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Global Chips news gathered by Explorineer every day, rewritten as plain-language explainers.
China can now produce advanced chips without EUV lithography, but faces cost, yield, and production-time hurdles. Domestic manufacturers rely mainly on DUV lithography, using multi-patterning techniques that add steps, masks, and error risks.
Microchip Technology's Senior Vice President Mark Reiten said in a written interview with ZDNet Korea that single-chip AI semiconductor startups will struggle to compete without broad solutions. The comments came as Microchip moved to acquire edge AI chip startup Hailo to strengthen its microprocessor business.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) will receive $85 million from the U.S. government through a CHIPS Act award to develop advanced chips for fusion power. The funding supports five initiatives, including silicon carbide power electronics, radiation-hardened controls, and adapting AI hardware for power plants. The government will also take a stake in CFS.
SHTP ATP Lab, a shared semiconductor packaging and testing practice facility in Ho Chi Minh City's Saigon High-Tech Park, was inaugurated on October 23. Universities, colleges, research institutes and businesses can jointly use its infrastructure, which includes 13 equipment modules donated by Intel Products Vietnam.
SK hynix said on the 23rd that it is halting both the pre-IPO and the IPO review for Solidigm, its indirect subsidiary. The company said the decision reflects a reassessment of whether an IPO now best serves SK hynix and its existing shareholders, not a change in Solidigm's growth prospects or investment needs.
Nvidia has officially launched its RTX Spark Arm-based Windows PC platform, with partners including ASUS, MSI, Lenovo, Dell Technologies, and Microsoft, ending Qualcomm's roughly nine-year dominance of the Arm Windows PC market. The platform pairs a Blackwell GPU with Arm-based CPU cores and supports Nvidia's gaming technologies such as DLSS, Optix, Reflex, and G-Sync.
Fusion startup Helion has received $175 million in federal CHIPS Act funding to research, develop, and manufacture advanced semiconductors and power electronics for its fusion plants. The company says halving the roughly 5% to 10% electricity losses in these devices could double its fusion system's power output. A new production line in Washington State would be the first in the U.S. to make this class of semiconductor.
EST, a company whose main business is display electrostatic chucks (ESC), is expanding into semiconductors and glass core substrates. It has tested with more than 20 semiconductor companies, secured nine customers, and received an order for a glass core substrate ESC, with the company's CEO Kim Young-gon presenting the growth strategy at an IPO press briefing.
Microsoft and Google work with Nvidia, the world's largest AI chip maker, while also pursuing their own chip projects, though not to compete directly with it. The article raises the question of why tech firms are building their own AI chips.
Nguyen Quang Khanh, director of Intel Products Vietnam (IPV), says Vietnamese engineers have a solid foundation and learn quickly but need persistence to build deep semiconductor expertise. He joined IPV in 2010 and in 2020-2021 became the first Vietnamese director of the Intel plant, in an interview with VnExpress.
Tenstorrent, an inference-focused chip startup, raised $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation, more than double its late-2024 valuation. The company said it chose to stay independent after reportedly drawing acquisition interest from Intel and Qualcomm. The new funding will go toward chips for serving open-weight AI models and video generation.
Langdao Silex, a two-year-old company, showed a prototype EUV light source called FlintNano LPP-OXXO at the 26th China International Industry Fair. The company cites a 1,000-watt laser and an EUV power above 15 watts, but has not stated the wavelength, and staff said series production is three to five years away. The laser is said to be 90 percent Chinese-made.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics has signed a long-term supply agreement (LTA) worth 360.5 billion won with a global major company for package substrates used in memory chips. The contract runs from January 1 to December 31, 2027. The company has signed seven disclosed LTAs since May this year, bringing the cumulative contract value to 4.3 trillion won.