Marketing Electronics is our newly introduced webcast and in the first episode, we feature Guy Forster, founder of UK-based TKO Marketing. Forster says semiconductors will be at the root of finding solutions to mankind’s major problems, but first design engineers must continue to make error-free decisions.
Warfare is always evolving and Ukraine’s recent drone strikes on Russia’s air bases far from the front lines provides an important lesson not only for military strategists but for tech execs, engineers, and investors, too.
Arm has responded to deep changes occurring in the automotive design and manufacturing world with Zena CSS, a platform it sees most auto OEMs adopting as they seek to reduce development time and costs. Will they bite?
Even with little legal success to date, the Trump administration’s misguided efforts to remake global trade and higher education threaten to wreck US leadership in semiconductors.
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake:
The semiconductor industry is at a crossroads — propelled by AI, but strained by geopolitical tensions, and desperate for innovation. Enter Rapidus Design Solutions, the marketing unit of Rapidus Corp., a company defying expectations and trying to reshape and influence the high-performance chip manufacturing market and Japan’s role in it. Rapidus is Japan’s new foundry formed a few years ago to give the country a fighting chance in the world of advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
Rapidus Corp. isn’t just dipping its toes into semiconductor manufacturing. It is diving in headfirst, with the Japanese government playing lifeguard.
A state-of-the-art 2nm fab in Hokkaido, nearly completed after a mere three years, is setting the stage for Japan’s resurgence in chipmaking. Mass production is projected to begin in 2027, but the industry is already taking notice. Rapidus isn’t in full operation yet, and there are many challenges ahead for the company, including the possibility of it missing targets or failing to attract the customers it would need to crack open a spot in the global foundry business. Despite the obstacles, though, Rapidus is already making a name for itself in the market. Will the company sustain the positive take-off?
Read More »Rapidus Sparks Japan’s Semiconductor Comeback
TechSplicit presents a conversation on Software-Defined Vehicles featuring Timothy Edwards, co-founder and VP, Strategy, at Seeing Machines, and Colin Barnden, principal analyst at Semicast Research. They’ll be discussing 3D Sensing for In-Cabin Monitoring.
American political leaders see unbridled access to the hottest AI processors as a threat to the country’s goal of remaining the world’s sole superpower. But as companies like Nvidia groan loudly about restrictions on the exports of their products to China, will America yield or clamp down on perceived opposition to its stated ambitions?
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake:
In a brutally honest review, a Stellantis executive details how US and European automakers can compete successfully against Chinese rivals. They must rearchitect the car, rapidly adopt innovations, change sourcing strategies, create common platforms, collaborate more with solutions providers, and prepare for lower car prices. EVs are “better vehicles,” he insists, and not just a response to climate change.
Apple Inc.’s foray into the mobile handset business nearly two decades ago dramatically changed the company’s fortune. It marked the beginning of the “software-defined phone,” and the beginning of Apple’s meteoric climb to the top of the global equity market.
Embattled Western auto manufacturers see some parallels in Apple’s experience in what is happening in the transportation sector, but they are also keenly aware that their own situation has become a struggle for survival rather than the mere start of a jump in value.
“When Steve Jos introduced the iPhone, phones became more expensive,” said Joachim Kahmann, senior vice president, purchasing for electric and electronics, at Stellantis, in a presentation at the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) European Executive Forum, held earlier this month in Munich. “Vehicles cannot become more expensive. They must become more affordable again. That is absolutely mandatory.”
Read More »Automakers Seek Lessons in Apple’s iPhone Launch Feat
WINCHESTER, MA, United States – May 8, 2025 — The Ojo-Yoshida Report, a respected voice in technology journalism, today unveils a new name and sharpened mission: TechSplicit — a brand dedicated to delivering journalism with integrity by looking behind the curtain to understand the intended and unintended consequences of innovation and decisions that shape the global high-tech landscape. Led by industry veteran Bolaji Ojo, founder, publisher, and TechSplicit’s Editor-in-Chief — the platform will unearth the stories behind the news and specs, digging beneath the surface to explore how technology impacts applications, markets, industries, economies, societies, and individuals. TechSplicit is more than a name — it’s a lens, a voice, and a challenge to the status quo. It speaks to a readership of executives, engineers, policymakers, and innovators who need more than just data; they need discernment,… Read More »Leading Technology News Platform Ojo-Yoshida Report Rebrands as TechSplicit
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake:
Semiconductor makers perform better when production capacity utilization rates and the number of plants closely match customer demands. Those periods are getting fewer, however. Despite the proliferation of advanced demand-supply management tools, the industry continues to experience forecast distortions, especially in the number of semiconductor fabs needed to meet future demand. We describe the result as “MisCapex,” a condition of overestimating or underestimating capital expenditure requirements, leading to either bloated production or undercapacity. In either case, the remedies used so far by the industry continue to yield the opposite of desired objectives.
The semiconductor industry goes into a fab building frenzy every few years, driven by undercapacity that eventually leaves chipmakers dried out financially or swimming in the murk of excess inventories.
The last time this happened was only a few years ago.
Electronics companies reacted differently to the last bout of shortages. Some made plans to build more fabs while many others quietly watched the situation unfold, preferring to maintain their conservative capex planning. Today, companies in the latter category look prescient while others are dialing back on their commitments. Intel Corp., for example, is reviewing its capex commitments under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan and sharply cutting back expenses related to capital equipment and operations, including R&D.
In the face of more pressing and troubling issues, the semiconductor industry is trying hard to ignore its recent financial past. Yet, factors related to capital expenditure cannot be swept under the carpet because they are so fundamental to the health of the sector. The industry is finding itself locked in the grips of capex promises made at the height of the last supply shortages. Promises made to customers, consumers and even politicians will soon come back to haunt the industry. The Ojo-Yoshida Report is getting ahead of that Day of Reckoning by examining statements about and commitments to fab construction a few years ago and asking: Are the fabs promised during the last shortages still needed; How many of the fabs will be built and; how will chipmakers finance the ones they cannot walk away from?
Read More »Capex Malaise and ‘MisCapex’ Pains
