Marvell Technology was of the few chipmakers last week to cite recent improvements in the supply crunch, with more expected in the quarters to come. Marvell’s revenue for its fiscal Q3 ended Oct. 30 soared 61% from a year earlier to $1.21 billion, above the high point of its $1.18 billion Aug. 26 guidance, partly because supply in the quarter “was better than expected,” said CEO Matt Murphy on a Thursday call with analysts. “We expect continued improvements as we move into the fourth quarter and next year,” he said. “The additional capacity has better positioned us to catch up to the growth in demand, which so far has outpaced increases in supply.” Procuring supply “remains the highest priority for our operations team, even as the supply expansion comes with an increase in input costs,” said the CEO. “Each time we've secured additional capacities, we end up, in a lot of cases, having to bear a higher input cost. That's been part of the drill as supply has come available.” Though supply “has caught up a lot” to demand, “we still aren't really making a dent yet in the unfulfilled backlog that's out there,” he said. Q3 revenue in Marvell’s carrier infrastructure business grew 28% year over year, “driven by our 5G products ramping at multiple customers,” said Murphy. Marvell forecasts 30% quarter-on-quarter growth sequentially in the segment for Q3 ending late January, he said: “It's exciting to see the step-up in our 5G business, and we expect significant additional growth over the next several years as 5G adoption continues to grow around the globe.”

Congress should take “prompt action” to fund the Creating Helpful Incentives for the Production of Semiconductors Act and enact a stronger version of the Facilitating American Built Semiconductors Act to include an investment tax credit for semiconductor design and manufacturing, nearly five dozen tech companies and automakers wrote the House and Senate leadership Wednesday. “Demand for critical components has outstripped supply, creating a global chip shortage and resulting in lost growth and jobs in the economy,” said the companies. “The shortage has exposed vulnerabilities in the semiconductor supply chain and highlighted the need for increased domestic manufacturing capacity.” The Senate already approved Chips Act funding on a bipartisan basis, and the House “must now move forward to approve the funding,” they said. “The chip shortage poses risks to our entire economy and time is of the essence.”

It’s “imperative” that the U.S. reinvests in the “critical” semiconductor industry to “ensure that more chips are made here at home,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told a business roundtable group Monday in Taylor, Michigan. She urged the House and Senate to “reach agreement quickly” on the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260), which includes $52 billion in funding for domestic semiconductor production and R&D. The U.S. “was once a leader in the production of semiconductor chips, which power our smartphones, medical equipment, and automobiles,” said Raimondo. The U.S. today generates only 12% of global production and produces “zero percent of the most advanced chips,” she said. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., told the group that Michigan is "ground zero for where the chip shortage is devastating autoworkers and auto companies."

North American semiconductor equipment manufacturers posted $3.74 billion in October billings globally, up 0.6% sequentially and 41.3% higher than in October 2020, reported the trade group Semi. “The push towards digital transformation along with robust demand for multiple disruptive applications continues to drive semiconductor equipment sales,” said Semi CEO Ajit Manocha. The report is based on three-month moving averages of worldwide billings.

“Organic supply” at Analog Devices was affected from some of the COVID-19 factory shutdowns in Southeast Asia “that affected much of the industry,” said CEO Vincent Roche on a call Tuesday with analysts for fiscal Q4 ended Oct. 30. Revenue in the quarter still grew 33% sequentially from fiscal Q3 ended July 31, he said. “But as we've been talking about it for the last couple of quarters, our supply has been limited and revenue really is a function of supply. So that hiccup did put a little bit of pressure on the revenue line, and you'll see that correct itself as we go forward.” The company’s fiscal 2021 “truly demonstrated the vital importance of semiconductors to the modern digital age,” said Roche. “As we enter 2022, our backlog and bookings remain robust and we continue to invest in manufacturing capacity.” The chipmaker took “decisive action to add capacity throughout the year with more than $340 million in capital expenditures,” said the CEO. “This is enabling us to better navigate the near-term supply/demand imbalance while achieving our long-term growth objectives.” In the company’s communications sector, fiscal 2021 “was an uneven year, as strength in wired was offset by weakness in the China wireless market,” said Roche. “Encouragingly, as we look to 2022, the proliferation of 5G is gaining momentum globally, especially in North America.” The company this past year introduced the industry's first software-defined radio transceiver “that includes a fully integrated digital front end,” he said. “This next generation transceiver platform enables us to defend and extend our position in traditional 5G” and emerging open radio access networks, he said.

The House Science Committee plans a Dec. 2 hearing virtually at 10 a.m. EST on “ensuring American leadership in microelectronics,” said the committee Tuesday. Scheduled witnesses are Ann Kelleher, Intel executive vice president-general manager, technology development; Manish Bhatia, Micron Technology executive vice president-global operations; Michael Witherell, director, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and Mung Chiang, Purdue University executive vice president and dean of its Engineering College.

GlobalFoundries and Ford signed a nonbinding agreement that “opens the door” for the chipmaker to boost semiconductor supply for Ford's current vehicle lineup, said the companies Thursday. They also agreed to do R&D to “address the growing demand for feature-rich chips” to support automotive industry growth, they said. These could include semiconductors for advanced driver assistance systems, battery management and in-vehicle networking for future autonomous, connected and electrified vehicles, they said: “GF and Ford also will explore expanded semiconductor manufacturing opportunities.” The Ford-GF "strategic collaboration" does not involve "cross-ownership between the two companies," they said.

Nvidia’s gaming revenue of $3.2 billion was up 42% from a year earlier in fiscal Q3 ended Oct. 31, said Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress on a Wednesday call. “Demand was strong across the board” as Nvidia continues to increase supply of desktop graphics processing units, she said. “We believe channel inventories remain low.” Nvidia has secured “guaranteed supply, very large amounts of it,” from the world’s top packaging and testing companies, said CEO Jensen Huang. “This whole last year was a wake-up call for everybody to be much more mindful about not taking this supply chain for granted.” Nvidia made a $1.6 billion payment this quarter on a total long-term capacity agreement of about $3.4 billion, said Kress. “We still have more payments to make and we will likely continue to be purchasing longer-term to support our growth.”

QuickLogic’s final assembly lead times are stretching to six months or more, from what “used to be a six- to eight-week turnaround,” said CEO Brian Faith on an earnings call Wednesday for fiscal Q3 ended Oct. 3. The supplier of voice-enabled SoCs and field-programmable gate array components is “countering some of the delays by leveraging our inventories of substrates and finished materials,” he said. “This issue is not going away anytime soon, so we may need to build additional inventory ahead of customer shipments to minimize risk.”

Amazon supports U.S. policy initiatives “that focus on diversifying and expanding the semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging supply chain through building out domestic resources,” it said in comments posted Tuesday in docket BIS-2021-0036. Comments were due Monday in the Bureau of Industry and Security’s request for information on the global chip crunch to help the secretaries of Commerce and Homeland Security prepare a report for the White House by the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order on U.S. supply chains (see 2109230038). Any new policy initiatives on the chip shortage should also focus on “preserving relationships with trusted partners outside the United States, and investing in the growth of leading-edge technology capabilities,” said Amazon. “We are particularly concerned about the current lack of U.S.-based manufacturing capacity or capability to produce leading edge semiconductors at or below 7 nanometers, which creates a significant gap" in the U.S. semiconductor supply chain, said the company. The “geographical diversification” of supply chains and “uninterrupted access” to semiconductor technology is “vital” to American companies, “including Amazon and our customers,” it said.