July 17, 2025

Round-up

Highlights

1. TSMC turns the AI fire-hose back on – a record Q2 and a bullish 30 % YoY revenue-growth target for 2025 sent chip shares higher worldwide¹².
2. Washington balks at a multibillion-dollar Nvidia sale to the U.A.E. over national-security worries, underscoring how export controls now decide who trains the next big LLM³.
3. ASML ships its first High-NA EUV “EXE:5200”-class scanner, marking the start of volume 0.55 NA lithography and a claimed 60 % throughput jump (≈175 wph)⁴.

Other developments

• China-linked hackers escalate phishing campaigns against Taiwan fab suppliers⁵
• Trump-era thaw? White House signals flexibility on Nvidia’s H20 exports to China⁶
• India courts Taiwanese fabs for Gujarat’s tech hub push⁷
• NAND prices poised to climb in Q3 amid tight supply⁸
• Korea’s PNT bets ₩1.5 trn ≈ $1.1 bn on glass substrates for advanced packages⁹
• AMD introduces a $-friendly Ryzen AI 5 330 with a 50 TOPS NPU for Copilot+ PCs¹⁰
• Robot hand “feels pain” thanks to neuromorphic semiconductors from KAIST¹¹
• Organic-semiconductor study shows halogen tweaks tune bandgaps for displays¹²
• Wall St. digests Fed chatter while chip stocks steady the Nasdaq¹³

Did You Know? ASML’s EXE:5200 uses a 0.55 numerical-aperture optic—the same NA as a leading professional microscope objective, but scaled up to a tool that weighs well over 150 t and is flown in giant cargo jets⁴.

In-depth

1. Government & Corporate Policy

• Nvidia export rules in flux

  • Bloomberg reports a “U-turn” by the Trump administration that could speed H20 GPU licences for Chinese buyers⁶.
  • Analysts see the move as a potential bargaining chip in wider rare-earth negotiations and WTO talks.
  • Jensen Huang, fresh from meetings in Beijing, says licence clarity is still lacking and warns of ceding AI leadership to Huawei¹⁴.

• U.S.–U.A.E. AI chip deal stalls

  • A planned purchase of advanced Nvidia accelerators by Abu Dhabi’s G42 is on hold as Commerce officials weigh Chinese access risks³.
  • Microsoft and OpenAI data-center projects in the Gulf depend on the outcome.

• India–Taiwan semiconductor corridor

  • New Delhi is courting >250 Taiwanese tech firms to anchor the Gujarat International Finance Tech-City, tightening supply-chain links outside China⁷.
  • Indian officials pitch faster permits and a 40 % capital-expense subsidy.

• Cyber-espionage uptick against Taiwan

  • Proofpoint identifies three distinct China-linked groups phishing 15–20 chip makers and analysts between March-June, with spoofed university domains and fake investor e-mails⁵.
  • Targets include suppliers to TSMC, MediaTek, and UMC; no breaches confirmed yet.

2. Economics, Finance & Business Outlook

• TSMC lifts 2025 growth outlook to ~30 %

  • Record Q2 EPS of NT$15.36 (≈ $0.48) beat consensus as AI accelerators filled 3 nm lines¹.
  • CFO warns a stronger Taiwan dollar could trim Q3 sales by up to $1 bn¹⁵.

• Market reacts

  • TSMC’s ADRs jumped 6 % pre-market, pulling AMD and Nvidia higher and steadying the Nasdaq after a choppy macro session²¹³.

• Memory pricing turns north

  • TrendForce says NAND contract prices will rise 8-12 % in Q3, with sub-512 Gb parts leading the move and shortages likely through 2026⁸.
  • OEMs are accelerating Q4 orders to beat the hikes.

• Materials capex bets

  • Battery-equipment maker PNT will invest ₩1.5 trn (≈ $1.1 bn) to enter glass substrates, eyeing 50 % revenue growth by 2026 and leveraging its display-equipment heritage⁹.

3. Technology & R&D

• High-NA EUV enters production

  • ASML’s first EXE:5200 tool is now being installed at Intel for 14A risk production (2027), promising 0.55 NA and 60 % higher throughput than EXE:5000⁴.
  • TSMC and Samsung remain cautious, eyeing 0.33 NA EUV for near-term <2 nm nodes.

• Low-cost AI PC silicon

  • AMD’s Ryzen AI 5 330 brings a 50 TOPS NPU, four Zen 5c cores, and a 15–28 W cTDP to sub-$500 laptops, widening Microsoft Copilot+ eligibility¹⁰.
  • The part underscores AMD’s plan to seed AI features across pricing tiers.

• Neuromorphic pain sensor

  • KAIST engineers created a robot hand that distinguishes harmful vs. harmless touch using flexible, low-power memristive semiconductors that emulate nociceptor neurons¹¹.
  • Potential applications span prosthetics, surgical robots, and autonomous drones.

• Tailored organic semiconductors

  • A Scientific Reports team shows that halogen substitutions (F, Cl, Br, I) on C₁₆H₁₀X₂O₂ tune bandgap and absorption, a design knob for deep-blue OLED emitters¹².
  • DFT calculations predict lower exciton binding energies with heavier halogens, hinting at improved efficiency.

Footnotes