Following the scuppering of the Intel-Tower takeover deal by China’s regulator, the two companies have agreed a new deal to co-operate on providing foundry services.

Intel will provide foundry services and 300mm manufacturing capacity and Tower will use Intel’s fab in New Mexico.

Tower will invest up to $300 million to acquire and own equipment and other fixed assets to be installed in the New Mexico facility, providing a new capacity corridor of over 600,000 photo layers per month for Tower’s future growth, enabling capacity to support forecasted customer demand for 300mm advanced analogue processing.

Intel will manufacture Tower’s  65nm power management BCD  flows, among other flows at Intel’s Fab 11X in Rio Rancho, New Mexico

ASML, the global titan in lithography equipment, has disclosed that it is on track to launch the first product in its next-generation High NA (High Numerical Aperture) EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) product line by the end of this year, despite some challenges faced by suppliers, in accordance with Reuters.

In Q2 the collective revenues of the top ten ten foundries declined 1.1% y-o-y representing $26.2 billion, says TrendForce, with whatever urgency there was in the supply chain fuelled by demand for LDDI and TDDI components

TSMC’s  Q2 revenue fell 6.4% q-0-q to $15.66 billion.  While  7/6 nm revenues flowed freely, the 5/4nm sectors witnessed a contraction.  3nm should start to contribute revenue in Q3

Samsung’s Q2 foundry business grew 17.3% to $3.23 billion but Q3’s growth may be limited.

GlobalFoundries grew 0.2% in Q2  to around $1.85 billion.  Long-term contracts in specialised niches—from US aerospace and defense to healthcare—as well as long-term agreements (LTAs) for automotive-related orders should keep Q3 stable.

UMC had a Q2 windfall  from emergency orders for TV and Wi-Fi SoCs pushing revenues up 2.8% q-o-q to $1.83 billion.  This may not continue into Q3.

SMIC had a 6.7% QoQ  surge to $1.56 billion.  While its 8-inch wafer revenue took a downturn, 12-inch wafer revenues rose  9% QoQ.

Nexchip returned to the number ten spot, , with Q2 revenues remaining  static or  a slightly down at HuaHong, Tower and PSMC.   Q3 is expected to folliw suit.

Fuelled by last-minute LDDI orders, VIS had a Q2 revenue rise of 19.1% QoQ to $321 million.

Nexchip’s Q2 revenues rose  65.4% QoQ, reaching $268 million fuelled by a surge in last-minute restocking orders for LDDI and TDDI components and the  roll-out of high-margin products using the higher-priced 55 nm process.

July car sales fell 10% m-o-m to 5.44 million vehicles, according to TrendForce.The top ten car brands increased their collective share by 2.3% to 50.7%.

Toyota saw sales fall 5% m-o-m and took 10.2% of the  market. VW saw sales fall 13% m-o-m and took a 6.6%.

Honda and Ford were third and fourth with China’s BYD  – the only top ten brand making only  EVs. – in fifth place.

Following the scuppering of the Intel-Tower takeover deal by China’s regulator, the two companies have agreed a new deal to co-operate on providing foundry services.

Intel will provide foundry services and 300mm manufacturing capacity and Tower will use Intel’s fab in New Mexico.

Tower will invest up to $300 million to acquire and own equipment and other fixed assets to be installed in the New Mexico facility, providing a new capacity corridor of over 600,000 photo layers per month for Tower’s future growth, enabling capacity to support forecasted customer demand for 300mm advanced analogue processing.

Intel will manufacture Tower’s  65nm power management BCD  flows, among other flows at Intel’s Fab 11X in Rio Rancho, New Mexico

U.S. semiconductor company Qualcomm (QCOM.O) on last Tuesday said it will supply chips to power in-car infotainment systems to luxury automakers Mercedes (MBGn.DE) and BMW (BMWG.DE).

Qualcomm is the leading supplier of the chips used in smartphones, a market that has slumped over the past year.

Qualcomm said in a statement it will supply BMW with chips that will help power voice commands inside the car.  It also said it will supply chips for the next version of the Mercedes E class models, which will be available in the U.S. in 2024.

U.S. chip firm Nvidia (NVDA.O) on Friday announced AI partnerships with Indian conglomerates Reliance Industries and Tata Group to develop cloud infrastructure and language models, as well as generative applications.

The deals with two of India's largest business houses will help the U.S. chip firm deepen inroads to the emerging AI ecosystem of the South Asian nation, just as it faces roadblocks in certain chip exports to China and some other countries due to U.S. restrictions.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang this week met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss India's potential in the AI sector, just ahead of the G20 meet in New Delhi where delegates including U.S. President Joe Biden are attending.

In the Reliance partnership, Nvidia will provide the computing power required for building a cloud AI infrastructure platform, while Reliance (RELI.NS) unit Jio will manage and maintain the infrastructure and oversee customer engagement.