Lead times for most Texas Instruments semiconductor products “remained stable” in Q4, but “hotspots continue to exist,” said Dave Pahl, vice president and head-investor relations, on a Tuesday earnings call. “Customers continue to be selective in their expedite requests, increasingly focusing on products that complete a matched set rather than expediting products across the board,” said Pahl. Though there’s a “growing recognition” that the near-term supply and demand “imbalance” will end at some point, “the secular growth of semiconductor content per system will continue to increase, and this requires a robust manufacturing capacity road map for 2025 and beyond,” he said. Customers are expressing “a high level of interest” in TI’s commitment to expanding its internal manufacturing capacity, including its plans, announced Nov. 17, for a multi-fab site in Sherman, Texas, he said. The North Texas site can accommodate up to four fabs long-term, with construction of the first two 300-millimeter wafer fabs expected to begin in 2022. TI finished Q4 with 116 days of inventory, four days higher than at the end of Q3, “still well below where we want to be,” said Chief Financial Officer Rafael Lizardi. TI’s guidance is to finish Q1 with 130-190 days of inventory, he said: “The bottom line is that we want to have more inventory.”

Expanding manufacturing capacities with a “focus on end-sector needs” leads a list of Semi “recommendations” for bolstering semiconductor supply chain resilience in Europe, said the association Wednesday. Expanding Europe’s growth of semiconductor production capacities “must be guided by a clear, future-oriented approach,” said Semi. Amid the increasing demand for “advanced semiconductor components” in automotive, health, telecom and other sectors, Europe’s “mid-term strategy” to increase production capacity should be focused on end-user sectors “with strong presence in Europe,” it said. This will let European chipmakers “identify technological shortcomings,” and drive production of advanced semiconductors “in line with technological progress and evolving needs of industries in Europe and globally,” it said: The long-term goal is for European chipmakers “to secure 20% of global production capacities by 2030,” with a focus on promoting the manufacturing of “advanced technology nodes.”

There’s no one in the semiconductor industry who’s “not focused on long-term supply” amid the chip crunch, Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress told a Needham investor conference virtually Monday. “We continue to try and get more supply for the latest and greatest quarter, but at the same time we are procuring supply commitments for longer term.” In many cases, “they can be for a year out, some of the times they may be for multiple years out,” she said. “There's a wide range of different capacity agreements we've done,” including some for which “we have prepaid,” she said. The focus is on “helping our suppliers understand where we think demand may go,” she said. “The sheer volume of what we're seeing of folks needing to procure for the longer time is essential. Not everybody has all that perfect visibility on what may be needed.”

A European Commission proposal on semiconductors could emerge shortly, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said Monday in an online Politico interview. The European Chips Act is needed because Europe must be able to produce more on its soil and export more chips, he said. The EC wants to ensure the right level of R&D and have the appropriate level of cooperation between Europe and its partners, he said. It makes sense for the EU to spread its chip investment across the continent, but boosting chip manufacturing requires capacity, a good level of stable energy and other elements, so ramping up production must be done where those factors exist, he said. The EC announced an industrial alliance on microchips, and Breton was asked whether that alliance would welcome companies like Intel from outside Europe. Europe must first establish its own strategy, he said: Once that's done, players from elsewhere will be welcome. On the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), Breton hopes to conclude the measures under the current EU French presidency, which ends July 1. Three recent developments are worrying European telcos, said European Telecommunications Network Operators Association Director General Lise Fuhr, who hosted the event. They're starting to grasp the effects of global technical turmoil, which will affect Europe more than the U.S.; American companies have launched a new initiative to conquer the "metaverse"; and operators more clearly recognize how today's tech power becomes unrivaled economic power, as shown by Apple's revenue. But telcos have reasons for confidence in the EU, she said: It changed its approach to new technologies and is less naive about big tech, as shown by the DMA/DSA; it has started to see the correlation between big tech and green issues; and policymakers are starting to view the tech sector as a growth industry rather than something to squeeze for revenue. Nevertheless, she warned, ETNO's reasons to be confident don't relieve its concerns.

The global smartphone applications processor (AP) market grew 17% to $8.3 billion in Q3, said Strategy Analytics Thursday. Qualcomm leads the market with 34.4% share, Apple 27.8% and MediaTek 26.8%, but MediaTek ended the first nine months of 2021 with a 26-million-unit lead over Qualcomm; it's on track to become the top smartphone AP vendor for the first time on an annual basis, SA said. Qualcomm lowered the priority of midrange and low-end 4G APs to focus on premium APs to make the best use of available foundry capacity, said the research firm. Qualcomm's premium tier AP Snapdragon 888/888+ was the top-selling Android AP during the quarter. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing made three-fourths of total smartphone APs shipped in Q3, followed by Samsung Foundry. Smartphone APs manufactured in 7 nanometer and below process technologies were 47% of total smartphone AP shipments in Q3, it said.

Silicon Labs announced availability of Z-Wave 800 SoCs in its Series 2 platform. The ERF32ZG23 SoCs and ZGM230S modules offer sub-GHz connectivity for Z-Wave Mesh and Z-Wave Long Range, the company emailed Wednesday. Applications for the chips, which support end devices and gateways, include smart home, multi-dwelling units, hospitality and lighting. The series is said to have a 50% improvement in battery life vs. the 700 series. In addition, the introduction of the Unify SDK Z-Wave protocol controller will help developers futureproof their smart home product designs for multiple protocols, including Matter, said Jake Alamat, general manager-IoT Home & Life.

Semi will resurrect its annual Industry Strategy Symposium as an in-person event for the first time since the start of the pandemic, said the association Monday. Registration is open for the Jan. 9-12 event in Half Moon Bay, Calif., with the theme “Semiconductors Leading a Transforming World,” it said. Mark Papermaster, Advanced Micro Devices chief technology officer and executive vice president-technology and engineering, is the conference keynoter.

A Senate bill is intended to increase U.S. chip production and supply chains. Introduced by Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; Gary Peters, D-Mich.; Rob Portman, R-Ohio; and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., the Investing in Domestic Semiconductor Manufacturing Act would ensure federal incentives to “boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing include U.S. suppliers that produce the materials and manufacturing equipment that enable semiconductor manufacturing,” they said. The legislation is related to the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act. It would “clarify eligibility for the semiconductor Financial Assistance Program at the Department of Commerce,” said Portman, “ensuring that semiconductor equipment and materials manufacturers have a seat at the table.”

The “harmful” Section 301 tariffs on Chinese semiconductor imports “are exacerbating the ongoing chip shortage and slowing our economy,” and they should be eliminated, blogged the Semiconductor Industry Association, following up on Dec. 1 comments urging the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to reinstate previously extended tariff exclusions. The tariffs, “in their most direct effect,” add 25% to the cost of covered semiconductors, and subsequently contribute to inflationary price increases driven by global shortages and rising demand, said SIA Wednesday. The tariffs “are disproportionately harming the U.S. semiconductor industry and broader U.S. interests, all while failing to put real pressure on the Chinese government to change its unfair trade practices,” it said. USTR didn't comment Thursday.

Persistent semiconductor shortages will induce half the world’s top 10 automotive OEMs to design their own chips for vehicle electrification and autonomy by 2025, giving them better control over their product road maps and supply chains, reported Gartner Tuesday. Ford foreshadowed the trend last month when it struck a nonbinding agreement with GlobalFoundries to collaborate on R&D for future “feature-rich” chips (see 2111180016). Automotive semiconductor supply chains “are complex,” said Gartner Vice President-Research Gaurav Gupta. “In most cases, chip makers are traditionally Tier 3 or Tier 4 suppliers to automakers, which means it usually takes a while until they adapt to the changes affecting automotive market demand. This lack of visibility in the supply chain has increased automotive OEMs' desire to have greater control over their semiconductor supply.” The chip crunch is especially acute among mature semiconductor technology nodes where capacity expansion is difficult, said Gupta. “That the automotive industry has been conservative in qualifying older devices on larger wafer sizes has also hurt them and will likely motivate them to take chip design in-house.” NXP Semiconductors CEO Kurt Sievers described the “enormous depth and complexity” of the automotive supply chain when he told analysts on a quarterly call last month that it takes coordinated timing and delivery “of up to 30,000 parts and up to 1,500 different semiconductors from hundreds of suppliers to build just one single car” (see 2111020032).