Recently, Wolfspeed announced that it secured $1.5 billion in funding from the U.S. government and the Apollo Investment Fund consortium to support the establishment of its first 200mm silicon carbide manufacturing facility.
Japan's Semiconductor Equipment Sales Surge: Sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in Japan continue to rise, with September sales reaching 369.598 billion yen, a substantial 23.4% increase compared to the same month last year.
Microsoft witnessed a big jump in orders for its GB200 chip in the fourth quarter of 2024, increasing three to four times and exceeding the total orders from all other cloud service providers.
A report from SEMI forecasts a 2% decline in global silicon wafer shipments for 2024. However, demand is expected to rebound strongly by 10% in 2025 as the market recovers from the current downturn.
Samsung is establishing advanced manufacturing facilities at its Hwaseong plant to enable mass production using a 2nm process. The company is also preparing to install equipment for a 1.4nm production line at its Pyeongtaek II plant.