June 26, 2025

Samsung wins Qualcomm, Congress pushes chip tracking, Micron rides HBM surge

Round-up

Highlights

  1. Samsung lines up Qualcomm for 2 nm. A near-final foundry agreement would give Samsung’s next node a marquee anchor and builds on Tuesday’s restart of its delayed Taylor, TX logic fab (trendforce.com)1.
  2. Washington seeks “Chip LoJack.” Industry witnesses urged Congress to pass the Chip Security Act—mandating on-die location verification for export-controlled processors—to close loopholes in current China curbs (exportcompliancedaily.com)2.
  3. Micron’s HBM blitz lifts the entire memory stack. Record Q3 results and news that four top GPU/ASIC vendors have signed on for its next-gen HBM vaulted the stock and set a 24 % share goal for year-end (trendforce.com, reuters.com)34.

Other developments

  • SEMI projects a 69 % jump in sub-7 nm capacity by 2028, topping 1.4 M wpm (semi.org)
  • TSMC injects US $10 B into an overseas arm to hedge FX swings ahead of multi-site fabs (bloomberg.com)
  • Jefferies downgrades ASML and ASM International on customer cap-ex caution (seekingalpha.com)
  • Texas awards US $5.3 M TSIF grant to MGC Pure Chemicals for local ultrapure acids (einpresswire.com)
  • Chinese AI-chip unicorn Biren raises ¥1.5 B (~US $207 M) and files for a Hong Kong IPO (reuters.com)
  • Beijing threatens retaliation after Taiwan blacklists Huawei and SMIC (wccftech.com)
  • Blocks & Files leaks an aggressive roadmap through HBM8 with 64 TB/s bandwidth (blocksandfiles.com)

Did you know? If SEMI’s forecast is correct, wafer capacity at 2 nm and below will soar from <200 k wpm this year to >500 k wpm by 2028—2.5 × in just four years (semi.org).

In-depth

1 | Government & Corporate Policy

  • Chip Security Act heads to markup (exportcompliancedaily.com)2

    • Would embed GPS-like tags in export-controlled AI accelerators to prevent diversion.
    • Remote-access loopholes via offshore cloud providers also targeted.

  • Texas strengthens chemical supply chain (einpresswire.com)5

    • TSIF grant helps MGC Pure Chemicals triple HF and HCl purification capacity for advanced nodes.
    • Move answers tool OEM complaints about single-source acids.

  • Cross-strait tension rises over Huawei/SMIC blacklist (wccftech.com)6

    • Beijing promises “reciprocal measures,” raising risk for Taiwan fabs’ mainland customers.
    • Follows Monday’s export-license cancellations on 5 G base-station silicon.

  • Micron’s $100 B New York mega-fab clears key environmental step (fingerlakes1.com)7

    • Draft impact statement keeps first-tool timeline on track for late 2026.
    • State officials say bond funding could arrive before CHIPS Act incentives.

2 | Economics, Finance & Business Outlook

  • Micron’s blow-out quarter & HBM share goal (trendforce.com, reuters.com)34

    • 50 % jump in HBM revenue; targets 24 % market share by December.
    • Street lifted FY-25 EPS by 9 % overnight.

  • Biren raises war chest ahead of Hong Kong listing (reuters.com)8

    • Funds earmarked for a 3 nm AI-GPU tape-out at TSMC’s new Arizona fab.
    • Valuation exceeds US $4 B despite U.S. export hurdles.

  • TSMC’s US$10 B forex buffer (bloomberg.com)9

    • Capital injection into TSMC Global Ltd. cuts NT$ exposure as euro-zone and U.S. fabs ramp.
    • CFO notes every 1 % NT$ swing moves gross margin ±20 bps.

  • Equipment sentiment splits: Jefferies downgrades ASML & ASMI on EUV tool push-outs, while Micron rally lifts memory names (seekingalpha.com, reuters.com)104

3 | Technology & R&D

  • Samsung → Qualcomm 2 nm handshake (trendforce.com)1

    • Would be Samsung’s first external anchor at the gate-all-around node.
    • Follows Tuesday’s Taylor-fab restart noted in yesterday’s DCP; combined, the moves aim for 2026 risk production.

  • HBM roadmap races ahead (blocksandfiles.com)11

    • KAIST projects 64 TB/s bandwidth by HBM8 (2038) with embedded cooling.
    • Nvidia’s 2029 “Feynman” GPU slated for HBM5 adoption.

  • Secure chiplet architectures gain traction (semiengineering.com)12

    • Cadence & Secure-IC propose post-quantum crypto blocks for UCIe packages.
    • Automotive ADAS flagged as first high-volume target.

  • Thermal metrology for ultra-wide-bandgap devices (today.uconn.edu)13

    • UConn team demos UV thermoreflectance for GaN-on-diamond transistors.
    • Could unlock >200 °C operation for power electronics.

Footnotes

  1. https://www.trendforce.com/news/2025/06/26/news-samsung-nears-qualcomm-2nm-deal-as-foundry-recovery-gains-momentum/ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. https://exportcompliancedaily.com/article/2025/06/26/congress-urged-to-pass-two-bills-to-tighten-chip-export-controls-2506250027 ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. https://www.trendforce.com/news/2025/06/26/news-micron-scales-up-hbm-to-four-major-gpuasic-clients-targets-24-market-share-by-year-end/ ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. https://www.reuters.com/business/micron-shares-rise-bets-strong-demand-ai-related-memory-chips-2025-06-26/ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  5. https://www.einpresswire.com/article/825713503/governor-abbott-announces-texas-semiconductor-innovation-grant-to-mgc-pure-chemicals-america-inc ↩︎

  6. https://wccftech.com/china-to-retaliate-against-taiwan-decision-to-blacklist-huawei-and-smic/ ↩︎

  7. https://www.fingerlakes1.com/2025/06/26/micron-investment-environmental-impact-new-york/ ↩︎

  8. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-ai-chip-firm-biren-raises-new-funds-plans-hong-kong-ipo-say-sources-2025-06-26/ ↩︎

  9. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-25/tsmc-unit-to-issue-10-billion-of-stock-to-counter-forex-swings ↩︎

  10. https://seekingalpha.com/news/4462684-asml-asm-international-in-focus-as-jefferies-downgrades-on-spending-concerns ↩︎

  11. https://blocksandfiles.com/2025/06/26/four-more-hbm-generations/ ↩︎

  12. https://semiengineering.com/redefining-soc-design-the-shift-to-secure-chiplet-based-architectures/ ↩︎

  13. https://today.uconn.edu/2025/06/making-electronic-devices-faster-more-powerful-and-better-at-staying-cool/ ↩︎