Semiconducter Weekly News Briefing

Semiconductors or chips that process digital information have became the essential part of all types of modern devices: cars, everyday home appliances, smartphones, medical equipment, and even national security.

In simple words, semiconductors are a crucial component of the 4th Industrial Revolution. The problem is that only a handful of countries, including the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, a few EU countries, and increasingly, China – have the specialised knowledge and capital-intensive capacity needed to produce them.

For this reason, supply chains are subject to security risks and trade wars, turning semiconductors into a true geopolitical thorn.

Cirrus Logic, Inc - Cirrus Logic CRUS has a been assigned new patent for detecting wind noise incident on a single microphone to its already abundant intellectual portfolio.

AXCELIS - Axcelis ACLS, a leading supplier of enabling ion implantation solutions for the semiconductor industry, just announced it became a founding member in the Semiconductor Climate Consortium (SCC) of SEMI.

WIseKey - Cybersecurity, IoT, and AI platform Swiss company WISeKey International Holding WKEY who is currently working with the European Commission to help achieve the goals of the EU Chips Act just revealed its FY 2022 semiconductor revenue continued to surge. - WISeKey expects a transformative 2023 with record revenue growth over 40% as compared to FY 2022 due to new contracts to secure medical equipment, drones, routers, batteries, and smart meters - Its Semiconductor IoT segment that is located in South of France segment has returned to pre-COVID levels with FY 2022 revenue is expected to be approximately $22.7 million, marking a 34% increase.

Intel Corp. - As part of its responsible AI commitment, Intel Corporation INTC has productized FakeCatcher, a technology that can detect fake videos with 96% accuracy.

- This is the world’s first real-time deepfake detector that returns results in milliseconds unlike detection apps that require uploading videos for analysis, then waiting hours for results.  - While most deep learning-based detectors try to identify what is wrong as they look for signs of inauthenticity. FakeCatcher looks for authentic clues that make us ‘human’ such as subtle “blood flow” signals in the pixels of a video that algorithms translate these signals into spatiotemporal maps. Using deep learning, it instantly detects whether a video is real or fake.   -This is of great significance to all those harmed by deception and its consequences, such as diminished trust.

Nvidia Corp. NVIDIA Corporation NVDA and Microsoft MSFT are building an AI super computer - It will be the first cloud computer that will integrate Microsoft's Azure cloud computing system with Nvidia's A100 and H100 chips, its Quantum-2 InfiniBand network and Nvidia AI Enterprise software.   - The AI supercomputer will harness Microsoft's virtual machines so they can handle more complex research and perform automated functions.   - Azure will help Nvidia develop advanced generative AI that provides machines with the ability to create new content.   - Nvidia’s latest earnings show its revenue fell 17 percent as PC market and gaming are slowing down after the pandemic boom, but data center remains its bright spot as growth remained strong.   - Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang noted that  the company is “adapting to the macro environment”.   All in all, chip wars have just began as a whole new world is being formed.