Source: Reuters

Samsung, the South Korean manufacturer said it has appointed Young Hyun Jun effective immediately, shifting him from the role as Head of its Future Business Planning Unit. The move is likely aimed at catching up in the market for top-end chips used in artificial intelligence such as high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, an area where Samsung has fallen behind rivals such as SK Hynix, analysts said.

“This is a preemptive measure to strengthen future competitiveness by renewing the atmosphere internally and externally,” Samsung said in a statement.

Samsung’s market share in DRAM chips used in tech devices reached 45.5% in Q4 2023, according to data provider TrendForce. It lags, however, in the niche but increasingly important HBM chips segment where SK Hynix controls more than 90% of the mainstream HBM3 market. HBM3 is a fourth-generation HBM standard currently the most used for AI chipsets like those made by industry leader Nvidia.

Jun, 63, led Samsung’s memory chip business from 2014 to 2017 after working on the development of DRAM and flash memory chips. He was also the CEO of battery arm Samsung SDI from 2017 to 2022, overseeing a U.S. electric vehicle battery joint venture with automaker Stellantis .

“We expect him to overcome the chip crisis with his management know-how he has accumulated,” Samsung said.

Kye Hyun Kyung, who led the semiconductor division since 2022, will swap into Jun’s prior role as Head of its Future Business Planning Unit. Replacing such a high-ranking position in the middle of the year is unusual given most personnel changes at Samsung typically take place in the beginning of the year, analysts said.

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The world leader in semiconductor has a recorded 60% market share by Counterpoint Research. Its close rival Samsung trails behind by 13%. TSMC is known for serving Apple, Nvidia and Qualcomm for iphones, mobile chipsets respectively.

It is also the main supplier for Artificial Intelligence (AI) chips for Nvidia, and Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) processors. It even has clients in the Electric Vehicle (EV) sector, working with Tesla and Toyota.

The recent quake reportedly disrupted TSMC’s production as personnel had to evacuate and paused operations. Wall Street Journal quoted the company’s admitting the tremor did cause some machinery to be out of commission, and extreme ultraviolet lithography tools by ASML were unscathed. It added construction work resumed following inspection as at 4 April 2024.

Korea May Take the Spotlight

Bum Ki Son and Brian Tan, analysts at British investment bank Barclays, said in a report:

“We believe this could lead to supply disruptions in the tech supply chain. While we note some companies have reported limited damage and many of the semiconductor fabs should have been designed to withstand strong earthquakes, halts in some operations at high-tech semiconductor fabs could mean disruptions.”

“Some of the high-end chips need 24/7 seamless operations in a vacuum state for a few weeks. Operation halts in Taiwan’s northern industrial areas could mean some high-end chips in production may be spoiled,” they added.

Kim Dae-jong, Professor of Business Administration at Sejong University, cautioned that global chipmakers need to diversify the semiconductor supply chain concentrated in Taiwan to reduce risks. Professor Kim noted,

“Chip companies need to reduce their dependency on Taiwan and diversify their orders to other countries to lower the risk when facing a special crisis like this earthquake. Chip design companies should diversify their non-memory demand to Taiwan, Korea and the U.S. as a way to prepare for crises.”

The professor added the earthquake has also hiked the prices of memory semiconductors, indicating Samsung and SK hynix have reportedly halted memory chip price negotiations with clients because the supply of memory chips will decrease, leading to higher prices.

Another Group With Mixed Opinions

KB Securities advocated the importance of diversifying supply vendors. Kim Dong-won, KB’s analyst said,

“The production disruption in foundries caused by this earthquake is poised to serve as a pivotal moment, shedding light on the industry’s structure. With 69% of global foundry production concentrated in Taiwan, it underscores the risk associated with relying on a single supply chain.

TSMC’s Fab12 plant, where all production personnel evacuated following the earthquake, is encountering operational uncertainty due to damaged water pipes and system errors in certain front-end equipment. As a result, further inspections are necessary to assess the situation. The Korean semiconductor ecosystem is emerging as the optimal alternative for diversifying the memory and foundry supply chain, with long-term benefits expected.”

Lee Jong-hwan, Professor from Department of System Semiconductor Engineering at Sangmyung University commented is too quick to assume TSMC would suffer damage from Taiwan earthquake’s aftermaths. Professor Lee noted, the tremor is not likely to have a substantial impact on the foundry industry’s market share. This is because the foundry industry has long-term contracts with chip design companies, and it is difficult to suddenly change the order and design of the chips to be produced.

“The foundry business needs to supply products tailored to the design requirements of chip design companies. Stable supply is key in maintaining long-term cooperative relationships with customers, so it is difficult for TSMC to lose its customers just because of the earthquake damage,” said Professor Lee.

Nonetheless, he projected the memory semiconductor industry, Samsung and SK could benefit from the earthquake as the industry has a different structure. 

“The memory semiconductor industry may be affected by the earthquake. As production facilities of Micron Technology and Nanya Technology were reported to have suffered damage, rival memory semiconductor companies, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, are likely to benefit from the market where chip production and supply are more directly connected,” Professor Lee added.

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Vietnam has pledged tax breaks and other perks to semiconductor companies that help to develop the sector in a Southeast Asian country, according to Japan’s Nikkei Asia. The article quoted Vietnamese Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat as saying in an interview that the national plan for chips will include industry grants through a science fund and joint state research with private companies like FPT.

Companies from Nvidia to Samsung are looking to expand their chip businesses in Vietnam, which is slated to receive millions from the US CHIPS and Science Act and already hosts Intel’s biggest global test and assembly factory. Meanwhile, Jose Fernandez, US undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, told Nikkei Asia that Vietnam has attracted dozens of companies in the semiconductor field, and several more US players would jump in if the country had enough renewable energy to meet their green goals.

The country needs to strike technology transfer deals with nations dominating the chip sector, Dat said, adding Vietnam will sweeten policies to bring foreign experts into the workforce, which has faced a recent slowdown in foreign work permits. Toward that end, colleges are unveiling semiconductor classes in partnership with employers like Samsung.

Vietnam aims to train 50,000 engineers for the industry by 2030. The country has a strong foundation for science and tech education, but a dearth of advanced skills has limited a broader march up the electronics supply chain.

Fernandez said in an interview while visiting Vietnam that the country is a top target for US CHIPS Act subsidies, which will be a “badge” of confidence. The dollar amount will be based on an assessment expected sometime this month.

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Source: Counterpoint Research

Besides, the overall 2023 semiconductor revenue rankings saw some big changes from 2022, like Intel reclaiming the top spot from Samsung as the latter suffered a lot from the memory sector downtrend as well as lackluster smartphone business. AI provided positive news to the semiconductor industry, emerging as a key content and revenue driver, especially in the second half of the year. NVIDIA appeared to be the largest beneficiary, followed by AMD. Both will be growing their AI-related businesses in the coming years.

2023 was a year for semiconductor companies to fine-tune their strategies/outlook and manage inventory adjustments to prepare for the impending AI boom. According to Counterpoint’s semiconductor revenue tracker, only 6 out of the top 20 global semiconductor vendors reported YoY revenue growth.

The memory sector, in particular, experienced strong headwinds and was down 43% YoY in terms of revenue in 2023. We also found that the top 20 global semiconductor vendors contributed to 71% of the market, down from 76% in 2022 and showing a 14% YoY revenue decline.

Intel reclaimed its first place in semiconductor revenue rankings in 2023, though it reported a 16% YoY decline in its revenue largely due to a double-digit YoY shipment decline in both the PC and server segments. Samsung too was massively affected by the memory market slowdown in both DRAM and NAND segments, reporting a 38% YoY decline in its revenue.

The memory market was mainly hit by soft demand in the PC, server and smartphone segments as well as oversupply and excess inventory across the market. SK hynix and Micron, two other major players in the memory market, also reported huge declines in their revenues at 33% and 36% YoY, respectively.

NVIDIA was in the spotlight in 2023 thanks to the acceleration of AI deployments. We believe the company will continue to lead the semiconductor industry’s growth because of its high market share of general-purpose GPUs used in AI/high-performance computing. NVIDIA saw an 86% YoY revenue growth in 2023 to rank third in terms of revenue, its first-ever top-five position.

Commenting on the market dynamics, Senior Analyst William Li said, “In general, we believe artificial intelligence (AI server, AI PC, AI smartphone, etc.) will continue to be a major organic growth driver in the semiconductor industry in 2024, followed by the memory sector’s rebound due to normalizing oversupply situation and demand recovery. The automotive sector could be another driver for the market due to content growth, which was already a key revenue driver for Infineon and STMicroelectronics in 2023.”

Since the industry is at the end of the inventory correction cycle and the support from clients’ demand is relatively solid, supply constraints will likely be the key variants to keep an eye on. During its latest quarterly earnings call, the world’s largest foundry player, TSMC, maintained its solid capacity expansion plan for 2024. Counterpoint Research holds an optimistic view on its utilization rate in the coming quarters.

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Media outlets got a look of the ASML High-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV) system. Intel Corp has placed orders and got the first one shipped to a factory in Oregon in late December. The company plans to start making chips with it late next year.

ASML’s machine can print lines on semiconductors 8 nanometers thick, 1.7 times smaller than the previous generation. The thinner the lines, the more transistors can be fitted on a chip, and the higher the processing speeds and memory.

ASML executives said the system will prove essential for artificial intelligence (AI), a technology notorious for the intensity of the processing it requires. AI will need “massive amounts of computing power and data storage. I think without ASML, without our technology, that’s not going to happen,” CEO Peter Wennink told Bloomberg. “It’s going to be a big driver for our business.”

ASML produces equipment needed to make the most sophisticated semiconductors, and demand for its products is a bellwether for the industry’s health. The Dutch company received record orders for its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines in Q4 2023, showing optimism among the biggest customers for the technology, including Intel, Samsung Electronics Company and TSMC.

Installation of the first 150,000kg system required 250 crates, 250 engineers and six months to complete, ASML spokesperson Monique Mols said. The rise of generative AI over the past year, catalysed by OpenAI’s ChatGPT launch late 2022, has boosted expectations for semiconductor companies across the board. The so-called low-NA EUV machines, which ASML has been selling since 2018 cost €170 million.

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DIGITIMES noted Chinese semiconductor companies have been actively recruiting talent from South Korea and making strategic acquisitions and investments, triggering concerns within the South Korean semiconductor industry in the recent years. Given everything we have is powered by chip technology — from our smart devices to automotive , the competition can only get tighter and China is not inclined to be left behind in the competition. It brazen poaching of Korean talent is a strong message yet back-ended compliment to the latter country’s talent quality.

The semiconductor industry, being the backbone of technological advancement, and its success is inherently linked to the skill and knowledge of its workforce. South Korea, home to tech giants like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, possesses a rich supply of semiconductor talent coveted globally. However, the aggressive recruitment efforts from China’s tech firms have raised concerns despite known shortcomings.

Amid China’s mission to achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency, the republic strategically targeted Korea’s pool of skilled engineers and researchers. Offering lucrative incentives and promising career prospects, Chinese companies have lured talent away from their Korean counterparts.

On the other hand, instead of being judgmental toward China’s approach in building its talent pool, the “successful” poaching could be somewhat attributed to Korea’s lack of incentives to retain its current pool of skilled professionals. Like any poaching tactics, companies would offer attractive packages with benefits, and opportunities to work on cutting-edge projects.

It is said that the subject of ethics have come into the picture on the methods to amass skilled labour off the semiconductor powerhouses. However, China needs to understand that the engineers from Korea have shortcomings as well. Throughout 2023, Samsung got itself into a fair share of troubles with its semiconductor engineers.

Its semiconductor division infamously had confidential data mined by ChatGPT when the engineers needed help in coding. In other incidents, even minutes of meeting containing classified information got leaked by the chatbot used to get writing help. Another involved an executive stealing data to clone a chip factory in China.

In response to the poaching, Korean firms have ramped up efforts to retain skilled employees. Implementing incentives such as retention bonuses, career development programs, and fostering a conducive work environment have been pivotal strategies. Additionally, a renewed focus on innovation and R&D initiatives aims to bolster the local semiconductor industry.

Collaborative efforts between government, academia, and industry players have reportedly been instrumental in creating an ecosystem that fosters talent retention and innovation, mitigating the adverse effects of the talent drain. The semiconductor talent poaching saga poses a formidable challenge to South Korea’s tech sector.

While the allure of better opportunities and financial incentives from China remains a concern, South Korea stands resilient, fortifying its innovation ecosystem and talent retention strategies. While the semiconductor talent poaching saga raises alarm bells, it presents an opportunity for South Korea to reevaluate its approaches to foster innovation, and chart a course for sustained growth in the ever-evolving tech landscape. 

The question is timing — will the Korean firms wait till their key engineers are fleeing the coop before acting? After all, such initiatives involve substantial resources and they have to be attractive in the eyes of the engineers, not the employers.

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Tenstorrent sells AI processors and licenses AI and RISC-V IP to customers that want to own and customise their silicon. Both Hyundai Motor Group and Samsung have a strong history of product leadership and enjoy massive success in their respective markets.  

“The trust in Tenstorrent by Hyundai Motor Group and Samsung Catalyst Fund leading our round is truly humbling,” said Jim Keller, CEO of Tenstorrent. “It has been impressive watching Hyundai Motor Group become the third largest automaker in the world through their aggressive adoption of technology including their acquisition of Boston Dynamics, their joint venture with Aptiv, and now their investment in us.”

Jim Keller is a legendary CPU designer who took over as CEO of AI chip company Tenstorrent at the beginning of 2023, after serving as CTO for two years. His history includes stints at Apple, Tesla and AMD.

“Tenstorrent’s high growth potential and high-performance AI semiconductors will help the Group secure competitive technologies for future mobilities,” said Heung-soo Kim, Executive Vice President and Head of the Global Strategy Office (GSO) at Hyundai Motor Group. “With this investment, the Group expects to develop optimized but differentiated semiconductor technology that will aid future mobilities and strengthen internal capabilities in AI technology development.” 

“Samsung has long been a leader in the electronics industry and they are the ideal partner to co-lead this round,” continued Keller. “We are excited by the opportunity to work together with Tenstorrent.” “Samsung Catalyst Fund invests in disruptive ideas that we believe can change the world,” said Marco Chisari, EVP of Samsung Electronics, Head of Samsung Semiconductor Innovation Center.

“Tenstorrent’s industry-leading technology, executive leadership, and aggressive roadmap motivated us to co-lead this funding round. We are excited by the opportunity to work with Tenstorrent to accelerate AI and compute innovations.” Funding will be used to accelerate the company’s product development, the design and development of AI chiplets, and its ML software roadmap.   

 

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Source: Straits Times

Scorpio, part of public-listed sports car distributor EuroSports Global, said it is in collaboration with Shenzhen BYD Electronics – a mobile phone and notebook subsidiary of BYD – to produce pre-production prototypes (PPR) of the X1.

“These PPR units will further undergo rigorous testing, certification, and homologation to ensure the highest standards of quality and performance are met,” Scorpio said in a statement. Homologation is the process where it is approved for sale.

The company will exhibit the X1 at the Esposizione Internazionale Ciclo Motociclo e Accessori exhibition – a leading motorcycle show – in Milan, Italy, from 7-12 November 2023. Scorpio added that at the show, it will unveil “other future electric motorcycle models”.

Mr Joshua Goh, Chief Executive of Scorpio Electric, told The Straits Times that the company and BYD had been in discussions since 2022.

“We were surprised that BYD would take on our job, because it’s relative small,” Mr Goh said. “In fact, I was about to go to a Thai and European company to do the assembly for us.”

He said the X1 is still on target to go on sale by the end of 2023, and that he was targetting 2,000 to 3,000 units for first-year sales.

BYD made 1.86 million vehicles in 2022, mainly passenger cars and commercial vehicles. But recently, news had surfaced that it was looking into entering the two-wheeler market. In 2022, it was reported that BYD was planning to tie up with Spanish motorcycle brand Nerva to build an electric motorcycle. The motorcycle would use BYD’s iron phosphate battery.

Mr Goh, however, said the X1 will not be using BYD’s battery, but a 5kWh battery from South Korea’s Samsung.

“The X1’s development is too advanced for us to switch,” he said. “But we are in discussion with BYD to use its battery for future products.”

Scorpio’s electric scooter has been in the works for more than four years, and like many others, the project was severely delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr Goh said the X1’s main market will be Europe.

“It’s a premium scooter made for the European market,” he added.

The global electric scooter and motorcycle market is estimated to exceed US$27.24 billion (S$35 billion) by 2031, a compound annual growth rate of 23.58%, according to India-headquartered research firm InsightAce Analytic.

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Source: Omdia

This is the longest recorded period of decline since Omdia began tracking the market in 2002. Revenue in Q1 2023 settled at US$120.5B, down 9% from Q4 2022. The semiconductor market is cyclical, and this prolonged decline follows the upsurge as the market grew to record revenues in each quarter between Q4 2020 through Q4 2021 following increased demand from the global pandemic.

The memory and micro processor chips (MPU) market are major areas of the chip market that are contributing to the decline. The MPU market in Q1 2023 was $13.1B, just 65% of its size in Q122 when it was US$20B.

The memory market fared worse, with Q1 2023 coming in at US$19.3B, just 44% of the market in Q1 2022 when it was US$43.6B. The combined MPU and memory markets declined 19% in Q123, dragging the market down to the 9% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) decline. 

Commenting on the latest Omdia analysis, Cliff Leimbach, Senior Analyst said: “The semiconductor market is plagued by a lack of demand that has continued for multiple quarters and resulted in declining advanced strip processors (ASP) for many components. However, there is demand thanks to generative AI.

NVIDIA has seen strong revenue growth as they lead in this space, reversing the performance of most semiconductor companies to begin 2023, but other semiconductor companies have yet to take advantage of this space in a similar way.”

The decline of the memory market over the last three quarters has rearranged the market share rankings. One year ago, three of the top five companies by revenue were memory companies, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron.

Only Samsung remains in the top ten rankings. The last time both SK Hynix and Micron were not in the top ten rankings was in 2008 illustrating the struggles faced by memory-focused semiconductor companies.  

NVIDIA released their financial results after publication of the CLT report, and surpassed estimates on strength of the company’s generative AI chips due to strong demand.

Infineon moved into the top ten this year following an 11% increase QoQ due to its strength in the automotive sector.

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When the news broke, all that were mentioned was the defendant is in his mid 60s, experienced in Samsung and SK Hynix (both semiconductor titans). More dirt was aired when Asia Financial revealed his name – Choi Jin-seok.

Korea Times added Choi was described as a “master in production yields,”. He was formerly a senior executive at Samsung Electronics, the world’s top memory chip maker, and three-time winner of Samsung’s annual “proud Samsung men” awards.

After 18 years at Samsung, he joined Hynix Semiconductor in 2001, which later became SK Hynix, Samsung’s toughest competitor in the global memory chip sector. He was a “hidden force” in improving SK’s chip production yields.

Guilty Till Proven Innocent?

When he was named Chief Executive of a company invested in by a regional Chinese government in 2020, Seoul’s intelligence agencies raised the alarm about economic espionage and technology theft. Local prosecutors said the former executive hired some 200 ex-Samsung and SK engineers, and allegedly stole Samsung’s key factory specifications as well as clean-room designs.

If there were not enough panic, prosecution’s speculated millions of Samsung’s advanced chip facilities data sets had already been stolen. Fuelling the fire is another testimony from another former Samsung executive who was also approached by Chinese agents to work at a Chinese semiconductor firm.

“This case is an alarm bell to major South Korean tech companies and South Korea itself. Technicians, researchers and engineers at Samsung and SK are being targeted by Chinese agents. The main concern is understanding the whereabouts of skilled workers and knowledge is much harder than controlling the movement of products through restrictive measures and tightened export controls,” the source noted.

He added, “Semiconductor- and battery-related technologies, viewed as crucial for defense and backbone industries, have become much more difficult to steal or even acquire via acquisition deals, I would presume efforts by the Chinese government to scout skilled semiconductor and battery engineers will accelerate.”

South Korea is home to world-class memory chip and battery manufacturers including LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI, the country is situated to better protect tech intellectual property. Data provided by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) showed 93 cases of suspected industrial espionage were detected from 2018 to last year. The semiconductor, display and battery industries were the prime targets.

A Question Of Ethics

The impact on the country’s economy through the loss of intellectual property is one of the main concerns among South Korean officials. Estimates by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) revealed the annual costs of intellectual property theft for the country are somewhere between KRW56 trillion and KRW60 trillion. China is responsible for at least 85% of that figure.

“Industrial espionage has already become a major flashpoint in U.S.-China relations, and will be the same for Seoul’s relationship with Beijing,” said Park Hyeong-kwan, Professor Of Department of Police Administration at Gachon University.

He added that China’s growing business intelligence targeting of U.S. officials and experienced U.S. business executives has become a major justification for U.S. technology restrictions. If the speculations are proven right, it could only further tarnish the name of China for the wrong reasons.

There is no shame in trying to be self-reliant, but when Intellectual Property Rights are added to the mix, it will be a major public relations crisis for China with the biggest blow directed at ethics.

Samsung may not be spared either — what catalysed the criminal act when the defendant has all the experience and knowledge? This came shortly after the several data leaks thanks to A.I. chatbots.

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