Microchip Technology Inc yesterday said it has deepened its partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), eyeing the foundry giant’s 40-nanometer manufacturing capacity at its Japanese fabs.
Microchip, a supplier of microcontroller units based in Chandler, Arizona, said the wafer capacity at Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc (JASM) would improve its supply chain resilience and boost its ability to serve global customers regarding their automotive, industrial and networking applications.
JASM is TSMC’s 85 percent-owned manufacturing subsidiary in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Photo: Bloomberg
“Microchip’s reputation for providing responsible and reliable supply management is enhanced with this new TSMC manufacturing path,” Microchip senior vice president of worldwide manufacturing and technology Michael Finley said in a statement.
“Customers can have confidence when designing our products into their applications and platforms, with the support of resilient and robust manufacturing capabilities,” Finley said.
The partnership with TSMC would also ensure that customers have sufficient supply in the face of external factors such as frequently changing business conditions and natural disasters, Microchip said.
“This initiative with Microchip is further proof of TSMC’s commitment to supporting our customers’ long-term growth and innovation,” TSMC North America senior vice president of business management Rose Castanares said in the statement.
JASM’s first Kumamoto fab is scheduled to enter mass production in the fourth quarter, focusing on 40, 28, 16 and 12-nanometer chips.
The firm plans to begin construction of a second fab there by the end of this year to make advanced 6 and 7-nanometer chips.
The two Kumamoto fabs combined are expected to produce more than 100,000 12-inch equivalent wafers per month for automotive, industrial, consumer and high-performance computing applications.
SECOND-RATE: Models distilled from US products do not perform the same as the original and undo measures that ensure the systems are neutral, the US’ cable said The US Department of State has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it said are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek (深度求索), to steal intellectual property from US AI labs, according to a diplomatic cable. The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about “concerns over adversaries’ extraction and distillation of US AI models.” Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones to lower the costs of training a powerful new
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have repeatedly hit new highs, but an equity analyst said the stock’s valuation remains within a reasonable range and any pullback would likely be technical. The contract chipmaker’s historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has ranged between 20 and 30, Cathay Futures Consultant Co (國泰證期) analyst Tsai Ming-han (蔡明翰) told Central News Agency. With market consensus projecting that TSMC would post earnings per share of about NT$100 (US$3.17) this year, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and the stock currently trading at a P/E ratio of below 25, Tsai said the valuation
The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has triggered a seismic reshuffling of global equity markets, with Taiwan and South Korea muscling past European nations one by one. With its stock market now valued at nearly US$4.3 trillion, Taiwan surpassed the UK, Europe’s biggest market, earlier this month, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. South Korea is about US$140 billion away from doing the same. The tech-heavy Asian markets have shot past Germany and France in the past seven months. The shift is largely down to massive gains in shares of three companies that provide essential hardware for AI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電),