Will lead Equinix’s expansion and growth strategy in Malaysia
IT industry veteran with over 30 years of leadership driving business growth
Equinix, Inc., the world’s digital infrastructure company, announced the appointment of Cheam Tat Inn (pix) as managing director, Equinix Malaysia, with immediate effect.
In a statement, the company said Cheam will lead Equinix’s expansion…Continue Reading
Hopes Malaysia can lead in ESG investments in the region
Malaysia targets increasing renewable energy capacity from 25% to 40% by 2035
The Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology and Innovation (Mranti) announced its commitment to being the country’s first carbon-neutral innovation park by 2035. At the organisation’s flagship I-Nation conference, Chang Lih Kang, minister…Continue Reading
Workshop supports MSMEs with tools for digital transformation
Final MY5G SME Digital Workshop is scheduled for Dec 6 in Sabah
CelcomDigi Bhd held the second edition of its MY5G SME Digital Workshop in Alor Setar recently. Designed to provide micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) the opportunity to learn and identify suitable technologies and digital…Continue Reading
Zoom transitioned from video tool to force in public sector & education
Malaysian organisations need to continuously evolve & adapt to leverage digital
In the digital era, various tech platforms have emerged not just as a communication tool but as a catalyst for driving digital transformation within the public sector and education.
Zoom Head…Continue Reading
Youth gained exposure to digital skills & basic AI knowledge
Workshop aims to enhance individuals’ digital skills for improved career prospects
MY E.G. Services Berhad (MyEG) has collaborated with Yayasan Chow Kit (YCK) to foster digital inclusivity for marginalised youth in and around Chow Kit area in Kuala Lumpur.
In a statement, the leading…Continue Reading
Collaboration boosts game development education for students in Web3 gaming
Blends tech-focused degrees with practical game development skills for evolving careers
Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) has entered a strategic partnership with Acxyn Sdn Bhd, a prominent player in Web3 gaming technology.
This collaboration aims to advance game development education, providing…Continue Reading
JCorp’s FarmByte to deepen partnership with Archisen for vertical farming
Develop vertical farms that will supply produce to Malaysia and Singapore
FarmByte Sdn Bhd, a digital-first agrofood company within the Johor Corporation (JCorp) Group, signed a Heads of Agreement (HOA) with Archisen Pte Ltd, an agritech company based in Singapore, proposing a FarmByte…Continue Reading
China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd (YMTC) have raised billions of dollars in new capital to finance the continued expansion of their memory chip operations in defiance of US sanctions on the sector.
CXMT has reportedly received 39 billion yuan (US$5.4 billion) in funds to complete the construction of a new DRAM factory whose total cost is expected to exceed four times that amount.
YMTC, China’s heavily-sanctioned NAND flash memory maker, has also apparently raised several billion dollars to develop and purchase alternatives to the US, Japanese and European equipment it is currently denied under US-led sanctions. YMTC’s capital raising follows $7 billion in financing announced last year.
The state-run China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund is a key source of funding for both semiconductor firms. The capital raising reports are consistent with China’s efforts to build a more autonomous semiconductor industry in response to US sanctions that seek to cripple the crucial industry.
CXMT is China’s largest DRAM maker and fourth-largest supplier of DRAM in China after South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, and Japan’s Micron Technology.
Established in 2016, CXMT is headquartered in the city of Hefei and has factories there and in Beijing. CXMT’s customers include makers of mobile phones, computers, servers, consumer devices and Internet of Things-related equipment.
The US Commerce Department has not yet put CXMT on its Entity List, though until July of this year, US export restrictions on US production equipment caused delays in its new factory’s construction. After a clarification of the regulations in CXMT’s favor, it is back on track with mass production expected to begin by 2026.
CXMT is now ramping up what it calls a 17nm process but what industry analysts say is actually closer to 19nm and therefore outside the 18nm boundary set by US sanctions. CXMT’s technology is believed to be three or four generations behind Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron.
YMTC is the leading Chinese maker of NAND flash memory. Also established in 2016, its headquarters and factories are located in Wuhan.
To the surprise of most observers and its competitors, YMTC developed its own unique 3D NAND architecture called Xtacking. Put into mass production in 2019, the technology turned out to be good enough for Apple to consider using YMTC’s NAND flash memory chips in the iPhone.
That set alarm bells ringing in Washington, DC, and under intense political pressure Apple abandoned plans to use YMTC chips in October 2022. Two months later, the Chinese company was added to the Entity List.
Deliveries of equipment from key US suppliers including Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA were stopped, as were service and support of machines already installed. Engineers with US citizenship were forced to resign from the company.
That all caused YMTC’s operations to grind to a halt, forcing it to fall back on its own resources. Recovery from the sanctions hit has reportedly been slow.
YMTC was put on the Entity List shortly after launching its fourth generation 3D NAND flash product, a 232-layer chip that set a new record for data storage density.
Far beyond the 128-layer limit set by the Commerce Department, it poses a serious challenge to NAND flash industry leaders Samsung, Kioxia, SK Hynix and Micron.
YMTC supplies 3D NAND flash memory to makers of embedded memory and consumer and enterprise solid state drives (SSDs) used in mobile devices, consumer electronics, computers, servers and data centers.
Recently, TechInsights reported that it had found YMTC’s latest 232-layer NAND flash chips in SSDs. In a blog entitled “China Does It Again: A NAND Memory Market First,” the market research company wrote:
“TechInsights has discovered the world’s most advanced 3D NAND memory chip in a consumer device, and in a surprise technology leap, it comes from YMTC – China’s top 3D NAND manufacturer. 3D NAND memory is an essential component for high-performance computing (HPC) such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning. 3D NAND memory represents the bleeding edge of memory chip design, and is critical for high-performance, high-bandwidth computing such as AI…
“Like the innovation revealed by TechInsights in the Huawei Mate 60 Pro’s HiSilicon Kirin 9000s processor (which used SMIC 7nm (N+2) process), evidence is mounting that China’s momentum to overcome trade restrictions and build its own domestic semiconductor supply chain is more successful than expected.”
Both CXMT and YMTC are working with Chinese equipment makers, which are developing a complete range of machines to replace imported equipment, sanctioned or not. These include lithography (SMEE), photoresist processing (Kingsemi), deposition (Naura), etching (AMEC, Naura), chemical-mechanical planarization (Hwatsing, Sizone), cleaning (ACM, Naura) and inspection (Skyverse).
One Chinese industry source told Reuters “Before the sanctions, top Chinese foundries would use a small amount of machines from Chinese suppliers, but they would really only experiment with new equipment when they would add new capacity. Now, foundries are testing out Chinese-made equipment for every foreign machine they own and if they find that it meets their needs, they replace all of them. They want as few foreign machines as feasible.”
This appears to be true for Chinese memory chip makers and other integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) that, unlike foundries, design their own products as well. How much progress they can make and how quickly remains to be seen.
In 2022, China accounted for about 30% of global DRAM sales and 33% of global NAND flash memory sales, according to Yole technology market research. China’s self-sufficiency in memory chips is estimated at no more than 15%, but Samsung and SK Hynix have huge NAND flash memory and DRAM factories in the country.
In October, the US Commerce Department granted the two Korean companies “validated end-user” status, which allows them to ship US semiconductor production equipment to their factories in China indefinitely without an export license.
This should ensure that China has a sufficient supply of memory chips while keeping the competitive pressure on CXMT and YMTC.
On November 9, YMTC filed a lawsuit against Micron Technologies in the US District Court for the Northern District of California for allegedly infringing on its patents related to the design, manufacture and operation of its 3D NAND flash memory technology.
In a statement, YMTC said, “We are confident that this matter will be resolved swiftly.” It will be interesting to see how it will be resolved.
Follow this writer on Twitter: @ScottFo83517667
Taiwan’s Hon Hai Technology Group, widely known as Foxconn, and America’s Nvidia plan to join technological forces “to accelerate the AI industrial revolution.”
Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer, is the primary assembler of the Apple iPhone. California-based Nvidia is the world’s leading designer of the graphics processing units (GPUs) used in artificial intelligence applications.
Foxconn intends to use Nvidia technology to further the digitalization of manufacturing and inspection workflows, the development of AI-enhanced electric vehicles and robotics, and language-based generative AI services.
Both tech giants are in pursuit of new growth opportunities as Foxconn diversifies away from its traditional heavy dependence on Apple and Nvidia seeks new markets amid US government sanctions that have crippled its once-booming business in China.
However, Nvidia said this month it has developed three new sanctions-compliant AI chips, based on its flagship H100 product, for China’s markets.
Foxconn chairman and CEO Young Liu and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed their collaborative revolutionary plans on October 18 at the Hon Hai Tech Day event held in Taipei.
They reportedly plan to build factories supported by Nvidia GPU-based computing infrastructure designed to process, refine and transform large amounts of data into AI models that can identify patterns and make predictions. These new data centers will be based on Nvidia GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips and AI enterprise software.
The GH200 Grace Hopper system-on-chip (SoC) combines Nvidia’s Grace central processing unit (CPU) and Hopper GPU architectures with high-bandwidth memory to enable large-scale AI training, inference and high-performance computing.
Launched in August 2023, the GH200 was created to handle the most complex generative AI workloads including large language models, recommender systems (AI algorithms associated with machine learning) and vector databases (data stored as mathematical representations to facilitate machine learning).
Huang noted that “A new type of manufacturing has emerged… Foxconn, the world’s largest manufacturer, has the expertise and scale to build AI factories globally.”
Foxconn will also use Nvidia technology in other industrial and infrastructure solutions, the arguably most impressive of which is Foxconn’s Smart EV. Built on the Nvidia Drive Hyperion 9 platform for autonomous vehicles, it will be powered by Thor SoC computer, which enables automated and assisted driving, parking, driver and passenger monitoring, digital instruments and in-vehicle information and entertainment systems.
Scheduled to be introduced in 2027, Hyperion 9 will support level 3 conditional urban passenger car driving, characterized as hands-off, eyes-off but ready to resume control, and level 4 advanced highway driving, characterized as “brain-off”, no need to pay attention.
Foxconn has been working on EVs for several years. It has only a small presence in the industry today but has ambitious designs. By 2027, it aims for 10% of the global market for EV components and services. It has a test satellite in low Earth orbit and plans to integrate satellite communications with the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) in the not-too-distant future.
Foxconn Smart Manufacturing robotic systems will be built on the Nvidia Isaac autonomous mobile robot platform, which runs the gamut from training, simulation and building of autonomous robots to robot fleet management.
Foxconn Smart City will incorporate Nvidia Metropolis video analytics, which are designed to “make sense of the flood of data created by trillions of sensors” in traffic management, retail logistics, healthcare and other urban services.
The timing is seemingly right. Nvidia points out that “Advances in edge AI and simulation are enabling deployment of autonomous mobile robots that can travel several miles a day and industrial robots for assembling components, applying coatings, packaging and performing quality inspections.”
These robots are arriving just as demographic change creates a chronic shortage of workers in China and other advanced industrial nations.
Foxconn is already the largest manufacturer of Nvidia-based AI hardware, according to market research and electronics industry media sources. In addition to selling hardware to and building systems based on Nvidia technology for its customers, Foxconn plans to use the technology in its own factories to improve efficiency while saving time and money.
Outside Taiwan, Foxconn has manufacturing, design and R&D facilities in more than 20 countries and regions including China, India, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, the US, Mexico and Brazil. This, along with more than 40% of the global market for electronics manufacturing services, gives it a reach that its competitors will find difficult to match.
Foxconn Industrial Internet, a group subsidiary headquartered in Shenzhen, China, serves markets for smartphones and smart wearable devices, smart homes, cloud and edge computing, 5G and other network communication devices, EV and other new energy vehicle components, and the industrial internet. Established in 2015, Foxconn Industrial Internet has about 200,000 employees, almost as many as China tech giant Huawei.
Unlike Huawei, which is under US tech war-related sanctions, Foxconn is welcome in all of the world’s major markets. It has a factory in the US state of Wisconsin and runs one of the largest foreign-owned factories producing for export, known as maquiladoras, in Mexico.
In August 2023, Foxconn and the Chihuahua state government in Mexico announced a partnership aimed at increasing the state’s industrial capabilities by training workers for the information & communications and auto industries, optimizing supply chains, improving infrastructure, raising energy efficiency and furthering the development of renewable energy.
Foxconn has so far invested more than US$500 million in Chihuahua, which borders the US states of New Mexico and Texas. It has production facilities there, in Ciudad Juarez and also in Tijuana, south of San Diego.
Foxconn’s factory in Wisconsin, promoted heavily by former president Donald Trump, has been scaled back and is generally regarded as having been a politically motivated investment aimed at evading tariffs. Under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, formerly known as NAFTA, that can be done much more economically from Mexico.
Follow this writer on Twitter: @ScottFo83517667
Next-generation freedom and automatic vehicle innovation3 staged evaluations, data security, and securityThe largest multi-scenario autonomous vehicle ( AV ) experimental laboratory in the nation, AV XL, was introduced today by MRANTI through the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation ( MOSTI).In order to hasten the growth of Malaysia’s mobility industry, MRANTI…Continue Reading