Supply Chain
Semiconductor supply chain, capacity, geopolitics, and trade dynamics.
Pentagon Offers Wolfspeed $1.5B Loan for Chip Production
The U.S. Department of War is offering advanced chip materials firm Wolfspeed up to $1.5 billion in long-term financing to strengthen domestic production of advanced power semiconductors and develop chips for defense and national security applications. The company says it plans to use the financing to upgrade its GaN epitaxy capabilities for next-generation communications infrastructure […]
Andy Patrizio · Oct 15, 2026 · 2 min
Huawei-Qualcomm Patent Deal Extends Chip Rivals’ Ties Across AI and 5G
Huawei and Qualcomm have signed a multi-year patent licensing agreement spanning 5G, AI, computing and networking, creating a new intellectual property link between two major players in the global semiconductor and communications markets. The agreement gives each company access to patents held by the other and includes Qualcomm’s purchase of selected Huawei U.S. patents. Those […]
James Maguire · Oct 6, 2026 · 2 min
China Challenges US Chip Restrictions as Alibaba Unveils Ambitious AI Roadmap
China’s push to develop its own AI chips has gained momentum with announcements from Alibaba and Huawei, strengthening President Xi Jinping’s position as he meets with President Donald Trump for a multi-day state visit to Washington. The new technology releases demonstrate China’s determination to reduce its reliance on U.S. semiconductor technology, and to overcome U.S. […]
James Maguire · Sep 24, 2026 · 2 min
GlobalFoundries, Marvell Expand Partnership to Boost Optical Connectivity
GlobalFoundries and Marvell Technology are expanding their longstanding manufacturing partnership to increase production capacity for high-speed optical processors. The agreement announced by the two companies will increase production capacity for GlobalFoundries’ silicon-germanium (SiGe) technology at its facility in Burlington, Vermont. The additional capacity is intended to support Marvell’s growing requirements for optical networking products used […]
Andy Patrizio · Sep 22, 2026 · 2 min
Alibaba Unveils China’s ‘Most Powerful’ AI Chip Ahead of U.S.-China Summit
Alibaba Group introduced its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip to date on Tuesday, as well as ambitious plans to train a massive next-generation AI model. The blitz reflects China’s accelerating push toward technological self-reliance, coming just days ahead of a closely watched summit between Chinese and U.S. leaders. Speaking at Alibaba Cloud’s annual flagship […]
Jon Swartz · Sep 22, 2026 · 3 min
TSMC Moves Ahead With Plans for Sub-1.4nm Manufacturing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has given the green light to an expansion of its manufacturing facilities, clearing the way for production technologies beyond its upcoming 1.4-nanometer manufacturing process. This comes just as a research note from investment firm Piper Sandler says Intel’s 14A process, also 1.4nm, is currently being evaluated by Amazon, Apple, AMD, […]
Andy Patrizio · Sep 21, 2026 · 1 min
NVIDIA Shares Rise as CEO Jensen Huang Confirms Chip Sales Will Double by 2027
NVIDIA Corp. CEO Jensen Huang confirmed Thursday that the semiconductor giant expects chip sales to roughly double in 2027 from 2026. Speaking at a technology conference in Scotland, Huang reiterated the aggressive growth trajectory previously outlined to investors during the company’s August earnings call, where management characterized its 70% fiscal 2028 revenue projections as a […]
Jon Swartz · Sep 18, 2026 · 2 min
SK hynix in Exploratory Talks With Intel for First U.S. Chip Manufacturing Presence: Report
South Korean memory chipmaker SK hynix is in preliminary talks with Intel Corp. that could result in the company manufacturing semiconductors in the United States for the first time. According to Reuters, citing sources familiar with the discussions, the companies are exploring multiple structures for potential partnership. One scenario involves SK hynix leasing space at […]
Jon Swartz · Sep 16, 2026 · 3 min
MediaTek’s New 2nm Chip Targets High-End Smartphones
MediaTek has unveiled Dimensity 9600 Pro, a flagship smartphone processor built to deliver gains in AI, gaming and power efficiency as the chipmaker pushes deeper into the premium handset market. The 9600 Pro is MediaTek’s first processor manufactured using TSMC’s 2-nanometer technology. Moving to the smaller manufacturing process allows chip designers to pack more computing […]
James Maguire · Sep 15, 2026 · 2 min
Arm Unveils Neoverse CSS N4 Platform, Expands AGI CPU Adoption
Arm has announced its next-generation Neoverse CSS N4 platform, bringing a massive upgrade in semi-custom compute designs to cloud and data center markets. Built on TSMC’s advanced N3P process, the new platform delivers up to 128 cores per die running at speeds up to 3.8 GHz, effectively doubling the core density of its predecessor. The […]
Jon Swartz · Sep 8, 2026 · 2 min
Trump Weighs Expanded Semiconductor Tariffs to Drive Reshoring, Raising Alarm Over U.S. AI Growth: Report
The Trump administration is weighing a sweeping expansion of semiconductor tariffs that could extend to laptops, gaming hardware, and data center servers. The preliminary proposal, as reported by POLITICO, aims to pressure tech giants into shifting manufacturing to U.S. soil, but it has sparked intense opposition from industry groups warning of severe economic fallout for […]
Jon Swartz · Aug 27, 2026 · 2 min
Japan Boosts Funding for Advanced Chip Manufacturing
Japan is preparing to provide another ¥150 billion ($944 million) to Rapidus, the country’s effort to establish a domestic source of cutting-edge logic chips and reduce its reliance on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), according to a Bloomberg report. Rapidus, established in 2022, is developing an advanced semiconductor manufacturing operation in Chitose, Hokkaido. The company […]
Andy Patrizio · Aug 24, 2026 · 2 min
Intel’s $36 Billion Second Chance: The Technology Is Working. Will the Business Follow?
One year ago, the United States government made an extraordinary bet on Intel. On Aug. 22, 2025, Washington agreed to invest $8.9 billion in the company, converting previously awarded CHIPS Act and Secure Enclave funding into an equity stake. The goal was bigger than rescuing another struggling American corporation. It was to preserve something the […]
Alan Shimel · Aug 12, 2026 · 9 min
AI-Driven Chip Shortage Triggers Washington Lobbying War as Apple Seeks Chinese Supplier Relief
An explosion in artificial intelligence (AI) development has ignited a severe global memory chip crunch, igniting an aggressive lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill as non-AI sectors scramble to secure critical components and protect failing supply pipelines. Driven by data centers vacuuming up massive volumes of high-bandwidth memory and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) to train advanced […]
Jon Swartz · Aug 10, 2026 · 2 min
Beyond the Die: The Definitive Guide to Advanced Packaging in the AI Era
For decades, semiconductor progress was told through the story of the chip itself. That story still matters — but it no longer explains how the most advanced AI systems get faster. The most consequential change is now happening around the die as much as inside it. In Beyond the Die: The Definitive Guide to Advanced […]
Alan Shimel · Aug 4, 2026 · 1 min
Commerce Department Plans $874 Million for Seven Semiconductor R&D Projects
The US Department of Commerce plans to provide up to $874 million in CHIPS and Science Act incentives to seven semiconductor companies developing technologies for AI infrastructure, extending the government’s support for domestic semiconductor research and the US compute supply chain. The funding, announced through letters of intent, still requires additional review before final awards […]
James Maguire · Jul 31, 2026 · 3 min
Samsung Lands $200 Billion Broadcom AI Chip Partnership in Major Foundry Win
Samsung Electronics and Broadcom have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand a strategic semiconductor partnership that the companies estimate will be worth more than $200 billion through 2030. The partnership is expected to support Broadcom’s growing portfolio of custom artificial intelligence processors and strengthen Samsung’s position in the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure market. The […]
Andy Patrizio · Jul 28, 2026 · 1 min
Samsung Negotiates Multimillion-Euro Stake in Mistral AI at $22.8 Billion Valuation
Samsung Electronics is in advanced talks to make a massive financial bet on Europe’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) startup, Mistral AI, signaling a critical shift in how global semiconductor leaders compete for dominance in the AI hardware supply chain. According to a report from The Financial Times, South Korea’s Samsung is negotiating an investment of […]
Jon Swartz · Jul 22, 2026 · 2 min
AI Can Be Underbuilt and Overinvested at the Same Time
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. delivered almost everything an AI infrastructure bull could have wanted from its second-quarter earnings report. Revenue reached $40.2 billion, an increase of 33.7% from a year earlier. TSMC recorded another quarter of record profit. Gross margin reached 67.7%, operating margin came in at 60.3%, and management raised its expectations for full-year […]
Alan Shimel · Jul 20, 2026 · 8 min
TSMC Crushes Q2 Earnings Expectations, Raises Outlook
Just days after Samsung’s record-breaking second-quarter earnings, history repeated itself when Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) reported record second-quarter earnings on the chipmaker’s central role in the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The world’s largest contract chip manufacturer posted second-quarter revenue of NT$1.27 trillion (US$40.2 billion), a 36% increase from Q2 of 2025. Net income […]
Andy Patrizio · Jul 16, 2026 · 2 min
China’s Chip Ambitions Rise as CXMT Launches $10 Billion IPO
Chinese memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. is launching a blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) on Shanghai’s tech-focused STAR Board to raise nearly $10 billion, one of the largest in Asian history and a crucial test of investor appetite for China’s burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain. The Hefei-based DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) champion has […]
Jon Swartz · Jul 15, 2026 · 2 min