01. Global Semiconductor Sales Increased 20.7% Year-to-Year in November
Jan. 7, 2025—The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced that global semiconductor sales hit $57.8 billion during the month of November 2024, an increase of 20.7% compared to the November 2023 total of $47.9 billion and 1.6% more than the October 2024 total of $56.9 billion. Monthly sales are compiled by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization and represent a three-month moving average. SIA represents 99% of the U.S. semiconductor industry by revenue and nearly two-thirds of non-U.S. chip firms.
“The global semiconductor market continued to grow substantially in November, hitting its highest-ever monthly sales total as month-to-month sales increased for the eighth consecutive month,” said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “Year-to-year sales increased by more than 20% for the fourth consecutive month, driven by a 54.9% year-to-year sales increase into the Americas.”
02. Solidigm Halts Consumer SSD Production
Solidigm has officially discontinued its P44 Pro and P41 Plus solid-state drives (SSDs), marking its complete withdrawal from the consumer SSD market. These were the only consumer SSDs released under the Solidigm brand since the company's formation. The company has also removed all consumer drive listings from its website, which now focuses entirely on data center and enterprise storage solutions.
Solidigm's decision follows the dissolution of its consumer SSD division in October 2023 and the redirection of resources to the more profitable enterprise SSD market. The consumer SSD market has been challenging, with oversupply leading to lower prices and shrinking profit margins.
Solidigm will now focus on data center SSDs, particularly high-capacity drives for artificial intelligence applications, where it has become a leader.
03. Samsung's Q4 Profits Lag Due to Weak Memory Demand and Price Drops
Samsung Electronics reported a Q4 2024 operating profit of about 6.5 trillion won ($4.4 billion), well below analysts' initial $5.8 billion estimate. This is a sharp drop from the August forecast of $8.2 billion as market expectations fell with worsening conditions. Some South Korean analysts think Samsung might be in a cyclical trough, while others warn semiconductor market challenges could last into 2025's first half. With China's older DRAM supplies set to rise over 50% this year, competition in the commodity DRAM market may intensify, possibly worsening Samsung's losses.
04. LG Electronics Partners with Microsoft to Advance AI Solutions
On January 6, 2025, LG Electronics announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft at the LG World Premiere event ahead of CES 2025 in Las Vegas. The collaboration aims to develop AI agents for various spaces, including homes, vehicles, hotels, and offices. LG plans to leverage Microsoft's AI technology and data from its diverse product ecosystem to enhance user experiences in these spaces. LG has already integrated Microsoft's voice recognition and synthesis technologies into its mobile AI home center, the Q9, enabling smooth customer interactions and the ability to recognize different accents, pronunciations, and colloquial expressions. The two companies plan to co-develop AI agents that can understand, interact with, and predict user needs and preferences.
05. Apple's 3nm TSMC Wafer Costs skyrocketed to $18,000, Over Three Times Since the 28nm A7 Chip
The cost of advancing manufacturing processes for Apple's A-series chips, which power iPhones and iPads, is rising sharply with each new development by TSMC. A recent analysis highlights the increasing wafer prices and the diminishing transistor density gains faced by Apple.
Back in 2013, with the A7, Apple's first 64-bit chip built on TSMC's 28nm process, those 28nm wafers cost Apple $5,000 each, according to supply chain sources cited by Creative Strategies CEO Ben Bajarin. These wafers integrated a billion transistors into the A7's dual-core CPU and quad-cluster GPU.
Today, the wafers for Apple's latest A18 Pro chips now cost $18,000 each – over 3.5 times the price of the A7's wafers. This represents a staggering increase in cost per square millimeter, from $0.07 on 28nm to $0.25 on 3nm.
06. ASUS and Acer's Impressive 2024 Revenue, with ASUS Benefiting from Over 20% AI Server Growth
Economic Daily reported on January 10th that the PC industry's 2024 recovery was sluggish, yet both Acer and ASUS resumed growth, with annual revenues up 9.7% and 21.49% respectively. ASUS's December group revenue was 47.411 billion yuan, down 14.5% month-on-month but up 35.9% year-on-year; Q4 revenue was 152.799 billion yuan, down 8.26% quarter-on-quarter but up 27.16% year-on-year; full-year revenue was 585.962 billion yuan, up 21.49% year-on-year. At CES 2025, ASUS unveiled new products like gaming laptops and AI PCs with new GPUs, including the world's lightest Copilot+ PC, the "Zenbook A14", featuring Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X series processor, set for Q1 release.
Acer's December consolidated revenue was 24.553 billion yuan, up 7.9% month-on-month and 3.7% year-on-year; Q4 revenue was 66.122 billion yuan, down 9% quarter-on-quarter but up 4.7% year-on-year; full-year revenue was 264.708 billion yuan, up 9.7% year-on-year. Revenue from Acer's non-computer and monitor businesses accounted for 29.3% of Q4 and 28.3% of full-year revenue, with respective annual growths of 14.2% and 15.5%. Notable new businesses include Antus Technology and Acer Intelligent, excelling in AI servers and intelligent services.