In July of 2024, global news coverage of critical technologies touched on items, issues and developments including: Italy’s moves into semiconductors; the race for AI-focused chips dominance, both at company and nation-state levels; Indonesia’s growing focus on its critical minerals resources; India’s tech partnership with the United Kingdom; Malaysia’s big-dollar moves to become a global semiconductor and packaging hub; and many more.
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- ‘The Data Center is the New Compute Unit: NVIDIA’s Vision for System-Level Scaling’ / full item
- Download: ‘The Case for Confidential Computing – Delivering Business Value Through Protected, Confidential Data Processing’ from the Linux Foundation / full item
NVIDIA’s lead in design & development: “This little-known NVIDIA programme is backing 4,500 European startups… and over 17,000 around the world…” / full item
- IonQ, a US quantum computing firm, raised $55M in round led by funds backed by Samsung and United Arab Emirates government, with unique room-temperature quantum tech / full item
- Digital twins tech in semiconductors & integrated circuits: “One of the most compelling arguments for digital twins is its potential to replace costly wafer runs with software runs.” / full item
“Italy is gearing up for a major role in European semiconductor production with… plans to invest around €10 billion ($10.7 billion) in the sector this year.” / full item
- Semiconductor funding, globally, in Q2 of 2024 saw 91 startups raise $2.6 billion – here’s a breakdown of companies and categories / full item
“US exports of semiconductors were worth $52.7 billion in 2023, 6th-highest among US exports, behind only refined oil, crude oil, airlines, natural gas and automobiles.” / full item
- Nexperia, semiconductor maker owned by China’s WingTech, to invest $200M in expanding capacity at main production site in Germany, despite growing scrutiny around subsidies / full item
- Etched AI startup raised $120M, focusing on specialised chips for running specific AI models used by OpenAI and Google Gemini, stepping into competition with NVIDIA / full item
- SpaceX unveils backpack-sized Starlink Mini satellite internet antenna / full item
- Available now: Q2 2024 Space Investment Quarterly, looking at activity and space industry trends, from Space Capital / full item
- ‘Space – The $1.8 trillion opportunity for global economic growth’, a report from the World Economic Forum / full item
- Break-up of defunct Russian satellite creates debris cloud in orbit, forcing ISS astronauts to shelter in other docked spacecraft / full item
- Indonesia expands Simbara mineral and coal online tracking system to also track nickel and tin, recognizing geopolitical and technological importance of key minerals / full item
- South Korea: Ministry of SMEs & Startups unveils 15 ‘preliminary unicorns’ and 50 ‘baby unicorns’ selected for Global Unicorn Project, each working in ‘critical growth industries’ / full item
- India and UK partner for tech security initiative, aiming to work closely on crucial technologies and supply chains across critical minerals, AI, semiconductors, telecoms and beyond / full item
- Critical & emerging technologies: Global news in June 2024, touching on semiconductors, artificial intelligence, space launch, satellites, quantum and more / full item
Generative AI & cybersecurity: “[Accenture] has seen roughly a “doubling” of ransomware attacks and a 1,000% increase in phishing attacks over the past 12 months.” / full item
- South Korea: Poen secures $28M Series B with remanufacture of EV waste batteries / full item
- ‘The Data Center is the New Compute Unit: NVIDIA’s Vision for System-Level Scaling’ / full item
‘Underground network smuggles Nvidia’s AI GPUs into China despite US sanctions — some smugglers even sell entire servers’ / full item
- New Zealand: An intro to UneeQ’s Synanim AI animation solution, working with NVIDIA on ‘digital humans’ tech in synthetic voice, language, dialect, pronunciation and beyond / full item
- Q2 2024: Critical & emerging technologies news summary, capturing headlines across April, May and June of 2024 / full item
“This year alone, researchers say, more than 60,000 commercial flights have been hit by bogus GPS signals, which can confuse pilots.” / full item
- India: iVP Semi secures $5M pre-A and unveils chip design center plans for Chennai and Bangalore, alongside licensing semiconductor chip product IP from Taiwan, Japan and the US / full item
- Japan: An interview overview of Rapidus’ goal of becoming a global leader in the highest-value corner of the semiconductors market, the logic chips space / full item
- China: StarShine Semiconductor adds Series B funding of $137.6M with focus on radio frequency filters and modules, with China Mobile and Wenzhou City investment platform taking part / full item
- Singapore moves into semiconductor space with NXP and Vanguard International plans for $7.8BN factory, adding to recent GlobalFoundries and Micron investments / full item
- China: Huawei partners chip foundry, Wuhan Xinxin, and semicon packaging firms for high-bandwidth memory – HBM – chips, aiming for domestic control of AI-focused chips / full item
India’s Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities’ semiconductor opportunity: “”…expenses up to 30% lower than in Tier-1 cities, including employee salaries, real estate, and administrative costs.” / full item
- Japan’s Softbank Group has acquired UK’s AI chip accelerator firm, Graphcore / full item
- SEMICON Taiwan conference and expo is set for September 4-6, looking at all things in microelectronics and with a theme focus on artificial intelligence / full item
Malaysia: “…$5.33BN to transform the nation into a global semiconductor hub… develop an integrated circuit design park in Selangor and a ‘Silicon Island’ off the coast of Penang” / full item
- India’s L&T engineering and infra conglomerate acquires Bengaluru’s SiliConch Systems, a fabless semiconductor design company, fast-tracking L&T’s chips presence / full item
- South Korea: A look at Samsung’s challenges around AI-focused chips, with competitors gaining ground in supplying HBM – high-bandwidth memory – semiconductors to NVIDIA / full item
- Japan: Semiconductor makers including Sony, Mitsubishi and Toshiba planning near $31BN in capital investments to 2029, boosting production of power devices and image sensors / full item
- Japan: Toshiba partners Rohm Co semiconductor manufacturer for $636M investment over 3 years, looking at chips for EV power control and industrial devices / full item
- China: 3rd phase of ‘Big Fund’ has been established with registered capital of $47BN to focus on semiconductors and other strategic, critical and emerging technologies / full item
“…reports indicate that Chinese companies have accessed Nvidia’s latest AI chips… on the US export control list, through overseas servers of American companies Google and Microsoft.” / full item
- Taiwan: AMD, US chip design giant, gains approval for Taiwan R&D center, with local companies to benefit alongside the creation of 1000 jobs / full item
China: “The PRC’s advancements… in photonic technology aim to revolutionize the nation and military with chips potentially 1000 times faster than their electronic counterparts.” / full item
- Taiwan’s ASE Technology Holding Co, world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, to launch new high-end chip testing plant in the US, nearshoring to better serve key US customers / full item
“…the stolen files include details on future AMD products, datasheets, employee and customer databases, property files, firmware, source code, and financial documentation.” / full item
- China’s ByteDance, parent firm of TikTok, is now working with chips firm, Broadcom, on a restrictions-compliant 5 nanometer AI-focused processor design / full item
- South Korea: Gov’t to offer $12.2 billion in loans for semiconductor chipmakers from July, alongside tax breaks for other ‘national strategic technologies’ / full item
- The 2nd Australian Space Week is set for July 22-26 in Adelaide, a showcase of technologies, innovations and more in the space ecosystem / full item
- China’s Tianlong-3 rocket suffered an unintended launch and crash, with parent firm Beijing Tianbing, aka Space Pioneer, acknowledging a structural failure / full item
- China: 7th launch of iSpace Hyperbola-1 solid-fuel rocket fails, dropping successful-launch record to just 3 out of 7 / full item
- Australian Space Week is set for July 22-26, alongside the 17th Australian Space Forum, featuring showcases, seminars, networking and more / full item
Singapore & semiconductors: “Almost all of Micron NAND memory is made in Singapore. NAND contributed $2.1BN to Micron’s revenue last quarter, representing 30% of its revenue.” / full item
- The 2nd Australian Space Week is set for July 22-26 in Adelaide, a showcase of technologies, innovations and more in the space ecosystem / full item
- Australia: NSW Space+ Program grants program launches, in part aiming to showcase Australian space-tech to international stakeholders in 2025 / full item
- China adds a 5th Gaofen-11 hi-res imaging satellite to CHEOS constellation, believed capable of image resolution of around 10cm, likely for both civil and military use / full item
- Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering proposes 21-sat network around the moon to provide real-time, high-precision navigation and monitoring / full item
China: ‘The upper stage of China’s Long March 6A rocket appears to be creating numerous pieces of space debris, adding to the growing issue of orbital debris.’ / full item
- China: State-owned Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Tech preps for launch capability boost with approaching 1st launch of Long March 12, capable of 12000kg payload delivery / full item
“The Cook Islands is experiencing a profound digital transformation touching every aspect of the lives of its 20,000 inhabitants on 15 island groups scattered across 2M square miles…” / full item
- Japan: An overview of the Space Strategy Fund launched earlier this year, a $6 billion, 10-year initiative to boost space-related R&D / full item
- Australia: Gilmour Space rocket developer and satellite launcher to launch a suborbital flight test service in Australia for commercial and defence customers requiring hypersonic speeds / full item
- Japan’s Axelspace Holdings gains Epson and Epson X Investment Corp subsidiary backing in development, manufacturing and operation of microsatellites / full item
- Australia: 4 space research projects received $18M funding as part of the $230M University of South Australia-led iLAuNCH Trailblazer program / full item
- China’s International Lunar Research Station: “We hope to work with 50 countries by inviting 500 foreign scientific research institutions, and 5,000 foreign scientific research personnel…” / full item
- The 17th Australian Space Forum is set for July 24th & 25th in Adelaide Convention Centre / full item
- China’s Chang’e-6 reentry capsule returned to Earth on June 25th, completing 53-day mission and returning with near 2kg of samples from the moon’s far side / full item
- China: First 18 satellites commencing build-out of China’s G60 Starlink mega-constellation of over 12,000 satellites is set for August 5th / full item
- South Korea’s Innospace secures contracts for $1.5M from Italy’s CShark and Thailand’s EOS ORBIT to place satellites into orbit / full item
- SpaceX is in talks with Australian and US officials around landing and recovering Starship rocket off Australia’s coast, possibly a first step toward a bigger presence in the region / full item
- TSMC and ASML near final agreement on purchase of next-gen extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment for semiconductor production, with sights on 1nm process / full item
- Taiwan’s TSMC preps for $10.8 billion plant construction in Germany, targeting production in 2027 and counting Infineon and NXP as both clients and investors / full item
- Taiwan: AMD, US chip design giant, gains approval for Taiwan R&D center, with local companies to benefit alongside the creation of 1000 jobs / full item
- Australia’s Northern Territory Gov’t and Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security ink 2 MOUs to boost critical minerals and energy cooperation / full item
“Italy is gearing up for a major role in European semiconductor production with… plans to invest around €10 billion ($10.7 billion) in the sector this year.” / full item
- An intro to India’s Silizium Circuits semiconductor startup, working with TSMC on 2 semiconductor chips and with more in development / full item
“Taiwan’s TSMC is increasing its supply of 3.5 nm semiconductors. However… China has no way to secure these products… we need to find ways to effectively utilize the 7 nm semiconductors.” / full item
- ‘The Data Center is the New Compute Unit: NVIDIA’s Vision for System-Level Scaling’ / full item
- South Korea’s Samsung steps up competition with Taiwan’s TSMC and others, unveiling plans for one-stop AI chip productions solutions for clients, claiming a 20% cut in delivery times / full item
- South Korea: Samsung secures a 2-nanometer AI chip foundry and package order from Japan’s Preferred Networks Inc AI applications developer / full item
- Malaysia: A brief overview of the goals of the Silicon Island project, a man-made recovered island off Penang’s southern coast, projecting 220,000 new tech jobs over 30 years / full item
- US Commerce Dep’t to award Taiwan’s GlobalWafers up to $400M in grants for Texas and Missouri plants to significantly boost silicon wafer production / full item
- TSMC and ASML near final agreement on purchase of next-gen extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment for semiconductor production, with sights on 1nm process / full item
- Taiwan’s TSMC preps for $10.8 billion plant construction in Germany, targeting production in 2027 and counting Infineon and NXP as both clients and investors / full item
- Taiwan’s Foxconn unveils plans to invest $137M to construct a new business HQ – in Zhengzhou, China / full item
- India’s Jio conglomerate and Taiwan’s MediaTek semiconductor giant to supply India’s electric scooter market with digital dashboards and Android-based operating system / full item
- South Korea: Rebellions Inc AI chip-maker gains $14.4M from Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil giant, likely an opening move to more fully entering the Middle Eastern market / full item
- India and Bangladesh partner on emerging tech including civil nuclear and space, and development of a small satellite for Bangladesh for launch via an Indian launch vehicle / full item
Japan: “…suborbital launch by TiSpace has faced regulatory hurdles… amid questions over whether Japan should embrace overseas business… to double the size of its… space industry over the next decade” / full item
- Australia’s SmartSat CRC joins with New Zealand Gov’t to bring 4 joint research projects under Australia-New Zealand Collaborative Space Program / full item
- Australian gov’t CSIRO research agency to trial AquaWatch in California, delivering satellite data-driven water quality forecasting in partnership with US universities and gov’t / full item
- Australia’s Space Machines Company inks Launch Service Agreement with NewSpace India, government company under Indian Space Research Organisation, for SMC’s next sat launch / full item
APT40 Advisory – PRC MSS tradecraft in action
