Samsung Electronics is actively expanding into the artificial intelligence (AI) memory market by developing customized high bandwidth memory (HBM). The company revealed at the "Samsung Foundry Forum 2024" on July 9th that it is working with key clients such as AMD and Apple on customized collaborations. Samsung anticipates that the commercialization of its custom HBM will coincide with the mass production of HBM4, offering enhanced performance, power, and area (PPA) options that provide greater value compared to existing products.

The global Semiconductor industry reported a significant year-on-year increase of 19.3% in sales for May 2024, amounting to $49.1 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). The Americas market saw a substantial growth of 43.6%, while China and the Asia-Pacific region also experienced an increase of 24.2% and 13.8% respectively. However, Japan and Europe witnessed a decline of 5.8% and 9.6%. The SIA forecasts that the global Semiconductor industry sales will reach $611.2 billion in 2024 and are expected to climb further to $687.4 billion in 2025, setting a new historical record.

Samsung Electronics is reportedly set to develop and prepare for mass production of Fan-Out Wafer-Level Package with High-Performance Burn-in and Cooling Fan-Out (FOWLP-HPB-CFM) technology by the fourth quarter of 2024. This advancement aims to mitigate the overheating issues in mobile Application Processors (APs), potentially being integrated into the next generation of Exynos processors. The technology involves the addition of a component on the System on Chip (SoC) that acts as a thermal barrier or heat dissipation device, with a high thermal conductivity substrate (HPB) placed on top of the SoC, adjacent to the storage chip, functioning similarly to a heatsink. While this technique has been utilized in servers and PCs, its application in mobile devices has been relatively delayed due to form factor constraints.

Mo is used to improve the resistivity within the transistors, which allows more layers to be stacked in a NAND.

In a strategic move to bolster its Semiconductor business, SK Hynix has announced a substantial investment plan during its annual management strategy meeting. The company plans to invest approximately 103 trillion won (around $74.7 billion) over the next five years, with approximately 80% of this investment, equating to 82 trillion won (about $59.5 billion), allocated to high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other AI-related fields. This initiative is part of SK Hynix's broader strategy to enhance its competitiveness in the Semiconductor industry.

On July 1st, industry insiders revealed that Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology are all in the production phase of the fifth generation of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) products, specifically HBM3E. The three companies are locked in a fierce technological race. SK Hynix is currently leading in terms of production volume and supply, having started mass production of HBM3E in the second quarter. However, challenges in expanding HBM3E production capacity have emerged, with NVIDIA pressuring SK Hynix to increase supply. Micron Technology, despite its sales to NVIDIA amounting to $100 million from March to May, faces its own production challenges and profitability concerns. The industry anticipates Micron's plans for large-scale production and supply of HBM3E in the coming year, but a significant increase in supply within this year seems unlikely.

Tokyo Electron (TEL) President, Hiromitsu Kamihara, has unveiled a bold new mid-term development strategy that will see the company invest up to 1.5 trillion yen (approximately $10 billion) over the next five years, starting from 2025 to 2029. This represents an 80% increase in investment compared to the previous five-year plan. In addition, TEL plans to hire 10,000 new employees to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the rapid development of generative AI technology and the resurgence in capital expenditure in the storage industry. TEL's goal is to ascend to the top position among global Semiconductor equipment suppliers.

Kioxia, a prominent Semiconductor company, is reportedly preparing to submit its preliminary application for an initial public offering (IPO) to the Tokyo Stock Exchange with the aim of going public by the end of October. The decision to pursue an IPO comes as the Semiconductor market recovers and the company's performance rapidly improves, making it a favorable time for such a move.

Samsung Electronics is reportedly in the final stages of negotiations to secure up to 50 trillion won (approximately $3.6 billion) in loans from the state-owned Korea Development Bank (KDB) to finance the expansion of its chip production facilities in South Korea and overseas. This loan request is part of the government's low-interest loan program, which aims to bolster the domestic Semiconductor industry.

South Korea is set to invest 274.4 billion won, equivalent to approximately $200 million, in a national-level Semiconductor packaging technology research and development project. This strategic move aims to develop key technologies for high-performance, low-power chips necessary for artificial intelligence applications and to narrow the gap in the Semiconductor back-end process market where South Korea currently holds less than 10% of the market share.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have initiated tests on their memory Semiconductors for immersion cooling, a cutting-edge thermal management solution for servers and data centers, aiming to enhance performance and efficiency.

Samsung's chip-making equipment manufacturing subsidiary, Semes, has successfully developed an ArF-i (argon fluoride immersion) photoresist coater/developer, marking a significant step in reducing reliance on foreign suppliers and advancing the domestic Semiconductor industry.

SK hynix reported that the manufacturing yield of the 3D DRAM, stacked in five layers, recorded 56.1%.

Samsung Electronics is set to resume the foundational construction of its new Semiconductor factory, P5, in Pyeongtaek, as the Semiconductor industry begins to recover. The decision comes in response to the rapidly growing demand for storage Semiconductors, particularly driven by the AI boom. With the construction of P5 expected to provide significant production capacity for both memory and system Semiconductors, the factory's completion is anticipated to be in April 2027, subject to market conditions.

Micron Technology, a leading Semiconductor manufacturing company based in Boise, Idaho, USA, experienced a fire incident at its backend factory in Houli, Taiwan, on June 20th, 2024. According to reports from Taiwanese media, the fire broke out at 5:34 PM and was accompanied by gas leakage and white smoke. The local fire department arrived to find that the factory personnel had already extinguished the flames. Fortunately, there were no injuries reported, and the cause of the fire remains unclear.