1 NXP plans to close several 8-inch wafer fabs and switch to 12-inch manufacturing

According to IT Home, citing Dutch media reports, NXP plans to close four 8-inch wafer fabs, one of which is located in Nijmegen, and the other three are in the United States. NXP plans to transition production to new 12-inch wafer fabs, which means lower fixed costs and manufacturing costs, which can bring higher profits.

NXP plans to close the above four wafer fabs in the next 10 years. The 12-inch wafer fab built in Singapore by it and the world's advanced joint venture VSMC will start mass production in 2027, and the joint venture form also reduces the risk of NXP's capacity construction.

2 Qualcomm plans to acquire Alphawave Semi to expand its network communications layout

Qualcomm announced on the 9th local time that it plans to acquire Alphawave Semi, with the aim of expanding Qualcomm's market share and influence in the fields of communications and network infrastructure, and further enhancing Qualcomm's competitiveness in emerging markets such as 5G, the Internet of Things, and data centers.

The transaction is worth $2.4 billion. By integrating Alphawave Semi's advanced technologies and products, Qualcomm will be able to provide customers with more comprehensive solutions to meet growing market demand.

Alphawave Semi is a global leader in high-speed wired connectivity and computing technology, providing IP, custom chips, connectivity products, and chiplets to achieve faster and more reliable data transmission with higher performance and lower power consumption. Alphawave Semi's products can be used in a wide range of high-growth applications, including data centers, artificial intelligence, data networks, and data storage.

3 The first quarter wafer foundry rankings are released, and TSMC remains the leader

According to Fast Technology, according to the latest survey by TrendForce, the global foundry industry revenue in the first quarter of 2025 was approximately US$36.4 billion, a decrease of approximately 5.4% month-on-month. Despite the pressure of the off-season, changes in the international situation have prompted some customers to stock up in advance and release urgent orders. In addition, China's continued "old for new" subsidy policy has effectively boosted demand and buffered the overall decline.

In terms of manufacturers, TSMC has maintained its leading position with US$25.5 billion in revenue and 67.6% market share, a decrease of 5% month-on-month. Samsung's revenue fell 11.3% month-on-month to US$2.89 billion, and its market share fell slightly to 7.7%. SMIC bucked the trend and grew 1.8%, with revenue of US$2.25 billion, ranking third. The fourth to tenth places are UMC, GlobalFoundries, Huahong Group, World Advanced, Tower Semiconductor, Hefei Jinghe, and Powerchip.

4 Samsung reaches cooperation with Infineon and NXP on car chips

According to the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, citing SamMobile, Samsung has reached a cooperation with Infineon and NXP to jointly develop the next generation of automotive chip solutions.

This cooperation will be based on Samsung's 5nm process, focusing on optimizing the co-design of memory and processors, and is committed to "enhancing the chip's security performance and real-time processing capabilities. Samsung is reportedly developing a highly integrated SoC solution for this field to achieve better energy efficiency.

5 OmniVision Group launches automotive-grade OMX2x4B series automotive-grade MCU products

On June 10, OmniVision Group announced the official launch of the new generation of OMX2xx series high-performance MCU products OMX2x4B.

OMX2x4B is the first product in the series. Compared with the OMX14x series, the OMX2x4B series uses a high-performance Arm Cortex-M7 core with a main frequency of 300MHz, and supports up to 4MB embedded Flash and 512KB SRAM. It supports A/B SWAP OTA, has an Evita Full-level HSM information security module, and 10/100M Ethernet.

The OMX2x4B series provides single-core, dual-core, and BGA196 and BGA257 packages for customers to choose from, suitable for use scenarios such as smart cockpits, body domain control, door controllers, thermal management, battery management, and front-view integrated machines.

6 Kioxia plans to double production within five years to meet AI data center needs

According to the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, Japanese NAND flash memory giant Kioxia announced its mid- to long-term business plan, aiming to double its production capacity by fiscal 2029 compared to fiscal 2024 by expanding its production lines at its Yokkaichi and Kitakami plants in Japan to meet the growing demand for NAND flash memory in artificial intelligence data centers. In addition, Kioxia plans to start producing next-generation memory in the second half of 2026.

7 Kioxia showcases new AI SSD, random read and write capabilities improved several times

According to Fast Technology, Kioxia recently demonstrated a new "AI SSD" that improves random performance to 10 million levels, which is three or four times the current level. Kioxia AI SSD uses a new main controller that is specially optimized to improve randomness, which can exceed 10 million at 512B, allowing the GPU to access data efficiently and maintain 100% utilization at all times.

In terms of flash memory, Kioxia AI SSD uses XL flash memory based on single-layer SLC, with a read latency of only 3-5 milliseconds, while traditional 3D TLC/QLC flash memory can only achieve 40-10 milliseconds. Kioxia expects that AI SSD will be available in the second half of 2026.

8 TSMC's plans to build new plants in Japan and Germany may be adjusted

According to Digitimes quoted by the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, TSMC Chairman Wei Zhejia recently said that the construction of TSMC's second plant in Kumamoto, Japan was indeed delayed, but the main reason was "traffic congestion".

The supply chain revealed that due to the squeeze of funds and manpower, and the assessment of the order status of local customers, the current capacity utilization rate of TSMC's Kumamoto Plant 1 in Japan has not yet reached the standard, and the construction of the German plant and subsequent machine delivery plans are also expected to be adjusted. Overall, the current auto market in Japan and Europe is not good, which is lower than TSMC's previous expectations.