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War of GaN
Semiconductor Weekly - Business | Investing | Technology
Renesas competes acquisition of Transphorm
Agate Sensors winner of the 2024 Arm Flexible Access for Startups Contest
Renesas challenges Infineon in GaN Market with Transphorm acquisition
image credit: AFP
GaN on the spotlight! Renesas Electronics has finalized its $339 million acquisition of Transphorm, a leader in Gallium Nitride (GaN) power semiconductors, following the initial announcement in January.
In 2023, Transphorm reported revenues of $54.1 million and a net income loss of $6.3 million
“Transphorm is a company uniquely led by a seasoned team rooted in GaN power and with origins from the University of California at Santa Barbara”
Why GaN matters: GaN technology is critical due to its superior efficiency and performance compared to traditional silicon-based semiconductors.
GaN semiconductors offer higher power density, faster switching speeds, and improved thermal management
“It is ideal for applications in electric vehicles, renewable energy, data centers, and consumer electronics.”
Besides, Infineon Technologies completed the acquisition of GaN Systems for $830 million in March 2023.
Infineon's acquisition of GaN Systems added 450 GaN experts to Infineon's team and over 350 GaN patent families
What’s Next: The focus will be on integrating GaN technology across Renesas's product lines, enhancing performance, and reducing energy consumption.
Transphorm's expertise in GaN technology complements Renesas's existing strengths in microcontrollers and analog solution
Arm Technology announced the winner of the 2024 Arm Flexible Access for Startups Contest
image credit: Silicon Catalyst
Arm, in collaboration with Silicon Catalyst, announced the winners of the 2024 Arm Flexible Access for Startups Contest
The contest was a part of Arm Flexible Access for Startups program, which supports innovators and entrepreneurs in building the next generation of system-on-chip (SoC) solutions.
Agate Sensors from Finland winning first place and Smartkosh Technologies from India as the runner-up
Agate Sensors, focused on advanced hyper-spectral sensors for wearables and mobile devices, aims to revolutionize data accuracy and functionality in consumer electronics.
Smartkosh Technologies specializes in innovative battery management solutions, enhancing efficiency and longevity of battery systems across various applications.
“Arm technology is for everyone, and, through this contest, we are recognizing and supporting the next wave of innovators to grow their business and accelerate their SoC designs.”
he Arm Flexible Access for Startups program provides easy, open access to a vast range of proven IP throughout the product development process.
🚀 Funding & Deal
Qblox, based in Delft, Netherlands, which develops quantum control stacks, has raised €24.2 million in Series A funding led by Quantonation and InnovationQuarter, with participation from FORWARD.one, ECFG, and Rabobank.
C12 Quantum Electronics, a French quantum computing startup, has raised €18 million to stabilize qubits using carbon nanotubes. This round was led by Varsity Capital, EIC Fund, and Verve Ventures, with additional support from 360 Capital, Bpifrance, and BNP Paribas Développement.
Uniqconn, a South Korean startup developing next-generation wireless communication semiconductor solutions, has secured $7.8 million in Series A funding led by Doosan Investment, with participation from Hanwha Investment, SV Investment and L&S Venture Capital.
Wave Photonics, based in the UK, a startup working on light-based chips, has raised £4.5 million ($5.8 million) in a seed round led by Amadeus Capital Partners and IQ Capital.
Valens Semiconductor, based in Israel, has acquired Acroname, a US-based automation company, for $7.8 million. This acquisition aims to enhance Valens’ product offerings in industrial and automotive applications.
🧿 Industry on the Move
The global semiconductor fab capacity is projected to increase capacity by 6% in 2024 and 7% in 2025, reaching a record 33.7 million wafers per month. (Link)
The top five wafer fab equipment companies saw a 9% YoY revenue decline in Q1 2024, offset by a 33% increase in NAND and DRAM demand and a 116% rise in sales to China. (Link)
TSMC is exploring innovative chip packaging methods to support the AI industry's growth. (Link)
Organo, a supplier to TSMC, is seeing significant stock gains following increased demand and a successful business expansion. (Link)
NVIDIA has unveiled Nemotron-4, a platform for synthetic data generation and large language model (LLM) training. (Link)
Samsung's new AI-enabled laptop is facing software compatibility issues, affecting performance with certain applications like Fortnite. (Link)
BAE Systems and GlobalFoundries are partnering to enhance the supply of advanced chips for national security, focusing on GaN-on-silicon, silicon photonics, and advanced packaging technologies. (Link)
✈️ Across the Globe
🌎 North America
The U.S. is urging the Netherlands and Japan to further restrict the export of chipmaking equipment to China to limit its semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. (Link)
🌏 Asia
Japan is sending 200 engineers to the U.S. for AI chip training at Tenstorrent, highlighting collaboration between the two countries in advanced semiconductor technologies. (Link)
Micron is expanding its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) production with a pilot line in the U.S. and potential production in Malaysia to meet AI demand. (Link)
India and the U.S. have agreed to enhance cooperation on semiconductors and critical minerals, strengthening their strategic partnership in these key sectors. (Link)
Fujifilm has completed the construction of a new semiconductor plant in South Korea to expand its manufacturing capabilities. (Link)
🌏 Europe
🗼 In-Depth & Insights
“Here we are in year 23 of the cloud. And while 60% of the workload has moved to the cloud, over 80% of the data remains on-prem under the control of the enterprise, much of that underutilized in businesses today. That's what Gen AI is going to unlock. ”
“Building on recent progress in ML and hardware, a new wave of AI-native and AI-embedded startups is emerging—these companies either leverage AI/ML from the ground up or use it to augment their existing capabilities. Unfortunately, much of current data infrastructure and tooling is still not optimized for AI use cases.”
“The (what Intel hopes is a) feud between Intel and Nvidia has erupted at the highest level. Jensen Huang indicates that Moore’s law is overtaken by Accelerated Computing, and Pat Gelsinger retorts that Moore’s law is not dead.”
“It’s too early in the development of EUV free-electron lasers for rapidly expanding chipmakers to pay it much attention. But the KEK team is not alone in chasing the technology. A venture-backed startup xLight, in Palo Alto, Calif. is also among those chasing it.”
“The rapid progress of AI technology can be attributed to increasingly powerful hardware and software, particularly semiconductors, which have facilitated the development of generative AI and other innovations. Given Taiwan’s leadership in advanced manufacturing, particularly in chip production, the region may be best positioned to drive the expansion of AI.”
🗣️ Echoes of Wisdom
“I would choose Arm without a second of hesitation. I believe in the future of Arm that much.” - by Masayoshi Son, Softbank Group founder
“Since early 2023, the Group has signed more than ten direct contracts with semiconductor manufacturers” - by Dirk Große-Loheide, Head of Group Procurement in Volkswagen
📈 Chart of the Week
Claude 3.5 sonnet generating diagram of the chip fab process with the prompt “can you generate a diagram highlighting each key concept in a chip and chip fab?” (Link)
