Semiconductor News 20251028

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1. Intel Warns of CPU Shortages and Price Spikes Due to Old Node Limitations Intel warns of potential CPU supply shortages and price spikes due to the limited production capacity of mature manufacturing nodes. While demand is particularly high for data centers, the limitations of older nodes are putting pressure on the supply chain, and there are concerns that this will affect the overall supply situation in the semiconductor market.
2. AMD Wins $1 Billion AI Contract from U.S. Government for Next-Generation Supercomputers AMD has won a major $1 billion AI contract for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lux and Discovery supercomputer projects. The contract will use the Instinct MI355X and new MI430 AI chips, underscoring AMD’s momentum against NVIDIA in the AI semiconductor market and its technological contributions.
3. Samsung Launches Aggressive Price Reduction Strategy to Catch Up in HBM Competition Samsung has embarked on an aggressive price reduction strategy in an effort to expand its share of the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market and strengthen its competitive edge. This move demonstrates Samsung’s determination to catch up with its rivals. At the same time, Samsung is focusing on establishing a competitive edge in HBM technology, such as by considering cooperation with Hanmi in HBM4.
4. Tesla’ s Next-Generation AI Chips to Utilize Both TSMC Arizona and Samsung Texas Tesla plans to use both TSMC’s Arizona and Samsung’s Texas factories to manufacture its next-generation AI chips. This strategy demonstrates Tesla’s commitment to diversifying supply risk and securing a stable supply of AI chips by dual-sourcing key foundries.
5. Rapid Increase in AI Demand Causes Severe Short age of PCB Materials The increased demand associated with the rapid development of AI-related technologies is causing a severe shortage of PCB (printed circuit board) materials. Major material suppliers, such as Elite Material and Co-Tech, have mentioned this problem. PCB makers in Taiwan, in particular, are entering the AI era, and their complexity is approaching the level of semiconductors.
6. LG Electronics Develops HBM and Glass Substrate Equipment for Advanced Packaging LG Electronics is developing HBM (high bandwidth memory) and glass substrate-related equipment for the advanced semiconductor packaging field. This is an important effort to address next-generation packaging technology, which is key to increasing integration and performance in high-performance semiconductors such as AI chips.
7. Qualcomm Challenges the Market with AI Rack Scale Solution with LPDDR Mobile Memory Qualcomm has announced its new AI Rack Scale solution with onboard LPDDR mobile memory. It will be deployed as AI200 and AI250 chip-based accelerator cards and racks and is boldly expected to challenge and increase competition in the AI compute market dominated by NVIDIA and AMD.
8. TSMC Tightens China Orders; Micron Forecasts Tighter DRAM Market TSMC is tightening its grip on China orders. In the overall market, Micron is forecasting a tight DRAM market, and Etron’s Nicky Lu expects the DRAM boom to continue for six months, leading to growth in 2026. In the background, AI-related HBM demand is currently straining DDR5 capacity and wafer supply.
9. China’ s CXMT Ships HBM3 Samples to Huawei to Eliminate Bottlenecks in Domestic AI Supply Ch ain Chinese memory manufacturer CXMT (長鑫存儲) has shipped HBM3 samples to Huawei. This move has the potential to eliminate one of the major bottlenecks in China’s domestic AI supply chain and is a sign of progress in China’s efforts toward semiconductor self-sufficiency.
10. U.S. and Malaysia Agree to Secure Rare Earth Supply Chain The United States and Malaysia have signed an agreement to secure the rare earth supply chain. This is part of a geopolitical response to the situation where China is introducing new rare earth regulations targeting the vital semiconductor market [36, JoongAng Ilbo], to ensure a stable supply of the key minerals and the resilience of the industry.

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