01. onsemi to cut 1,000 jobs worldwide, report says
According to reports, onsemi plans to lay off about 1,000 employees worldwide in order to streamline operations and reduce costs. In addition, the company has been struggling with a slow recovery in chip demand due to a weak electric vehicle market and excess inventory among customers.
onsemi said it will also consolidate nine sites and reallocate another 300 employees or ask them to relocate to another site.
According to onsemi’s annual report, as of December 31, 2023, the company had approximately 30,000 full-time employees.
onsemi expects to incur $65 million to $80 million in employment-related expenses in 2024 and 2025, with the process completed in 2025. onsemi plans to reinvest a portion of the savings into some business initiatives and opportunities.
02. Mature Process Foundry Prices Expected to Rise
The intense price competition among Chinese mature process foundries is nearing its end. According to a report from the Economic Daily News, it has indicated that Hua Hong Semiconductor, the second-largest foundry in China, plans to raise prices by 10% in the second half of the year.
This marks the end of a two-year decline in mature process foundry prices, signaling that the industry is emerging from its correction phase and moving towards a healthier path. Consequently, Taiwanese foundries specializing in mature processes, such as UMC, VIS, and PSMC, are also expected to see a rise in their prices, boosting their operations.
Reportedly, the industry sources believe that if the market for mature process foundries rebounds, UMC will be the primary beneficiary. As demand for consumer electronics and mobile phones picks up, related products such as OLED panel driver ICs, image signal processors (ISP), and WiFi chip will see improvements in inventory levels across the computer, consumer, and communication sectors, reaching healthier levels.
03. SK hynix to Kick off Mass Production for GDDR7 in Q4 2024
SK hynix, as the market leader in HBM, targets to begin mass production of its GDDR7 chips in the fourth quarter of 2024, the company said on 13th June.
In the meantime, Micron also announced the launch of its GDDR7 graphics memory at Computex, which is currently being sampled. According to AnandTech, Micron not only plans to start mass production for GDDR7 this year, but also aims to do so early enough for some customers to ship finished products by year-end, with major applications range from AI and gaming to high-performance computing.
Samsung, on the other hand, is the first among the Big Three to present its GDDR7 products. According to its press release, Samsung has completed development of the industry’s first GDDR7 DRAM in July, 2023, a 16-gigabit product, after its development of the industry’s first 24Gbps GDDR6 DRAM in 2022. According to AnandTech, Samsung is already sampling GDDR7 memory with the aim of launching it in 2024.
04. Samsung unveils plan to speed up delivery of AI chips
Samsung is establishing a new turnkey service for manufacturing AI chips. It will see all of its production processes brought together under one roof to ensure quicker delivery and keep up with the growing demand for AI chips.
At its annual Foundry Forum, Samsung revealed plans to adopt advanced foundry technology by 2027. The world’s biggest memory chip maker will offer a one-stop shop for AI chip manufacturing by combining its memory, foundry and packaging businesses.
According to the tech giant, merging the AI chip fabrication services will cut the total turnaround time for delivery by 20%, as it will also streamline supply chain management and reduce time to market.
05. Nokia and Foxconn to make 5G products in northern Vietnam
Vietnam Investment Review and VNExpress reported that Foxconn will start manufacturing Nokia’s 5G AirScale equipment, including the latest AirScale Massive MIMO radio products, under a new partnership. Production is set to begin in July, with plans to be ramped up in September 2024. The products will be sold in both domestic and international markets.