01. Global PC shipments down 28% year-over-year in the first quarter
Apr. 19, 2023, According to Counterpoint's latest report, global PC shipments in the first quarter of 2023 fell by 28% year-on-year, and annual shipments are expected to drop by more than 10%.
The report shows that in the first quarter of this year, global PC shipments were 56.7 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 28%, making it the lowest quarterly shipments in the past 10 years except for the disruption of production by the Covid-19 epidemic.
However, the report also predicts that PC inventory digestion is expected to end before the first half of 2023, and that the personal computer market will gradually recover in the second half of the second quarter of this year, and achieve strong growth in the second half of 2023.
02. Intel announces discontinuation of Bitcoin mining chips
Apr. 19, 2023, Intel recently issued a statement saying that it will stop the production of its Bitcoin mining chip Blockscale ASIC.
In the statement, Intel stated that it will no longer accept orders after October 20 this year, and the last batch of products will be shipped no later than April 20, 2024.
03. EU agrees $47 billion Chips Act
Apr. 19, 2023, According to Reuters, the European Union yesterday agreed a 43 billion euro ($47 billion) semiconductor industry plan in an effort to catch up with the U.S. and Asia.
04. Dell diversifies component supply chain at the request of customers
Apr. 19, 2023, Dell CEO Michael Dell said in an interview recently that in view of concerns about supply chain disruptions, customers have asked Dell to diversify the supply chain of components, and the company is focusing on sourcing components from outside China.
05. NVIDIA is reportedly slowing GeForce RTX 4070 production due to low sales
The GeForce RTX 4070 isn't selling well, with a new report outlining that NVIDIA has informed its partners that it plans to pause production for a month.
06. Seagate fined $300 million for shipping millions of HDDs to Huawei
Computing storage manufacturer Seagate has agreed to pay a $300 million penalty imposed by the US Department of Commerce (DOC) for shipping over $1.1 billion worth of hard disk drives to Huawei, violating export control restrictions.
An investigation by Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) determined that Seagate shipped 7.4 million hard drives to Huawei between August 2020 and September 2021 without obtaining an export license, despite a rule introduced in August 2020 that restricts sales to the Chinese company.
07. ARM is developing its own chip with the foundry
Apr. 23, 2023, According to insiders, ARM is working with foundries to develop its own chips and fuel the company's growth after an expected IPO later this year.
ARM is not directly involved in semiconductor development and production. However, ARM has now partnered with Samsung Foundry and TSMC to create some test chips, the main purpose of which is to familiarize software developers with new products, the insider said.