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Leaving TSMC, AMD joins Samsung as 4nm yield improved
As Samsung Electronics improved its 4nm process technology, major clients such as AMD started to join the Foundry. Reports say that the company’s 4nm yield is now close to 5nm-process levels, which is the latest process in chip production.
According to the info, the yield of the Samsung 4nm process has improved so rapidly that it is now close to the levels of the 5nm process. During a rare announcement, the chipmaker said that the next-generation 4nm process will provide more advanced yields.
Samsung has made significant improvements in raising the yield and production capacity altogether this year. The enhanced yield is comparable to that of TSMC, according to industry insiders. The yield improvement has helped the chipmaker to lure back its clients.
Industry sources say AMD (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.) and Samsung entered into a partnership as the US company chose the Korean chipmaker’s 4nm processor. Moreover, Samsung will also outsource the Tensor 3 chip for Google’s Pixel 8 series, using its third-generation 4nm process node.
AMD signed to use Samsung Foundry 4nm pic.twitter.com/FuWFJLpvjY
— Connor / 코너 / コナー (@OreXda) May 1, 2023
The South Korean tech giant is focusing on the production of 4nm chips, even as it kicked off the world’s first mass production of 3nm chips last month. However, Samsung struggled to ensure a high enough yield of the 4nm process at the early stage of production after the 2021 unveiling.
A new report reveals that Samsung will participate as an anchor investor for Arm’s upcoming IPO after taking a conservative approach to the matter due to a perceived overvaluation and regulatory risk.
Samsung opted to make an investment in the chip designer, joining a slew of other industry players including Apple, Nvidia and Intel. Amazon, which was earlier rumored to be participating in the IPO, decided to step out.
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It’s worth mentioning that the strategic investors have agreed to invest between $25 million and $100 million each. The specific amount for each company hasn’t been disclosed yet.
This means the offering price will come in between $47 and $51 per share. It makes Arm’s valuation between $50 billion and $55 billion, down from the initial estimation of $64 billion.
Arm’s IPO on Nasdaq, which is expected in September, is considered to be the biggest IPO deal of the year. The company controls a majority of the world’s application processor market, designing and licensing basic blueprints for chips.
Market research firm TrendForce published the latest report on their analysis. The agency disclosed that after global smartphone production dropped by nearly 20% year-on-year in the first quarter, production continued to decline by about 6.6% in the second quarter, to 270 million units.
In particular, the global smartphone production in the first half of 2023 was 520 million units, a 13.3% decline compared to the same period last year. Both individual quarters and the first half of the year in total set a ten-year low.
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TrendForce analysts pointed out that there are three reasons for the sluggish production performance:
- First, the lifting of epidemic prevention restrictions did not drive demand as expected;
- Secondly, the demographic dividend effect of the emerging Indian market has not effectively exerted its advantages;
- Thirdly, in 2022, brands will be deeply affected by excessive channel inventory. It was originally expected that as inventory is reduced, brands will return to production levels.
However, now affected by economic weakness, people’s consumption willingness is more conservative, resulting in poor production performance in the first half of the year. expected.
Second Quarter Market
In the second quarter, Samsung still topped the list, with Q2 output reaching 53.9 million units, a decrease of 12.4% from the previous quarter. The same period coincided with the replacement of old and new Apple models, with output of 42 million units, a decrease of 21.2% from the previous quarter.
Adding to this, the most obvious change in the smartphone market was Transsion (including TECNO, Infinix, and itel). Transsion surpassed vivo and entered fifth place in the world for the first time. Its output increased by more than 70% month-on-month to 25.1 million units.
Production
In addition to Samsung and Apple, Xiaomi (including Xiaomi, Redmi, and POCO) produced approximately 35 million units in the second quarter, an increase of 32.1% from the previous quarter.
OPPO (realme, and OnePlus included) produced about 33.6 million units in the second quarter, an increase of 25.4% from the previous quarter. Q3 is expected to have a growth rate of about 10-15%, closely following Xiaomi.
Samsung and SK Hynix are strengthening their foray into the GDDR (Graphic Double Data Rate (GDDR) market amid the global gaming surge. The companies appear to be preparing to lead the GDDR market while gaining technological advantage in next-generation products.
Recently, IGI (Industry Growth Insights) published its new report citing that the GDDR market will grow from $3.2 billion in 2018 to $4.8 billion in 2030 with an average annual growth rate of 7.6%. It’s predicted that high-performance GDDR like GDDR6 will record a double-digit growth rate every year.
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Samsung x GDDR
In July, Samsung Electronics developed GDDR7, the industry’s most advanced product, for the first time, and supplied samples to Nvidia for verification for next-generation system installation. SK Hynix also plans to complete GDDR7 development within this year.
On the other hand, Micron plans to introduce GDDR7 in the first half of next year, a step later. In this situation, Nvidia, the world’s largest customer in the GPU market, is known to preferentially review Samsung Electronics’ products instead of Micron’s next-generation products.