Supply chain trends in large Semiconductor industry
USA issued ban on AI chips, AMD and Nvidia’s GPU to be embargoed in the Chinese mainland
On January 13th, the US government announced to release new regulations on AI chip export control, stipulating the upper limit of the computing power of chips sold by American enterprises to most countries. At present, the temporary final rule has not yet come into effect, and related enterprises have a 120-day comment period. According to report, the detailed content of the document has been made public (for details, see the official website of the BIS) and was officially released on January 15 (local time). According to published document details, this provision not only involves the export control of hardware but also includes AI model weight into the scope of supervision for the first time. According to the new provision of the US government, related chips are exported to three groups of target countries.
The first group of countries includes the allies and partner countries and regions of the USA, such as Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea, UK, etc. These countries and regions can purchase advanced AI chips made in the US without any restrictions. The second group of countries includes more than 140 countries and regions such as Singapore, Mexico, India, Malaysia, Israel, United Arab Emirates. These countries and regions will face restriction of computing power that they can purchase. The third group includes about 22 countries and regions such as Belarus, Chinese mainland (including Hongkong and Macau), Iran, Russia, North Korea, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Syria, etc. These countries and regions will be almost completely banned from importing advanced AI processors from the USA. The rule also restricts transferring the model weight of advanced close-source large models to untrusted participants.
The global AI chip ban issued by the USA will cause a major impact on the world’s AI industry landscape. For Chinese mainland, the ban will directly limit China from obtaining advanced AI chips and related technology, which will affect the trainings and development of AI models, thus further delaying the development and applications of AI technology in China. However, this will also promote China to speed up its pace of independent development, which will in turn drive the development of homemade GUP and other chip technology. From a global perspective, this ban will aggravate the imbalance of AI technology development. At the same time, it will spur other countries to attach importance to technology independence and push the reshaping of the global scientific and technological landscape. In addition, the people from the scientific and technological field of the USA also have divergence on this ban, and some enterprises worry that this ban would damage the leadership of the USA in the global AI field.
Company Trend（January 14）
The power module assembly fab of Infineon Thailand started
According to report, Infineon Technologies AG announced that it has started constructing a new semiconductor backend production base in Samut Prakan in the south of Bangkok to produce power modules so as to optimize and diversify its manufacturing business.
It is learned that the first building will be put into operation in the beginning of 2026, but the company has not disclosed the expected capacity or technology level. Its further capacity will be flexibly adjusted according to market demands. This project has won the support of BOI of Thailand. With the demand of power modules driven by global decarbonization and climate protection, a highly automatic plant will play a key role in diversifying the business landscape of Infineon.
The CEO of Infineon said that the company is building the most advanced backend plant to match the expansion of its front end capacity so as to meet future customer demands and increase the resilience of its supply chain. The new back end plant will operate with high efficiency, high resilience and high quality to ensure that it can provide high quality products to customers in a reliable manner.
Infineon’s move of building a new power module in Thailand reflects its keen insights on the global trend and foresight on the strategic landscape. On the one side, with the world’s attention to decarbonization and climate protection, the demand of power modules will increase continuously, especially in the fields of industrial applications and renewable energy sources. Infineon, by building a new assembly plant in Thailand, can better meet the market demands and enhance its competitiveness in the global power module market. On the other hand, the plant will further optimize the manufacturing landscape of Infineon and improve the resilience and efficiency of its supply chain. In addition, Infineon also developed comprehensive training and education plans to enhance the local engineers’ capability in terms of AI, digitalization and automation, which will not only help the plant to operate efficiently but also promote the development of the semiconductor ecology of Thailand.
Company Trend（January 14）
Report says that Nvidia delayed delivering data-center AI chips again due to overheating of the rack with the latest Blackwell and failure in its interconnection.
Racks are used to hold chips, cables and other important devices. According to report, major customers of Nvidia including Microsoft, Amazon cloud computing sector, Google and Meta all cut their orders of Nvidia’s Blackwell GB200 racks and each of these orders reaches or exceeds USD10bn.
It is reported that some customers are waiting for racks of later versions or plan to purchase Nvidia’s AI chips of old versions. For example, Microsoft originally planned to install GB200 racks with at least 50,000 Blackwell chips in a facility located at Phoenix. However, due to the delay of delivery, Microsoft’s key partner OpenAI required Nvidia to provide last-gen chip Hopper. At present, it is not clear that how the orders cut by key accounts of Nvidia will affect Nvidia. The media said that Nvidia does not worry about buyers, and its GB200 server racks can be sold after troubleshooting. Nvidia CEO said in November that the company was expected to achieve revenue of billions of dollars by selling Blackwell chips in the fourth fiscal quarter, higher than its previous target.
The fact that Nvidia’s orders were cut this time shows that it adjusted its strategy to meet product demands and market trend. On the one hand, the production of Hopper GUP will be halted gradually and the demands of GB200A and GB300A and other new products fell short of expectations, which caused Nvidia to cut advanced packaging orders. This may be related to the fluctuation of demands of AI chips in the market and also be the rapid response of Nvidia to the market feedbacks in product iteration. On the other hand, Nvidia also required TSMC to covert CoWoS-S capacity into CoWoS-L capacity, showing its flexibility in adjusting product lines. Nevertheless, Morgan Stanley pointed out that the demand of CoWoS made by TSMC keeps stable in general while its output of GB300A will be increased slightly later this year. This shows that although there is order adjustment in a short term, the market still has a demand for AI chips and Nvidia still holds a firm leading position in the field of AI and the market.
Sanction upgraded! USA requires TSMC to subject customers to scrutiny and list all chips below 16 nm in export control
According to Bloomberg News, the USA planned to announce more controls on chips sold to Chinese mainland on Wednesday as the soonest just a few days prior to Biden's administration leaving office. However, the new sanction will target chip manufacturers including TSMC. According to Bloomberg by quoting from insiders that the new rule requires TSMC, Samsung, and Intel to examine customers more strictly and enhance due diligence. This is a measure to respond to the fact that the chips made by TSMC were secretly sold to H company in the black list.
The new rule will be published as early as Wednesday (US time) and it is a strengthening method based on the global semiconductor control measures issued by the Biden’s administration on Monday. The export control measures announced on this Monday restrict Nvidia and other high-end chip designers to sell AI chips to data centers of most countries.
Insiders disclosed to Bloomberg that the new rule provides that all 14 nm or 16 nm chips or smaller processes will be included in the global export control list, and only those licensed by the US government can be sold to Chinese mainland and other countries. Although the rule aims to find out any Chinese enterprise which manages to shun evade the chip export control by the USA, many chip manufacturers still have some channels to overcome such restrictions. The proposed rule is designed to help chip manufacturers to identify which design of customers will be subject to the US export control. These export control measures depend on the performance of processors, which will be determined by the number of transistors included by each chip.
The upgraded sanction by the USA will directly pose more difficulties to Chinese enterprises to obtain advanced AI chips in a short term, especially those enterprises relying on overseas chip foundry of TSMC, and their chip manufacturing plans will be blocked, which further impact the development and launch of their products. At the same time, the chip makers in Chinese mainland may face challenges of raw materials and equipment supply, for the US export control of chip making equipment may also indirectly affect the chip manufacturing industry of China.
In the long run, the US export control will in turn force Chinese chipmaking industry to speed up independent innovation and replace imported products with homemade products. On the one hand, Chinese enterprises will increase investment in R&D of chip making technology, try their best to improve their manufacturing ability and technology level and reduce dependence on overseas foundry. On the other hand, domestic chipmaking equipment and materials suppliers will usher in more development opportunities, thus advancing the localization process of the chipmaking industry chain.
Domestic News（January 13）
Hong Kong’s first world’s advanced third-gen 8-inch SiC wafer plant agreement signed
According to the official WeChat account of J2 Semiconductor (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. (J2 Semiconductor) officially signed MOU with FHKI. Both sides will carry out in-depth cooperation and work together to promote in-depth exchanges in terms of industry, technology and trade to provide strong support for J2 Semiconductor to build the first wafer fab in Hong Kong and jointly push forward the implementation of the new innovative technology industrialized project to achieve mass production rapidly.
It is learned that the total investment of J2 Semiconductor’s wafer plant project will be 6.9bn HK dollars (about RMB 6.5bn) and the plant is scheduled to officially start production in 2026. After reaching the capacity of 240,000 units of wafers, the plant will meet the demands of 1.5 million new energy vehicles. It is estimated that the output value of the plant will exceed 11bn HK dollars, and will also create more than 500 jobs for local society. The project will not only drive the new industrialization process of Hong Kong and the high-tech development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area but also make contributions to China’s carbon neutrality and carbon emission target. The Chairman of J2 Semiconductor said that the company’s goal is to build the world’s advanced third-gen SiC wafer plant in Hong Kong and build Greater Bay Area into a technology highland.
Domestic News（January 14）
Qingdao focuses on developing magnetic memory chips, advanced packaging and other technologies
According to the official WeChat account of Qingdao Release, on January 14th, the municipal press office held a press release conference titled “Qingdao works hard and takes the lead to assume responsibilities”. According to Gen Tao, deputy mayor and member of the Standing Committee of Qingdao, Qingdao will focus on 10+1 industries, of which there are 40 segmented areas in total.
During the conference, Qingdao will give priority to develop two leading industries, including the next-gen IT and AI technology, which play a role of strategic leadership. As a result, it is necessary to give priority to develop the two industries and improve their leading power. As for the new generation of IT, it is necessary to focus on the development of magnetic memory chips, advanced packaging, new display technology and other segmented technologies, create a highland of distinctive new generation of IT industry, and strive to expand the value of the IT industry to RMB200bn by 2027.
Secondly, it is necessary to seek breakthrough development of five emerging industries. They are the new pillars to lead and support the future development of industries, including life and health, intelligent networked new energy vehicles, low-altitude economy, green energy, and intelligent equipment. Therefore, it is necessary to seek breakthrough development and enhance support.
Domestic News（January 14）
AMEC to invest RMB3.05bn to build southwest headquarters in Chengdu
According to the news of SEMI, AMEC announced on the evening of January 14th that Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China (AMEC) plans to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary AMEC (Chengdu) Co., Ltd. In the high-tech park of Chengdu to build its R&D/production base and Southwest Headquarters. It is expected to start construction in 2025 and be put into operation in 2027.
According to the announcement, it is expected that during the period from 2025 to 2030, the total investment of the project will be about RMB3.05bn, mainly used for developing thin-film equipment. The project will build an R&D center, a manufacturing base, office buildings and ancillary facilities in the high-tech park, and it will be equipped with advanced automatic production lines and high-precision testing equipment to meet the demand of mass production. In addition, the project will focus on high-end logistics and storage chips and carry out R&D and production of chemical vapor deposition equipment, atomic layer deposition equipment and other key equipment. After the establishment of the project, it will enhance cooperation with universities and research institutes and push the integration of production units, universities and research units and promote the regional scientific innovation capability through joint R&D, innovative talent training and other forms.
It is learned that AMEC is one of the largest manufacturers of semiconductor itching equipment in China. The company has production and R&D bases in operation in Lingang, Shanghai and Nanchang, Jiangxi province. The first covers an area of 180,000 sq meters and the later 140,000 sq meters.
编辑 | 泓明数字营销部
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