Semicon Briefing

The Trump Administration is planning a worldwide licensing system that would require buyers of large quantities of Nvidia and AMD AI chips to invest at least 20% of chip spending volume in US data center infrastructure – China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia are fundamentally excluded. The Commerce Department confirmed the general direction; Vietnam was negotiated as the first country for relief, and states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are considered blueprints for such investment-for-chips deals.

Applied Materials and SK Hynix announced a long-term R&D partnership to accelerate AI memory innovation at the EPIC Center in Silicon Valley; the $5 billion EPIC Center is expected to be fully operational by end of 2026. The cooperation comes amid rising DRAM prices (+Q2 2026) and underscores AMAT's role as a key supplier for HBM capacity expansions at SK Hynix and TSMC.

Worldwide demand for 2nm capacity significantly exceeds supply: TSMC holds the lead, while Intel's 18A node and Samsung's Taylor Fab (Texas) are under pressure to meet mass production targets in 2026. The bottleneck is already slowing down customers like Alphabet, which had to reduce its 2026 TPU production targets due to limited TSMC CoWoS capacity, and is dramatically driving up the strategic relevance of alternative foundry capacity.

Adeia (ADEA) has signed a multi-year license agreement with AMD that grants AMD access to Adeia's semiconductor IP portfolio while settling ongoing litigation. The deal signals growing importance of IP licensing as a strategic instrument for securing chip designs in competition for AI accelerator architecture.

The EU Commission proposed the Industrial Accelerator Act, which introduces a 70% EU content standard for funding applications and aims to strengthen Europe's tech sovereignty alongside the parallel Chips Act 2.0. In parallel, €623 million is flowing into GlobalFoundries and X-FAB specialty fabs in Saxony, while NanoIC became operational as the largest Chips Act pilot line at IMEC Leuven with €2.5 billion in total investment – a direct counterpart to the US CHIPS Act and Chinese subsidies.

The dispute over the Chinese Nexperia headquarters in the Netherlands escalates again: Chinese employees at the site were reportedly locked out of IT systems, prompting China to threaten a fresh chip shortage. The case exemplifies how geopolitical tensions now directly intervene in the operational structures of European semiconductor companies and destabilize supply chains.