Semiconductor News 20260218

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1. Global Memory Shortage Severely Hurts Supply of PlayStation and Steam Deck
   Global memory chip supply shortages and price spikes are severely impacting the roadmap for consumer technology products Sony has been forced to delay the launch of key products, including the next-generation PlayStation Sony has reportedly been forced to postpone the launch of key products such as the next-generation PlayStation. Valve has also officially acknowledged that its portable gaming PC, the “Steam Deck,” is out of stock due to memory and storage shortages, while AI demand is taking over memory production capacity, hitting the console market hard.
2. Renesas and GlobalFoundries Expand Manufacturing Alliance that Symbolizes U.S.-Japan Collaboration
   Renesas Electronics and GlobalFoundries (GF) of the United States have entered into a multi-billion dollar strategic manufacturing partnership. Under the agreement, Renesas will manufacture microcontrollers, power semiconductors, and other products for automotive and IoT applications at GF’s U.S. and European plants on a long-term basis. This is a concrete example of “friendshoring” to mitigate geopolitical risks, and Japanese semiconductor manufacturers are increasingly using their overseas bases to strengthen their supply chains.
3. U.S . Department of Defense temporarily lifts blacklist designation of Chinese memory companies
   The U.S. Department of Defense has reportedly removed Chinese memory giants YMTC (長江存儲) and CXMT (長鑫存儲) from its blacklist of military-related companies. This has raised the possibility that major U.S. OEMs such as Apple may consider adopting Chinese memory to reduce costs. This is seen as a pragmatic measure to alleviate the serious memory shortage, but it may cause controversy over its consistency with the hard-line stance against China.
4. Samsung accelerates hybrid bonding technology in HBM production for NVIDIA
   Samsung Electronics is accelerating the introduction of hybrid bonding technology in the production of its next-generation memory, HBM4, to meet strong demand from NVIDIA. This technology directly connects chips without bumps to increase bandwidth and improve heat dissipation performance. Although the technology is technically challenging, it is an important strategy to compete with SK Hynix, a competitor, and to regain market share in the AI semiconductor market.
5. SK Hynix and Samsung Announce Next-Generation “LPDDR6” for AI Smartphones
   SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics announced the technical details of their next-generation mobile memory, LPDDR6, at the International Solid State Devices Conference (ISSCC). The standard delivers the high bandwidth and power efficiency essential for on-device AI processing, and with chip makers such as Qualcomm showing interest, the race to develop this technology for use in next-generation smartphones and PCs with enhanced AI capabilities is in full swing.
6. Emerging Japanese technology SA IMEMORY , a new AI memory concept to replace HBM
   SAIMEMORY, a new AI memory technology that solves HBM’s issues of heat generation and wiring length, is attracting attention at a Japanese technology event. With a structure that directly joins logic semiconductors and memory at the wafer level, SAIMEMORY is oriented toward practical application in a horizontal division of labor model similar to Rapidus, and is expected to be a novel architecture originating from Japan with the potential to dramatically improve the power efficiency of AI infrastructure.
7. AMD and TCS Expand Partnership to Build Large-Scale AI Infrastructure in India
   AMD and Indian IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have announced an expanded partnership to deploy open source-based AI solutions in India, leveraging AMD’s AI chips. to develop a computation platform for the automotive and manufacturing industries. The partnership aims to support the digital transformation of the Indian market and solidify a foothold against NVIDIA’s leading AI ecosystem.
8. imec Europe Opens Advanced Pilot Line for 2nm and Beyond As part of the “NanoIC” project, imec, a European research institute, has opened a pilot line in a 300mm clean room in Belgium for the development of processes for the 2nm generation and beyond. Chips Act) to accelerate research on next-generation transistor structures and advanced materials. This is an initiative to increase Europe’s autonomy not only in attracting manufacturing sites, but also in research and development of cutting-edge technologies.
9. Softbank and Ampere Verify Power Savings by Using CPUs in AI Inference
   Softbank and Ampere Computing of the U.S. have conducted a technology verification to control and operate AI models using CPUs (central processing units) instead of GPUs. The study confirmed that small-scale AI models can achieve practical performance with low power consumption by using Ampere’s highly efficient CPUs, suggesting diversification of AI infrastructure as one of the solutions to the shortage of GPUs and power problems.
10. Taiwan’ s ITRI Breaks Ground on R&D Center with 12-inch Pilot Line
    Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) held a groundbreaking ceremony for a research and development center for next-generation semiconductors. The facility will have a pilot line for 12-inch wafers and will conduct research on advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration (heterogeneous chip integration), a national project that will work with private companies such as TSMC to maintain Taiwan’s leading semiconductor manufacturing technology in the long term.

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