Semicon Briefing

IonQ has completed its acquisition of SkyWater Technology, the only purely US-American semiconductor foundry, for $1.8B – FTC approval was granted on July 31, 2026. The deal combines quantum hardware and a domestic fab under one roof and is strategically highly relevant in the context of the CHIPS Act and the US sovereignty debate.

The European Commission launched the bidding process for up to seven AI gigafactories on July 30 – €10B in public funds are intended to mobilize at least €20B in private capital; AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm have already signed letters of intent. Critics on Reddit point out that €30B corresponds to only 17 days of US hyperscaler capex – Europe's lag remains structural.

Microchip Technology has announced the acquisition of Israeli AI chip startup Hailo to strengthen its NPU and vision computing capabilities. The deal underscores ongoing consolidation pressure in the edge AI chip segment and the strategic value of specialized inference architectures.

Bipartisan US senators are publicly urging Apple to abandon plans to purchase memory chips from Chinese manufacturer CXMT – the move would endanger the US supply chain and set a dangerous precedent. Polymarket values the probability of Apple actually purchasing from CXMT at only 24%, political pressure is likely to be decisive.

TSMC is targeting monthly 2nm capacity of 100,000 wafers by end of 2026, driven by demand pressure from NVIDIA, AMD, and other customers. In parallel, TSMC is developing an EMIB-like packaging technology to counter Intel's cost advantage in advanced packaging – manufacturing leadership is being defended on multiple fronts simultaneously.

Brewer Science has completed its acquisition of the semiconductor chemicals business from Heraeus Epurio, strengthening its position in the upstream materials area of chip manufacturing. Given growing supply chain resilience requirements, specialized process chemicals providers are gaining strategic importance.