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Opinion
In Intel’s Crisis, a Glimpse of TSMC’s Quandary
By Bolaji Ojo
Under normal market conditions, the concept of Intel Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., (TSMC) “eyeing potential deals that would break the American chip-making icon in two” as reportedly recently by the Wall Street Journal would be considered a non-starter. A separate report from the New York Times stating Intel is working with “the Trump administration on a plan to turn over the operation of its chip-making plants” to TSMC falls in the same category.
Intel got itself into this funk. We have emptied a dozen barrels of ink reporting and pontificating on how the company got into this mess and what it must do to get out. (See: Intel Needs an Active, Competent Board, not a ‘Savior’ CEO; Intel: It’s Time for the Unthinkable; Intel-Samsung Foundry Union is a Non-Starter; Intel’s Last Hope: Private Equity LBO?; Intel Board, After Review, Insists on Token Changes; Out of Intel, America’s Dream Foundry: Here’s How; Intel’s Crisis Was Predictable. Its Future Isn’t a Mystery, Either; Intel Says it’s Building ‘Two World-Class Companies.’ Meaning, please?.)
For now, the industry can only await Intel’s next move. While we do this, however, there is another problem the industry must stay aware of, and that is the predicament laid upon TSMC – as it expands operations globally and the elevated, unprecedented and unfair expectations and demands that the entire semiconductor industry, OEMs and several national governments have placed on the Taiwanese company.
Read More »In Intel’s Crisis, a Glimpse of TSMC’s Quandary
What’s Cooking at OYR (and at my house)
By Mike Markowitz
Some great content to highlight on the site this week:
- With all of the discussion about AI, Bolaji sat down with industry veteran and CEO of Veriest Moshe Zalcberg to understand whether AI can help design and verify the next generation of even more powerful AI chips. The webcast, Chips for AI and AI for Chips, asks and answers the question of whether AI chips are harder to design and how AI can help.
- Bolaji also looks closely at STMicroelectronics, after their disappointing 2024 in Whither STMicroelectronics after Annus Horribilis? He asks the tough questions: Is ST’s $20 billion revenue goal, which it had targeted by 2027 after hitting record sales of $17.3 billion in 2023, still achievable? What will happen to manufacturing plans, capex, R&D, and the workforce as the company struggles to climb back uphill?
- In spite of those poor results, Peter Clarke sees a recent 15-year agreement between ST and TotalEnergies as confirmation of ST’s commitment to sustainability and achieving carbon neutrality by 2027. In ST and the Persistence of a Green Legacy, Peter details ST’s journey and credits ST for embedding sustainability into its long-term strategy.
- High-performance power modules manufacturer Vicor is making a bold leap to apply its expertise into 48V power systems for EVs. In Vicor Puts Pedal to Metal for 48V EV Power Systems, Bolaji talks to Chief Marketing Officer David Krakauer to understand Vicor’s approach and how automakers’ transition to 48V is going,
- We’ve finished posting Lee Goldberg’s series looking at the heritage of the US Space program. Part 1, Mercury and SpaceShipOne: 40-years of Technical Evolution looked at how two different, but important steps in the evolution of the space program were propelled by competitive challenges. In Part 2, Mercury and SpaceShipOne: The Spacecraft, he shared how two very different spacecraft still shared similar design requirements. Part 3, Mercury and SpaceShipOne: Very Different Launch Systems, looks at how the launch systems evolved over 40 years and highlights some of the “piloting badassery” that saved multiple missions (not to mention the pilots).
Now, I’m hungry. Here’s What’s Cooking at my house!
Read More »What’s Cooking at OYR (and at my house)
Tech Execs Must Act to Avoid Chip Tariff Trap
Donald Trump’s latest proposal to impose tariffs as high as 100 percent on semiconductors imported from Taiwan may sound like a straightforward solution to boosting domestic manufacturing, but for those who understand the complexities of the industry, it’s a reckless move that could do more harm than good.
Tech executives cannot afford to stay silent. Now is the time to engage with policymakers and educate them on the severe consequences such tariffs would have on the very companies they claim to be protecting.
Read More »Tech Execs Must Act to Avoid Chip Tariff Trap
What’s Cooking at OYR (and at my house): AI & Pork Bulgogi
AI, corruption, and the threat to democracy: Why the electronics industry must pay attention
A Lone Voice in Support of America’s Strict AI Rules
By Bolaji Ojo
China is ascendant. In everything. Short of a civil war, this reality is unstoppable.
So, why is America plunging ahead with plans to restrict Chinese access to advanced artificial intelligence technologies, processes and the semiconductor manufacturing equipment required to gain the associated benefits? Here’s why we agree that these actions are necessary and worthwhile, despite the flaws and the futility of achieving the totality of American objectives.
Read More »A Lone Voice in Support of America’s Strict AI Rules
Russian Kosmos 2553: Scientific Satellite or Weapon of Mass Destruction?
By Steve Taranovich
What’s at stake:
Global powers are increasing their space-based capabilities over the next decade to secure their defense and economic interests. Creating a free-for-all environment presents unacceptable risks to global stability. Has Russia triggered the rush for unfettered space-based weapons systems?
Why did Russian Aerospace Forces launch the Kosmos 2553 satellite (to a highly unusual trajectory in a lonely orbit at 1,240 miles above the Earth) on February 5, 2022? Moscow tells the world they are testing their latest onboard instruments and systems. Given the lack of transparency about such programs, however, I am skeptical.
The United States Space Command is very interested in this Soviet satellite as it orbits the Earth every two hours in a “graveyard” orbit, a.k.a. the high-radiation “Van Allen belt,” a band where disposal or junk typically orbit, outside of common operational orbits.
Kosmos 2553 shares this particular orbit with 10 “dead” satellites that have floated within the belt for many years. The rarely used, high-radiation Van Allen belt circles planet Earth and satellites here eventually fall into the stratosphere and burn up. Why would Moscow put Kosmos 2553 in such an orbit around our planet?
Read More »Russian Kosmos 2553: Scientific Satellite or Weapon of Mass Destruction?
What’s Cooking at OYR (and at my house)
Mike Markowitz assumes the role of editor-in-chief at the Ojo-Yoshida Report with a mouthwatering introduction.
Prefix AI, Nvidia and TSMC will dominate a slow 2025
By Peter Clarke
What’s at stake:
A new year and hope spring’s eternal. It should if you are working on AI-related technology. The rapid rise of different forms of AI – edge, hybrid, agentic and embodied or physical AI – means that Nvidia’s incumbency as semiconductor market leader is set to continue. For many others, the future is not looking so bright.
It would be all-too human to argue that the trend towards artificial intelligence that has been so strong over the last several years must be about to abate and allow some different innovation to be the forcing function for the technology sector in 2025.
The argument that exponential growth must end eventually is compelling. And it surely applies to the technology and to the semiconductor leader Nvidia.
And yet, while the annual doubling of revenue that Nvidia has shown will be hard to sustain, this human being thinks that AI will continue to be the driver of the semiconductor economy. Indeed, there is likely to be a renewed surge of interest in AI with the addition of prefixes such as edge, hybrid, agentic and embodied or physical.
Read More »Prefix AI, Nvidia and TSMC will dominate a slow 2025
Intel Needs an Active, Competent Board, not a ‘Savior’ CEO
By Bolaji Ojo
Michele Johnston Holthaus can still get confirmed as Intel Corp.’s next CEO, vaulting to the top of the management team from her current title of interim co-CEO. But Holthaus would not be the perfect candidate – one presumably with a degree and background in engineering like the last CEO Patrick Gelsinger. She wouldn’t be at a loss in the position, either. Holthaus has the potentials to become a great leader at Intel.
Still, the substantive CEO question isn’t the priority for Intel now. What the public and the chipmaker’s various audiences want to have answers to are more pressing questions about its future. Questions such as: will Intel spin off its foundry unit or retain it as an inhouse operation; will it go ahead and spend billions of dollars on the new fabs promised by Gelsinger or will it seek to conserve funds; what’s the vision for Intel and; what’s the latest on its turnaround plan?
Read More »Intel Needs an Active, Competent Board, not a ‘Savior’ CEO