Financial
• A new report from the IoT market research firm Berg Insight says that global IoT connectivity revenues increased 24% to reach €10,8 billion in 2022, as the decline in the global ARPU decelerated. The ARPU dropped just 1% to €0,38. On average, IoT connectivity revenues account for about 2% of total revenues for the largest mobile operator groups. By 2027, Berg Insight projects that there will be 5,3 billion IoT devices connected to cellular networks worldwide, generating annual connectivity revenues of €21,4 billion.
• In a positive news story for the automotive industry, it is reported that a substantial increase in demand for automotive panels is building. It is predicted that the shipment quantity for automotive panels will cross the 200 million mark in 2023, reaching an estimated 205 million units, a 5,1% YoY growth. The report further highlights that with the increasing usage of automotive panels, the growth of automotive panel driver ICs is stepping into the limelight. In particular, the application of Touch and Display Driver Integration (TDDI) in new designs is gradually rising, leading to a considerable increase in market share.
• TrendForce has reported that memory suppliers are boosting their production capacity in response to escalating orders from NVIDIA and CSPs for in-house designed chips. Forecasts indicate a huge increase of 105% in annual production by 2024, with the majority of capacity increase expected in Q2 2024. This increase is being driven by the rapid expansion in AI development, which is triggering substantial demand for AI training chips and thereby boosting HBM usage.
• Currently there is a shift in the primary demand in memory for AI applications from HBM2e to HBM3, with the anticipated demand ratio being 50% and 39% respectively. Demand in 2024, however, will shift drastically towards HBM3, with a forecasted share of 60% as an increasing number of HBM3-based chips hit the market. This will trigger a large increase in HBM revenue in 2024.
• Vertiv has reported second quarter net sales of $1,734 million, an increase of 24%, or $335 million compared to last year’s second quarter. This amounts to a 25% increase in net sales, which excludes the impact of foreign currency fluctuations. The company is embracing opportunities directly relating to AI.
• Coming amid relatively muted demand in the EV sector, the price of EV batteries remained stable, with lithium salt prices registering a marginal decline. The prices of EV ternary cells, LFP cells, and pouch ternary cells in July remained consistent with the prior month.
• The microLED market is being boosted by mass production of large displays and wearables. It is predicted that the market value of microLED chips will reach $27 million in 2023, resulting in a YoY growth of 92%. Big players in the market, like Samsung and LG Electronics, are taking advantage of the technology. TrendForce predicts that the market value of microLEDs will approach $580 million by 2027, an astounding 136% increase from 2022 to 2027. Wearables are a key application for microLED technology, with their exceptional brightness and low power consumption. AUO has successfully produced the world’s first 1,39-inch watch panel which is provides to various European and Japanese manufacturers.
Companies
TDK is now using electricity derived from 100% renewable energy in all its Japan manufacturing sites and is set to expand its efforts throughout its subsidiaries globally. This is in line with its goal of reaching 50% global renewable energy usage by 2025 and 100% usage by 2050, coinciding with the company’s 2050 net-zero environmental initiative.
• NIST has demonstrated a new primary standard for measuring ultralow pressures. This new approach, called CAVS for cold atom vacuum standard, can be used to perform intrinsically accurate measurements without first needing to calibrate reference pressure readings. Working with ultralow vacuum pressure is critical for semiconductor manufacturers as microchips need to be created in chambers completely devoid of atomic and molecular contaminants.
• The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has partnered with big xyt, a global independent provider of smart data and analytics solutions. The joint venture entails the formation of a new company: big xyt ecosystems. The new company will deliver the innovative Trade Explorer data analytics solution to global stock exchanges and its ecosystems. The service is delivered directly to end users through hosted web services, which supports rapid time to market and lower costs. It provides sophisticated analytics tools that enable users to understand market liquidity, quality and flows, market share, business concentration, execution performance, and tools for analysing trading patterns and for pre-trade decision support.
• FNB has won seven awards as South Africa and Africa’s best digital bank at the 2023 World’s Best Consumer Digital banks in Africa, hosted by Global Finance. The accolades recognise FNB’s leadership in areas such as the user experience of its digital interfaces, information security, and fraud prevention.
• South Africa has announced that it will prioritise the expansion of its grid over the next decade. Presently, the grid does not have the capacity to hold the amount of energy that is required for the country, even if that amount of energy could be generated. Upgrading the generation capacity without upgrading the transmission system would be a fruitless exercise.
• In its Q2 2023 earnings report (address), SiLabs also reported on business highlights for the first half of 2023:
• The new dual-band FG28 SoC, designed for long-range networks and protocols like Amazon Sidewalk and Wi-SUN was released. Included radios for sub-GHz and 2,4 GHz Bluetooth LE makes the SoC particularly attractive for edge applications.
• Registration for its fourth annual Works With Conference which will feature over 40 in-depth technical sessions, and which attracts over 8000 IoT developers every year, was opened.
• The grand opening of the Silicon Labs Connectivity Lab in Boston took place, which sees a simulation set of a modern smart home complete with a range of IoT devices, applications and networks.
• RMB Corvest consortium has invested in the South African manufacturing sector by partnering with Umoya Capital Partners and Calibre Capital to obtain a minority share in the business. M4A specialises in the manufacture of passive network infrastructure for use in the formation of fibre networks and bulk civil infrastructure. Items include small boundary boxes to large manholes to suit network distribution; various ducts which are suitable for the telecommunications networks industry, along with precast and prefabricated civil engineering solutions.
• ZTE has been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series for the eighth consecutive year. Created by the global index and data provider FTSE Russell, the FTSE4Good Index Series is designed to measure the performance of companies demonstrating strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices.
• Indium Corporation has started supplying high-quality, high-purity gallium acetylacetonate globally. Known as Ga(acac), it is an organometallic complex which has several applications in materials science, and is used in the manufacture of ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors for power electronics applications.
Technologies
• ULTRARAM startup Quinas Technology has been named Best of Show in the Most Innovative Flash Memory Startup category at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, USA. Invented by Prof. Manus Hayne from the Physics Department at Lancaster University, ULTRARAM combines the high performance of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) with the non-volatility of flash memory, something that up to now was widely believed to be unachievable. The technology has the ability to both store data for more than 1000 years (exceeding the capabilities of flash) and also to be read from and written to very quickly using lower energy than DRAM. ULTRARAM exploits the quantum-mechanical effect of resonant tunnelling, replacing the oxide tunnel barrier in flash with a triple-barrier resonant tunnelling structure. This eliminates flash’s deficiencies, allowing a floating-gate memory to operate at low voltage and high speed, with high endurance and unprecedented efficiency, but without compromising on non-volatility.
• According to research by TrendForce, the market’s dominant product for 2023 is High Bandwidth memory (HBM). HBM2e is employed by the NVIDIA A100/A800, AMD MI200, and most cloud service providers’ self-developed accelerator chips. As the demand for AI accelerator chips increases, manufacturers plan to introduce the new and faster HBM3e products in 2024. It is expected that HBM3 and HBM3e will become mainstream during the new year.
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