Semiconductor Weekly | 20231011

1. According to reports from Yonhap News Agency and CCTV News Client on October 9, the South Korean President’s Office announced on Monday that the U.S. government has finally made a decision to indefinitely extend the exemption period for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix’s factories in China to import U.S. chip equipment. In other words, without separate approval, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix can supply semiconductor equipment containing US technology to their factories in China at will.


2. ChosunBiz reported on October 9 that industry analysts said that the yield rate of Samsung Electronics and TSMC’s 3nm process is currently around 50%. The industry believes that although Samsung has taken the lead in mass production of its 3nm all-gate technology (GAA), its output is not enough to influence large customers. A person familiar with Samsung revealed that to win orders for 3nm mobile chips from major customers such as Qualcomm next year, the yield rate needs to be increased to at least 70%.


3. Yonhap News Agency reported on October 11 that Samsung Electronics announced its third quarter 2023 performance forecast on Wednesday. Data show that the company's Q3 sales were 67 trillion won (approximately RMB 365.15 billion), down 13% year-on-year; operating profit was 2.40 trillion won (approximately RMB 13.08 billion), down 78% year-on-year. Performance was better than expected.


4. SemiAnalysis reported on October 11 that Nvidia recently updated its investor PPT presentation to include Nvidia’s strategy for establishing a dominant position in the data center market. Among them, the roadmap shows that Nvidia plans to update the data center GPU architecture every year, and is expected to launch the Hopper GH200 GPU in 2024, the Blackwell-based GB200 GPU in 2024-2025, and the GX200 GPU after 2025.


5. Taiwan Economic Daily reported on October 11 that there are rumors in the industry that TSMC’s six major AI customer groups will increase their demand for film production next year. The proportion of TSMC’s AI orders in 2024 is expected to significantly increase by about 6% compared with this year, reaching a record high. These six major AI customer groups include Nvidia, AMD, Tesla, Apple, Intel, and major international manufacturers that develop their own AI chips and invest in TSMC.