June 10, 2025

Round-up

1. TSMC posted a 40 % YoY revenue jump for May, showing that AI-server demand is still outrunning a broader electronics slowdown¹.
2. Day-2 London talks between Washington and Beijing edged toward narrowly easing export controls—but the U.S. refused to lift the ban on Nvidia’s H20 GPUs, keeping China’s premium-AI bottleneck in place²³.
3. At the VLSI Symposium, SK hynix outlined a 4F-Vertical-Gate + 3-D DRAM roadmap that pushes sub-10 nm scaling for next-gen HBM and LPDDR, promising denser, cooler memory stacks for AI accelerators⁴.

Other developments

• Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei admitted Ascend chips trail U.S. rivals by “about one generation,” but touted cluster computing and compound-chip designs as work-arounds⁵.
• China began case-by-case reviews of rare-earth export licences, underscoring its 70 % share of global output and raising supply-chain anxiety⁶.
• Radar start-up aiRadar tapped Sivers Semiconductors for a 28 GHz beam-forming antenna module based on the TRX BF02 RFIC⁷⁸⁹.
• Japanese researchers demonstrated an ultra-compact 150 GHz phased-array transceiver module—a building block for 6 G back-haul and chip-to-chip radio links¹⁰.
• Apple confirmed macOS 26 “Tahoe” will be the last major release for Intel Macs, completing the transition to Apple Silicon¹¹¹².
• Taipei Times data show TSMC widened its foundry share to 67.6 % in Q1 even as smartphone orders softened¹³.
• Barron’s notes Qualcomm’s Alphawave buy is lifting the buyer’s share price as investors digest integration upside¹⁴.

Did you know? SK hynix’s new 4F² vertical‑gate DRAM architecture slashes cell area by ~30% and cuts reliance on costly EUV lithography—reducing EUV-related expenses by nearly 50%.

In-depth

1. Government & Corporate Policy

• London export-control talks

  • Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said discussions are “going well,” focusing on semiconductor licences and rare-earth swaps².
  • White House advisers hinted that some mature-node chip curbs could be relaxed if Beijing speeds magnet deliveries—but Nvidia’s Blackwell line is not on the table²³.

• H20 GPU ban stands

  • U.S. negotiators rejected China’s request to unblock Nvidia’s H20; TrendForce says license approvals remain at “effectively zero” since April³.
  • Chinese hyperscalers are pivoting to domestic Ascend clusters and rescheduled AI deployments.

• China’s rare-earth licence review

  • MOFCOM began case-by-case approvals on 7 June; TrendForce counts ten exporters now cleared, well short of industry demand⁶.
  • EU and U.S. downstream suppliers warn of mid-July inventory gaps for NdFeB magnets.

• Huawei’s strategic candor

  • Ren Zhengfei pegged Huawei’s chips “one generation behind,” yet claimed $25 billion annual R&D spend and interest in heterogeneous compound devices⁵.
  • He framed cluster computing and non-Moore scaling as paths around U.S. lithography restrictions.

2. Economics, Finance & Business Outlook

• TSMC’s May blow-out

  • Sales jumped to NT$236.2 bn (~US $7.4 bn), driven by stocking of 5-nm and 3-nm AI parts for Nvidia, Apple and AMD¹.
  • Management flagged “visibility through Q3” despite PC and handset softness.

• Foundry league-table shuffle

  • TrendForce’s Q1 scorecard shows TSMC at 67.6 % share; Samsung dropped to 7.7 % on consumer weakness, while SMIC eked out growth on subsidy-fuelled mature nodes¹³.
  • Analysts see pricing pressure on Samsung unless its 2-nm GAA ramp regains momentum.

• DRAM revenue picture

  • SK hynix’s HBM3e surge let it edge past Samsung to top spot in Q1 revenue (US $9.72 bn vs. Samsung’s US $9.1 bn)⁴.
  • TrendForce expects server DDR4 contract prices to rise another 18-23 % QoQ as suppliers wind down legacy lines.

• Qualcomm-Alphawave ripple effects

  • Barron’s reports QCOM shares up 3.4 % on deal optimism; analysts say Alphawave’s 2-nm UCIe IP will slot into Qualcomm’s next-gen AI CPU road-map¹⁴.

3. Technology & R&D

• SK hynix 4F VG & 3-D DRAM

  • CTO Cha Seon-Yong detailed vertical-gate cells and wafer-bonded 3-D DRAM to break density limits below 10 nm⁴.
  • The company targets mass production “early 2027” with a claimed 30 % energy cut versus today’s 1-alpha node.

• Ultra-compact 150 GHz radio module

  • A Science Tokyo/NICT team integrated an 8-element phased array and bi-active sub-harmonic mixer in a 20 mm × 8.4 mm AiP, slashing LO power via injection-locked tripling¹⁰.
  • Potential uses span 6 G fixed-wireless back-haul and chip-to-chip terabit links.

• Sivers 28 GHz antenna-in-module

  • The TRX BF02-based unit promises dual-use radar coverage for autonomous vehicles and defense, with deliveries slated for mid-2026⁷⁸⁹¹⁵.
  • Contract value was undisclosed but analysts peg similar mm-wave modules at ~US $15 m per design-win.

• Apple’s Intel sunset

  • macOS 26 “Tahoe” will support only a handful of late-2019/20 Intel Macs; macOS 27 goes Apple-Silicon-only, cementing ARM across the product line¹¹¹².
  • Developers have 12 months to transition high-performance plug-ins to M-series SoCs.

Footnotes