Financial
• Intel has released plans to cut more than 15% of its global workforce, amounting to around 17 000 employees. The company also forecast Q3 revenue below market estimates, causing its shares to plummet by 20% in extended trade losing more than $24 billion in market value. Intel is currently lagging rivals in AI chips.
• The European Components Distribution (DMASS) reports lower revenue in Q2 2024. According to the report, distribution declined by 26,9% to €4,09 billion. Semiconductors accounted for the highest drop of 33,1%, while interconnect, passive and electromechanical declined by 12,9%. Within semiconductors, programmable logic had the largest decline, being almost 48,5% down. Hermann Reiter, chairman DMASS Europe, said, “Due to still high inventory levels and macro-economic uncertainties, a return to growth in 2024 for distribution is unlikely. As Europe does not benefit from the AI hype, but is highly dependent on industrial and automotive, we hope for the next EU commission to continue to support the digital, mobile and energy transformation laid out in the Fit-for-55 programme.”
• Shipments of high-end GPUs are expected to grow 55% in 2025, driven by NVIDIAs whose new GPUs are scheduled for release Q1 2025. Manufacturers of HBM memory are currently gearing up for the increase in production of these GPUs.
• According to TrendForce, the global demand for AI servers is predicted to drive the 2024 market value of this segment to $187 billion, representing 65% of the server market. Major players TSMC, SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron’s production expansion has significantly eased shortages in Q2, and consequently decreasing the lead time for NVIDIA’s flagship H100 from around 40 weeks to less than 16 weeks.
• According to Berg Insight, the revenue for global IoT connectivity revenues increased by 16% to reach €12,4 billion in 2023. The company forecasts that by 2028, the global installed base of IoT will reach six billion devices, generating an annual revenue of €21 billion. China Mobile is currently the largest provider of cellular IoT connectivity, with 1,32 billion connections. Two other Chinese telecom providers, China Telecom and China Unicom, are in second and third place. Vodafone, the highest ranked Western operator, is fourth overall with 184 million cellular IoT connections.
• The continued price decline for cathodes, coupled with falling prices for battery metals like cobalt, nickel, and copper, has led to a reduction in the cost of battery materials, and a slight drop in battery cell prices. TrendForce has reported that the price of EV cells decreased by 2% in July, compared to the previous month. There is still significant pressure on the price from the oversupply in China’s lithium carbonate market, with the price falling considerably during July to around ¥80 000. It is predicted that the lithium carbonate prices will continue to drop, and hit new lows during Q3 this year.
• A surge in demand for enterprise SSDs has led AI server customers to significantly increase their orders over the past two years. This has caused contract prices for enterprise SSDs to increase by over 80% from Q4 2023 to Q3 2024. These SSDs are crucial in AI development, where they primarily store model parameters.
Companies
• Total has pulled out of the Brulpadda and Luiperd gas projects off the south coast of SA, citing a lack of commercial viability. The French company went on to state that the discoveries were not big enough to warrant building a plant to liquify it for export. Total has spent $400 billion drilling off the coast of SA, and the Brulpadda gas field is estimated to hold one billion barrels of liquid hydrocarbons.
• The Competition Commission has given the go-ahead to Telkom for the sale of Swiftnet’s masts and towers to a business consortium made up of Actis and Royal Bafokeng, with 70% and 30% stakes respectively. In May, Telkom shareholders voted in favour of selling the Swiftnet business, which was valued at R6,75 billion.
• Cybersecurity specialist Exclusive Networks Africa announced the departure of long-serving managing director, Anton Jacobsz. He will remain a shareholder and continue to serve in an advisory capacity. Since January 2022, the company has a revenue growth of more than 160% and a profitability growth in excess of 230%.
• Acer Africa joined the Schoolscape 2024 conference as a sponsor, presenter, and exhibitor. The conference, which took place in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Gauteng, allowed visitors to network with educators, IT managers, edtech implementers, principals and heads of department, and finance teams. Besides networking, this premier education technology conference showcased the Acer for Education range which covers primary and high schools, colleges, universities, and labs.
Technologies
• Intel is currently facing a barrage of fury over a bug in its ‘Raptor Lake’ desktop CPU, causing some 13th- and 14th-gen processors to become unstable. The company has reported that the fault can be attributed to microcode which is causing the operating voltage to elevate slightly, with a resultant increase in power consumption and temperature. This increase in temperature for prolonged periods can cause permanent damage to the CPU. The following CPUs are exhibiting these traits: i9-14900KS, i9-14900K, i7-14700K, i9-13900KS, i9-13900K, and i7-13700K. The instability is causing irregular, but frequent crashes or blue screens.
• TrendForce has reported that the HBM capacity per single chip is increasing significantly with the latest version of AI chips. NVIDIA will be launching its Blackwell Ultra and its B200A platforms in 2025, and this will likely see the company’s HBM3e consumption increase to 60% for 2024, and to 85% next year. NVIDIA is currently the largest buyer in the standard HBM market, and it is predicted that they will hold a 70% in the market share of HBM memory with the launch of the new products next year.
• The increase in power consumption of data centres, mainly driven by NVIDIA’s Blackwell technology, is driving up the installation of liquid cooling systems, with penetration in data centres expected to reach 10% by the end of 2024. Although more costly, liquid cooling systems provide a more effective cooling solution, and is becoming necessary with the increase in heat generated by the new wave of AI-generation chips. However, there is currently much interest in the B200A, which will have a lower thermal design power (TDP) compared to the B200. This will allow the B200A to use air-cooling systems, bypassing the complexities with implementing liquid-cooling systems in data centres. The B200A will feature 4 HBM3e memory modules, with a total capacity of 144 GB.
• Tektronix has released an upgrade to its already impressive single-ended probe, which increases the length of cabling to 7 metres without any significant loss of signal integrity. This modification to the existing TAP1500 active probe addresses a critical need for engineers: the ability to perform automated tests with greater flexibility and safety. This allows the device under test to be in an inaccessible position, but still to be connected to the oscilloscope.
• Silicon Labs, together with Mouser and Arduino, have laid down a challenge to all budding engineers and technicians. Open to all skill levels, the Matter Challenge is a chance to inspire the Silicon Labs community by creating an incredible project using the Arduino Nano Matter Board. All participants will receive a Novel Bits three-month developer training course, while the winner will take home a prize of $500 credit to Mouser.com, recognition at Silicon Labs’ virtual WorksWith conference, and a pair of Bose headphones.
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