Nvidia Surpasses Samsung Electronics to Become Global Semiconductor No. 1… SK Hynix 4th
Nvidia surpassed Intel and Samsung Electronics to take the top spot in semiconductor supplier sales last year. Samsung Electronics held onto second place, beating Intel, which was first last year, and SK Hynix, which is growing thanks to its competitiveness in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), rose to fourth place globally.
According to market research firm Gartner on the 11th, global semiconductor sales in 2024 will total $655.9 billion, up 21.0% from the previous year ($542.1 billion). This is about $30 billion more than the preliminary survey forecast announced earlier this year. The ranking of semiconductor suppliers has also changed according to the change in figures.
Gartner initially predicted that Samsung Electronics would overtake Intel and reclaim the top spot, but in the final survey, Nvidia rose sharply.
TSMC secretly supplied semiconductors to Huawei… faces $1 billion fine
Taiwan’s TSMC could be fined up to $1 billion (about 1.47 trillion won) for secretly supplying semiconductors to China’s Huawei to avoid U.S. sanctions, Reuters reported on the 9th.
This investigation began last year when it was confirmed that AI chips manufactured by Chinese semiconductor design company Sophgo at TSMC’s request were used in Huawei’s high-performance AI chip, the Ascend 910B. Sophgo is suspected of acting as Huawei’s proxy designer to avoid U.S. export controls. On the surface, Sophgo is a company related to cryptocurrency mining company Bitmain, but in reality, it designed semiconductors for Huawei.
US semiconductor company Micron to impose ‘tariff’ on some products
Reuters reported on the 8th (local time) that Micron, a U.S. semiconductor company, decided to impose additional fees on some of its products due to the “Trump tariffs” starting on the 9th. With the large-scale reciprocal tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump imminent, companies are passing on the increased costs due to the tariffs to their customers.
Sources said Micron recently informed its U.S. customers of its plans to raise prices for memory modules and solid-state drives (SSDs). Micron has factories primarily in Asia, including China, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore, and imports products made in those factories to the U.S.
BASF in Germany opens electronic materials research center in Ansan
BASF, a global chemical company from Germany, has opened an electronic materials research center within the BASF Korea plant in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.
Gyeonggi Province announced on the 7th that it held an opening ceremony for the research center on the 4th with around 50 people in attendance, including Lothar Raupichler, Senior Vice President of BASF’s Electronic Materials Business Unit, Jens Liebermann, Vice Mayor of Ansan Kim Dae-soon, and Gyeonggi Province International Cooperation Bureau Director Park Geun-gyun.
The newly opened research institute is an extension of the research institute that BASF established and operated in Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon in 2014, and moved to the Ansan plant. BASF plans to invest 50 billion won over the next five years to operate a cutting-edge semiconductor materials research institute and introduce new research projects.
SK to push for sale of SK Siltron… Choi Tae-won’s stake excluded
SK Group is considering selling the management rights of SK Siltron, a semiconductor wafer manufacturer, as part of a rebalancing (business restructuring) process. According to industry sources on the 9th, SK Group’s holding company SK Corp. is in negotiations with private equity fund Han & Company regarding the sale of SK Siltron’s management rights.
The sale target is a total of 70.6%, including a 51% stake directly held by SK Corporation and a 19.6% stake held through a TRS (total return swap) contract. It is known that the remaining 29.4% held by SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won was excluded from this sale.
Sijitronics secures mass production technology for MCT high-power semiconductors
Semiconductor component manufacturer Sigitronics announced on the 10th that it has succeeded in mass producing the ‘MOS Controlled Thyristor (MCT),’ a silicon-based high-power switch capable of high-speed switching.
MCT is a cutting-edge power semiconductor boasting the fastest switching speed among the thyristor series power semiconductors, and this mass production is a case where the company succeeded in producing it entirely domestically using its own FAB facilities.
The self-developed MCT has a withstand voltage of over 1400 V, low power loss, and switching characteristics with an instantaneous operating power of over 2 kilowatts (kW), demonstrating excellent pulse power characteristics. Currently, this product is only produced by some companies in the United States, and is an export license (EL) item with strict export controls.
SKIET to supply membrane fabric in North America…300,000 electric vehicles
SK IE Technology (hereinafter referred to as SKIET) will supply electric vehicle battery separator fabric to global customers for North American projects.
SKIET announced on the 10th that it has started supplying membrane fabric to new projects in North America starting this month. SKIET plans to supply the equivalent of up to 300,000 electric vehicles by next year.
According to the terms of the contract between the two companies, details such as the customer name and the specific contract amount will not be disclosed.
January-February Non-Chinese Electric Vehicle Sales 955,000 Units… Volkswagen 1st Place, Surpassing Tesla
The number of newly registered electric vehicles in countries around the world, excluding China, in January and February increased by 18.3% year-on-year to about 955,000. In particular, the German Volkswagen Group surpassed Tesla, the undisputed number one, to take first place.
According to market research firm SNE Research on the 11th, global electric vehicle sales (excluding China) in January and February this year were tallied at approximately 955,000 units. This figure includes plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) in addition to pure electric vehicles (BEVs).
By brand, Volkswagen Group sold 158,000 units, up 65.7% year-on-year, surpassing Tesla to take first place. Volkswagen ID series, Audi Q4 e-tron, and Skoda Enyaq led sales. In particular, Europe and North America recorded high growth rates of 65% and 72%, respectively.
‘Musk’s arch-rival’ Bezos secretly invests in electric car startup
TechCrunch, an information technology (IT) media outlet, reported on the 8th (local time) that Bezos is funding Slate Auto, headquartered in Michigan, USA. The company, founded in 2022, was created as part of a project called ‘Rebuild Manufacturing’, which was created with the goal of revitalizing manufacturing in the United States. Rebuild Manufacturing was co-founded by Bezos and Jeff Wilkie, former CEO of Amazon’s global consumer division.
Slate Auto has been quietly operating without much publicity, but TechCrunch reports that it has hired hundreds of employees from companies like Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, and Harley-Davidson, and that the company aims to develop a two-seat electric pickup truck that could sell for $25,000 by next year.
Dongwon Systems issues corporate bonds worth 60 billion won
Dongwon Systems succeeded in raising funds thanks to the growth potential of new businesses such as battery materials. As demand for corporate bond investment increased, the issuance volume increased and interest rates also decreased.
Dongwon Systems announced on the 10th that it will issue 60 billion won worth of corporate bonds with a three-year maturity on the 14th. The funds raised through the corporate bond issuance will be used to repay existing corporate bonds and for operating funds.
In the demand forecast conducted on the 3rd, approximately 242 billion won was raised, far exceeding the target amount. Due to the success of the demand forecast, the size of the corporate bond issuance was increased from 40 billion won to 60 billion won. In the case of Dongwon Systems, 40% of the sales in the materials sector last year were exported, proving its global competitiveness. In addition, it has secured market dominance by producing approximately 50% of the domestic glass bottles.
KGAE Completes 1st FAT of All-Solid-State Battery Equipment for Global Enterprises
KGA, which is currently pursuing a merger with Samsung SPEC No. 9, announced on the 10th that it has successfully completed the first FAT (Factory Acceptance Test) of electrode process equipment supplied to a global solid-state battery specialist in the United States. KGA is currently conducting the second FAT with an intermediate customer.
FAT is a step to verify whether the equipment is operating normally before delivery to the customer. Normally, after passing the first and second tests, it is installed at the customer site and SAT (site acceptance test) is conducted. SAT is the final step to confirm the performance of the equipment in the actual operating environment.
The equipment to be supplied is a coater and a slitter, which are core process equipment for manufacturing all-solid-state battery electrodes. The coater is a device that evenly applies electrode slurry mixed with positive and negative active materials, conductive materials, and binders onto a thin film current collector and then dries it with hot air. The slitter is a device that precisely cuts electrodes to fit the size of the battery pack.
Jeil M&S, on the verge of delisting after just one year
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 7th, Jeil M&S recently became subject to delisting after its auditor, Woori Accounting Corporation, refused to provide an audit opinion, and trading was suspended. Jeil M&S is a company that manufactures mixing equipment necessary for the electrode process in the secondary battery manufacturing process. When its main customer, the Swedish battery company Northvolt, went bankrupt, its performance plummeted.
Last year, the operating loss reached 129.6 billion won based on the consolidated figures. It turned into a large deficit from the operating profit of 1.8 billion won the year before. Northvolt filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States last November and looked for ways to raise funds, but ultimately failed to revive the company.
KNS signs supply contract for ‘next-generation high-power cylindrical battery inspection equipment’
KNS announced on the 8th that it signed a contract to supply a tapless design-specific inspection equipment applicable to a new high-power cylindrical battery product with a major domestic battery manufacturer. The contract size is approximately 1.2 billion won. This battery is a high-power cylindrical product with a 50-ampere rating, and is a next-generation product with significantly improved energy density and current output compared to the existing 21700 cell.
The core technology applied to the battery is the tabless design. It is a structure that multiplexes the current path by processing the electrode tip into multiple tabs, which can increase the output by up to 40% compared to the existing design. The company explained that since the performance is determined by the alignment and uniformity of the tabs, the role of equipment that precisely inspects this at the beginning of the process is important.
A2Z autonomous shuttle ‘Roy’ wins Future Mobility Award
The Seoul Mobility Show Organizing Committee announced on the 11th that it had awarded the grand prize of the ‘Future Mobility Award’ to autonomous driving startup Autonomous A2Z.
‘ROii’, presented by Autonomous A2Z, is an on-demand autonomous driving shuttle designed to solve urban traffic problems. It can travel up to 240 km with a 70 kWh (kilowatt-hour) battery.
It received favorable reviews for its wheelchair-friendly design and emergency response system, as well as its triple sensor system consisting of lidar, radar and camera.
DGIST Startup ‘Its Sensor’ Proves Autonomous Robot Technology… Secures 2.1 Billion Won in Government Subsidies
DGIST announced on the 11th that Itssensa was simultaneously selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ ‘2025 Ultra-Gap Startup 1000+ Project’ and the Ministry of Science and ICT’s ‘Strategic Technology Research Results Commercialization Project’, securing up to 2.1 billion won in government support.
ItsSensor is a DGIST technology start-up company that possesses unique technological capabilities in the fields of high-precision sensors and sensing solutions.
The OTS sensor developed by Itssensor is a technology that has implemented ultra-precision position recognition performance of less than 0.3 mm, and autonomous driving robots based on it have also achieved commercialization results, such as being delivered to a first-tier partner of global big tech company A in February.
Unmanned Solution Obtains Temporary Permit for Autonomous Driving of 1-ton Truck
Unmanned Solution recently obtained a temporary autonomous driving operation permit for a 1-ton truck. Previously, temporary operation permits were mainly issued for passenger vehicles such as passenger cars, vans, and minibuses, but with this permit, the application of autonomous driving technology has expanded to the area of cargo vehicles mainly used by small business owners.
Unmanned Solution is participating in the R&D project of the ‘Development of Safety Evaluation Technology for Driving and Collision Situation Response’ among the Autonomous Driving Technology Development Innovation Projects (Main Ministry: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Specialized Institution: Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement, Management Institution: Autonomous Driving Technology Development Innovation Division, Main R&D Institution: Korea Transportation Safety Authority Automobile Safety Research Institute), and is currently collecting data to enhance autonomous driving functions.
Baemin Invests 14.3 Billion Won in Autonomous Robots
According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system on the 9th, Woowa Brothers recognized approximately KRW 14.3 billion in development costs as intangible assets last year. This is a more than four-fold increase from approximately KRW 3.2 billion in 2023. The main reason is that the costs used to develop Dili were recognized as intangible assets.
The Korean International Financial Reporting Standards stipulate that among R&D (research and development) costs, ‘research expenses’ used in the research stage with relatively high uncertainty are accounted for as expenses, and ‘development expenses’ used in the development stage where certain requirements are met are recognized as intangible assets. Last year, Woowa Brothers’ development expenses of 14.3 billion won were recognized as intangible assets as they met the requirements, such as securing the feasibility of the technology and proving the method of creating economic benefits in the future.
Nearslab wins ‘IR52 Jang Yeong-sil Award’ for vision AI-based flight control technology
Drone artificial intelligence (AI) company NearsLab announced on the 11th that it had won the 106th ‘IR52 Jang Yeong-sil Award’ hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT in recognition of the innovation of its vision AI-based flight control technology.
The Jang Yeong-sil Award is an industrial technology award given to companies and research organizations with excellent new technology products and research achievements.
Vision AI-based flight control technology detects targets and generates flight paths using only cameras mounted on drones without expensive lidar sensors. It is a core element that forms the basis of all Nearslab products. Nearslab was first put into practical use in the field of wind turbine inspection, and was implemented as a mobile-based autonomous inspection solution, Nearswind Mobile. Users can perform autonomous flight missions on general commercial drones simply by installing an app.
LG Display Confirms Guangzhou LCD Sale Price of 2.2 Trillion Won
LG Display announced on the 11th that the final sale price agreed upon with China TCL subsidiary CSOT is approximately KRW 2.2466 trillion, and that as of the 1st, the financial statements of the large LCD panel and module factory in Guangzhou were separated and transferred to CSOT.
The amount has increased by about 200 billion won compared to the 2.256 trillion won announced at the time of signing the contract in September last year. This is due to the reflection of last year’s business results and the rise in the exchange rate from 187.56 won per yuan to 200.82 won. The sale price is scheduled to be paid within the year.
The factory was transferred to CSOT. CSOT is known to have named the Guangzhou factory ‘T11’. CSOT acquired both the 80% stake in the Guangzhou factory owned by LG Display and the 20% stake owned by the Guangzhou local government, and now owns 100% of the shares.
FineMTech to Develop ‘High-Strength, High-Heat Dissipation’ Material Technology for AI Flexible Displays
FineMTech, a foldable display backplate specialist, has been selected for the ‘Electronic Components Industry Technology Development (R&D)’ project hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and will be promoting research and development worth a total of 7.2 billion won.
According to FineMTech on the 10th, the task selected this time is ‘Development of high-strength, high-heat dissipation materials and component technologies for Onbios AI flexible displays’, and aims to secure high-performance materials and component technologies required in the next-generation display industry.
In particular, the development of core material technologies that can simultaneously implement high durability and heat control performance in flexible display applications combined with AI-based on-bios technology is key.
LG Display President Jeong Cheol-dong Purchases Additional 10,000 Shares of Company Stock
According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system on the 7th, President Jeong purchased 10,000 shares of LG Display stock on the day. At 8,282 won per share, the total is 82.82 million won. The stocks held by President Jeong increased to a total of 60,000 shares, including 37,540 shares of our company stock subscribed to during the company’s paid-in capital increase in March of last year.
He has been consistently purchasing company stocks, including through paid capital increase, and has expressed confidence in improving performance. This is the third time that President Jeong has purchased company stocks since taking office as CEO at the end of 2023. He also purchased 12,460 shares of the company’s stocks on the market in January of this year.
MagnaChip decides to liquidate display business… ‘All-in’ on power semiconductors
MagnaChip Semiconductor has liquidated its display driver IC (DDIC) business and is restructuring its business to focus all its capabilities on the power semiconductor business. This is interpreted as a decision to strengthen business competitiveness amid rapidly increasing demand for power semiconductors in high-growth markets such as automobiles, industrial equipment, AI data centers, and renewable energy.
According to the electronics industry on the 8th, MagnaChip has decided to liquidate its display business and transform into a pure power semiconductor company. The display business will be classified as a discontinued business starting from the time it announces its first quarter 2025 performance, and the liquidation process is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter.
Source: kipost.net