Semiconductor News 20251011

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1. TSMC Dominates Global Foundry Market with “Staggering ” 71% Share TSMC maintains a dominant position in the global foundry market with a “staggering” 71% share, leaving little room for competition. TSMC also continues to perform well, with September 2025 sales up 31% y/y and cumulative sales for the first nine months of the year up 36% y/y. This strong performance is driven by continued growth in AI demand, which is driving overall industry growth, with global semiconductor sales up 21.7% in August.
2. China Expands Technology Crackdown to Target Qualcomm and TechInsights Chinese authorities have launched an investigation against U.S. semiconductor giant Qualcomm for alleged antitrust violations. This is reportedly related to a move over the acquisition of an Israeli company, targeting not only Qualcomm but also TechInsights. The measures are indicative of intensifying technology friction between the U.S. and China, and have contributed to heightened market caution amid tightening controls over semiconductors and rare earths, leading to a significant decline in U.S. stocks.
3. Microsoft Introduces World’s First “Supercomputer-Grade” GB300 NVL72 Azure Cluster Microsoft Azure has introduced the world’s first GB300 “Blackwell Ultra” GPU, NVIDIA’s latest and most powerful AI system, the supercomputer-class GB300 NVL72 cluster. This massive cluster is capable of connecting 4,600 GB300 GPUs and running AI models with over a trillion parameters. This is a state-of-the-art infrastructure deployment to support AI research and development and highlights the importance of advanced design for high-performance AI chips.
4. China Tightens Rare Earth Controls, Trump Takes a Counter Stance China is tightening its control of rare earths, which could have a major impact on the global supply chain. In response, former U.S. President Trump expressed his opposition to China’s “attack on rare earths” and said there was no reason to meet with Xi Jinping at APEC. The tightening of controls over semiconductors and rare earths comes against the backdrop of escalating trade and technology friction between the U.S. and China, a major factor in the ongoing international tensions.
5. Intel Begins Mass Production of Intel 18A-based “Panther Lake” at Arizona Plant Intel has begun mass production of its next-generation AI PC platform “Panther Lake” at its Arizona plant using the Intel 18A process, which is considered the world’s most advanced. Intel’s steady implementation of its technology roadmap and its move to produce the most advanced nodes in the U.S. will help the company compete in the AI PC market and contribute to the U.S. policy of domestic semiconductor production. This will also contribute to the U.S. policy of domestic production of semiconductors.
6. NVIDIA ‘s CoWoS Demand to Increase Significantly with Blackwell and Next Rubin Lineup NVIDIA’s demand for CoWoS (Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate), an advanced packaging technology, is expected to increase significantly over the year with strong Blackwell orders and the upcoming AI lineup, Rubin, is expected to increase significantly over the course of the year. This reflects the current industry dominance of NVIDIA’s AI GPUs and the importance of advanced packaging technologies to improve the performance of AI chips. Rising demand in this area is fueling aggressive investment across the semiconductor industry, with global 300mm fab equipment investment expected to total $374 billion over the next three years.
7. In the U.S. stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to fall by $878 , and the Nasdaq Composite Index also suffered a significant decline, falling 3.5%. Markets are becoming increasingly wary of intensifying trade and technology friction between the U.S. and China, including China’s investigation of U.S.-based Qualcomm and tighter rare earth regulations. Trump’s comments also affected the market, with the NASDAQ plunging in response to the “Trump cannon” and money flowing back into the market through machine trading.
8. Apple to Replace John Gianandrea to Revamp Apple Intelligence Apple is undergoing a fundamental overhaul of its AI strategy, moving to revamp its own AI system, Apple Intelligence, to catch up with competitors such as Google and OpenAI. The company is replacing John Gianandrea, the leader of its AI division, in order to revamp its AI system, Apple Intelligence, and catch up with competitors such as Google and OpenAI. This change in leadership is a sign of Apple’s sense of urgency to catch up in the AI space and rebuild its core AI strategy as the company restructures its wellness strategy and accelerates development of new products that integrate health and AI capabilities (e.g., AirPods Pro 3).
9. Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek to Announce First 2nm N2 Chipset in 2026 Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek are expected to announce their first 2nm N2 chipset in 2026, with the next N2P release being ruled out New rumors have been reported. This move to 2nm is indicative of the growing technological competition in the mobile and high-performance computing space. In particular, Qualcomm has received samples of Samsung’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 manufactured on the 2nm GAA process, suggesting positive development progress.
10. China Launches Fully Domestically Produced 12-inch SiC Pilot Line China has reportedly launched a 12-inch silicon carbide (SiC) pilot line that is said to have achieved complete domestic production. This is expected to achieve 100% domestic production of equipment and increase SiC production capacity by 2.5 times. This move demonstrates China’s strong drive to establish technological independence and market leadership in the field of SiC, the next-generation semiconductor material, and coupled with Huawei’s expansion of AI semiconductors, is expected to have a significant impact on US-China competition.

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