01

Company Trend（Mar. 26）

Qualcomm globally accuses Arm of monopoly

Recently, the chip industry is seeing a major legal battle. Qualcomm filed an antitrust lawsuit against Arm Holdings in the USA, Europe, and South Korea, alleging that Arm limits access to its technologies and changes licensing models in a bid to harm market competition.

Qualcomm believes that Arm, the worlds largest provider of semiconductor IP, has boosted the chip industry with its open licensing model. However, in recent years Arm has begun to limit access to certain key technologies to drive its own chip design business, which not only harms Qualcomms interests but also threatens the health of the semiconductor industry as a whole. Qualcomm points out that Arms move may hinder innovation and limit the development of new products and services, thus deferring the development of the industry as a whole.

Arm denied the accusations, calling Qualcomms move an attempt to shift attention and use regulatory pressure for its own benefit. Arm said that it is committed to innovation, competition, and upholding contract rights and obligations.

The background to the legal dispute is the increased competition between Qualcomm and Arm in the computing semiconductor market. As the growth of the smartphone chip market slows down, both parties are working to benefit from emerging fields from desktop PC to AI system. In addition, Qualcomm previously won the legal battle with Arm in Delaware, where the court ruled that Qualcomm could use Arms technology without a new license.

Currently, the European Commission, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Korea Fair Trade Commission all announced that they will investigate Qualcomms complaints. The legal battle could last for several years, with far-reaching impacts on the core business of both companies.

Comments: Qualcomms antitrust lawsuit against Arm reflects the intensification of the competition in the semiconductor industry and the competition for technology dominance. Arm, as a core supplier of global semiconductor architectures, has laid a cornerstone for the industry with its technology licensing model. However, with the development of emerging technologies such as AI and HPC, Arms technological monopoly is being challenged.

From the perspective of the industry, Qualcomms complaints may trigger broader discussions about monopolistic behaviors in the semiconductor industry around the world. If Qualcomms accusation is substantiated, it may promote regulators to adjust Arms technology licensing model, thus providing more opportunities for other chipmakers. However, if Arm could prove that its actions did not violate any antitrust regulations, the legal battle may further enhance its market position.

For consumers, the result of this legal battle may have an impact on the prices and performance of chip products. If Qualcomm wins the law suit, it may enhance market competition and lower down chip prices, and if Arm wins the case, its status quo will be maintained and the technical threshold will be further increased.

02

Market Trend（Mar. 26）

US chipmakers’ stocks tumble collectively

Recently, the stock prices of all US chipmakers slumped down dramatically, arousing the wide attention of the market. There are complex reasons behind this phenomenon, involving technical shock, market demand changes, policy impact, etc.

On January 17, 2025, the US stock performance saw a sharp drop after the market opened, and especially the tech segment suffered a heavy blow. Market analysis believes that the core reason is the latest breakthrough made by DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, which has shaken the “unrivaled” position of the US technical industry. The AI model developed by DeepSeek achieved top performance using limited hardware resources at very low training costs, resulting in a dramatic drop in demand for high-end GPUs. As a result, Nvidias stock price plummeted by about 17%, Broadcoms stock price fell by 17%, AMDs stock price dropped by 6%, and Microsofts down 2%.

On March 26, 2025, TD Cowen, an investment bank and financial services firm under TD Securities, announced that Microsoft has abandoned a new data center project that consumes 2GW of electricity in the USA and Europe due to the oversupply of computer clusters. The news has raised concerns about the decrease in chip demand, which led to a collective drop in US chip stocks. Philadelphia Semiconductor Index declined by about 3.3%, Nvidia’s stock sunk more than 5.7%, with its market value reduced by US$169.1bn overnight.

Comments:The phenomenon of the collective stock drop of US chipmakers reflects the multiple challenges faced by the current science and technology industry. On the one hand, rapid advances in technology have changed market expectations for conventional high-end chips, and DeepSeek’s success is a typical example. This suggests that chipmakers have to constantly invest more in R&D to cope with the impact of emerging new technologies. On the other hand, fluctuations in market demands and policy uncertainty have caused a profound impact on the chip industry. Microsofts cancellation of the data center project and the US governments export control policies have intensified the market panic.

In the long run, the development of the chip industry is still promising, but the fluctuation of the industry in the short run reminds investors and businesses that they need to assess risk more carefully. For chipmakers, technological innovation and market diversification play a key role in meeting such challenges. At the same time, policymakers should balance national security with industrial development and avoid excessive intervention that may cause unnecessary harm to the industry.

03

Company Trend（Mar. 27）

TSMCs advanced packaging gains its edge again, with SoIC technology as a new focus

TSMC further consolidates its leading position in advanced packaging, and its SoIC (System-on-Integrated Chip) packaging technology is becoming a new focus in the market. According to reports of Taiwan media, Nvidias next-gen Rubin AI architecture will adopt SoIC packaging technology for the first time, which indicates that this technology has promising applications in high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI).

SoIC technology further reduces the internal circuit space and costs by integrating multiple chip modules of different functions and constructs into a single, high-performance package. Compared to traditional SoC (System-on-Chip) technology, SoIC allows for more flexible designs and can be optimized for specific applications. At present, AMD is already using the SoIC package in its Instinct MI300 series, and Apple also plans to introduce SoIC into its M5 chip that will be launched in H2 2025.

To meet market demands, TSMC is accelerating the expansion of its advanced packaging capacity. Its AP8 plant in Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) and AP7 plant in Chiayi are expected to go live in H2 2025, with AP8 plant focusing on the expansion of CoWoS capacity and AP7 plant focusing on SoIC capacity. It is expected that TSMCs SoIC capacity will reach 15,000 units to 20,000 units by the end of 2025 and is scheduled to be doubled by 2026.

In addition, TSMC is actively developing next-gen packaging technologies, such as CPO technology, which combines CoWoS packaging and silicon photonics to meet the demands of AI and HPC applications for high-speed data transmission and low-power consumption. It is expected that CPO will pass validation in 2025 and will be fully deployed in 2026.

Comments:TSMCs edging position in advanced packaging is further consolidated, and the wide application and capacity expansion of SoIC shows its strong competitiveness in HPC and AI chip markets. SoIC not only improves chip performance and integration level but also reduces costs, which enable chipmakers to have greater design flexibility. As large customers like AMD, Apple and Nvidia all turn to SoIC, TSMC is expected to further expand its market share in advanced packaging.

Additionally, TSMCs layout of CPO technology shows its keen insight into future technology trends. The development and promotion of CPO technology will further enhance TSMCs competitiveness in the fields of data center and HPC. However, as the complexity of advanced packaging technology increases, TSMC also needs to keep balance between R&D, capacity expansion, and supply chain management to cope with increasingly fierce competition in the market.

04

Company Trend（Mar. 27）

Pall helps improve chip yield as "Invisible player" of chipmaking industry

As the chipmaking industry enters the sub-nanometer era, the semiconductor manufacturing industry faces new challenges. Therefore, filtration and purification processes have become key links. Cleanliness directly affects the utilization efficiency, operating performance, and production costs of chips, and contamination can lead to reduced productivity or lower chip yield. As a result, high-precision filtration plays a critical role in the chipmaking chain, involving the optical system of EUV mask aligner, nanoscale coating of photoresist and uniformity control of CMP grinding fluid.

In the past two years, Pall has frequently developed its business in the Asia-Pacific region, forming a stable and efficient "iron triangle" system. Its Beijing plant is responsible for gas filtration and chemical machinery grinding products, its Japanese plant is dedicated to lithographic and wet chemistry products, and its Singapore plant specializes in lithography and wet process products. These arrangements enable Pall to respond more efficiently to the needs of domestic semiconductor customers and further enhance its competitiveness in the global market.

Pall’s four new products play an important role in improving chip yield:

Xpress® 1nm filter: the filter adopts 1nm PTFE membrane technology, can effectively remove organic contaminants and surface particles in liquid, significantly shorten flushing time, and ensure high purity of wet chemicals; Gaskleen® TM 1.5nm gas filter: the filter, made with PTFE and coating material composite technology, can intercept ultra-fine particles in gas and improve process stability; UCA 50nm filter: the filter, specially designed for CMP applications, can remove 50 nm agglomerated particles and gels in grinding fluids, and reduce process defect rate; Photokleen® sub 1nm filter: the filter adopts ultra-low-precipitated HDPE membrane, can intercept residual particles, metal ions and organic matter in photoresist to help EUV lithography and other advanced processes.

Comments:Pall has remarkable performance in the field of chipmaking. Its technical strength and innovative achievements in terms of filtration and purification processes provide important support to the semiconductor industry. By building a localized "Iron Triangle" supply chain system, Pall not only improved its market competitiveness but also provided more efficient and stable support to domestic semiconductor companies. In addition, Pall’s CIP solutions and the full-cycle services of the SLS team further demonstrate its close attention to customer needs and contribution to the industry. In the future, as chipmaking technology continues to advance, Pall is expected to continuously leverage its advantages in filtration technology to help the semiconductor industry achieve higher yield and better development.

05

Domestic News（Mar. 25）

TSMC to mass produce 2nm chips in H2 this year, with monthly capacity up to 50,000 units by the end of this year

TSMC has made another major breakthrough in advanced process technology, and it is steadily advancing its 2nm chip production plan. According to the latest report, TSMC will mass produce 2nm chips simultaneously at Hsinchu Baoshan Plant (Fab 20) and Kaohsiung Plant (Fab 22) in H2 2025. At present, the yield of 2nm chips made at Hsinchu Baoshan plant has exceeded 60%, which laid a solid foundation for mass production.

Compared with current 3nm chip, TSMC’s 2nm chip, based on the Nanosheet transistor architecture, has faster performance (up 10%-15%) at the same power consumption, or has lower power consumption (down 25%-30%) at the same speed. This technological advance will significantly improve the performance of smartphones, data centers, AI, and HPC. In addition, TSMC plans to reduce its customers R&D costs in using 2nm process and further strengthen its leading position in the wafer foundry market by providing CyberShuttle service.

Although the 2nm process technology brings forth remarkable performance increase, but its R&D cost and production cost are rather high. The cost of each unit of 2nm wafer is estimated to be US$30,000. In addition, TSMC also needs to cope with the dual challenges of rising yield and capacity expansion.

06

Domestic News（Mar. 25）

CSTIC 2025: Industry, university, and research institute co-unlock “chip” skills of the full semiconductor industry chain

On March 25, the two-day Conference of Science & Technology for Integrated Circuits (CSTIC) 2025 was concluded at Shanghai International Convention Center. This conference was jointly hosted by SEMI and IEEE-EDS, bringing together more than 100 world’s leading industry and academic experts. The conference focuses on in-depth exploring IC design, semiconductor devices and integration, nanofilm, lithography, etching, CMP, packaging & testing, AI and IC manufacturing and other cutting-edge technology topics, aiming to inject new momentum into the semiconductor industry to break technical bottlenecks and speed up the process of localization.

Lung Chu, President of SEMI China and Vice President of SEMI, pointed out in his welcome speech that the semiconductor industry experienced a downward cycle in 2023, with sales down about 11%, but 2024 saw a strong rebound, with sales up 19%, reaching US$628bn. In 2025, the global semiconductor sales amount is expected to grow by double-digit, and it will reach the milestone of a trillion dollars in 2030. Therefore, we are ushering in a golden age of the semiconductor industry.

Since the beginning of 2025, the world has been facing changes not seen in a century. We can clearly observe three megatrends and they have extremely far-reaching effects and changes on the industry.

The first megatrend is the dramatic changes in international geopolitics. The semiconductor industry has long been a microcosm of globalization. The supply chain of the industry depends on the cross-regional division of labor. However, the recent geopolitical changes are reshaping the landscape of the industry. Although the restructuring has brought new opportunities, they are also accompanied by rising costs, market volatility and obstacles to international cooperation. For countries and companies, they shall keep strategic flexibility and make forward-looking layouts at the technical and policy levels to adapt to this new landscape.

The second megatrend is the subversion of the global economic and trade landscape. Higher tariffs and other trade barriers have imposed a significant impact on the semiconductor industry, including rising costs, increased supply chain risks and market fragmentation.

The third megatrend is that AI is changing everything. Since the advent of tools such as ChatGPT, Sora and DeepSeek, the social landscape has changed rapidly. Especially DeepSeeks open-source model has triggered a wave of AI applications. These applications require unprecedented computing power – GPU, high-performance chip and dedicated ASIC. At the same time, AI-related chips are the most important new engines driving the semiconductor industry forward. The capex and equipment investment of the global semiconductor industry will continue to boost the industry.

07

Domestic News（Mar. 26）

SEMICON China 2025 Opening Keynote: Semiconductor technology innovation and AI-enabled panoramic analysis of new industry ecology

On March 26, 2025, SEMICON China 2025, the largest, the highest level, and the most comprehensive annual semiconductor technology conference of the world officially opened in Shanghai. The opening keynote brings together top players of the global semiconductor industry to jointly explore the future directions of semiconductor technology innovation, AI empowerment and the new ecosystem of the industry.

Lung Chu, President of SEMI China and Vice President of SEMI pointed out in his welcome speech that the semiconductor industry experienced a downward cycle in 2023 but the market saw a strong rebound in 2024, with sales growth up 19%, reaching US$628bn. It is expected that global semiconductor sales will reach US$1trn by 2030, a milestone to be achieved sooner than expected. Lung Chu stressed that technology iteration is the core engine to drive the development of the semiconductor industry. Especially at present 60 years after the birth of Moores Law, the semiconductor industry is ushering in an unprecedented golden age.

The rapid development of AI technology is transforming the semiconductor industry deeply. With the popularity of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek and others, AI has become a new engine driving the growth of the semiconductor industry. The development in AI-related fields not only requires stronger chip computing power but also drives the semiconductor industry to develop in a more efficient and intelligent manner. Zheng Li, director & CEO of JCET, said in his speech that the explosion of AI technology will push the global semiconductor market to stably enter the scale of US$1trn, of which generative AI will become the main driving force.

In the context of AI empowerment, advanced packaging technology will become the key to the development of the semiconductor industry. Dr. Bai Peng, President of Hua Hong Semiconductor, mentioned in his speech that with the Moore’s Law approaching limits, the importance of heterogeneous integration (HI) and advanced package (AP) technology becomes more remarkable. Choon Khoon Lim (CK), CEO of Semiconductor Solutions Advanced Packaging (AP), ASMPT Limited, also pointed out that AP and HI will become the key to advancing the development of high-end computing module. It is estimated that the capacity of CoWoS (the mainstream technology of packaging HBM) will be doubled by 2025.