July 11, 2025

Nvidia Diplomacy, DRAM Price Surge, and Malaysia Tariff Freeze

Round-up

Highlights

  1. Malaysia’s packaging boom on ice – Uncertainty over a new 25 % U.S. tariff has prompted Intel, Infineon and other Penang-based players to freeze fresh cap-ex until Washington decides whether to keep semiconductors exempt past 1 August.12
  2. SK Hynix kicks off the next DRAM upswing – The company raised DDR4 and LPDDR4X contract prices by ~20 %, with TrendForce now projecting a 10-15 % Q3 average hike across the market.3
  3. Nvidia’s CEO goes straight from the Oval Office to Beijing – Jensen Huang met President Trump Thursday night, hours before boarding a flight to discuss export-controlled GPUs with Chinese officials.4

Other developments

  • Trump signals a 35 % tariff on Canadian goods, fanning wider supply-chain anxiety.5
  • Huawei shops its older Ascend 910B AI chips to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Thailand after Middle-East buyers splurged on Nvidia silicon.67
  • China plans 39 AI data centers stocked with 115 000 restricted Nvidia H-series GPUs, 70 % of them in Xinjiang.5
  • An ex-ASML engineer gets three years in jail for leaking lithography trade secrets to Russia – a rare criminal conviction in the IP front line.8

Did you know? Two-thirds of global DDR4 capacity is already earmarked for servers, leaving PC-grade buyers just 33 % of wafer starts heading into 2026.3

In-depth

1. Government & Corporate Policy

  • Malaysia tariff standoff

    • MSIA chief Wong Siew Hai says firms will “wait-and-see” until tariff clarity returns.1
    • Bloomberg estimates the country handles 10 % of world chip packaging and exported $16.2 b to the U.S. in 2024.2
    • Intel’s $7 b advanced-packaging line in Penang may slip past 2025 if tariffs bite.1

  • White House semiconductor diplomacy

    • Jensen Huang’s drop-in follows Nvidia’s $4 trn market-cap week and its criticism of April export rules.4
    • The CEO next attends Beijing’s supply-chain expo in late July, where Nvidia will demo an H20 “compliance edition.”4

  • Trump’s new tariff salvo

    • A 35 % blanket rate on Canadian imports was floated Thursday; markets fear copy-and-paste hikes for tech hardware.5
    • EU trade ministers have already called for a coordinated response.5

  • Rubio-Wang Yi sideline meeting

    • The U.S. Secretary of State pressed China on tariffs during ASEAN talks in Kuala Lumpur; semiconductor supply resilience topped the agenda.9

2. Economics, Finance & Business Outlook

  • SK Hynix raises the floor on legacy DRAM

    • Contract prices jump ~20 % as the “Big Three” phase out DDR4 by early 2026.3
    • TrendForce sees LPDDR4 contracts leaping 23-28 % next quarter.3

  • Huawei’s Ascend export push

    • Company offers “thousands” of 910B parts plus remote access to 910C clusters; UAE buyers unmoved, Saudi SDAIA showing interest.6
    • Reuters notes the move challenges Nvidia’s grip on Middle-East build-outs.7

  • China’s western‐desert AI parks

    • Tom’s Hardware cites procurement filings for 115 000 GPUs across 39 data-center projects; compliance experts doubt the chips will clear U.S. rules.5

  • GaN foundry model under strain

    • Innoscience’s chair says ROI rarely justifies outsourcing; TSMC will exit GaN wafers by 2027 while Infineon doubles-down on an IDM route.10

3. Technology & R & D

  • LG Innotek’s copper-post substrate

    • First mass-produced Cu-Post bumps cut solder-ball spacing 20 %, enabling thinner smartphones and faster heat extraction.11
    • Company holds ~40 patents and targets $2.2 b substrate revenue by 2030.11

  • 12-inch GaN hurdles

    • No MOCVD vendor has shipped a 300 mm-ready tool; Innoscience says yields above 95 % remain limited to 8-inch lines.10

  • Sustainable 3-D printing for electronics

    • Singapore researchers extrude graphite-filled cellulose acetate into water to form conductive tracks (30 S/m) at room temperature – a greener route to wearables.12

  • Semiconductor catalyst for CO₂-to-methanol

    • A Pd-loaded amorphous IGZO achieves 91 % selectivity, using band-edge engineering to create both H⁺ and H⁻ species on the surface.13

Footnotes

  1. TrendForce – Tariff Uncertainty Could Put Malaysia’s Chip Expansion on Ice ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Bloomberg – Chip Firms in Malaysia Pause Investment Plans on Tariff Angst ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. TrendForce – SK hynix Raises DDR4/LPDDR4X Contract Prices by 20 % ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. Reuters – Nvidia CEO Huang to meet Trump before China trip ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  5. Tom’s Hardware – China plans 39 AI data centers with 115 000 restricted Nvidia GPUs ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  6. TrendForce – Huawei Looks to Sell Ascend 910B Overseas ↩︎ ↩︎

  7. Reuters – Huawei seeks AI chip deals in Middle East, Southeast Asia ↩︎ ↩︎

  8. Bloomberg – Ex-ASML staffer jailed for Russian trade-secret leak ↩︎

  9. Reuters – Rubio meets China’s Wang amid trade tensions ↩︎

  10. TrendForce – Is the GaN Foundry Model Facing Trouble? ↩︎ ↩︎

  11. TrendForce – LG Innotek Unveils Copper-Post Substrate Tech ↩︎ ↩︎

  12. TechXplore – 3-D printing method turns biodegradable polymers into conductive components ↩︎

  13. Phys.org – Semiconductor catalyst achieves high selectivity in CO₂-to-methanol ↩︎