June 24, 2025

Round-up

Highlights

1. Trump tariff plan meets a wall of opposition. A proposed 25 % duty on imported semiconductors drew more than 150 critical public comments—from Detroit automakers to crypto outfits—warning of higher costs and slower fab builds ¹.
2. Samsung finally restarts the Taylor, TX cleanroom. Construction resumed in Q2 and management now targets 2 nm tool move-in for 2026—two years behind its original promise but still the first advanced-node capacity planned on U.S. soil outside Intel ².
3. Legacy DRAM flips the script. Spot DDR4 16 Gb parts are selling for about US $12, nearly 2× the going DDR5 price—a first in memory-market history and a sudden windfall for inventory-rich Nanya Technology ³.

Other developments

• Fujitsu confirms Monaka 2 nm CPU at TSMC while courting Rapidus for supply-chain resilience ⁴
• Ambarella hires bankers to explore a sale after a 20 % share pop ⁵
• Eurasian Resources Group to mine gallium in Kazakhstan, challenging China’s near-monopoly ⁶
• NVIDIA’s venture arm closes its 80th AI–chip startup deal in 24 months ⁷
• Lam Research gets a fresh “overweight” with a higher target from Cantor Fitzgerald ⁸
• UBS sees inventories stabilizing across the semi stack, pointing to firmer H2 pricing ⁹
• Japan backs tech that slashes heavy-rare-earth use in motors and power devices ¹⁰
• Bruker ships its 15th InSight WLI metrology tool this year as advanced-packaging spend accelerates ¹¹

Did You Know? DDR4’s premium over DDR5 hasn’t happened since the latter debuted in 2021; TrendForce says tight legacy-node supply and last-time-buy deals are pushing Q3 contract prices up another 18-23 % ³.

In-depth

1 | Government & Corporate Policy

• Tariff backlash gains momentum ¹

  • Automakers, data-center operators and even boat makers argued the levy would “tax U.S. fabs before they open.”
  • Intel asked for an exemption on lithography scanners, noting they are imported but enable domestic manufacturing.

• Samsung-Taylor incentive reset ²

  • City officials trimmed tax breaks after repeated delays; Samsung now eyes late-2026 2 nm risk production.
  • Resumption is seen as a litmus test for Washington’s CHIPS Act grant timing.

• Fujitsu hedges with Rapidus ⁴

  • President Takahito Tokita said adding a second Japanese source for 2 nm “greatly de-risks” future AI server projects.
  • Honda is also weighing a stake, broadening political support for Rapidus’ pilot line in Hokkaido.

• Kazakhstan enters the gallium club ⁶

  • ERG will invest US $20 m to produce up to 15 t/yr by 2026, positioning the country as the No. 2 supplier after China.
  • Move follows Beijing’s December ban on gallium exports to the U.S. and tightens the West’s critical-minerals strategy.

2 | Economics, Finance & Business Outlook

• DDR4 price shocks ³

  • Spot 16 Gb chips hit US $12 (+4.3 % d/d), double DDR5; SK hynix and Micron are negotiating “last-time buys.”
  • TrendForce now forecasts PC DDR4 contract prices +13-18 % QoQ in Q2, vs 3-8 % previously.

• Ambarella shops itself ⁵

  • The edge-AI SoC maker (market cap ≈US $2.6 bn) has contacted both strategics and private equity.
  • Video-surveillance growth has cooled, but automotive ADAS design-wins make it an attractive tuck-in.

• NVIDIA’s venture blitz ⁷

  • 49 startup rounds in 2024 ballooned to 80 by mid-2025; stakes include OpenAI, xAI and wafer-scale newcomer Cerebras.
  • Strategy reinforces CUDA lock-in as rivals chase open-source ML stacks.

• Analysts turn constructive ⁸⁹

  • Cantor Fitzgerald raised Lam Research’s target on back-end demand for gate-all-around tooling.
  • UBS’ latest “Enhanced Semis” note cites inventory normalisation and early HBM2E shortages as tail-winds.

3 | Technology & R & D

• 2 nm CPU Monaka detailed ⁴

  • Arm-based design targets 2027 super-computers; successor chip will power Japan’s next exascale system with RIKEN.
  • Early prototypes tape-out on TSMC’s N2; Fujitsu hints Rapidus could take volume if yields mature.

• Taylor fab process flow finalised ²

  • Samsung’s roadmap pairs initial 3 nm GAA with 2 nm follow-on; first Exynos 2600 prototypes already in fab simulation.
  • Yield goal >50 % before full production ramp in early 2026.

• Shift-left verification goes mainstream ¹²

  • EE Times highlights early reliability checks that cut weeks off mixed-signal SoC schedules and slash respin risk.
  • Siemens EDA’s Insight Analyzer is cited as moving block-level power-domain audits “under an hour.”

• Fresh research threads ¹³

  • SemiEngineering’s roundup covers wafer-scale AI vs single-die GPUs, EUV resist chemistry and tabletop particle accelerators that promise 15× patterning throughput.
  • Papers point to heterogenous integration hurdles as a central 2025 theme.

Footnotes (raw Markdown)