Daily: New Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan; Huawei competes w Nvidia; Nvidia FT Film
4.5 min read.
Highlights
New Intel CEO. Lip-Bu Tan, who used to be the CEO of Cadence, is the new CEO of Intel. He signalled that he would stick with Pat Gelsinger’s previous plan of keeping Intel Foundry and working to make it good. Intel stock jumped 11%.
I wonder how the TSMC JV plan that has been discussed over the past month will fit into Tan’s strategy of keeping Intel Foundry.
Tan is also on the board of SoftBank, so there may be a Masayoshi Son angle to this. Son is on a tear for more pieces of the semiconductor pie.
Huawei competes with Nvidia. Huawei’s Ascend 910C is allegedly a viable contender to Nvidia’s H100 in China. It is built on 7nm and recent reporting suggests that yield rate has risen to ~40%, which is still low but borderline profitable. Interesting to see how China’s advanced semi industry develops from here.
Nvidia FT Film. Something fun: FT released a short documentary film on Nvidia.
Thanks for reading.
1. Policy and Geopolitics
2. Economy, Finance, and Business
2.1
NYT (03/13): Intel Names New Chief Executive Amid Turnaround Efforts
Intel, a fallen Silicon Valley icon trying to restore its reputation as America’s most prominent semiconductor company, has named Lip-Bu Tan, an experienced business and technology leader, as its new chief executive.
Mr. Tan, 65, will be responsible for reviving the fortunes of a chip-making company that has fallen from grace. Once one of the best-known names in technology, the semiconductor giant has been hobbled in recent years by its struggles to innovate and failure to claim a share of the market for chips used in smartphones and artificial intelligence.
Now, it will be up to Mr. Tan to direct Intel’s future. The company is one of the last in the world that still both designs and manufactures semiconductors. Its former board members and others in the industry have been calling for the company to split those businesses apart.
Investors reacted positively to Mr. Tan’s appointment, causing Intel’s stock price to jump more than 11 percent in aftermarket trading.
2.2
Bloomberg (03/13): Intel CEO Signals That He’ll Stick With Contentious Foundry Plan
Incoming Intel Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan is signaling that he’ll stick with his predecessor’s plan to make chips for other companies, even as he vows to learn from past mistakes.
Tan, who was named to the CEO job on Wednesday, sent a letter to employees before meeting with staff in the afternoon, offering a rough sketch of his plans for the embattled chipmaker. Part of the message: He will keep working to make Intel a top foundry — a business that produces chips for outside clients. That endeavor has been costly for Intel so far, and contributed to the ouster of prior CEO Pat Gelsinger.
2.3
SCMP (03/12): China’s Naura climbs the ranks of world’s top chipmaking equipment suppliers
Naura Technology Group climbed up in the rankings of the world’s biggest semiconductor equipment suppliers in 2024, as China’s leading chip tool maker braced for tighter US tech restrictions.
Beijing-based Naura was ranked sixth among global chipmaking equipment suppliers by revenue last year, up from eighth place in 2023 when it cracked the industry’s top-10 leaderboard for the first time, according to a report last week by Chinese semiconductor research firm CINNO.
The state-backed company, which is expected to post about a 40 per cent increase in 2024 sales, was the only Chinese firm among the world’s top-10 chipmaking equipment vendors, according to CINNO data. Dutch giant ASML Holding topped the table, followed by US companies Applied Materials and Lam Research.
2.4
FT (03/13): Nvidia's rise in the age of AI | FT Film
Nvidia's dominance in the AI boom has made the US chipmaker one of the world's most valuable companies. FT reporters unpick the fallout following the release of China's DeepSeek AI model and examine the geopolitical challenges facing the Silicon Valley company
3. Technology
3.1
FT (03/12): Amazon, Google and Meta support tripling of nuclear capacity by 2050
Amazon, Google and Meta have joined a call by big, energy-intensive companies for governments and utilities to build more nuclear power in the latest boost to the industry’s revival.
Oil group Occidental and chemical producer Dow are also among the eight large buyers of energy to sign a pledge to support the goal of tripling nuclear capacity by 2050. The statement was co-ordinated by the World Nuclear Association, an advocacy group for the sector.
The show of support follows a similar pledge in September by 14 of the world’s biggest financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Barclays and Morgan Stanley, to increase their support for the sector and back a call made at the COP28 UN climate conference for nuclear power to be tripled by 2050.
3.2
TrendForce (03/13): Huawei’s Ascend 910C Takes on NVIDIA as China’s AI Race Heats Up: More Alleged Details
As the emergence of DeepSeek, with its low-budget AI models, sent shock waves across China’s AI market, the rising demand for computing power has found a strong ally in Huawei. According to Wccftech, Huawei’s upcoming Ascend 910C is set to heat up competition, and could be a serious contender to NVIDIA’s H100 in China.
The report highlights that Ascend 910C is gearing up for launch, with production underway and key details emerging. Notably, Wccftech suggests the chip is built on 7nm from both TSMC and SMIC, adding that the Chinese tech conglomerate secured large 7nm orders from TSMC before export restrictions, with the Taiwanese foundry giant handling most of the production.
However, the report also notes that China’s top foundry SMIC, with a monthly output of 50,000 wafers, is also expected to contribute, supporting Huawei’s goal of shipping millions of AI chips.
3.3
TrendForce (03/13): NVIDIA Reportedly Visits Samsung for Final HBM3E Quality Testing as Delivery Deadline Nears
According to a report from the Korean media outlet The Financial News, citing industry sources, NVIDIA made another visit to Samsung Electronics’ Cheonan packaging plant earlier this week, roughly a month after its previous inspection. The report suggests that this visit indicates the final quality testing procedures for Samsung’s supply of its fifth-generation HBM3E to NVIDIA have officially begun.
As the report indicates, Samsung Electronics mentioned during its earnings call last month that it intends to begin supplying HBM3E (8-layer) products to “key customers” by the end of the first quarter in 2025.