Semicon Briefing

AMD is on the brink of signing a 2nm manufacturing contract with Samsung Foundry for EPYC-Venice CPUs from 2027 onwards – Samsung's fab utilization is already above 80%. The deal would free up TSMC capacity for Nvidia GPUs and usher in Samsung Foundry's comeback after years of decline.

ams-OSRAM announced in its Q1-2026 results a development contract with a leading AI data center partner for digital photonics technologies – the deal triggered a stock jump and positions the company in the booming CPO market. In parallel, the €570 million sale of the sensor business to Infineon is proceeding with Q2 closing.

Infineon has raised its revenue guidance for fiscal year 2026 to over €16 billion (FY25: €14.7 billion) and increased gross margin to lower to mid-40 percent range – more than 60% of revenue growth comes from AI and data center business, which is expected to grow to €1.5 billion. The outlook underscores the structural shift of European chip companies away from weakening automotive towards the AI infrastructure market.

TSMC presented new manufacturing technologies that achieve further performance gains from existing ASML EUV machines – without needing to switch to the new High-NA generation ($400 million per unit). This questions ASML's growth strategy with High-NA EUV and could shift the investment timeline for the entire industry.

Nvidia and Corning announce a partnership for three new US factories that will exclusively produce advanced materials for Nvidia's AI infrastructure. The cooperation demonstrates the depth of vertical integration in the AI ecosystem and increases pressure on European and Asian suppliers.

China is deploying massive state investment and procurement mandates to localize 70% of its silicon wafers and chip equipment – in direct response to tightened allied export controls. In parallel, China has introduced new countermeasures that put multinationals in direct compliance conflicts between US and Chinese law.