Hanwha Semiconductor Establishes Organization Dedicated to Semiconductor Equipment Development
Hanwha Semiconductor announced on the 1st that it has carried out an organizational restructuring to enhance its capabilities, including establishing a dedicated organization to develop next-generation semiconductor equipment and significantly increasing its technical personnel.
In this reorganization, the company created a new ‘Advanced Packaging Equipment Development Center.’ The center plans to focus on developing new technologies such as hybrid bonding in the future.
Previously, Hanwha Semiconductor joined the ‘NVIDIA supply chain’ by successfully mass producing TC bonders worth 42 billion won in March. The company explained that this reorganization reflects its will to respond to the rapidly increasing demand for TC bonders and develop next-generation technologies that can lead the global market in the future.
General purpose DRAM prices rebound after 5 months… ‘Hoarding’ due to semiconductor tariff variables
According to market research firm DRAMeXchange on the 1st, the average fixed transaction price of general-purpose PC DRAM products last month was tallied at $1.65, up 22.22% from the March price. DRAM prices plunged twice in September (-17.07%) and November (-20.59%) last year, then remained flat until March of this year. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on that day, semiconductor exports increased significantly last month, reaching $11.7 billion (approximately KRW 16.6783 trillion). This is the highest export performance in April ever.
The average fixed transaction price is the average price set by semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix when supplying to large customers. It is interpreted that the price increased as PC manufacturers began to purchase semiconductors in large quantities as their memory inventory began to run out.
ISC acquires semiconductor post-processing equipment business
ISC, a semiconductor test solution company, announced on the 30th that it will acquire SK Enpulse’s semiconductor post-processing equipment company ‘Isemi’ and PCB (printed circuit board) supplier ‘Techdream’. Through this, the company will expand its business portfolio centered on AI (artificial intelligence) semiconductors.
According to the company, the acquisition amount is a total of 41.3 billion won. With this acquisition, IS has secured a high value-added equipment lineup including module testers, high-speed burn-in testers, and HBM (high bandwidth memory) manufacturing materials essential for AI accelerator testing. The company explained that this is evaluated as a strategic move to expand its business area beyond the existing semiconductor test socket-centered business structure to the post-process equipment and material markets.
Apple: “Current Tariff Costs $900 Million… 19 Billion Semiconductors Supplied from the US”
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a conference call on the 1st, “If there are no new tariffs or other major changes, we expect to incur $900 million in tariff costs this quarter (April-June).” He added, “There are some special factors that favor the June quarter, so this estimate should not be used to forecast future quarters,” but added, “After June, it is very difficult to predict because we have no certainty about tariffs.”
This means that while responding to the Donald Trump administration’s ‘back and forth’ reciprocal tariff policy, it is inevitable that costs will increase and uncertainty still remains. In particular, the figure of a loss of $900 million is calculated only with the ‘basic tariff’ of 20% on China and 10% on other countries and changes in the supply chain, while tariffs on IT devices in general, including iPhones, have been postponed, so the market shock is significant.
China’s Huawei Develops High-Performance AI Semiconductor That ‘Surprisingly’ Surpasses Nvidia
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 27th (local time), citing sources, that Huawei is in the early stages of developing its latest AI semiconductor, the ‘Ascend 910D’.
The source said that Huawei has contacted Chinese technology companies to test the technical feasibility of this new AI chip, and that it expects to receive the first sample products as early as the end of May. The source also said that Huawei expects this new AI chip to have more powerful performance than Nvidia’s flagship product, the ‘H100’.
Huawei has been known to have successfully developed the Ascent ‘910B’ and ‘910C’ so far. The 910B has already been successfully commercialized and is being sold on the market.
Intel Won’t Give Up Foundry: “We Will Mass Produce 1.8nm Semiconductors Within the Year”
Intel CEO Lip Bu Tan said at the ‘Intel Foundry Direct Connect 2025’ event held at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, USA on the 29th (local time), “We are doing our best to make Intel Foundry a success.” This is a statement intended to dispel market concerns about Intel Foundry, which has been suffering from deficits.
“Intel is the only company that conducts both cutting-edge semiconductor R&D and manufacturing in the U.S.,” he said. “We will continue to improve our manufacturing capabilities.” He continued, “The most important thing is 18A.”
“SK Hynix expected to outpace Samsung Electronics in semiconductor plant construction costs this year”
According to SEMI (formerly the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International), SK Hynix’s construction cost for its semiconductor plant this year (net construction cost excluding equipment investment) is expected to be $2.8 billion (about 4 trillion won), up 80.6% from the previous year (1.55 billion dollars). On the other hand, Samsung Electronics’ construction cost is estimated to be $2.35 billion (about 3.35 trillion won), down 64.6% from the previous year (6.645 billion dollars).
It is unusual for SK Hynix to be ahead of Samsung Electronics, which operates a foundry (semiconductor consignment manufacturing) business in addition to memory, in terms of construction costs. This appears to be due to the difference in the investment speeds of the two companies.
Lotte Innovate EVSIS, US Electric Vehicle Charger Supply Contract
Lotte Innovation announced on the 30th that its subsidiary EVSIS America had won a contract worth a total of 5 billion won to supply electric vehicle chargers in the United States.
EVSIS established a corporation in California, USA last year, and signed contracts to supply a total of 120 chargers to charging station operators in the US from January to recently, the company explained.
EVSIS Americas plans to target the niche market in the U.S. with rapid chargers as its main focus. The U.S. currently has a charging network built around slow chargers, but demand for rapid chargers continues to grow as the EV penetration rate increases.
LG Ensol, All-in on ‘US ESS’ instead of electric vehicles in the fog… “Comparative advantage in China”
LG Energy Solution plans to focus on expanding its US energy storage system (ESS) battery business this year. While the electric vehicle market is expected to have difficulty recovering demand amid significant external uncertainties such as tariffs, ESS is expected to benefit from the de-China trend.
On the 30th, LG Energy Solution shared this business plan during the first quarter performance announcement conference call this year.
Lee Chang-sil, CFO of LG Energy Solution, said, “Due to changes in tariff policies, electric vehicle OEMs are expected to manage their inventories conservatively, and it is inevitable that sales in the second quarter will decrease to a certain extent compared to the previous quarter.” He added, “There will be a burden of fixed costs, but we are meticulously pursuing cost reductions, and we are trying to increase sales centered on high-margin projects, and we will strive to strengthen profitability based on ESS produced locally in the U.S.
LX Semicon begins mass production of electric vehicle component heat sink boards
LX Semicon held a ceremony to commemorate the shipment of eco-friendly vehicle heatsink boards at the LX Semicon Siheung Campus in Gyeonggi Province on the 30th. The heatsink board factory’s production capacity is 250,000 pieces per year, and LX Semicon plans to expand it to 500,000 pieces by the end of next year. LX Semicon has invested approximately KRW 100 billion over the past five years to mass produce products.
Heat sinks are a key component in the manufacture of electric vehicles that quickly dissipate heat generated from semiconductor chips to the outside. The industry is expected to grow rapidly along with the expansion of electric vehicle distribution.
“Now, electric cars are BYD”… Global sales surpass Tesla for 2 consecutive quarters
According to industry sources on the 29th, BYD recorded 416,400 electric vehicle sales in the first quarter of this year. Tesla sold 336,600 units during the same period. BYD also surpassed Tesla in electric vehicle sales in the fourth quarter of last year. The two companies recorded sales of 595,413 units and 495,570 units in the fourth quarter, respectively. Last year, the annual sales volume was 1.76 million units for BYD and 1.78 million units for Tesla, narrowing the gap to 20,000 units.
BYD’s performance has also improved significantly. Net profit in the first quarter of this year was 9.2 billion yuan (about 1.8 trillion won), doubling from 4.6 billion yuan (about 900 billion won) in the first quarter of last year. Quarterly sales were 170.4 billion yuan (about 33 trillion won), up 36.4% year-on-year. It still falls short of Hyundai Motor (44 trillion won), but it has surpassed Kia (28 trillion won).
“LG’s withdrawal of investment plan is a shock to Indonesia’s electric vehicle hub ambitions”
The Jakarta Post reported on the 29th that Indonesia’s ambition to become a global electric vehicle hub was dealt a blow when the LG consortium centered around LG Energy Solution withdrew its investment plan in the electric vehicle battery value chain construction project promoted by the Indonesian government.
LG Energy Solution signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Indonesian government in 2020 and decided to pursue a grand package project that will cover nickel mine mining, refining, precursors, cathode materials, and battery cell production.
The Jakarta Post cited the slowdown in demand for electric vehicles as the primary reason why LG Energy Solution ultimately decided to pull out of the business. The explanation is that the project was withdrawn due to the deteriorating battery market conditions caused by the recent electric vehicle chasm (temporary stagnation in demand) and the rapid changes in investment conditions caused by the tariff war.
Evermore Opens Battery R&D and Production Hub in Naju
Evermore Technologies, a next-generation battery materials company, announced on the 25th that it has opened the ‘Evermore Arc Center’, a next-generation battery development and prototype production base, in Naju, Jeollanam-do.
Evermore is a global energy materials company headquartered in New York, USA, with a vertically integrated development system from material synthesis to cell manufacturing, electrolyte development, and performance verification. Evermore’s main silicon anode material can provide up to 10 times more theoretical capacity (3600 mAh/g) than existing graphite-based anode materials, and is attracting attention as a key next-generation material that will expand the driving range of electric vehicles and improve the performance of high-density small devices.
Hydrogen cars exceed 50,000 units… Urgent need to secure charging stations in urban areas
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, as of the end of March, the cumulative number of hydrogen electric vehicles distributed domestically was 39,216 units, and is on the verge of exceeding 40,000 units.
This year, the government has finalized a total of 721.8 billion won in purchase subsidies for 11,000 passenger cars and 2,000 hydrogen buses, and the cumulative number of registered vehicles is expected to easily exceed 50,000. Domestic hydrogen electric vehicles began to increase in earnest after Hyundai Motor Company launched the passenger model ‘Nexo’ in 2018. Although the supply of hydrogen vehicles is steadily increasing, expanding urban charging infrastructure remains a major task.
Currently, there are only 218 hydrogen charging stations nationwide, and there is still a shortage of charging stations in metropolitan areas due to difficulties in securing installation sites.
Google Waymo, Toyota Seeking Cooperation on Self-Driving Cars
According to foreign media outlets such as TechCrunch on the 29th (local time), Waymo and Toyota are exploring the development of a dedicated robotaxi vehicle platform in the future and the possibility of installing autonomous driving technology in general consumer vehicles. Specifically, they have decided to jointly develop a new autonomous vehicle designed for ride-sharing in the future and further explore ways to apply autonomous driving technology to general consumer vehicles.
Waymo announced on its blog that “the two companies have entered into a ‘preliminary agreement’ for this.” A preliminary agreement refers to a document or promise in which the two parties agree in advance on the possibility of cooperation, the direction of discussion, and basic principles before entering into the main contract. Although it has little or no legal binding force, it is significant in that it is the starting point of discussions for entering into a formal contract.
StradVision-Axera, Strategic Collaboration to Accelerate Autonomous Driving Innovation
StradVision, a startup developing artificial intelligence (AI)-based image recognition software SVNet, announced on the 29th that it has signed a strategic partnership with high-performance AI system-on-chip (SoC) supplier Axera with the goal of accelerating autonomous driving innovation.
The two companies plan to jointly develop competitive advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving solutions by combining StradVision’s SVNet and Axera’s cutting-edge AI SoC, and accelerate their conquest of global markets including China. This collaboration was officially announced at the ‘2025 Shanghai International Auto Show’ held in Shanghai, China on the 23rd (local time).
Etiphos Obtains V2X Terminal Certification… Full-scale Conquest of Domestic Market
Etiphos announced on the 29th that it has obtained the ‘C-ITS certification’ from the Korea Intelligent Transport Systems Association (ITS Korea), a domestic certification agency, for its V2X (vehicle-to-everything) equipment.
The equipment certified this time is the ‘V2X-AIR’, an onboard unit (OBU) for the aftermarket, which is a LTE-V2X type product adopted by major countries such as the US, Korea, China, and Europe. V2X-AIR is characterized by its easy installation in vehicles and improved user convenience through linkage with smartphone applications. It is evaluated as a product that has improved the price burden, complex installation, and usability issues that were pointed out as initial market entry barriers.
C-ITS certification is a certification that ensures compatibility and communication quality between V2X communication equipment, and is a basic requirement for supplying domestic V2X equipment. This certification acquisition means that V2X-AIR has been recognized as a product that can be sold immediately in the domestic market.
Witz selected as ‘World Class Plus Project’
Witz, a company specializing in power transmission solutions, announced on the 28th that it had been selected as a support target for the ‘World Class Plus Project’ hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
According to the company, the World Class Plus Project is a government-supported project to foster promising export mid-sized companies into global companies. It selects companies with technological prowess and growth potential in key industries such as future mobility, advanced manufacturing, new energy industries, and secondary batteries, and provides support of up to 4 billion won per project for an average of 3 to 4 years. The support includes all-round linked services such as R&D (research and development) project execution, export, finance, and law.
Car center fascia luxury craze… OLED type grows 126%
On the 29th, UBI Research announced in its ‘2025 Automotive Display Technology and Industry Trends Report’ that OLED panel shipments in the global vehicle display panel market last year increased by 126% year-on-year to 2.48 million units.
This is because automakers are increasing the adoption of OLED panels to improve the sophistication and efficiency of vehicle interior design.
Hyundai’s Genesis GV80, released last year, uses a 27-inch OLED display produced by LG Display. In addition, Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Nio will adopt a 15.6-inch OLED and a 14.5-inch OLED display for passengers in its ET9 model in 2025. UBI Research forecasts that vehicle OLED panel shipments will reach 3 million units this year.
Juseong Engineering, transition to a three-person representative director system
Juseong Engineering, a semiconductor, solar energy, and display equipment company, announced on the 28th that it had newly appointed Vice Chairman Lee Woo-kyung and President Hwang Eun-seok as CEOs at a board meeting. Accordingly, the company will be managed by a three-person CEO system, including the existing CEO Hwang Cheol-ju and the two newly appointed members.
Chairman Hwang will focus on research and development. He will also preside over the operation of the board of directors, which presents the company’s future plans and decides on major issues. Vice Chairman Lee will oversee all business and operational matters.
President Hwang, son of Chairman Hwang, plans to oversee all business management and strategic planning.
Philoptics Develops Glass Substrate Core ‘TGV’ Inspection Equipment
Philoptics, a semiconductor and display equipment specialist, announced on the 30th that it has newly developed a ‘TGV (Through Glass Via) inspection device’ that checks the quality of fine processing of glass substrates. It has strengthened its product lineup following the release of four pieces of equipment related to glass substrates, including TGV and singulation.
TGV is a process of processing tiny electrode holes on a glass substrate, and requires a high level of precision. The inspection equipment developed this time serves to verify whether the process has been performed properly.
This equipment is characterized by its ability to quickly and precisely inspect holes in the hundreds of thousands to millions of glass substrates. Previously, the top, middle, and bottom of the hole had to be photographed separately, but Philoptics applied technology that allows the entire image to be analyzed in one shot, thereby improving efficiency. In particular, the accuracy was greatly improved by photographing the hole at an angle to create a three-dimensional 2.5D image.
Source: kipost.net