July, August & September 2023
Headlines here cover tech news from the third quarter of 2023, focusing on semiconductors, and touching on wider critical minerals issues. Items covered include, for instance: Japan’s many moves towards building a domestic semiconductors industry; Singapore’s moves towards a home-grown semicon manufacturing base; India’s various steps towards semiconductor self-reliance; and more.
For Startup News Asia’s other editions, you should take a look at Asia’s tech news, daily, delivered via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, and our Indo-Pacific tech newsletters for a weekly email update on the region’s tech news.
Hit the links below for each month’s semiconductor and critical minerals news headlines, or scroll down for an all-in-one update on deep technology news from Q3 of 2023:
➤ Don’t miss Asia’s tech news daily & weekly ➤
September 2023 | August 2023 | July 2023
Australia’s semiconductor manufacturing moonshot: securing talent
Semiconductors: September 2023
CSIS: Japan seeks to revitalize its semiconductor industry
- d-Matrix raises $110M with AI-focused chips and management software, backed by Microsoft, Singapore’s Temasek and others
- AI chip firm SambaNova unveils new TSMC-manufactured semiconductor to run higher-level AI models at lower cost, specifically for large language models running enterprise applications
- Indonesia: Gov’t in August announced 47 critical minerals designated for strategic industry development
- Indonesia has proposed a critical minerals trade deal under the US Inflation Reduction Act, positioning for ‘green subsidies’
- Saudi Ma’aden mining firm and King Abdullah Uni of Science & Tech to co-invest in Lithium Infinity, a startup extracting lithium from unconventional sources including seawater
“In January, Ma’aden and KAUST Innovation Ventures Fund announced plans to invest $4 million and $2 million, respectively, into Lihytech.”
“Lihytech has patented a membrane-based lithium extraction technology developed by Professor Zhiping Lai at KAUST.”
- Australia and France ink agreement to boost cooperation on critical mineral supply chains, focusing on needs including in clean energy, medical and defence
- Ford US motor giant pauses work on $3.5BN Michigan factory set to make lithium iron phosphate batteries using tech and services provided by China’s CATL
- A brief look at growing ties between Japan and Canada in lithium technologies
- China: Researchers identify theoretical approach to produce 2D, one-atom-thick semiconductors, potentially a complement to current chip technologies
- Japan: Gov’t-backed Rapidus Corp hires over 200 in move to create cutting-edge chip foundry by 2027, potentially challenging Taiwan’s TSMC if successful
CSIS: Securing Semiconductor Supply Chains in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity
- China aims to lead RISC-V industry with Alibaba T-Head chip unit, VeriSilicon and 7 others forming patent alliance on the open-source architecture, challenging reliance on Intel and Arm
- Taiwan’s SemiCon 2023 Conference sees UK delegation explore opportunities and partnerships for trade, investment and R&D collaboration in Taiwan
- ‘Should chip funds go to chaebols or underdogs? In South Korea, the question has taken on partisan undertones.’
- Japan: Gov’t-backed Rapidus breaks ground on Hokkaido facility, aiming for 2nm chip wafer plant online by 2025, and with engineers now studying with IBM
“If Huawei is constructing facilities under names of other companies, as the Semiconductor Industry Association alleges, then it may be able to circumvent US government restrictions to indirectly purchase American chip-making equipment, according to Bloomberg.”
“The Chinese tech firm moved into chip production last year and was receiving an estimated $30bn (£23.7bn) in state funding from the government, the Washington-based Semiconductor Industry Association was quoted as saying by Bloomberg, adding that Huawei had acquired at least two existing plants and was building three others.”
“The US commerce department had added Huawei to its export control list in 2019 over security concerns. The company denies being a security risk.”
- Japan: ‘Rapidus envisions a chipmaking cluster spanning coast to coast, with easy access to multiple ports…’
- Singapore: GlobalFoundries opens $4BN, 23,000-square meter facility to meet projected semiconductor demand, manufacturing chips designed by global firms
- Taiwan: Toshiba-backed Photon Taiwan Fund invested in a projected 120MW solar power plant, aiming to generate ‘green energy’ for use by as-yet unnamed semiconductor manufacturer
- China: Nio electric vehicle firm launches its own smartphone, aiming for car systems integration for navigation and more, alongside announcing production of in-house auto semiconductors
Europe in the Crosshairs: PRC United Front Targets Semiconductor Sector
- Taiwan to establish overseas training centers under 10-year semiconductor innovation program, aiming to boost cooperation with countries on chip development and workforce skills
- Japanese public and private entities to develop Canada supply chains for EVs, encompassing mineral extraction and processing, and battery production, with Canadian gov’t support
- Indonesia’s Bababos gains $3M seed with platform connecting small SME manufacturers with the raw material suppliers, streamlining supply chains and consolidating processes
- Export-Import Bank of Korea inks MOU with Export Finance Australia to collaborate on stabilizing core mineral supply chains
“As per the agreement, if Korean companies invest in Australian minerals such as lithium and nickel used in batteries, both Korea Eximbank and EFA have agreed to provide joint financial support.”
“The two organizations also decided to intensify cooperation on projects such as hydrogen, renewable energy, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) initiatives, and infrastructure projects in India and the Pacific.”
- India: Taiwan’s Foxconn reportedly partnering Europe’s STMicro for new semiconductor facility in India, focusing on ‘larger’, established chipsets
- NVIDIA joins investment in Enfabrica, US firm working on networking chips more effectively for better utilization in artificial intelligence data centers
Assessing the Criticality of Minerals for India: Fact Sheets
- World-first AI-focused NR1 ‘server-on-a-chip’ delivered to TSMC production facility by NeuReality, following validation of chip design
- An overview of Japan and India’s growing semiconductor industry partnerships, with both nations pursuing tech self-reliance and innovation-driven growth
- South Korea: Panmnesia chip firm backed with IP on Compute Express Link tech which allows data center operators to pool devices including AI chips, processors and memory
- Germany’s Saxony state inks agreement with TSMC to train German students for semicon-related careers, adding to new $3.8BN TSMC factory announced for Dresden
Australian Strategic Policy Institute: AUKUS and critical minerals
- Taiwan set to deepen ties with Arizona and New Mexico with visit from state politicians
- Intel to launch laptop featuring AI data-handling chip features, running a local generative AI chatbot rather than cloud data services for computing
- Malaysia: Singapore’s GlobalFoundries chip-maker opens new facility in Penang, creating 300 roles supporting Singapore, US and European operations
- Taiwan: Foxconn joins $49M new funding to Kneron, US edge computing focused AI chip firm, part of Foxconn move to become both hardware and software integrator
“Through the latest fundraising, Kneron said it will continue to speed up its pace in the deployment of advanced AI, focusing on nano Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) solutions for automotive, in particular.”
“According to Kneron, the American start-up provides end-to-end integrated hardware and software solutions that enable on-device edge AI inferencing with launching the first edge AI chip supporting transformer neural networks, which underpins all GPT models, in 2021.”
- Japan: US Space Force may establish unit in Japan, expanding on Hawaii unit and subordinate unit in South Korea
- Indian Space Research Org’n and Amazon Web Services and India’s IN-SPACe partner for cloud computing resources, support and tools for startups and research via AWS Activate program
- Factories In Space, a resource focused on coverage of in-space manufacturing and the space economy
e-Conomy Southeast Asia 2023 report
Semiconductors: August 2023
- “An Open Alternative to Intel and ARM: What is RISC-V?”
- Qualcomm, NXP Semiconductors and others to form new company to speed development of RISC-V, open-source standard and chips architecture, in bid to challenge near-ubiquitous Arm chips tech
- China: Spacemit CPU startup completes Series A funding of ‘several hundred million RMB’ backed by Lenovo, with focus on RISC-V chips, open-source architecture seen as workaround to restricted Intel and Arm chips
“While US rules…slowed down China’s development of advanced chipmaking…they left largely untouched the country’s ability to use techniques older than 14-nm. That has led Chinese firms to construct new plants faster than anywhere else in the world.”
- South Korea: Seongnam city in Seoul launched Semiconductor Fabless Alliance in July with reps from semicon demand and supply firms, industry associations and academia
- China: State-run Nat’l Natural Science Foundation launches $6.4M program for chiplets tech, adding to country’s bid for semiconductor self-sufficiency
- “…telecom operators and network gear providers need to buy up to 6 chips from different suppliers such as Intel, Broadcom, NXP and Marvell… EdgeQ’s approach is to replace all those chips with one ‘system-on-a-chip.'”
- Taiwan: TSMC adds plan for next-gen 2-nm chips plant in southern city of Kaohsiung to existing plans for 2-nm facility in northern Hsinchu county, with possible 3rd plant for Taichung
“Baidu, ByteDance, Tencent & Alibaba have made orders worth $1BN to acquire about 100K A800 processors from [NVIDIA] to be delivered this year… further $4BN worth…to be delivered in 2024…”
- China: Xingji Meizu, smartphone/consumer-tech firm from Geely EV firm founder, to discontinue chip design and development business
- ICYMI: NVIDIA chipmaker unveils Grace Hopper ‘superchips’, part of the company’s AI-focused supercomputing platform built for large-scale generative AI workloads
- Taiwan: UK’s Crypto Quantique expands in Taiwan with quantum encryption tech for semiconductor and IoT spaces, partnering Andes Technology processor manufacturer
- China: State bodies including government-backed chip fund to invest $1.7BN in Shenzhen’s CR Micro wafer production firm in ongoing bid to boost tech capacity and independence
- Taiwan’s TSMC commits 3.5BN Euros to its first European facility in Germany, gaining heavy state support for what will be an $11BN plant
‘The European Commission will analyse the US ban on new US investment in China in sensitive technologies as the issue is also important to [EU] economic security…’
“The EU and Member States also have a common interest in preventing that our companies’ capital, expertise and knowledge fuel technological advances that enhance military and intelligence capabilities of actors who may use them to undermine international peace and security,” the spokesperson said.
- India: Foxconn to commence iPhone 15 production in Tamil Nadu prior to the device’s September launch, marking steps to mitigate China-related supply risks
- Taiwan: Arizona’s Moov Technologies, large-scale marketplace for used semiconductor equipment, to open new office in Taipei, building on secondary semicon market presence
Indo-Pacific Tech News, September 2023 edition
Semiconductors in July 2023
- Japan: Gov’t unveils $6.3BN deal to buy and privatize JSR Corp semiconductor materials giant, taking control of world leader in chipmaking compounds
- China & semiconductor self-sufficiency: “…advanced lithography machine is a significant chokepoint in China’s chipmaking capability. In this area, domestic substitution is currently less than 1%.”
- “You can find your way to banned semiconductors at, for example, various sprawling electronics markets in Shenzhen. Or you can go online — specifically to Douyin…or Xiaohongshu…”
- Singapore: An intro to Zero-Error Systems, making ‘hardened’, more reliable semiconductors for satellites and space use, EVs, autonomous vehicles and more
SemiCon Taiwan Conference – September 2023
- China: Huawei may return to 5G smartphone industry by year-end, using chips from its own semiconductor design tools and chipmaking from China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co
- China: Biren chip firm is considering Hong Kong IPO, seeking to capitalise on demand for its AI chips as an NVIDIA alternative, due to chip exports ban impact
- “…Intel Corp has brought its latest processor for…AI…applications to mainland China, where massive demand for…advanced chips has created a major under-the-counter trade for smuggled graphics processing units…”
“Foreign equipment is increasingly hard to come by so local chipmakers…buy more units of less-productive local offerings… Efficiency and profits take a hit but…statisticians log a rise in industrial production…”
- China: Sovereign chip strategy steps towards RISC-V, open-source architecture, aiming for RISC-V as default domestically, with Alibaba et al interested and over 1BN startup funding to date
- Singapore: Silicon Box opes $2BN, 73,000-square metre advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility to focus on ‘chiplets’ tech
- Taiwan’s Foxconn and Analog Devices, US semiconductor developer, ink MOU to develop digital car cockpits and battery management system
- ICYMI: US to partner gov’t of Panama to explore semiconductor supply chain under Int’l Tech Security & Innovation Fund, with possible later inclusion under CHIPS and Science Act
Mapping semiconductor supply chains – importance of the Indo-Pacific
- Japan: SBI Holdings financial services major to help Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp establish a factory in move to revive the country’s chip industry
- Chips in space, robotaxis, quantum software, embedded FPGAs and augmented reality feature in this look at 143 companies that raised $3.5 billion in June
- China: Denglin Technology secures funding from state-run China Internet Investment Fund for development of GPUs capable of similar use cases to NVIDIA chips
- Japan and United Arab Emirates to set framework to discuss possible UAE investment in semicon and battery plants in Japan, in medicine and space-tech, and fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia
- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp to invest near $3BN in advanced packaging facility in north of the country, citing boom in AI and multi-chip components as reasoning
- India: Taiwan’s Foxconn is in talks with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Japan’s TMH Group for tech and JV partnerships to start semiconductor fab units in India
The Escalating Global Risk Environment for Submarine Cables
Indo-Pacific TECH news
All-day tech news updates from across the broad – and increasingly strategically and technologically important – Indo-Pacific region, and across South and Southeast Asia:
- Indo-Pacific tech daily on Twitter
- Indo-Pacific tech daily on Facebook
- Indo-Pacific tech news on LinkedIn
Our mobile app is currently offline, due to the ongoing devolution of what was Twitter, now X.
We aim to have the app back online with a much-improved interface and broader functionality by the end of 2023.
World Economic Forum: Space Applications in Agriculture
Indo-Pacific TECH newsletter
Our weekly e-newsletters go out via Substack and LinkedIn, giving a one-glance grasp of the week’s technology news from the Indo-Pacific and South & Southeast Asia.
