Siemens-Altair deal; rumored OpenAI-Broadcom chip; 0.017 nm precision in chip stacking; transistors operating at 0.3 volts; Intel backstories

Will Donald Trump’s victory have an impact on the semiconductor industry? Should the industry expect changes to the CHIPS for America program and/or a different approach in the so-called “chip war” with China and related geopolitical issues? As the world waits for more insights, let’s briefly report some recent updates on both fronts. As for the CHIPS for America program, locations have been selected for the “Extreme Ultraviolet Accelerator”, which will operate within NY Creates’ NanoTech Complex in Albany, New York, supported by an investment of $825 million; and for the “Design and Collaboration Facility”, which will be based in Sunnyvale, California. As for geopolitical tensions, SpaceX has reportedly asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing off the island, because of geopolitical risks; and the British government has reportedly ordered China-registered Future Technology Devices International Holding Ltd to sell 80.2% of Scotland-based chip company FTDI over national security risks.

Siemens-Altair deal

A few days after the acquisition announcement, let’s take a closer look at the Siemens-Altair deal. The announcement press release from Siemens offers a glimpse into how the combined product offering will look like. Altair’s simulation portfolio, with strength in mechanical and electromagnetic capabilities, will enhance Siemens’s Digital Twin to deliver a full-suite, physics-based, simulation portfolio as part of Siemens Xcelerator (which is Siemens’s development platform to help companies become digital enterprises). Altair’s data science and AI-powered simulation capabilities will be leveraged to allow anyone, from engineers to generalists, to access simulation expertise. And Altair’s data science capabilities will boost Siemens’s expertise in product lifecycle and manufacturing processes. Clearly, from a technology point of view, the Siemens-Altair deal is not just about EDA, as both companies offer many software tools targeted at industries other than semiconductors. Altair, for example, also offers HPC & Cloud tools, AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) solutions, data analytics and more. However, taking EDA only into account, one could see this deal as a way to boost the former Mentor Graphics offering with the addition of Altair’s multiphysics simulation capabilities. From this point of view, the Siemens-Altair deal can be likened to the Synopsys acquisition of Ansys. Also, the Siemens-Altair deal confirms the EDA concentration trend, with the “big three” getting ever bigger.

From a financial and market point of view, it’s interesting to notice that – according to Reuters – Siemens’s Cedrik Neike defended the price paid for Altair: $10.6 billion, which means 14 times Altair’s 2025 estimated sales, and 25 times estimated operating profit. Clearly, Siemens thinks the deal – the second biggest in the company’s history – is worth the price. As stated in the announcement press release, “Siemens expects to achieve significant revenue synergies especially from cross-selling of the highly complementary portfolios and from providing Altair full access to Siemens’s global footprint and global industrial enterprise and customer base with a revenue impact of more than USD 500 million p.a. mid-term growing to more than USD 1.0 billion p.a. long-term. Moreover, Siemens aims to achieve cost synergies on a short-term basis, with an EBITDA impact of more than USD 150 million p.a. by year two post-closing.”

Open AI to reportedly develop its first AI Chip

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is reportedly working with Broadcom and TSMC to build its first in-house chip designed to support its artificial intelligence systems. It is also adding AMD chips, alongside Nvidia chips, to meet its growing infrastructure demands.

Research updates

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have invented a new way to achieve extreme precision in 3D positioning of chips in a chip stack, by shining a laser through concentric metalenses patterned on the chips to produce a hologram. This method finds errors up to 0.017 nm along side-to-side measures (x and y axes) and 0.134 nm when assessing the distance between the two chips (z-axis).

An MIT research team has developed a new transistor type offering both low operating voltage – 0.3 volts – and a strong drive current of 300 µA µm−1, with a sharp switching slope. The scaled vertical-nanowire heterojunction tunnelling transistor is based on gallium antimonide and indium arsenide, and relies on quantum tunneling and extreme quantum confinement.

A research team from Korea Institute of Materials Science has come up with a novel EMI shielding film with ultralow reflection (<0.05 dB or 1.5%), ultrahigh absorption (>70 dB or 98.5%), and superior shielding (>70 dB or 99.99999%) across triple mmWave frequency bands, with a thickness of just 400 µm.

Acquisitions

Teledyne and Micropac have entered into a definitive merger agreement that provides for the merger of Micropac with a wholly owned subsidiary of Teledyne. The all-cash transaction values Micropac at approximately $57.3 million. Micropac, based in Garland, Texas, designs and manufactures microelectronic circuits, optoelectronic components, and sensor and display assemblies, primarily for military, aerospace, and medical applications.

Further reading: Intel’s troubles

A Reuters’ special report – based on interviews with four dozen current and former Intel employees and executives – provides several backstories and critical perspectives on Pat Gelsinger’s performance as Intel’s CEO. Among many other things, the article maintains that TSMC was offended by Gelsinger’s statement that “Taiwan is not a stable place”, resulting in TSMC no longer honoring the 40% discount it previously granted to Intel on the 3-nanometer wafers. Apart from the Reuters article, other updates about Intel include the company’s recent 3Q2024 earnings call: in its prepared remarks, Gelsinger said that “the overall uptake of Gaudi has been slower than we anticipated as adoption rates were impacted by the product transition from Gaudi 2 to Gaudi 3 and software ease-of-use. As a result, we will not achieve our target of $500 million in revenue for Gaudi in 2024.” Lastly, in an interview with Yahoo Finance, Gelsinger complained about the US CHIPS Act, saying that he is “disappointed by the time that it’s taken to get done. It’s well over two years since the CHIPS Act passed. And over that period, I’ve invested $30 billion in US manufacturing and we’ve seen $0 from the CHIPS grants. This has taken too long. We need to get it finished.”

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