The industry shipped more semiconductor units in Q3 than during any previous quarter on record, ramping up production to mitigate the global chips crunch, reported the Semiconductor Industry Association Monday. Global sales of $144.8 billion were up 27.6% year over year and 7.4% higher sequentially, said SIA. Year-over-year Q3 sales increased 33.5% in the Americas, and were up 32.3% in Europe, 27.2% in Asia Pacific, 24.5% in Japan and 24% in China, it said.
Sony couldn't meet demand for some consumer tech in fiscal Q2 ended Sept. 30 “because the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia led to limitations on our factory operations and on the supply of components,” Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki told a Tokyo briefing. “Limitations on the supply of components, especially semiconductors, have recently become apparent.” Sony Pictures has “gradually” resumed releasing major films in U.S. theaters, said Totoki. Venom: Let There Be Carnage generated box office revenue of about $90 million globally on the opening weekend of its Oct. 1 release, “which is the best opening performance of any film during the pandemic,” he said. “We are planning to release other compelling IP from Sony to theaters,” he said, including Ghostbusters: Afterlife, debuting Nov. 19, and Spider-Man: No Way Home on Dec. 17. Sony will stick with monetizing "family-oriented films,” at least for the fiscal year, “by directly licensing them to video streaming services, as we do not believe they will draw sufficient theatrical audiences during the pandemic,” said Totoki. He cited Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, debuting Jan. 14 on Amazon Prime Video. Sony Pictures is the only major studio not tethered to a streaming service. Also Thursday, Imax reported a cinema resurgence (see 2110280057).
Consider changing appointment and removal procedures for U.S. Agency for Global Media’s grantee board members to better protect editorial independence, GAO recommended Wednesday. USAGM grantees include Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and the Open Technology Fund. “Network and USAGM officials said that previous members of USAGM leadership took several actions that did not align with USAGM's firewall principles,” the audit said. Congressional Democrats and others criticized USAGM leadership during the Trump administration for purging staff and hurting content independence (see 2006240054). Giving the International Broadcasting Advisory Board a role in determining grantee directors “may help ensure the professional independence and integrity of USAGM's grantees,” GAO said. Consider legislation to define parameters of USAGM’s editorial “firewall” and “what is and is not permissible,” GAO recommended.
Corning used to think the inflationary pressures on its businesses were “transitory,” CEO Wendell Weeks said on a Q3 call Tuesday. Conversations with the supply chain and investors have led the company to conclude “this may last longer than we had thought,” he said. “This looks like we could continue to have challenged supply chains through the foreseeable future.” Price increases are “underway” in all Corning businesses to mitigate the impact of “supply chain challenges and inflationary headwinds” that reduced gross margins by 150 basis points year over year, said Chief Financial Officer Tony Tripeny. The stock closed 5.3% lower Tuesday at $36.58.
A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel denied (in Pacer, 19-16066) a request for rehearing in a government mass surveillance case (see 2011020063). The Electronic Frontier Foundation sued NSA in 2008 over an alleged illegal dragnet program that EFF says AT&T and Verizon participated in. A federal district court ruled in the government’s favor, saying revealing classified information at issue would threaten national security by giving adversaries a road map for surveillance practices. The one-page order issued Tuesday by Judges Margaret McKeown, Ronald Gould and Carlos Bea said the full court was advised of the petition for rehearing and no judge requested a vote. The panel affirmed the district court’s decision in August, with EFF saying the court provided “little explanation.” The plaintiffs “failed to set forth sufficient evidence of standing,” the court said in August. Executive Director Cindy Cohn said EFF is disappointed the court isn't "willing to revisit the decision, especially in light of the two cases pending before the Supreme Court that could be critical to how both the State Secrets Privilege and [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] are interpreted. The Courts cannot and should not remove themselves from cases where the privacy of millions of Americans are at stake."
The DOJ Civil Division's Consumer Protection Branch and the FBI met with India's Central Bureau of Investigation last week to discuss "international robocalls and communications," the department said Thursday. Officials discussed efforts to curb "emerging crime trends, including fighting rising telemarketing fraud."
The Bureau of Industry and Security approved $100 billion-plus worth of export licenses for shipments to Huawei and top Chinese chipmaker SMIC Nov. 9 through April 20, per documents released Thursday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. BIS said it approved 113 licenses for Huawei -- about 70% of applications received -- for more than $61 billion worth of goods. The agency greenlit 188 licenses for SMIC -- about 90% -- for more than $41 billion. BIS denied two applications for Huawei and returned 48 without action during that period. It denied one for SMIC and returned 17. The companies are on the BIS parent agency's Commerce Department entity list.
Intel expects its plans to build new chip plants will “benefit from investments from governments" that understand that a "healthy semiconductor industry is vital to their economic well-being and national security,” said CEO Pat Gelsinger on a Q3 call Thursday. With bipartisan support, “we’re hopeful the Chips Act will be passed by the end of this year, allowing us to accelerate decisions for our next U.S. site,” he said. This will “enable a more level playing field with our competitors who enjoy significant support from their governments,” said Gelsinger. “We've also seen considerable interest in the EU with the European Chips Act, and the process to select our next site in Europe is proceeding rapidly. Intel remains the only global company committed to building a leading-edge foundry in the U.S. and Europe for customers around the world.” Demand for semiconductors remains strong, and Intel factories performed “exceptionally well” in Q3, despite “a highly dynamic environment,” said Gelsinger. “Overall industry supply remained very constrained.” The “digitization of everything” is driving “the sustained need for more semiconductors, and the market is expected to double to $1 trillion by 2030,” said Gelsinger. The company forecasts 51% to 53% in gross profit margins over the next two to three years “before moving upward,” said Chief Financial Officer George Davis, vs. 57% expected this year. The stock closed 11.7% lower Friday at $49.46.
Government subsidies have nurtured tech growth, a Semiconductor Industry Association webinar heard Thursday. Speakers agreed lack of high-skilled U.S. talent tamps down growth, even if Congress ultimately funds the Chips Act (HR-1390). MediaTek USA “is in a race to hire” to boost U.S. semiconductor growth, but the “talent pool we have to draw from is not as big and as large as we’d like,” said James Chen, associate vice president-product marketing. Chips are “pervasive in everything you do,” said Mike Hogan, GlobalFoundries senior vice president-general manager, automotive, industrial and multi-market. They are “really the new oil in the economy,” he said. The U.S. industry is “investing a lot” in R&D, and funding the Chips Act “is not a handout," he said: “This is reinforcing an industry that was born in the U.S., that can become prominent and world-leading in the U.S. again.” Hogan arrived at Texas Instruments around when Morris Chang left to start Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in 1985, he said. TSMC is now the world’s largest chip foundry, but Chang wouldn’t have “gotten it off the ground” had the Taiwanese government “not sponsored that initiative,” Hogan said. Public policy “plays a really critical role” in nurturing growth in the U.S. semiconductor industry, said Susie Armstrong, Qualcomm senior vice president-engineering. “It’s not the case that you have a bunch of rich U.S. or Taiwanese companies” looking for congressional handouts, she said: Qualcomm typifies most U.S. chip companies that rechannel a quarter-plus revenue and profit into R&D.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will issue new export controls on certain cybersecurity items and create a new license exception for those exports, said an interim final rule Wednesday. It will establish more restrictions on items that can be used for “malicious cyber activities” by imposing a license requirement for shipments to certain countries, said BIS, part of the Commerce Department. The changes, effective Jan. 19, will align U.S. cybersecurity restrictions with controls previously agreed to at the multilateral Wassenaar Arrangement. BIS seeks comment on the changes by Dec. 6, says Thursday's Federal Register.