The wireless industry’s voluntary resiliency cooperative framework was a hot issue Tuesday, as the FCC heard testimony during the commissioners’ meeting. The virtual field hearing on Hurricane Ida dominated what otherwise would have been a brief meeting, pushing it to almost three hours. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel was congratulated on President Joe Biden's intent to nominate her for another commissioner term and his designating her as permanent chair. See our news bulletin here.
Verizon Senior Vice President-Chief Privacy Officer Karen Zacharia plans to retire from the carrier in 2022; Donna Epps moves up to senior vice president-public policy and strategic alliances and Sue Vinci ascends to vice president-chief privacy officer, reporting to Epps, to whom Global Public Policy teams that are led by Director-International Public Policy Fiona Taylor also report ... Continental Automated Buildings Association names Greg Walker CEO, succeeding Ron Zimmer, retired after 23 years with the organization.
Global smartphone shipments, which grew year on year in Q2 despite the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant and component shortages, will turn negative in Q3 due to continued supply shortages and reduced demand, said Omdia analyst Jusy Hong in a Monday report. Impacts of the pandemic “continue to reverberate” in the semiconductor and display markets, with shortages, supply-demand imbalance and price fluctuation, he said.
Intel expects its plans to build new chip plants will “benefit from investments from governments" that understand that a "healthy semiconductor industry is vital to their economic well-being and national security,” said CEO Pat Gelsinger on a Q3 call Thursday. With bipartisan support, “we’re hopeful the Chips Act will be passed by the end of this year, allowing us to accelerate decisions for our next U.S. site,” he said. This will “enable a more level playing field with our competitors who enjoy significant support from their governments,” said Gelsinger. “We've also seen considerable interest in the EU with the European Chips Act, and the process to select our next site in Europe is proceeding rapidly. Intel remains the only global company committed to building a leading-edge foundry in the U.S. and Europe for customers around the world.” Demand for semiconductors remains strong, and Intel factories performed “exceptionally well” in Q3, despite “a highly dynamic environment,” said Gelsinger. “Overall industry supply remained very constrained.” The “digitization of everything” is driving “the sustained need for more semiconductors, and the market is expected to double to $1 trillion by 2030,” said Gelsinger. The company forecasts 51% to 53% in gross profit margins over the next two to three years “before moving upward,” said Chief Financial Officer George Davis, vs. 57% expected this year. The stock closed 11.7% lower Friday at $49.46.
The order backlog at Nordic Semiconductor “keeps increasing,” said CEO Svenn-Tore Larsen on a Q3 earnings call Thursday. It ended the quarter with a $1.3 billion backlog, “basically four times the backlog the same time last year,” he said. The chipmaker now worries its backlog will “stretch into '23,” he said. “The challenge we have at Nordic is to focus on the customer situation. We need to ensure we can give the Tier-1s the opportunity to grow the same as we keep our longtail customers happy.” The challenge is “very difficult with this constrained supply situation, but that's what we work on every day,” he said.
Government subsidies have nurtured tech growth, a Semiconductor Industry Association webinar heard Thursday. Speakers agreed lack of high-skilled U.S. talent tamps down growth, even if Congress ultimately funds the Chips Act (HR-1390). MediaTek USA “is in a race to hire” to boost U.S. semiconductor growth, but the “talent pool we have to draw from is not as big and as large as we’d like,” said James Chen, associate vice president-product marketing. Chips are “pervasive in everything you do,” said Mike Hogan, GlobalFoundries senior vice president-general manager, automotive, industrial and multi-market. They are “really the new oil in the economy,” he said. The U.S. industry is “investing a lot” in R&D, and funding the Chips Act “is not a handout," he said: “This is reinforcing an industry that was born in the U.S., that can become prominent and world-leading in the U.S. again.” Hogan arrived at Texas Instruments around when Morris Chang left to start Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in 1985, he said. TSMC is now the world’s largest chip foundry, but Chang wouldn’t have “gotten it off the ground” had the Taiwanese government “not sponsored that initiative,” Hogan said. Public policy “plays a really critical role” in nurturing growth in the U.S. semiconductor industry, said Susie Armstrong, Qualcomm senior vice president-engineering. “It’s not the case that you have a bunch of rich U.S. or Taiwanese companies” looking for congressional handouts, she said: Qualcomm typifies most U.S. chip companies that rechannel a quarter-plus revenue and profit into R&D.
There’s no “magic elixir” to fix the global chip shortage, which is an “urgent” crisis and a “huge problem” for American consumers and businesses, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told a Washington Post virtual event Wednesday. Microchips “underpin everything we do in a day,” she said. The U.S. makes “zero percent of the most sophisticated chips on our shores,” and 70% of the “leading-edge” chips that Americans consume come from Taiwan, she said. “I find that to be an almost terrifying prospect,” amid the looming threat the island faces from China, she said. “We are exceedingly vulnerable, and getting even more so as our economy becomes more digital.”
National Institute of Standards and Technology director nominee Laurie Locascio repeatedly emphasized the agency's role in maintaining U.S. competitiveness in communications and other emerging technologies against China and other adversaries during a Wednesday hearing, in part citing the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act. Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and other members pressed her on a range of tech-related issues, but she faced limited fire amid a focus on other nominees.
Lack of transparency on patent ownership is a threat to U.S. competitiveness and national security, said Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., during a hearing Tuesday. Foreign companies can buy U.S. patents without the public knowing, said Leahy, who introduced legislation with ranking member Thom Tillis, R-N.C. The bill requires patent owners to record updated ownership information with the Patent and Trademark Office when a patent changes hands. Failure to record ownership information would mean entities aren’t allowed to recoup damages for IP ownership. China is an increasing threat on royalties involving 5G technology, laptops, connected cars and semiconductors, said Intel Senior Vice President Allon Stabinsky. He noted only one American company is on the list of top 10 patent holders. China has four, Europe has two and Japan one, he said: This has “profound implications” for American competitiveness, he said. The legislation proposes a reasonable and balanced remedy, said Engine IP Counsel Abby Rives: The patent owner can still seek reasonable royalties and lost profits but would give up the ability to push damages higher during the period the owner failed to disclose the required information.
Commissioner Brendan Carr urged the FCC Tuesday to “immediately start the process” of adding China-based DJI, which has more than half the U.S. drone market, to the agency’s covered list. “The need for quick FCC action on this is very clear,” he told a virtual program sponsored by China Tech Threat. “What we’re seeing … is the potential for Huawei on wings.”