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Thursday 22 May 2025
Balancing act: Nvidia banks on Shanghai R&D center to sustain China market as US export curbs tighten
The Financial Times recently reported, citing informed sources, that Nvidia plans to establish a new R&D center in Shanghai to strengthen its strategic presence in the Chinese market. The initiative not only responds to China's persistent strong demand for high-end chips but also underscores a pragmatic strategy by the US chip firm to find balance amid rising geopolitical tensions
Thursday 22 May 2025
Xiaomi pushes the edge with 3nm XRing O1 chip, threading US regulatory needle
Xiaomi is set to unveil its latest slate of strategic products at 7 pm CST on May 22, headlined by the long-awaited debut of its in-house smartphone SoC, the XRing O1—a bold play that marks a new chapter in the company's semiconductor ambitions. Xiaomi chairman Lei Jun quickly followed up with technical disclosures, noting that the XRing O1 is built on a second-generation 3nm process and packs 19 billion transistors, putting it in the same league as Apple's A17 Pro from a specification standpoint
Tuesday 20 May 2025
Nvidia courts ASIC allies with NVLink Fusion, so why is Broadcom still saying no?
At this year's COMPUTEX keynote, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled NVLink Fusion, a new initiative to open the company's proprietary NVLink interconnect to third-party ASICs and CPUs. Huang underscored his goal of "doing business with every customer." Notably absent from the list of launch partners was ASIC and networking chip powerhouse Broadcom
Tuesday 20 May 2025
Xiaomi's XRing SoC: next HiSilicon breakthrough or Zeku-style flameout?
Years after launching the Pinecone Surge S1 in 2017, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun announced the company's return to in-house smartphone chip design. Its new self-developed SoC, the XRing O1, is set to debut on May 22. Lei disclosed that Xiaomi has poured over CNY13.5 billion (approx. US$1.87 billion) into developing the XRing, supported by a 2,500-strong engineering team. The company plans to invest an additional CNY6 billion in R&D in 2025
Tuesday 20 May 2025
From cold benches to courtroom benches: A tale of two chip visions
The year 2025 marks a significant moment for the Chinese-speaking semiconductor industry, presenting a striking contrast
Tuesday 20 May 2025
Huawei widens lead in global telecom race, Western RAN giants retreat under pressure
As global telecom players across Europe, the US, Japan, and South Korea face mass layoffs and resource constraints, market contraction is accelerating. Meanwhile, Huawei is bucking the trend, expanding its R&D headcount and consolidating its lead in 5G and communications infrastructure, emerging as the sector's biggest wildcard. The growing split in the global telecom race is stark: Huawei gains strategic ground, while Western peers stall amid policy inertia and financial tightening
Monday 19 May 2025
The beauty and sorrow of a one-man stage: TSMC's advanced process technology and packaging
From the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025 at the beginning of the year, Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in March, to TSMC's North America Technology Symposium in April, and the upcoming Computex 2025, these major tech showcases clearly demonstrate the inseparable relationship between AI server development and semiconductor advanced process and packaging technologies
Monday 19 May 2025
From containment to control: Trump's Gulf deals isolate Huawei and heat up AI Cold War
The US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued fresh guidelines targeting AI chips, delivering another major blow to Huawei. The directive explicitly identifies Huawei's Ascend series, stating that using the chips globally would violate US export control laws
Monday 19 May 2025
Chipmakers seek edge beyond Moore's Law as computing power race escalates
The semiconductor industry's decades-long strategy of shrinking transistors faces diminishing returns, forcing companies to explore alternative technologies for competitive advantage in the post-Moore's Law era
Saturday 17 May 2025
Current status of China's lithography equipment development: EUV
While China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently announced updates on deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE) also disclosed its 2023 patent applications related to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology, along with the publication of patents filed in September 2024
Saturday 17 May 2025
From soy milk to silicon: the untold story of Taiwan's chip ascent
The documentary A Chip Odyssey, directed by Chu-Chen Hsiao and more than five years in the making, is set to premiere on June 13. The film is based on interviews with over 80 industry insiders and scholars, and had its media preview on May 13, attended by journalists as well as figures from academia, the arts, and tech
Friday 16 May 2025
Tariff truce tremors: supply chains reeling from three aftershocks
Following recent trade talks, the US and China have reached a temporary pause on escalating tariffs, with both sides retreating from previously announced increases. While the deal offers some relief, industry experts caution that disruption to global supply chains is already evident, with three major aftershocks now surfacing across the electronics manufacturing sector
Friday 16 May 2025
From applications to agents: how AI is reshaping the next era of digital interfaces
In the prior article, we compared the evolution of the Internet to that of today's large language models (LLMs), particularly examining Internet packets and LLM tokens. We noted parallels in infrastructure and business model development. By analyzing packets' evolution, we aimed to forecast the future trajectory of tokens in AI, projecting potential impacts on product design, service models, and industry value chains
Friday 16 May 2025
Trump's Middle East visit brings relief to Nvidia and AI supply chain
Industry insiders revealed that just as the market believed the rapid growth of AI was slowing down and Nvidia's performance would no longer be spectacular, US President Donald Trump demonstrated a dual strategy of "carrot and stick" by leading several top American business leaders, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, on a visit to Saudi Arabia. The move proved highly beneficial for Huang
Thursday 15 May 2025
Current status of China's lithography equipment development: DUV
In the US-China trade war, the focus of US pressure has been on curbing the development of China's high-tech sectors—especially semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum computing, with the first two being closely intertwined