, generative AI (GenAI) is fueling demand for high-performance AI chips in data centers. In 2024, the value of AI accelerators used in servers, which offload data processing from microprocessors, will total $21 billion, and increase to $33 billion by 2028,” said Alan Priestley, VP Analyst at Gartner.

The US government has dropped details on its National Strategy on Microelectronics Research, outlining top goals and actions for the next five years to boost the semiconductor industry with CHIPS Act investment.

Mega makers already operate in water-scarce areas, and worry is they’ll drink us dry

IEA Expects Global Electricity Demand, Driven by AI Growth, to Double by 2026 - Citing the Importance of Sustainability and Net Zero Investments

Nvidia raked in the boatloads of cash, but the rest of the industry is still hurting. 2023’s copious chatter about generative AI has not translated into surging semiconductor revenues across the industry, according to analyst firm Gartner.

China’s chip manufacturing capacity is expected to more than double within the next 5 to 7 years, according to TrendForce, and this could lead to a market oversupply that would spell trouble for semiconductor companies elsewhere.

This year anticipates an increase in scalable modular data centres as the demand for AI and cloud-based technologies continues to challenge the industry.

Global semiconductor capacity is tipped to grow in 2024, despite the doom and gloom, with China forecast to lead the way and expand its share of global chip production as it tries to become more self sufficient.

The new year is already shaping up to be one of the most significant in terms of datacenter silicon we’ve seen in a while. Every major chip house is slated to refresh their CPU and/or GPU product lines over the coming twelve months.

Business technology leaders in construction, travel, retail, healthcare and energy say AI is already improving productivity and changing customer behavior. But they are also sorting through its high costs and limitations.

It is hard to keep a model of datacenter infrastructure spending in your head at the same time you want to look at trends in cloud and on-premises spending as well as keep score among the key IT suppliers to figure out who is winning and who is losing. And so we have built a model that does this, and we are calling it the Datacenter Infrastructure Report Card.

The US has earmarked $3 billion in funding it hopes will drive US leadership in advanced packaging technologies, seen as a key part of the future semiconductor industry.

Europe’s leading supercomputer will use a new quad Grace Hopper node with the GH200 combined ARM GPU when it is installed next year.

Since the ‘AI made in Europe’ strategy launched in February 2020, the US has pulled further ahead. The EU’s problem is a lack of scale and focus. The answer is to adopt CERN’s approach to running large, coordinated and highly ambitious projects

The forecasted growth of generative AI investments is more than twice the growth rate in overall AI spending and 13 times greater than the CAGR for worldwide IT spending over the same period, according to IDC.

The artificial intelligence (AI) industry could consume as much energy as a country the size of the Netherlands by 2027, a new study warns.

This surge in computational strength is not just for bragging rights. Chinese government recognizes the crucial role of advanced computing in various sectors, notably in finance and the educational realms.