Chip Industry Week in Review

Deals of the week:

• Arteris announced plans to acquire cybersecurity provider Cycuity. “Expanding our technology portfolio to include Cycuity’s hardware security assurance products will enable our customers to achieve secure on-chip data movement,” said Charlie Janac, chairman and CEO of Arteris.
• Qualcomm acquired Ventana Micro Systems, a maker of RISC-V data center-class CPU IP. Qualcomm says the deal will boost its RISC-V and custom Oryon CPU development.
• Tata Electronics and Intel are exploring a partnership to manufacture and package Intel’s products in Tata’s pending India fab and OSAT facilities. Also, the duo is looking into scaling AI PC solutions in the Indian market.
• UMC has licensed imec’s iSiPP300 silicon photonics process with COP compatibility, accelerating UMC’s photonic platform on 12-inch wafers.
• Siemens and GlobalFoundries are teaming up to apply AI-based technologies to IC fab automation, as well as broader physical AI applications.

Government actions:

• Nvidia will be permitted to sell its H200 AI chips to vetted Chinese companies in exchange for a 25% U.S. fee. However, whether the Chinese government will fully accept the H200 is an open question, as the country pushes for self-sufficiency.
• President Trump signed an executive order to create a single national AI rule, limiting those of individual states. The White House will work with Congress to craft the AI policy.
• South Korea plans to invest ~$534B to accelerate semiconductor research and a possible ~US$3B 12-inch, 40nm joint public-private foundry.
• The EU approved €495M in grants to GlobalFoundries and €128M to X-FAB for new manufacturing facilities in Germany.

The IEDM conference was held this week in San Francisco, with a focus on advanced logic, efficient AI solutions, memory technology, quantum, thin-film transistors and silicon photonics. Some of the highlights:

• Imec reported that co-optimization and system-level thermal mitigation approaches for 3D HBM-on-GPU devices can significantly reduce peak GPU temperature under realistic AI training workloads.
• CEA-Leti’s FAMES Pilot line achieved fully functional 2.5 V SOI CMOS devices fabricated at 400 °C, removing one of the final barriers to large-scale 3D sequential integration.
• Other IEDM announcements:
  • Monolithic 3D Capacitive Memory for CIM (Georgia Tech, TSMC)
  • Wafer-scale fabrication of solid-state nanopores using EUV litho (imec)
  • 2D-material devices: 2 collaborations (TSMC, imec, Intel)
  • AlN-based high-frequency transistors (NTT)
  • High-performance silicon RF platforms with SiGe HBT and RF-SOI switch (CEA-Leti, ST)
  • Monolithic 3D chip built in a U.S. foundry (Stanford, CMU, Penn, MIT, SkyWater)

JEDEC is working on a new standard for Standard Package High Bandwidth Memory (SPHBM4), which is similar to HBM4 and uses the same DRAM dies, except that instead of using a silicon substrate, it has a new interface base die that can be mounted on standard organic substrates. SPHBM4 will define 512 data signals with 4:1 serialization to achieve the same bandwidth.

DNP developed a nanoimprint lithography template with a 10nm line-pattern resolution, enabling patterning for 1.4nm chips.

Rivian made several announcements related to vertically integrated automotive technology, including the introduction of its in-house 5nm processor customized for vision-centered physical AI, based on an Arm Cortex-A720AE V9 CPU. Rivian also revealed an autonomy platform featuring an end-to-end data loop used for training.

Financial releases this week: Broadcom, Nordson, Synopsys, TSMC and Photronics.

Quick links to more news:

Global
In-Depth
Reports and Deals
New Technologies
Security
Automotive and Aerospace
Quantum
Education and Training
Events and Further Reading

Global

Asia/Africa

• Kioxia’s Kitakami plant in Japan will begin production of its Gen 10 NAND Flash chips in 2026, raising the number of vertically stacked memory cell layers to 332 from the previous 218.
• SK hynix is targeting 700,000 units per month in DRAM capacity expansion by 2030.
• UMC opened a new on-site IC waste recycling facility in Tainan City, Taiwan.
• ASM opened a new $100M ALD and Epi manufacturing facility in Korea.
• Sondiale SA secured ~$4.8M in U.S. funding to support its new high-purity polysilicon factory in Morocco.
• A Reuters analysis determined that various Chinese entities are already receiving the Nvidia H200 via the gray market.

Europe:

• STMicroelectronics signed a €1B EIB financing agreement to invest in R&D and high-volume manufacturing in Italy and France.
• Google DeepMind will establish an automated/robotics lab focused on materials discovery in the UK.
• Empower Semiconductor opened a new design center in Munich.

Americas:

• Ionic MT uncovered a major trove of rare earths and metals in Utah.
• The SIA urges passage of the proposed U.S. SPEED Act, which streamlines environmental review on semiconductor infrastructure projects.

In-Depth

Semiconductor Engineering published its Low Power – High Performance  and Test, Measurement & Analytics newsletters this week, featuring these top stories:

• Special Report: Chiplets Vs. Soft IP: Different In Almost Every Way
• Limited by Power
• AI Buildout Makes HPC Simulation More Challenging
• Adaptive Test Gaining Ground For HPC And AI Chips
• Metrology Digs Deep To Produce Next-Generation 3D NAND
• Zero-Trust Data Sharing Architectures Redefining Chip Manufacturing
• Video: DFT Shifts Further Left

Plus, opinions this week:

• Chip Innovation Will Bridge The Gap For USA Data Center Power
• Quantum Technologies: Innovation and Investment

Reports and Deals

Deals/Collaborations:

• yieldWerx and Ayar Labs inked a collaborative deal to speed up photonics test data analytics.
• Navitas and Hyderabad-based Cyient intend to jointly develop GaN products for India’s high-voltage, high-power markets.
• Siemens and nVent are collaborating to develop a liquid cooling and power reference architecture for data centers.
• Mitsubishi Chemical and Boston Materials will jointly develop a new liquid metal thermal interface material (TIM) for semiconductor packaging.

More Acquisitions:

• Virtusa Corporation acquired SmartSoC Solutions, a provider of IC design services.
• Neways acquired Philips Micro Devices, maker of microsystems for the defense, semicon and medical sectors.

Funding:

• Unconventional AI raised $475M to co-design analog AI chips, algorithms, and software that dramatically increase AI energy efficiency.
• VisIC Technologies raised $26M to develop GaN power electronics for EV traction inverters and 800V data centers.
• BrainChip raised $25M to expand its portfolio of neuromorphic edge AI IP, chips, and modules.
• Corintis added $25M in new funding for its microfluidic direct-to-chip liquid cooling system for data centers.
• Lam Capital opened up applications for its competition in May 2026, with startup teams competing for $250K.
• [Find more fundings in the Quantum section below]

Think Tanks/Opinions

• Should the U.S. sell Hopper chips to China (IFP)
• Flawed plan to get China hooked on Nvidia chips (Economist)
• Future of U.S. Chip Controls in the Global Tech Race (CFR)
• Stabilizing Cobalt Markets (CSIS)
• China wants an AI-powered military built with Nvidia chips, and that’s a problem (CSET)

Market Reports:

• Omdia reported Q3 semiconductor revenue hit a quarterly record of $216B, up ~15% versus the prior quarter.
• Intersection of Materials & Quantum Tech (IDTechEx)
• Sputtering Targets (TECHCET)
• China’s Domestic AI Chip Development Continues to Accelerate (Trendforce)

Trending Video

AI-Driven Collaboration In Chip Manufacturing: How agents can shorten time to market through secure sharing of data by machines.

New Technologies

Researchers at imec integrated colloidal quantum dot photodiodes on metasurfaces developed on 300mm CMOS wafers. This has application in SWIR sensors, making them more cost-effective, compact and accessible.

Advantest rolled out its new air-cooled SoC and power analog test system, T2000 AiR2X. The company also announced its new memory handler, M5241, for high-performance AI memory devices.

Fujifilm launched a new line of photosensitive insulating materials for semiconductor back-end processes, consisting of polyimide. The company also introduced a new color filter material for image sensors that is compatible with KrF lithography.

Infineon launched new packages for its CoolSiC MOSFET 750 V G2 technology, which includes Q-DPAK and D2PAK.

Hamamatsu Photonics developed a new tool that enables full-surface measurement of wafers up to 300mm in diameter in 5 seconds.

DEEPX uncorked a vision neural processing unit for multi-channel decoding, encoding, and transcoding, along with an AI video analytics platform that combines its accelerators with Ampere CPUs.

AMD debuted new embedded processors in a compact package for power, thermal, and space-constrained networking, storage, and industrial environments.

Keysight, in collaboration with Korean satellite solutions company KT SAT, demonstrated a non-terrestrial network handover on a KOREASAT-6A satellite.

Quantum

New quantum technologies:

• QuantWare says its latest scaling architecture can enable the creation of quantum processor units with 10,000 qubits by using chiplet modules with ultra-high-fidelity chip-to-chip connections.
• MicroAlign upgraded its fiber-to-photonic chip coupling by scaling its fiber array port count from 12 to 24 channels while maintaining 100nm fiber-core pitch accuracy.

Quantum fundings:

• Quantum Art raised $100M to commercialize a 1,000-qubit multi-core trapped-ion quantum computer.
• Nu Quantum raised $60M for its quantum networking stack that enables quantum processors to be connected together.
• The UK and Germany will jointly fund £14M for quantum R&D, including support for Fraunhofer UK’s photonics center.
• Quantum Dice received a €2M grant for its probabilistic computing.
• imec received an ERC Consolidator Grant for research to enable scalable superconducting quantum computers with qubit readout at near absolute zero.

Security

PCI-SIG released a warning for potential security vulnerabilities affecting PCIe Base Specification Revision 5.0.

Interface developed a new tool to navigate EU cybersecurity policies.

SandGrain raised €13.5M (~$15.7M) for its hardware-based trusted identity system for IoT devices.

MITRE published its 2025 ATT&CK Evaluations for enterprise cybersecurity solutions. The evaluation framework emphasizes greater protection this year, focusing on a solution’s ability to block adversaries and contain real-time threats.

The National Cyber Security Centre raised caution on the misunderstanding of comparing prompt injection attack vectors to SQL injection due to crucial differences.

Security research:

• Intel security researchers apply guided fuzzing to live hardware targets by using insights from a DSA accelerator.
• The Evolution of Agentic AI in Cybersecurity (Microsoft)
• Adaptive AI for Precision in Cybersecurity (AI Research at Averlon)
• Keyless Entry: Breaking and Entering eMMC RPMB with EMFI (Netherlands Forensic Institute, Univ. of Amsterdam)

CISA issued new alerts/advisories.

Automotive and Aerospace

Industry news:

• Waymo recalled more than 3,000 vehicles due to several incidents where cars drove around stopped school buses due to a software issue.
• Volkswagen and other carmakers are adopting Chinese technology and localizing their operations in the country in an effort to maintain a portion of their market.
• Renault Group and Ford announced a strategic partnership to expand Ford’s EV offering to European customers.
• Riyadh Air and IBM partnered to launch the world’s first AI-native airline.
• Stellantis and Bolt plan to jointly develop and deploy Level 4 autonomous vehicles for commercial use across Europe.
• POSCO Future M and Factorial will co-develop all-solid-state battery technology.

Reports:

Auto Research:

• The NHTSA published “FMVSS Considerations for Vehicles With Automated Driving Systems.”
• Texas A&M and KAIST researchers developed a new AI system that applies multimodal LLM to predict pedestrian behaviors.
• UT Austin developed an augmented reality collision avoidance system based on SLAM tracking for vulnerable road users.

Education and Training

Arm signed an MOU with the government of South Korea to set up a chip design school that aims to train 1,400 new designers.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Infineon unveiled their UTM–Infineon Innovation Launchpad to advance semiconductor research and talent development in the country.

Cal State Fullerton will receive an almost $80K grant from the Orange County Business Council to support workforce training that will prepare students for careers in the semiconductor industry.

Events and Further Reading

Upcoming webinars are here, including:

• • Hyperspectral Characterization of Advanced Materials Using AFM (Dec. 16)
  • From Silos to Systems, From Data to Insight (Dec. 17)

Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:

Semiconductor Engineering’s latest newsletters:

Automotive, Security and Enabling Technologies
Systems and Design
Low Power-High Performance
Test, Measurement and Analytics
Manufacturing, Packaging and Materials