Semiconductor News 20250902

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1. TSMC Raises Prices and Gains Market Share TSMC expects to raise prices of its leading-edge chips by up to 10% to maintain profit margins due to strict U.S. tariffs. The company saw record foundry revenue growth of 14.6% quarter-over-quarter in Q2 2025 and gained 70% market share. Demand for 2nm wafers, in particular, is increasing, and the company expects to further expand its market share in 2026. This pricing strategy could have a significant impact on the overall cost structure of the semiconductor industry.
2. Rapidus 2nm Process Development Rapidus, a new Japanese semiconductor company, is reportedly developing a 2nm “2HP” process that will match TSMC’s N2 in logic density and significantly exceed Intel’s 18A. imec’s CEO has also noted the “speed” of Rapidus’ development and believes that the future of semiconductor manufacturing lies in 3D stacking technology.
3. Apple’ s Automation Demands on Suppliers Apple is pushing hard for its suppliers to reduce manufacturing costs and adopt automation technologies. Suppliers that fail to meet these demands may face the risk of losing important business, including iPhone manufacturing contracts. This move is expected to require significant investment and transformation of production systems by suppliers as Apple’s strategy to further increase efficiency and cost optimization throughout the supply chain.
4. Trends in China’s AI Chip Industry and the U.S.-China Technology Gap In China’s AI chip industry, Cambricon has grown from a separate Huawei business to a promising AI company, and Alibaba is developing its latest AI chip to fill NVIDIA’s gap. Goldman Sachs, however, has analyzed that China’s advanced chip manufacturing technology is 20 years behind that of the West. At the same time, the company is forced to keep a close eye on the rapid development of Cambricon.
5. AMD EPYC SP7 “ Venice ” CPU Announced AMD has announced its new EPYC SP7 “Venice” CPU for servers. The processor features up to 256 Zen 6 cores and delivers high performance that can scale up to 1400W. To handle the high heat generation, images of the new liquid-cooled cold plate were also released. This announcement is expected to further strengthen AMD’s competitiveness in the data center and high-performance computing space.
6. Samsung Expands Hiring and Resumes Capital Expenditures in the U.S. Samsung is expanding its hiring in the U.S. in response to strong orders from Tesla and Apple. In Taylor, Texas, the company has resumed orders for semiconductor equipment and appointed new managers to revamp its operational structure. This is seen as part of the company’s strategy to strengthen its production capacity in the U.S. and stabilize its supply chain in the context of the U.S. government’s withdrawal of semiconductor equipment licenses to Samsung and SK Hynix for China.
7. Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX Improves Performance Intel’s new Core Ultra 5 235HX processor outperforms the Core i5 14500HX in the PassMark benchmark test. With performance gains of 30% in single-core and 38% in multi-core, Intel has also filed a patent for a new technology called “Software Defined Supercore” to maximize single-core performance, and is looking forward to future advancements in CPU architecture and higher performance.
8. DDR4 Price Spikes Market prices have skyrocketed as major DDR4 memory manufacturers have stopped supplying DDR4 memory. This is likely the result of DDR4 production being scaled back as the transition to DDR5 continues and supply in the market is unable to keep up with demand, potentially increasing the burden of component procurement for existing PC users of DDR4 and for cost-conscious consumers. Market trends and future supply availability will continue to be closely monitored.
9. Apple’s iPhone 17 for the EU may be eSIM-only Apple may reportedly introduce the iPhone 17 series as an eSIM-only model for the EU. This is seen as marking the beginning of a worldwide move away from physical SIM cards to eSIM. If realized, users in the EU will no longer be able to use physical SIMs and will see a major change in the way communication contracts and handset activation are handled. This policy could also affect other regions and competing manufacturers.
10. Pixel 10 Display Defect Reports Owners have reported problems with the display of Google’s upcoming Pixel 10 smartphone. It has been noted that these issues could be attributed to either hardware or software, and quality control and initial response to the product launch will be closely watched. Early defect reports provide an opportunity to identify potential problems and may affect the initial evaluation of the product.

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