Financial
• The top ten semiconductor foundries have reported a combined 1,1% quarterly revenue decline in Q2 2023. TSMC, the largest of the chipmaking companies, posted a Q2 revenue of $15,66 billion, limiting its decline to only 6,4%. Samsung’s foundry business, however, was the best performing during this period and reported an impressive return of $3,23 billion marking a QoQ increase of 17,3%.
• However, in response to a persistent decrease in demand for NAND Flash, Samsung has made the decision to cut production by 50% from September, with the focus of the cut mainly on processes under 128 layers. Other suppliers are expected to follow suit, which is likely to cause a slight increase in the average price of NAND Flash products. TrendForce predicts, however, that the demand for DRAM and NAND is expected to increase by 13% and 16% respectively in 2024.
• Strong cloud AI server demand has propelled NVIDIA’s Q2 2024 data centre business to surpass 76%. The company’s latest financial report reveals that its data centre business reached $10,32 billion, a QoQ growth of 141% and YoY growth of 171%. Key products include AI-accelerated GPUs and AI server HGX reference architecture, which serve as the foundational AI infrastructure for large data centres.
• Q2 2023 DRAM industry revenue has rebounded with a 20,4% quarterly increase. This has prompted speculation that the Q3 operating profit margin will turn from loss to gains. This is largely caused by the rising demand for AI servers which has driven growth in HBM shipments. Among HBM suppliers, SK Hynix saw a significant quarterly growth of over 35% in shipments, causing its Q2 revenue to increase by almost 50%, reaching $3,44 billion.
• STMicroelectronics also reported healthy Q2 2023 financial results with net revenues of $4,33 billion, gross margin of 49%, and operating margin of 26,5%, resulting in a net income of $1,00 billion. The company’s half-year results reported net revenues of $8,57 billion, with a net income of $2,05 billion. Business outlook for Q3 points to net revenues of $4,38 billion and a gross margin of 47,5%.
• The global enterprise SSD revenue has reached a new low in Q2 2023 at only $1,5 billion. This is largely due to the impact of high inflation and the economic downturn, forcing CSPs to adopt a more conservative strategy with regard to capital expenditure. In North America, clients have postponed mass production timelines for new server platforms, while ramping up development in AI servers. These factors have resulted in the orders for enterprise SSDs not meeting expectations. The drop in revenue is a QoQ decrease of 24,9%.
• EV battery prices have continued to drop in August by over 10%, although the market is predicted to stabilise in September. Insufficient downstream demand has put a damper on both supply and demand in the EV battery market segment.
Companies
• Samtec has once again won the Bishop and Associates ‘European Customer Survey of the Electronic Connector Industry’. This is the 12th time that Samtec has been ranked number one in Europe, and is a testimony to Samtec associates worldwide.
• MediaTek has announced that it has successfully developed its first chip using TSMC’s leading-edge 3 nm technology. The result uses MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity system-on-chip (SoC), and volume production is expected next year. This marks a significant milestone in the long-standing partnership between MediaTek and TSMC, with both companies taking full advantage of their strengths in chip design and manufacturing to jointly create another flagship SoC, with high performance and low power features.
• Ambiq has won the ‘Demo of the Year’ award at the 2023 TSMC Technology Symposium. The symposium gives startups in the semiconductor industry a chance to highlight their innovations and products as part of its Innovator Zone showcase. The live demo of the AI development for heart health, HeartKit, garnered the most attention, as it was a one of a kind for IoT products on show.
• MANCOSA is offering South Africa’s first postgraduate diploma in artificial intelligence. “This futuristic programme will address the shortage of AI skills in the country as employers are looking for employees who have deeply rooted tech skills and transferable skills in technology-based qualifications,” says Paresh Soni, director of the MANCOSA School of Information and Digital Technology.
• In a bizarre and controversial news story, to compensate for the temporary damage to the irreplaceable black heron habitat around Richards Bay, the energy generation company Karpowership has offered to donate a game farm to the government. The private Madaka Game Ranch, which borders Ithala Game Reserve, has been mentioned to help move forward the company’s bid to get its 540 MW Richards Bay power plant started. The details of the proposed deal were outlined in the environmental impact assessment, which was originally published in May.
• Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa, a business of Cassava Technologies, has secured two prestigious awards at GovTech 2023 – Africa Award and Digital Partnerships. These two awards recognise the work done by Liquid Intelligent Technologies in impacting the lives of Africans across the continent using ICT; while the second recognises the work done by Liquid through its YES4YOUTH IT Training programme. “We are honoured to be recognised for our efforts in both these areas, as Liquid has made substantial strides in making high-speed connectivity ubiquitous across the continent with its 110 000 km fibre network,” says Deon Geyser, CEO of Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa.
• Sindcon IoT Technology has chosen STMicroelectronics as collaboration partner on its new smart meter. The project will see Sindcon adding STM32WLE5 LoRaWAN wireless microcontrollers into its network of more than 50 000 water, gas and energy meters in Indonesia. The project will be Sindcon’s first deployment using the highly integrated STM32WLE5CC wireless MCU from ST, a sub-GHz wireless microcontroller featuring an Arm Cortex-M4 core operating at 48 MHz. The MCU contains 256 kbytes of Flash memory, 64 kbytes of SRAM, LoRa modulation, and AES 256-bit encryption.
Technologies
• According to new research conducted by Berg Insight, the global IoT communications market is growing at a steady pace. The global satellite IoT subscriber base grew to surpass 4,5 million in 2022. The number of satellite IoT subscribers will increase at a CAGR of 39,6% to reach 23,9 million units in 2027. According to Berg Insight, only about 10% of the Earth’s surface has access to terrestrial connectivity services, which leaves a massive opportunity for satellite IoT communications.
• The first phase of Eskom’s battery energy storage system (BESS), comprising arrays of lithium batteries, is expected to be finished in November 2023, only five months behind schedule, and will see 343 MWh of capacity added to the grid. Phase 2, which is expected to be finished by December 2024, will increase the capacity to 1449 MWh. The cost of the project, once completed, will be approximately R11 billion.
• Mouser has added Wurth Electronik’s WSEN-ISDN 6-axis IMU for drone and robotic applications to its extensive portfolio. The WSEN-ISDS IMU is a 16-bit digital ultra-low power and high-performance sensor featuring a three-axis accelerometer and a three-axis gyroscope, with selectable measuring ranges and data rates. This versatile motion sensor facilitates integration, with output and processed data pre-calibrated, for application-specific functionalities like localisation and navigation for robotics, drones, automation, industrial tools, machines, antenna, platform stabilisation, and IIoT devices.
• The global lithium production is predicted to reach 1,21 million tons in 2023. The US lithium producer Albemarle has the lion’s share, with currently 17% of the total market. Sticking with this theme, Australian mining company Liontown Resources, has announced that it has agreed to a buyout of $4,3 billion by the US lithium producer Albemarle Corp, in a move set to boost US lithium production and the country’s battery manufacturing bottom line. With this acquisition, Albemarle has secured the planet’s most abundant, high-quality, and cost-efficient reserves of lithium across regions in Chile, the US, and now Australia. The acquisition will see the company increasing its worldwide share to 23%, reaching 110 000 tons annually.
• Lithium, the backbone of modern technology and energy storage, is set to see its global demand skyrocket. In 2022 the number of lithium mining projects worldwide stood at around 40. This number is set to increase to more than 100 within the next two years in a bid to try to keep up with the insatiable demand created by the surge in renewable energy projects and the unstoppable move towards the electrification of vehicles.
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