The European Union's plan to become a powerhouse in producing next-generation semiconductors will do little to help the region's vital industries today, one of its biggest homegrown chipmakers said Thursday.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the National University of Taiwan (NTU) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have jointly announced that a significant breakthrough was made in the development of 1-nanometer (nm) chips. The research results are published in the international journal Nature.

Applied Materials gave a bullish forecast for the current quarter boosted by orders from chipmakers rushing to add capacity to meet a flood of demand for their products.

Taiwan will increase curbs on the use of water from June 1 in the major chip making hubs of Hsinchu and Taichung in a battle on an islandwide drought, should there be no significant rain by then, the government said on Wednesday.

Chip lead times, the gap between ordering a chip and taking delivery, increased to 17 weeks in April, indicating users are getting more desperate to secure supply, according to research by Susquehanna Financial Group. That is the longest wait since the firm began tracking the data in 2017, in what it describes as the "danger zone."

A Lamborghini EV is a fascinating concept, but the changes won't stop there. The company's other three models - right now filled by Aventador, Huracan and Urus - will all feature hybrid drivetrains by 2024.

Toyota Motor will suspend operations on three production lines at two Japanese factories next month due to a chip shortage, the automaker said Tuesday.

Taiwan imposed power cuts on Monday evening following a spike in demand amid a heatwave and drought and failure at a power plant, in the second such outage in a week, although far fewer homes were affected.

Reasons for the ongoing global chip shortage, which is set to last into 2022 and possibly 2023, are complex and multifaceted. However, nations are planning to pump billions of dollars into semiconductors over the coming years as part of an effort to sure up supply chains and become more self-reliant, with money going toward new chip plants, as well as research and development.

TSMC is weighing plans to pump tens of billions of dollars more into cutting-edge chip factories in the US state of Arizona than it had previously disclosed, but is cool on prospects for an advanced European plant, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, has requestd talks to acquire South Korea-based Key Foundry, a chip contract manufacturer, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday.

Taiwan - which has so far survived the pandemic almost unscathed - on Sunday reported 207 new infections.

AMD said late Thursday it plans to buy about $1.6 billion in silicon wafers from Globalfoundries over the next few years.

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Taiwan has entered the community transmission stage of COVID-19 following the emergence of six domestic cases of the disease that have unknown sources of infection, Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung said Tuesday.

Some of the world's biggest chip buyers, including Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet's Google, are joining top chip-makers such as Intel to create a new lobbying group to press for government chip manufacturing subsidies.

Xiaomi and the US government have reached an agreement to set aside a Trump administration blacklisting that could have restricted American investment in the Chinese smartphone maker.

With the market for flash memory only expected to grow, Western Digital CEO David Goeckeler says the US chipmaker sees Japan's Kioxia Holdings as a long-term partner that is key to staying competitive against big Asian rivals.

Apple is awarding US$45 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund to Corning, a supplier of precision glass for iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad.

India's health authorities warned about a fungal infection seen in some Covid-19 patients which can disfigure facial features and even kill, as the country continues to grapple with the world's fastest-growing coronavirus outbreak.

India has held up approvals for import of wifi modules from China for months, driving companies such as US computer makers Dell and HP and China's Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Lenovo to delay product launches in a key growth market, two industry sources said.

IBM has unveiled a breakthrough in semiconductor design and process with the development of the world's first chip announced with 2-nanometer (2nm) nanosheet technology.

Infineon Technologies has concluded a supply contract with Japan-based Showa Denko for an extensive range of silicon carbide material (SiC) including epitaxy. The German semiconductor manufacturer has thus secured more base material for the growing demand for SiC-based products.

German chipmaker Infineon expects supply constraints in its automotive segment to only ease in the second half of this year, CEO Reinhard Ploss said on Tuesday, with lost volumes only likely to be made up in 2022.

The US Commerce Department is pressing TSMC and other Taiwanese firms to prioritise the needs of US automakers to ease chip shortages in the near term, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

TSMC is planning to build several more chipmaking factories in the U.S. state of Arizona beyond the one currently planned, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

While more and more chips are needed in the US, fewer and fewer are manufactured here.

Supply issues could affect products that feature its own M1 chip, which include the new iPad Pro and iMac 2021, said Apple chief executive Tim Cook.

Nintendo will ramp up output of the Switch to about 30 million units this fiscal year, Nikkei has learned, marking an all-time high for the flagship gaming device in a bid to capitalize on continuing stay-at-home demand.

Intel said on Sunday it will invest another $600 million in Israel to expand its R&D and confirmed it was spending $10 billion on a new chip plant.

The global semiconductor shortage roiling a wide range of industries likely won't be resolved for a few more years, according to Intel's new CEO Pat Gelsinger.

LG Electronics' net profit rose 7.6% in the first quarter, driven by solid demand for televisions and home appliances. Market analysts largely view the company's pullout from its smartphone business as improving its business and financial health in the long run despite a near-term revenue setback.

The global shortage of semiconductors that's plaguing automakers, data center owners and electronics manufacturers has turned into a "fight" that risks dragging on until 2023, according to the chief executive of Nokia.

Chipmaking equipment supplier BE Semiconductor said on Friday it planned to boost its operations in the United States and Taiwan as its top customers ramp up investment to meet a surge in chip demand.

Export controls against China will not only fail to halt its technological progress but also hurt the US economy, ASML CEO Peter Wennink said, after trade tensions between Washington and Beijing led to restrictions on the sale of the Dutch company's advanced chip equipment to Chinese firms.

Samsung Electronics beat analyst estimates for profit in the first quarter, but warned of continued fallout from semiconductor shortages as the global economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Intel wants EUR8 billion (US$9.7 billion) in public subsidies towards building a semiconductor factory in Europe, its CEO was quoted as saying on Friday, as the region seeks to reduce its reliance on imports amid a shortage of supplies.

The UK's Department for Transport has said automated lane-keeping systems (ALKS) would be the first type of hands-free driving to be legalized.

GF has invested more than $15 billion in its Fab 8 facility over the last decade to support innovation and manufacturing capacity. In 2021, the company is doubling its planned investment to expand global capacity, with $500 million targeted for Malta, NY alone.

Shipments of the new chipset - tentatively known as the M2, after Apple's current M1 processor - could begin as early as July for use in MacBooks that are scheduled to go on sale in the second half of this year.