Trump Tariffs on Semis, Broadcom ᱝ Eats Intel, TSMC under the bus🚌, Microsoft Quantum, and other Geopolitical worries of Semis con't.

China loves ordering chips from Singapore, too. The Genius of Morris Chang.

Hey Everyone,

We certain have some Earnings reports to go over.

• Welcome to the 24th edition of Semiconductor Things™, where I seek to break down some of the news in the Semiconductor, AI chips and datacenter space globally to make it more accessible and easy to follow.

• Usually this Newsletter is around twice a month.

• This Newsletter explores TSMC, Taiwan and Nvidia in particular. Earnings are a lot of what I want to cover on an ongoing basis. But also Asia semiconductor news, heavily relying on X.

• I’m convinced that in 2025 watching the AI chips and Semiconductor space is actually the most interesting it’s been in decades.

Support me doing this for as low as $1 a week. Please see my archives for more on what to expect.

Typically now the Newsletters comes out two or three times a month, usually around Thursday morning (ideally at 7-9 AM EST window). Functionally often a bit late. More frequent publications might appear on Friday or even Saturdays for premium readers.

The Newsletter is mostly concerned with micro events in the semiconductor News cycle.

🔵 As I cover emerging tech over a wide spectrum, curating the AI chip and Semiconductor News forces me to keep in touch with the industry news cycle and keep learning about the various companies involved.

⚫ Today’s issue covers approximately the period of February 6th, 2025 to roughly February 20th, 2025. Also some pieces on Semiconductor Reports finally started to appear.

• Mostly this Newsletter consists of just curated bullets formatted content of news snippets, so it’s more about catching up than diving deep into any particular story. I try to link a fair number of sources however.

I try to highlight stories I find the most salient, while presenting a wide array of news stories. It includes a fair share of 🙊 “rumors” from Taiwan.

Although for the most part I try to stick to facts or reported stories often from Japanese or South Korean sources. My work is therefore by no means original with a focus primarily on the semiconductor news cycle itself. It’s geared to save you time, if you want to keep up with this niche.

My main hope is that I can present it in a way that accessible, easy to digest and doesn’t miss too much, which I hope makes up for the low frequency of the coverage (sometimes absent, disclosure - I do my best 🤗).

Microsoft Azure Quantum’s so-called Quantum chip.

Previous Issues

1. Semiconductor Earnings, Huawei Ascend 910C via DeepSeek, Samsung joining Stargate? Lunar new year and Semi surprises.

2. TSMC into the Global limelight in 2025, Nvidia under pressure, Geopolitics anticipating Trump State, U.S. ramps up China Export controls even further

3. Intel Loses CEO, Google Trillium, Nvidia Earnings, Amazon Trainium 2 and More Trade Wars

4. OpenAI's AI Infrastructure plans, AMD Layoffs, ASML Projections, U.S. playing the "Taiwan Card" could hurt both China and Taiwan.

5. SK Hynix Boom, AMD's Poor Guidance, China's Evasive Maneuvers, Earnings coming into Focus

Intel’s Future is a Trump Project

What a wacky world this is becoming folks. the WSJ report on Broadcom and TSMC splitting apart Intel is one for the ages.

Trump might arrange TSMC to take Over Intel

President Donald Trump has announced plans to impose 25% tariffs on imports of automobiles, semiconductor chips, and pharmaceutical products, effective as soon as April 2, 2025. This move is part of a broader strategy aimed at addressing significant trade deficits with various countries, particularly focusing on reshaping U.S. trade policy. It’s a bit of a sticking point for TSMC and Taiwan though. Read further.

• The TSMC and Trump angle is a bit strange.

🌍 Semiconductor Bits & Bites 📱

• US President Trump said he will impose tariffs "in the neighborhood of 25%" on imported semiconductors as well as pharmaceuticals and automobiles, media report, with auto tariffs in place as soon as April 2. The timing on chips and pharma tariffs is unclear.