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SNIP ASML declined to comment on Wednesday. However, Wennink spoke at an event in The Hague and said he was concerned the business climate in the Netherlands was worsening. "Some of these elements that made us a great company, those elements are under pressure," he said, citing increasing regulation and a plan to scrap a tax break given to highly skilled immigrants. POTENTIAL CURBS ON FOREIGN STUDENTS Around 40% of ASML's 23,000 employees in the Netherlands are not Dutch. Europe's largest tech company sources parts from around the globe but currently assembles its machines in Veldhoven, Netherlands before shipping them...

Deflating security: Biden sells federal helium reserve, threatens us industries… National security on the line as critical element supply diminishes. In a surprising turn of events, the U.S. government has auctioned off the Federal Helium Reserve, a subterranean treasure in Amarillo, Texas, responsible for supplying up to 30% of the nation’s helium needs. This critical element is indispensable in medical technologies, cryogenics, semiconductors, and even rocket propulsion systems.

* India has ambitions to become a major chip hub on the lines of the U.S., Taiwan and South Korea, and has been courting foreign firms to set up operations in the country. * "Within a very short time, India Semiconductor Mission has achieved four big successes. With these units, the semiconductor ecosystem will get established in India," the government of India said in a press statement. * India in June 2023 had approved Micron for setting up a semiconductor unit in Sanand, Gujarat. India has approved building three semiconductor plants with investments of more than $15 billion as the...

South Korea’s semiconductor industry is witnessing a robust resurgence, with significant surges in both production and shipments. As per the data from the national statistical office, chip production in November saw a 42% increase year-on-year, marking the most substantial rise since the early months of 2017. Additionally, semiconductor shipments experienced an unprecedented 80% increase, the most sizeable since late 2002. This growth trajectory indicates a revival of technological momentum that not only bodes well for South Korea’s economic prospects but also for the broader global technology sector.

Although China cannot flood the global market with chips produced with cutting-edge fabrication technologies, strong subsidies for the semiconductor sector in China make it possible for the country to flood the market with chips made on legacy process technologies, thus undercutting much-needed sales that generate revenue that is vital for R&D at Western firms. This tactic could spur the U.S. government to impose tariffs on products using mature processing nodes, reports Bloomberg. The U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security is set to survey over 100 companies in sectors like automotive, aerospace, and defense to figure out how much...

A 71-year-old investor who bought an old Wyoming coal mine sight-unseen for $2million has learned that it may contain $37 billion worth of 'rare earth' minerals. Randall Atkins, the CEO of Ramaco Rescources, bought the Brook Mine in Sheridan 12 years ago - but it wasn't until years later that researchers checked if the ground contained elements that are used for semiconductors, missiles and solar cells. He was shocked to find out that his mine may contain the largest rare-earth deposit in the United States - and the materials may be worth 18,500 times what he paid for the land....

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said China could invade Taiwan without major consequences from the U.S. once he has hypothetically attained the nation’s “semiconductor independence” in 2028. Semiconductor independence: In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Ramaswamy stressed the importance of semiconductors and why the U.S. should take aggressive action until the nation is able to produce its own. Ramaswamy noted that China would hypothetically not take the risk of aggressing towards Taiwan for his term “if we show we’re serious about [semiconductor independence].”

Japan’s new restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductor production equipment went into effect on Sunday. Drawn up at the instigation of the United States and formally announced three months ago, they are couched in broad terms but are aimed primarily at China. At this stage, it is difficult to predict their impact on Japanese equipment makers or Japan-China relations, but a group of Japanese politicians are already questioning the wisdom of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s seeming eagerness to side with the US in a trade war with China. These politicians are followers of Ishibashi Tanzan, a journalist-turned-politician who advocated for...

China is imposing export restrictions on two metals used in the manufacturing of semiconductors, deepening a trade conflict between Beijing and democratic nations over the all-important chips. China's commerce ministry announced the implementation of export controls on gallium and germanium Monday, stating it was done "in order to safeguard national security and interests." The regulations require exporters to secure a license to ship the two metals and related products starting Aug. 1, the ministry said, adding that the end use and end user must be identified in the application. ... The announcement also comes days before U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet...

In January, the US Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) decided to form a private-sector task force to strengthen collaboration between the two countries in the global semiconductor ecosystem. The move came as the world’s fifth-largest economy was actively seeking strategic alliances around semiconductors while moving to bring chip manufacturing to the country. Fast forward to this week, the US Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo, who is on a four-day trip to India, resumed discussions with her Indian counterparts on the coordination of investment and policies to spur private investment into India’s chip industry. The...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Tuesday said it will require companies winning funds from its $52 billion U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and research program to share excess profits and explain how they plan to provide affordable childcare. The Commerce Department on Tuesday is releasing its plans to begin accepting applications in late June for a $39 billion manufacturing subsidy program. The law also creates a 25% investment tax credit for building chip plants estimated to be worth $24 billion. Recipients who receive more than $150 million in direct funding "will be required to share with the U.S. government a...

The semiconductor gold rush is all but over, and we've had our fill. Or so the past month of dismal earnings might have you believe. Electronics giant Samsung saw its profits contract 69 percent during the fourth quarter, while revenues slumped 8 percent overall. South Korean memory manufacturer SK Hynix, meanwhile, followed a few days later with an equally bleak report. Both companies told a story of macroeconomic forces that were suppressing consumer spending and driving DRAM and NAND flash inventories to unprecedented levels. Put simply, where there was once a chip shortage there is now a glut. Well, of...

SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics said Tuesday that operating profit plunged in the fourth quarter of last year, as global economic headwinds snuffed out demand for semiconductors and smartphones -- the company's two key revenue sources. The South Korean tech company said that its operating profit came in at 4.3 trillion won ($3.5 billion) for the three months through December, a decline of 69% from the same period the year before and the worst result since the third quarter of 2014. Revenue stood at 70.5 trillion won for the same period, marking a fall of 8%. The figures were in line...

HARRISBURG – The General Assembly has sent the governor legislation that will create a new program to encourage the development of technology to convert fracked gas into hydrogen through $141.6 million a year in tax credits. The approval of House Bill 1059 came over the objections of environmental groups and some Democrats who said that the plan will keep Pennsylvania invested in fossil fuel production for decades even as much of the world turns toward renewable energy. “State lawmakers have clearly not learned from example after example of broken promises,” said former Secretary of Environmental Protection Patrick McDonnell, now the...

Micron Technology Inc. executives warned about a semiconductor downturn in late June, but now say that a “sharp and sudden” drop in demand exceeded even those expectations, suggesting the current chip glut could get a lot worse. Micron MU, 0.74% reported a worse-than-expected fiscal fourth quarter Thursday, with revenue plunging 23% from last year, but that wasn’t the big miss. Executives guided for $4 billion to $4.5 billion in revenue in the current quarter, more than $1 billion lower than analysts’ expectations, and suggested they could post a loss in the quarter even on an adjusted basis. “As we look...

With all the fanfare and foundry expansions around the signing of the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the semiconductor shortage will soon be over, and the US will emerge as a silicon powerhouse rivaling that of Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynix. But that is a nationalist fantasy that proponents of the bill on both sides of the political aisle have peddled for well over a year, and one companies like Intel, Micron, and others have only been too happy to play into. The reality is the $52 billion in...

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have found a material that can perform much better than silicon. The next step is finding practical and economic ways to manufacture it.Silicon is one of the most plentiful elements on Earth, and in its pure form, the semiconductor material has become the foundation of much of modern technology, including microelectronic computer chips and solar cells. However, silicon’s properties as a semiconductor are actually far from ideal.One reason is that although silicon allows electrons to readily flow through its structure, it is much less accommodating to “holes” — electrons’ positively charged counterparts —and harnessing both...

STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a 300-mm semiconductor manufacturing facility that will help develop the fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) technology ecosystem. The new facility will represent a multi-billion–euro investment and is expected to create about 1,000 jobs. The jointly operated fab will support GlobalFoundries’ 22FDX FD-SOI process technology and STMicroelectronics’ technology roadmap down to 18 nm for automotive, industrial, IoT, and communications infrastructure applications, companies said. The facility, which will be adjacent to STMicroelectronics’ existing 300-mm manufacturing site in Crolles, France, is set to reach full capacity by 2026, with up to...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul bought up to $5 million in stock of a computer chip company ahead of a vote on a bill next week that would hand billions in subsidies to boost chip manufacturing, a financial disclosure shows. Paul Pelosi purchased 20,000 shares of Nvidia, one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, on June 17, according to the speaker’s disclosure report released Thursday. Now, senators will convene as early as Tuesday to vote on a bipartisan competition bill, which allocates $52 billion to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and gives tax credits for production, Reuters reported Thursday. “It...

NEW YORK – China’s semiconductor industry has lagged the US in patents and lagged South Korea and Taiwan in fabrication, but it hopes to leapfrog its competition by adopting revolutionary new chip design technologies. Advanced chips used in 5G smartphones and some workstations squeeze billions of transistors onto a fingernail-sized chip by shrinking the dimensions of the transistor itself to 3 to 5 nanometers. Most chips have gate widths of 28 nanometers and higher. Etching tiny circuits on silicon is enormously difficult. Only the Dutch manufacturer ASML makes the lithography machines that use the short wavelengths at the extreme end...