Famed activist fund KCGI said on Thursday that it has acquired a 7.05% stake in chip foundry DB Hitek.The purchase makes KCGI, which stands for Korea Corporate Governance Improvement, the second largest shareholder of the chip company after DB Inc, which controls 12.42%.KCGI said that it was acquiri

Samsung has already spent around 200 billion won in preparation to start manufacturing silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors.Sources said the spending amount shows that the tech giant can already manufacture prototypes of certain chips.SiC and GaN are being used in the lates

South Korean chip foundry DB Hitek on Wednesday confirmed that it was planning to expand into 12-inch wafer foundry service.DB Hitek CEO Choi Chang-shik confirmed as such during the company’s annual shareholders meeting.Choi said the company is aiming to expand its foundry business’ valuation to 4 t

US memory chip giant Micron on Tuesday announced further reduction in its memory chip production output.The memory chipmaker in its earnings report shared with investors for the second quarter of its 2023 fiscal year (December to February) said expect “meaningfully negative for DRAM” in bit supply g

Siemens expects the global chip market to recover on the back of mega trends such as autonomous driving and AI.The chip industry was going through a fourth downturn and in the past the market has always grown substantially after such a downturn, Joseph Sawicki is Executive Vice President, Integrated

SK Hynix has divided its procurement team for the first time, a move meant to strengthen the purchasing of components and equipment used in the back end of chip production.The procurement team is now divided to a front end team and another back end team, SK Hynix had said its filings to local regula

Chipmaker SK Hynix has moved its global sales and marketing team, known as GSM within the company, from its headquarters at Icheon, south of Seoul, to a separate building at the capital.Some 300 employees of the team will work from Mirae Asset CENTER1 building in downtown Seoul, the chipmaker said.G

Fab equipment maker TES has developed a new plasma cleaner that is going through a quality test by a potential customer, TheElec has learned.South Korean chipmakers have relied on foreign fab equipment makers for the cleaners so TES’ move is meaningful, though commercialization is likely some time a

Magnachip is planning to downsize its workforce by 5% due to last year’s poor earnings and the overall downturn of the global chip market.The chipmaker was offering voluntary retirement to up to 5% of its workforce, sources said, out of its total workforce of 900.This is likely a precursor before a

Hanmi Semiconductor vice chairman and CEO Kwak Dong-shin saw a huge valuation margin from his investment in fab equipment maker HPSP made two years ago, TheElec has learned.Kwang and Hanmi Semiconductor together bought 25% of the stock in the private company HPSP. Each spent 37.5 billion won for 12.

Yes Power Technix is expected to start operation of its new fab in Busan this month that will manufacture silicon carbide (SiC) power management IC, parent company SK Holdings said on Tuesday.The four-story fab, which went into construction near the end of 2021, will manufacture 150mm SiC power mana

DB Hitek will for the first time supply its OLED display driver ICs aimed at smartphone panels to Samsung Display, TheElec has learned.DB Hitek will begin supplying the 40-nanometer (nm) DDIs to Samsung Display during the second half of 2023, for use in OLED panels in Samsung smartphones.The company

A Supreme Court ruling made on Thursday on the validity of patents related to silicon carbide (SiC) rings owned by Tokai Carbon Korea (TCK) is expected to disrupt the market in South Korea.The ruling maintained the verdict of the appeals court in October last year and validated a patent related to t

LS Electric is planning to build an electric infrastructure technology center in August somewhere in Central US.The center is expected to house up to 40 staff handling service engineering, maintenance and repair as well as research, the company said.The building of the center will be followed up by

Samsung is expanding the use of automation in its sub-fabs that supply gases and chemicals to fabs, TheElec has learned.The South Korean tech giant is automating the drum logistics systems and installing more automatic clean quick couplers in its sub-fabs, sources said.This was being done to increas

Silicon wafer maker SK Siltron is expected to have posted 2.4 trillion won in revenue last year, TheElec has learned.This will be 20% higher than its 2021 figure and was despite the downturn in the global chip market.High demand for chips during the past five years has spurred SK Siltron’s growth.In

Samsung will be designing and manufacturing the logic chips that Hyundai Motor plans to use for advanced driver assistance (ADAS) and infotainment in its future vehicles, TheElec has learned.This is the first such deal between Samsung and Hyundai Motor, the two largest conglomerates in South Korea.S

Hana Micron is expected to see its sales to SK Hynix more than double this year as its production capacity ramps up from the operation of its new factory in Vietnam.The new factory started operations late last year and offers chip packaging and testing services for chipmakers.SK Hynix accounts for s

SemiFive has secured Doosan Group as an investor in its Series C funding round, TheElec has learned.The system chip design house had aimed to secure 60 billion won in funding during the round but expected secure a total of 70 billion won from investors including Doosan Group.LB Investment and SV Inv

SK Hynix was in talks with equipment maker YEST to procure high-pressure hydrogen annealing equipment, TheElec has learned.The pair were in the alpha test phase of their collaboration, sources said. If the equipment passes it will enter the beta test phase, the final stages before supply, they said.