Shrugs at Washington’s pricey patriotism push

Despite a flood of government cash designed to drag chipmaking back to the US, one of the industry's key suppliers seems distinctly unimpressed.

Beijing chip-gear maker claims US rival swiped plasma tech via ex-staff

Top US chip-equipment maker Applied Materials is in hot water in China after being accused of stealing trade secrets from a domestic competitor.

Offers Apple get out of jail free card

Donald Trump is back on the tariff warpath, this time threatening to slap a 100 per cent levy on all semiconductor imports unless the chips are made on US soil.

Too many egos, not enough consolidation

Beijing’s dream of creating a semiconductor supergroup to take on US giants is hitting the rocks, according to a report by the Financial Times.

Second quarter profit and revenue below analysts’ estimates

Chip gear maker Applied Materials forecast second quarter profit and revenue below analysts’ estimates.

Chip making could be picking up

There are signs that chip making might be starting to pick up after one of the largest supplier of tools used to make semiconductors turned in a bigger than expected profit.

Half of R&D spent on new processing

More than half of the IC foundries combined R&D budgets are being spent researching 10nm, according to Applied Materials Taiwan president Erix Yu.

Rivals Applied Materials

Lam Research is buying KLA-Tencor Corp. for about $10.6 billion and will turn itself into a significant rival to Applied Materials in the chipmaking equipment market.

Anti-trust

The largest manufacturers of the machinery used to make semiconductors, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron of Japan, have dumped a merger plans.