01. Mobile Processor Prices Surge Significantly, 2nm Process Up by 50%
Currently, the mobile processor market is experiencing a significant wave of price increases. The A19 chip in Apple's iPhone 17 series, as well as the latest flagship processors from Qualcomm and MediaTek, all use TSMC's 3nm N3P process, which has seen a price increase of about 20% compared to the previous generation. Supply chain reports show that the prices of Qualcomm and MediaTek's last-generation 3nm flagship chips have risen by 16% to 24%.
Next year, mobile chips will enter the 2nm era. TSMC's 2nm process will see a minimum price increase of 50% compared to the 3nm process. The initial products will mainly be AI and high-performance computing chips. However, by the end of next year, mobile chips will be mass-produced in succession, with flagship chip prices potentially reaching $280 per unit.
02. South Korea's Exports Rely Heavily on Semiconductors, Structural Imbalance Worsens
In the first eight months of this year, South Korea's export value reached $453.827 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.87%. Among them, semiconductor exports amounted to $104.294 billion, up 15.7% year-on-year and accounting for 23.0% of total exports. The growth in semiconductor exports was mainly due to the increase in prices of DRAM and NAND products and the increased demand for AI products such as HBM.
However, apart from semiconductors, the performance of South Korea's other major export products was poor. Exports of chemicals, automotive parts, machinery, and steel declined by 8.0%, 5.6%, 5.0%, and 3.8%, respectively. If semiconductors are excluded, South Korea's export value from January to August was $349.533 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 2.8%.
03. Nexperia Launches 100V Automotive MOSFETs for 48V Automotive Systems
On September 17, STMicroelectronics announced that it would not lay off workers at its Agrate plant in northern Italy. Previously, the company had raised concerns among unions about the potential loss of about 1,200 jobs due to challenges faced by the global semiconductor industry. Italian Industry Minister Adolfo Urso also clearly stated that mass layoffs at the plant were "unacceptable." STMicroelectronics negotiated with the Italian government and unions and ultimately decided not to lay off workers and launched an industrial reboot plan. The company also confirmed that it may expand the Agrate plant after 2027, depending on market conditions and feasibility studies.
04. Samsung Expected to Capture Over 30% of HBM Market Share by 2025
On September 26, according to Counterpoint Research, Samsung Electronics is expected to capture over 30% of the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market share by 2026. In the second quarter of 2025, SK Hynix led with a 62% market share, Micron Technology had 21%, and Samsung Electronics had 17%. With Samsung's HBM3E obtaining key customer certifications and HBM4 entering NVIDIA's supply chain, its market position is expected to strengthen.
Samsung has already completed the development of HBM4 based on the 10-nanometer-class sixth-generation (1c) DRAM process in early 2025 and has delivered samples to customers, planning to start mass production by the end of the year. The chip offers a 40% improvement in energy efficiency and a data transfer rate of up to 11Gbps. To support production, Samsung has resumed construction of its Pyeongtaek No. 5 factory.
05. Intelligent Warehouse Robots to Enter Scaling Stage from 2025 to 2030
On September 23, the Economic Daily reported that the expansion of the global e-commerce scale and the increase in logistics demand are driving the rapid growth of the intelligent warehouse robot market. Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) have become the core equipment for warehouse automation. DIGITIMES estimates that the market size will grow from $2 billion in 2019 to $22 billion in 2030, with an average annual compound growth rate (CAGR) of 24.36%. Taiwanese companies have competitive advantages in the supply chain and are transitioning from component suppliers to solution providers.
06. NVIDIA's Big Investment, High GPU Purchases Raise AI Bubble Concerns
On September 24, Bloomberg reported that U.S.-based NVIDIA has reached a strategic partnership with U.S.-based OpenAI, the developer of conversational AI ChatGPT, to jointly build a next-generation AI data center with 10 gigawatts of computing power.
On September 22, NVIDIA announced that it will invest up to $100 billion (about 14.8 trillion yen) in OpenAI to support its use of NVIDIA's advanced semiconductors to build large-scale data centers for the development and operation of next-generation AI.