Global Electronic Component Supply Chain Resources

From the Source's Mouth | Q3 2022

Written by Ariana Jennell | Oct 1, 2022 1:15:00 PM

Fusion Worldwide has reviewed semiconductor manufacturers’ quarterly earnings call transcripts to gain perspective on the following:

  • Status of supply and the state of ongoing or upcoming constraints 
  • Developments affecting demand
  • Capacity expansion

From the Source’s Mouth will be updated throughout the quarter. The table below provides a summary of key takeaways from Q3, 2022.

 

MANUFACTURER

REPORT SUMMARY

Earnings Call Release Date

Ambarella

Revenue for the quarter was $83.1 million, IotT and automotive end market revenue increasing. Automotive revenue was up 28% and totaled $2.3 billion. 

Two logistics and ODM companies represented 10% of revenue for the quarter. A fulfillment partner in Taiwan made up 62% of revenue, while Chicony, a manufacturer for IoT customers, was 11% of revenue. 

Expectations for next year forecast continued improvements in component availability and further contractions in lead times. However, Q4 revenue will likely be flat and in the range of $81 - $85 million as it is usually a slow quarter. Fiscal 2024 Q1 revenue will follow a similar pattern but is forecasted to be down.

December 1, 2022

Marvell

Q3 revenue totaled $1.54 billion, driven by cloud, 5G and auto business, as well as share and content advancements in enterprise networking end markets. Data center business accounted for 41% of total revenue, while enterprise networking was 24%, carrier infrastructure was 18%, consumer was 12% and auto industrial made up 5%.  

By end market, data center revenue was $627 million, carrier infrastructure revenue was $271 million, auto and industrial revenue was $84 million, enterprise networking revenue was $376 million and consumer revenue was $178 million. 

Q3 saw many strategic relationships impact revenue, with Vodafone and Samsung announcing cooperation with Marvell to improve implementation of 5G Open RAN across Europe. In addition, Vodafone and Nokia are working on a fully compliant Open RAN solution with Marvell.  

Requests from customers, particularly storage customers, to push out or delay orders impacted revenue for the quarter. This is expected to continue into Q4. Estimates indicate that revenue from OEM customers in China will decrease by a third, in comparison to Q2.  

Expectations for Q4 are that carrier end markets will grow slightly, alongside auto and industrial end markets, while enterprise is predicted to decline. Inventory levels will continue to be elevated until demand recovers, and key growth drivers will likely be cloud, 5G and auto markets. Revenue for the quarter will be in the range of 1.4 billion, plus or minus 5%. 

December 1, 2022

Analog Devices

Revenue for the quarter reached $3.25 billion and fiscal year revenue totaled about $12 billion. 

The most diverse and profitable end market was industrial, which represented 51% of the quarter’s revenue. Automotive made up 21% of quarterly revenue, while communications was 15% and consumer was 13%. 

Due to uncertainty in the market, Analog Devices is prepared to hold more finished goods instead of shipping into the channel. This will also aid in returning to a lead time range of 4 – 8 weeks. 

Bookings in industrial and automotive are the strongest, while communications and consumer are weaker. Next quarter revenue should be around $2.15 billion, plus or minus $100 million. 

For next quarter, automotive is forecasted to grow, industrial will likely remain the same, communication is predicted to decline by mid-single digits and consumer will similarly be down double digits sequentially. 

November 22, 2022

NVIDIA

Q3 revenue was $5.93 billion, down 12% sequentially and down 17% year-on-year. By segment, data center revenue accounted for $3.83 billion, gaming revenue was $1.57 billion, ProViz revenue was $200 million and automotive was $251 million. 

Data center revenue took a hit following the U.S. government regulations on exports of A100 and H100 based products to China, as well as any product destined for particular systems in China. However, alternative product sales helped offset these losses.  

NVIDIA announced a multiyear partnership agreement with Microsoft to develop an advanced cloud-based AI supercomputer. NVIDA is already posed to make great strides in this market as the latest top 500 list of supercomputers recently released at Supercomputing ’22 utilize the largest number of NVIDIA-power systems to date. 

Sales of gaming products was steady in the Americas and EMEA but dropped in the Asia Pacific area due to economic concerns and COVID-19 related uncertainties. 

ProViz saw a downturn in revenue due to customer’s doing inventory correction as consumer demand has declined. This is expected to continue into Q4, but long term development in AI, simulation, computationally intensive design and engineering workloads will drive demand recovery. 

In the upcoming quarter, revenue is expected to be in the range of $6 billion, plus or minus 2%. Capital expenditures will be approximately $500 - $550 million. Data center revenue should increase thanks to shipments of H100 but will be offset by decreased demand in China. Once inventory correction is resolved, gaming should recover and continue to grow alongside other categories like automotive, which is showing no signs of downturn moving forward. 

November 16, 2022

Infineon

Q3 revenue totaled 14.2 billion EUR, with over 50% earned via increased manufacturing capacities and improved foundry supply. Key growth drivers now and in the future include e-mobility, renewable energy, autonomous driving, data center and power supply, IoT and other miscellaneous categories. These are verticals that Infineon is already at the core of and leading. 

Supply shortages are improving alongside constraints alleviating and lead times stabilizing. The backlog of orders was stable at the end of September and supply is slowly coming out of allocation. However, MCUs for automotive, IGBTs for renewables, Wide Bandgap and analog mixed signal parts are still the most constrained. 

Power systems and IoT are two main focuses for expansion and further investment moving into the new year. Power systems will be integral for the electrification movement, particularly within the development of electric vehicles, green energy and data centers. 

Infineon has set the goal of powering over 10 million battery electric vehicles for Stellantis brands in the second half of the decade. 

Forecasts indicate that the automotive microcontroller business will grow 2.5 times to 4 billion EUR over the coming years. 

Infineon has laid out a two-phase plan for their standard industrial classification (SIC) trajectory. Phase 1 entails initial silicon carbide ramp in Villach, Austria. The goal of this phase is to capture the first 1 billion EUR of silicon carbide revenue by 2025. Phase 2 will cover the completion of a Wide Bandgap dedicated fab in Kulim, which will increase silicon carbide revenue capacity to 3 billion EUR by 2027. Production at this fab is scheduled to begin in Autumn 2024. 

Also, plans are already in place to expand their Dresden location by adding a fourth module for 300-millimeter production of analog mixed signal components, as well as for power switches. Production should be ready to begin within the next four years. This investment will help alleviate the growing supply gap for mature nodes, or power ICs manufactured using 130-nanometer technology on 300-millimeter wafers. 

The expected revenue for the upcoming quarter is around 4 billion EUR. For the full 2023 fiscal year, revenues are forecasted to reach about 15.5 billion EUR, plus or minus 500 million EUR. 

November 16, 2022

Coherent Corp

This quarter was the first to produce over $1 billion in revenue for a single quarter. Total revenue reached $1.34 billion and grew 69% year over year. By segment, 44% of revenue came from networking, 29% from lasers, and 27% from materials. By market, communications represented 44%, industrial as 34%, electronics was 13% and instrumentation was 9% of revenue.  

In spite of the current macroeconomic circumstances, ethernet transceiver revenue for cloud applications grew at twice the market growth rate. Coherent group is bullish on opportunities for larger-sized laser-annealed OLED panels in the IT segment, led by laptops and tablets. Revenue for products with EV battery manufacturing applications grew 30% sequentially.  

Lead times are around six months for annealing systems. 

Analysts forecast that demand will far outpace supply for many years within the silicon carbide power device business for the electric vehicles, as the industry has been pivoting to 800-volt architecture. This move has been motivated by the desire for lower-cost, fast charging and compact solutions. 

Revenue for the upcoming quarter is expected to be in the range of $1.34 - $1.4 billion. Telecom and datacom are both showing potential for growth in fiscal year 2023. 

Regarding the impact of U.S. regulations against China, China represents only 2% of Coherent Corp’s business in the laser segment. Coherent Corp is buffered by any losses in this market due to the thousands of ultraviolet lasers that customers use that need to be refurbished every two to three years. Revenue from maintenance service is not currently covered by the regulations. 

November 9, 2022

GlobalFoundries

Revenue for Q3 was $2.074 billion, with wafer revenue from end markets accounting for 90% of total revenue. The breakdown by end market saw smart mobile devices representing 46% of revenue, home and industrial IoT was 19%, automotive was 5%, communications infrastructure and data center comprised approximately 18%, while the compute end market declined year-over-year and comprised only 2% approximately. 

The quarter began with customers requesting to decrease their 2023 shipments, particularly within the first half of the year. Due to decreased demand, GlobalFoundries is reducing capacity utilization, particularly within 200 millimeter fabs. Despite the challenges, GlobalFoundries is confident that long-term customer agreements will help them navigate any volatility within the industry. 

Looking ahead, the image sensor process business, as well as home and industrial IoT markets are looking strong and predicted to grow year-over-year. Automotive is another growing industry for GlobalFoundries, and the addition of new MCUs and safety applications, as well as radar for sending and power management for electrification are anticipated to expand the automotive market share for the company. 

The compute end market declined and is predicted to be less than 5% of total 2022 revenue.  

Net revenue for Q4 will be between $2.05 – $2.1 billion. 

November 8, 2022

Diodes

Third quarter revenue totaled a record $521.3 million, a 4.1% increase sequentially. By end market, industrial represented 28%, computing 23%, consumer 18%, communication 15% and automotive represented 16% of product revenue.  

PC market demand has been weak, but successfully offset by cloud server storage and SSD applications. For Q4 the industrial market backlog is extensive, and demand is strong, so this will be a key revenue driver for the quarter. 

Q4 revenue is expected to be in the range of $494 million. However, inventory adjustments in consumer computing and communications could have an impact from Q4 onwards. Overall pricing trends remain unstable and there has been no significant changes in lead times, which remain long. 

November 7, 2022

Microchip

Total revenue for the quarter was $2.07 billion with the microcontroller business representing 56.9% of net sales and analog representing 27.6%. Demand was driven by industrial, automotive, aerospace and defense, data center and communication infrastructure end markets.  

Microchip is in the beginning stages of purchasing a 300-millimeter U.S. based fab for specialized trailing edge technologies. Should the acquisition go through, it would take four plus years to ramp up production. 

CapEx for the quarter was $110.3 million and CapEx expectations for fiscal year 2023 will be in the range of $500 - $550 million. 

For the upcoming quarter the backlog of orders is strong and seeing minimal requests to push out orders, but most of the backlog is non-cancellable. Currently, the standard cancellation window is 90 days. Lead times for the lesser constrained components are between four – eight weeks while the most constrained series are between 26 - 52 weeks, depending on the product.    

To support customers, Microchip plans to hold higher inventory in the upcoming quarter. Additionally, net sales are forecasted to increase by 3% - 5% in Q4. In Q1 2023, sequential net sales growth is also expected to increase although there are no exact predictions on what amount as economic uncertainty and customer inventory adjustments are still ongoing. 

November 3, 2022

Qualcomm

 

Revenue for the quarter reached $11.4 billion. By market, QCT revenue was $9.9 billion, handset revenue was $6.6 billion, IoT revenue was $1.9 billion, QTL revenue was $1.4 billion and automotive revenue was $427 million. 

Qualcomm announced two new strategic partnerships, one with Samsung to expand the use of the Snapdragon platform for Samsung Galaxy products. The other is an agreement with Meta to develop premium virtual reality and mixed reality experiences, powered by custom Snapdragon XR platforms. 

The acquisition of Arriver was completed during Q3.  

Channel inventory is elevated, a situation that will continue in the new year. To best manage revenue, Qualcomm is instating a hiring freeze and reducing spending in mature product areas and SG&A. Estimates indicate that there will be roughly eight to ten weeks of heightened channel inventory in Fiscal 2023. 

Additionally, starting in Fiscal 2023 Qualcomm will be consolidating RF front-end revenues within handsets, automotive and IoT revenue streams. 

Industries predicted to grow in 2023 include automotive, 5G wireless fiber projects and digital transformation of industries. Handsets and IoT revenue streams will be down sequentially.  

First fiscal quarter revenue will be in the range of $9.2 - $10 billion. 

November 2, 2022
Qorvo

 

Revenue was $1.158 billion for the quarter. High performance analog revenue was up 8% sequentially, connectivity and sensors were down 6% and advanced cellular revenue was up 17%. CapEx was $47 million. 

Revenue within high performance analog was driven by defense customers and higher power application markets. Connectivity and sensors were negatively impacted by weak demand in consumer markets and inventory reductions. Advanced cellular demand came from content and integration trends in the Android customer base. 

To secure long term supply of silicon carbide wafers Qorvo has signed an agreement with SK Siltron. 

In product releases, Qorvo launched a portfolio of advanced fourth-generation silicon carbide surface mount FETs, including DC to DC converters, fast DC chargers, onboard chargers, industrial chargers and IT server power supplies. Qualcomm also announced highly compact power management ICs.  

Revenue for Q4 is estimated to be between $700 - $750 million. Due to ongoing economic uncertainty and consumer behavior, Qorvo is reducing factory loadings and inventories. 

The second half of the fiscal year will see weakness across end markets, mostly centered in consumer related areas. Android-based revenue in China is expected to be down to about 10% moving forward. 

November 2, 2022
Vishay

Q3 revenue was $925 million, and CapEx was $76 million. This was Vishay’s most successful quarter in the last 20 years. 

Order backlog has started to stabilize and delivery problems for ICs should start to ease for automotive manufacturers. Consequently, this should increase usage of discretes and passives. 

Markets that performed well this quarter were automotive, electric energy programs and systems, smart home automotive systems, upgrading industrial manufacturing capacity projects, oil and gas sector recovery, as well as electrical power infrastructure. Consumer notebook and desktop demand is declining. 

Other markets on the rise and promising significant growth are 5G, commercial aviation, and medical, particularly within implantables. Military equipment manufacturing sales are also strong, and thanks to expanding geopolitical instability, this will continue into 2023. 

A few notes on order backlog: 

  • Diodes backlog is at 9.3 months 
  • Capacitor is at 8.1 months 
  • Opto product backlog is at 8.1 months 
  • Resistors are at 7.8 months, compared to 7.6 in Q2 
  • Inductors are at 6 months, up from 5.6 months in Q2 
  • MOSFETS went from 10.1 months in Q2 to 6.3 months in Q3, thanks to resumed production at plants and warehouses in Shanghai 

In expansion news, Vishay is working on a massive expansion of in-house wafer capacities. To that end, MaxPower has been added to the Vishay family to close the product portfolio gap in silicon carbide. The process of establishing a plant for power inductors in Mexico is also underway. 

Q4 sales are expected to be in the range of $860 - $900 million.

November 2, 2022
AMD

Q3 revenue was lower than expectations due to diminished demand in PC and substantial inventory reduction actions across that market. Despite worsening macroeconomic circumstances, overall revenue grew 29% year over year and reached $5.6 billion. In particular, data center, gaming and embedded segments delivered substantial growth. 

Data center revenue increased 45%, gaming revenue increased 14%, cloud revenue more than doubled year over year and embedded segment revenue also increased year-over-year. The embedded segment saw an increase in revenue thanks to growth within the aerospace and defense customer base, as well as industrial and communications. Revenue for gaming graphics declined due to soft consumer demand and reductions in downstream GPU inventory.  

Record communications revenue included a particularly strong foothold in North America thanks to new 5G wireless installations and expanded wired infrastructure deployments. Cloud revenue more than doubled year over year, meanwhile enterprise saw OEM revenue dip sequentially. 

Sales within Xilinx FPGA and networking data center products was strong, supported by demand from cloud and financial customers. Aerospace, defense and automotive customers are also increasing their usage of FPGA and adaptive Soc products to enable differentiated capabilities and features. 

Third gen EPYC CPUs in market today are the highest performing and most energy efficient x86 server CPUs available. Leadership within this market will be furthered by the next-generation 5-nanometer Genoa processors. 

The successful launch of 5-nanometer Ryzen 7000 Series processors saw strong performance reviews in gaming, productivity and content creation applications. Ramp up of sales for Ryzen s7000 CPUs will continue into Q4. 

AMD’s product portfolio will continue to expand in 2023 with the launch of edge and telco optimized Siena and cloud optimized Bergamo processors.  

Driving trends in the new year include demand for high performance and adaptive computing in cloud markets, at the edge and across intelligent end devices. This will be a key contributor to long term growth. 

Q4 revenue should reach $5.5 billion, driven by growth in embedded and data center segments. This will be offset by a decline in client and gaming. 

November 1st, 2022
onsemi

Revenue for the quarter reached $2.2 billion, with CapEx totaling $271 million. Automotive revenue increased 11%, intelligent power revenue expanded 35%, intelligent sensing revenue was up 43%, while industrial end market revenue grew 5%.  

Demand softened in the nonstrategic end markets of consumer and computing, with declines in the mid-single digits sequentially. This is expected to continue and reach into the legacy areas of industrial. Demand and design activity will stay strong for EV, ADAS and energy infrastructure. 

Silicon carbide revenue tripled in Q3. Also, onsemi increased silicon carbide wafer fab starts by 3x to match Boule output. 

Energy infrastructure revenue accelerated 70% year over year for Q3. IGBT and MOSFET business grew 37%, backed by growth in automotive and industrial markets 

Capacity expansion plans implemented in Q3 allowed onsemi to deliver 38% more automotive sensors throughout the quarter. Onsemi is the only image sensor supplier with internal and external capabilities across every manufacturing stage of the supply chain for automotive and industrial sensors. 

In accordance with a fab-lighter strategy, onsemi sold an 8-inch fab in Idaho and is currently finalizing the sale of a 6-inch fab in Niigata, Japan. This transaction should conclude in Q4. 

Q4 guidance is cautious due to macroeconomic uncertainties. Revenue should be in the range of $2.1 - $2.14 billion. Thanks to delays in hiring and project spending from this quarter, non-GAAP operating expenses should increase from $305 million to $320 million. CapEx will be in the range of $300 – $330 million in Q4. 

October 31, 2022
NXP

Total revenue reached $3.45 billion, an increase of 20% year-on-year. By market, automotive revenue was $1.8 billion, industrial and IoT was $713 million, mobile was $410 million, and communication infrastructure and other reached $518 million. 

Mobile, automotive and communication infrastructure markets all performed better than expected. However, the consumer exposed IoT subset of industrial and the IoT market saw demand soften. 

While supply constraints are impacting multiple microcontroller and advanced analog products within automotive, demand for automotive and core industrial products is very strong. Demand continues to outpace supply within both markets, which are currently sold out through 2023. To secure supply, customers within those verticals are taking advantage of NCNR programs. 

Due to the weakness in broad consumer IoT and android mobile markets, NXP will be tightening channel inventory management and discipline. Additionally, operating expenses will be controlled cautiously.  

Lead times are holding steady at or above 52 weeks. In regard to channel inventory, NXP is reducing shipments and maintaining a 1.6 month supply level. 

For Q4, revenue is expected to be around $3.3 billion. Automotive will continue to climb into the high teen range versus Q4 last year. Industrial and IoT will likely be down in the low double-digit range, mobile is anticipated to increase in the low single-digit range, while communication infrastructure and other will be up in the low teens range.  

October 31, 2022
SK HYNIX

Revenue for Q3 fell 20% in comparison to the quarter prior due to an unprecedented drop in demand, particularly within consumer products like PCs and smartphones as well as servers. Operating profit dropped by 61% in Q3. 

HBM had the fastest growth at 50% year-over-year and is expected to continue this trend in 2023. DRAM and NAND demand markets are also expected to increase. Within the LPDDR5 segment, XR and VR devices are anticipated to see a 30% increase in shipments.  

High end and flagship product demand remains solid, while demand for low-medium end products is experiencing a steep drop off. Inventory reductions and corrections will continue to impact these markets, but growth in cloud services will offset the drop off and contribute to growth in the long term. 

CapEx will fall by more than 50% compared to this year. Cuts will be split between infrastructure and equipment, as well as partially reduced investments in wafer capacity and delaying investments in tech migration. 

Inventory will likely remain high into Q1 of 2023 and the memory market will continue its current slump in demand at least until the second half of next year. Due to this situation, DRAM and NAND wafer production will be reduced in the new year. However, DRAM is expected to recover faster than NAND.  

Alternatively, the DDR5 market is expected to grow in 2023 due to the lowered pricing on servers containing DDR5. 

October 30, 2022
Allegro

Revenue for the quarter totaled $237.7 million. Key revenue drivers included e-mobility, select industrial markets and improved supply from foundry partners. By market, automotive sales increased 5%, with xEV and ADAS (or e-mobility) representing 41% of sales. Industrial sales increased 20%, data center sales increased 13%, while other sales, including computer, consumer and smart home, represented 14% of sales. 

Allegro has formed OEM focused business development teams, which will work directly with OEMs and Tier 1s to leverage Allegro’s global engineering organization to solve critical supply chain challenges. 

Additionally, Allegro is focused on increasing customer engagement in Japan and is launching a new go-to-market approach to directly target the Japanese customer base. A large part of that focus includes Japanese automotive OEMs. 

The acquisition of Heyday Integrated Circuits, an early-stage fabless company, has successfully been completed. This move will expand Allegro’s already existing sensor IC solutions for energy efficiency, as well as adding applications across xEV, solar inverters, data center and broad industrial markets. 

Demand is still outpacing supply and Q3 ended with over a year’s worth of order backlog. 

Allegro has instituted a reschedule and cancellation window to permit customers with past due orders or orders shippable beyond 180 days to reschedule or cancel under certain circumstances. 

For Q4, slowdown in consumer demand, stemming from uncertainty within the broader macroeconomic environment, is expected to continue. Personal computer markets are predicted to see the softest demand. 

200-millimeter wafer supply will remain constrained for the 2023 fiscal year.  

Revenue is forecasted to be in the range of $240 - $250 million. 

October 30, 2022
Hitachi

Total consolidated revenue was ¥5,416.7 billion for fiscal year 2022. Profits did decrease by 47% year over year, which was attributed to a new shared-risk corporate pension plan and Weighted Average Cost of Capital going up because of interest rates.  

The total revenue for subsidiaries was ¥2.846 trillion. Digital Systems and Services revenue ¥594.5 billion, Green Energy and Mobility was ¥559.1, Connective Industries was ¥756.9 and Hitatchi Astemo was ¥495.8. In particular, Digital Services and Systems, saw an increase in orders of 528 billion. 

Increased demand for digital transformation and green energy were key revenue drivers for the quarter.  

Net income is being forecasted to hit 600 billion, meaning a ¥428 billion increase in the latter half of their fiscal year 2022. Target revenue is projected to be 6% higher than previously predicted. Expectations for the second half of their fiscal year 2022 indicate revenue will be ¥10.4 trillion. Net income predictions have not changed and remain at ¥600 billion. 

Factors that have been negatively impacting forecasts include a poor macroeconomic landscape stemming from the European Central bank rate increases, declines in sales in China, COVID-19 related shutdowns, the war in Ukraine and rising operational costs. The declining macroeconomic conditions will persist into FY 2023, or the traditional Q2 of 2023. 

Procurement costs have risen about 10-12% across the board for their products due to higher import costs, short supply and inflation. About five to six percent of costs are being passed on to customers. 

October 28, 2022
Seagate

Revenue came in at $2.04 billion for the quarter. Total hard disk drive capacity shipments were down 24% sequentially, mass capacity market was down 25% and nearline shipments were down 28%. Legacy market revenue dropped 20% sequentially, and double-digit sequential revenue declines were recorded in cloud and for enterprise OEM customers. 

Trends with the most significant impact to the supply chain included COVID lockdowns, economic slowdown in China, customer inventory adjustments and weak global consumer spending. Customers are currently dealing with a buildup of inventory, mostly due to worldwide economic slowdowns affecting VIA-related project budgets and installation timelines. 

However, forecasts indicate that there should be an increase in demand in the new year for applications like smart video adapted to address real-world challenges. In particular, the U.S. customers are looking to implement this technology to reduce traffic congestion in smart cities. 

Due to the mitigating factors of reduced customer budgets and demand, output across all product lines is being reduced. The only exception will be 20 plus terabyte products, as demand and pricing are stable. 

Seagate is implementing a restructuring plan in November to lower costs; this will include a decrease in the global workforce. Thanks to the reduced production and utilization at fabs, Seagate will be running experiments to see best practices for executing acceleration. This is in the hopes of increasing capacity of 30-terabyte platforms.  

In addition, the plan includes lowering output of some legacy products and transitioning to other, more efficient, future projects in order to reduce the complexity of Seagate’s product line. Thanks to this restructuring, the quarterly run-rate OpEx will be in the $300 million range. 

Looking ahead, pricing pressure for the legacy segment of Seagate’s business will be increased. Meanwhile mid and mass capacity pricing pressure will likely drop. 

October 28, 2022
STM

Revenue for Q3 was $4.32 billion, driven by strong demand for STM products. The backlog for orders still encompasses six to eight quarters of projected capacity, although this varies depending on the product type. 

Markets showing soft demand include consumer and personal electronics, as well as the peripheral computer market. Those showing the strongest demand during this quarter and moving into Q4 are automotive and the B2B part of the industrial market, mostly within factory automation and industrial infrastructure.  

The current backlog for the automotive industry is above 18 months and surpasses manufacturing capacity through 2023. 

STM will be building an integrated carbide substrate manufacturing facility in Catania, Italy to support the needs of the automotive and industrial industries. Production should begin in the second half of 2023. 

For Q4, analog, MEMs and sensor markets are forecasted to see decreased demand. However, imaging and automotive will likely experience heightened demand. Moving into 2023, automotive, robotics, power energy, infrastructure, renewable energy and charging stations for cars are verticals that will be very important revenue drivers. 

October 28, 2022
Intel

Overall revenue for the quarter was $15.3 billion 

CCG revenue was $8.1 billion, DCAI revenue was $4.2 billion, NEX revenue was $2.3 billion, AXG revenue was $185 million, Mobileye revenue was $450 million and IFS revenue was $171 million. Additionally, PSG revenue for the quarter was up 25% year over year. 

Decreased revenue was driven by automotive weakness, attributed to customer’s issues with third party component shortages. However, this was balanced out with growth in core foundry and IMS business. 

Consumer PC demand has continued its drop-off in Q3, a trend that was mirrored in enterprise demand. PC sales are likely to decline mid to high teens, dropping to 295 million units in the remainder of 2022. Those with the most pronounced demand weakness were consumer, education and small medium business markets. 

In terms of innovation, Intel 4 and 3 are amongst Intel’s first nodes using EUV. Additionally, the Intel 20A and 18A are the first nodes to utilize RibbonFET and PowerVia- Intel’s first internal test chips. Sierra Forest, Intel’s first E-core product, is on target for launch in 2024. 

For Q4, revenue will be between $14 - $15 billion and net CapEx is being reduced by $2 billion to better align with a lower demand environment. To achieve structural cost savings and efficiency gains, Intel will be making portfolio cuts, correcting supporting organizations, implementing stringent cost controls across all spending initiatives and increasing sales and marketing. 

Inflation in the U.S., the ongoing energy predicament in Europe and the trade war with Asia are creating challenging market outlooks for the new year. However, rebalancing the supply chain will be key to navigating these evolving scenarios. 

October 27, 2022

Monolithic Power Systems


Revenue for Q3 totaled $495.5 million. The revenue breakdown by market showed automotive represented 17.6% of revenue, while storage and computing were 22.8%, consumer was 22.8%, the enterprise data market was 15.2%, communications represented 14.6% and industrial came in at 11.8%. 

Shortages previously plagued consumer, storage and computing markets. However, demand is fluctuating and further weakening in storage, computing and consumer, which could impact order patterns. This could lead to more stable inventory levels moving into Q4 and onward into 2023. 

The automotive industry will continue its current trend of heightened demand and constrained supply. A market within automotive that will be a growing revenue resource is lighting, as numerous components are required for indicators, signals and headlights within vehicles. Car charging stations are also predicted to see expanded demand. 

In regard to the U.S. China regulations, MPS manufacturers process nodes at or larger than 40 nanometers, which falls outside of the current restrictions. MPS is continuing its push to diversify resources and client bases outside of China, so the impact of these restrictions now and in the future will be minimal. 

In product launch news, MPS is in the qualification stage for its first product involving silicon carbides and high power modules and is showing great promise. 

Q4 outlooks show revenue should be in the $450 - $470 million range. Additionally, within the next two years MPS plans to have capacity expand from $2 billion to $4 billion. 

October 27, 2022
Samsung

Revenue for the quarter reached $54.10 billion. CapEx was KRW $12.7 trillion. 

Memory business revenue declined. Meanwhile, display, foundry and mobile panel businesses delivered new quarterly records. Solid flagship sales were recorded in smartphones and MX. 

Factors impacting revenue within memory markets were customer’s inventory adjustments and sluggish demand within consumer products, including mobile products in China. Profits also decreased within system semiconductors and large panel business. 

Network business improved and included a landmark deal with Comcast in the U.S. 

Overall server demand decreased alongside purchasing budget cuts and strict inventory management initiatives. Server SSD continues to be affected by component supply issues that began last year. 

Stable yields in the foundry business, thanks to improvements in advanced processes, led to the highest ever quarterly revenue and operating profit. 

Trends indicate that memory will continue to be affected by weak demand in the first half of the quarter but will rebound within server markets thanks to the expansion of data centers. To meet the demands of the industry, manufacturing will focus on new interfaces like DDR5 and LPDDR5X as well as high density products. 

Samsung plans to support its solid position in foundry via reinforced leadership in advanced nodes and providing further support for HPC and automotive customers. 

Overall trends indicate that markets who have already shown weak demand, such as memory, mobile, and personal computers, will continue to do so as customers are still making inventory adjustments. However, forecasts indicate that demand will rebound in the second half of 2023. 

Investments plans indicate that, for memory, the concentration will be on infrastructure at P3 and P4, along with advanced technologies like EUV. Foundry investments will focus on expanding production capacity. Similarly, display will also be expanding its capacity, specifically in flexible displays for mobile products and enhanced efficiency of large QD-OLED panel production.  

Samsung is dedicated to a new environmental strategy that will modify the manufacturing process. Benchmarks include reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2030 for the DX division. For semiconductors, Samsung will be utilizing ultra-low power technology by 2025 to reduce power needs for memory products used in data centers and mobile devices.

October 27, 2022

Western Digital

Revenue for the quarter was $2.7 billion, a 17% reduction sequentially. By market, cloud represented 49% of revenue, down 13% sequentially. Client represented 33% of total revenue, down 25% sequential, mostly due to a reduction in flash pricing and fewer retail HDD shipments. 

By segment, HDD revenue was down 5% and flash revenue was down 28% sequentially. Despite the decrease in flash revenue, bit shipments nearly tripled in the NVMe enterprise SSD product category in comparison to the previous downcycle. Shipments are projected to increase in December due to seasonal demand in retail and mobile markets. 

In order to align with weak consumer demand, capital investments and operating expenses are being reduced. This includes downsizing hard drive manufacturing. 

Western Digital’s joint venture partner, Kioxia, announced a production cut of 30%. However, Western Digital is not making major production cuts due to support from customers who are looking to build supply. 

U.S. cloud based customers are amongst those cutting back hard drive inventory for data center buildouts. This will impact revenue in the near term, but long term forecasts show that HDD products will be the foundational storage for cloud buildout in the future. This promises substantial growth and revenue opportunities. 

BiCS6 transition is being pushed out to reduce capital expenditures for fiscal 2023. The BiCS6 will be produced on a shorter node and, to increase demand, supply will be reduced to balance out the market. 

In the PC market orders for retail flash and channel demand are stabilizing. Over the next couple of quarters forecasts show long term growth potential as flash demand is predicted to improve. 

Looking forward, shipments for flash are projected to increase in the next quarter. HDD revenue will likely recover alongside U.S. cloud customers working to align their inventories, but in the meantime HDD shipments will drop off in calendar Q4. The PC market is anticipated to experience sequential growth in Q4 for client SSD units.  

Revenue will be in $2.9 – 3.1 billion range for Western Digital’s second fiscal quarter. 

October 27, 2022
United Microelectronics

Consolidated revenue was TWD 75.39 billion for the quarter, a sequential growth of 4.6%. Thanks to increased capacity from the P5 facility, the 22/20 nanometer segment accounted for 25% of revenue for the first time. 

Key drivers for revenue this quarter were sustained momentum in the automotive business, industry leading positions in OLED/OLED display driver ICs and strength in certain wireless communication segments. 

Q4 will see headwinds from weak demand caused by issues like inflation and geopolitical tensions. CapEx has been revised from $3.6 billion down to $3 billion as delays from equipment vendors and a downturn in demand are going to affect output capacity. Wafer shipments will see about a 10% decrease this quarter and all segments are predicted to decline, except for automotive. 

Demand will continue to dip within PC, smartphone, and consumer segments as customers continue to make inventory corrections.  

October 26, 2022
Wolfspeed

 

Revenue for Q3 equaled $241.3 million despite the impact from wafer manufacturing issues. Wolfspeed achieved $2.5 billion in design-ins this quarter, compared to $2.6 billion in the last quarter. Thanks to implementation of silicon carbide in electric vehicles and overall demand for EVs, 90% of design-ins came from automotive.  

Durham fabs reached capacity and will remain fully utilized for the foreseeable future, meaning the Mohawk Valley fabs will be the primary source for step ups in revenue and gross margin profits. Since demand has been so overwhelming, there has been no factory downtime to accommodate a transition from 100-millimeter to 150-millimeter wafer sizes. This transition is being delayed for at least several years. 

Due to heightened demand, longer lead times are expected on spare parts. Plus, tool availability and output will be reduced in the Durham fab as there are challenges stemming from shortages of spare parts and older equipment. 

Wolfspeed announced plans to build the world's largest materials factory, Siler City, North Carolina. This facility should be open in 2024 and will produce substrates designed to drive down costs of devices and expand silicon carbide applications for more markets. 

A cyclical downturn is expected for the silicon semiconductor industry, but trends within silicon carbide are predicted to overpower that downturn. Key drivers for demand will be the transition to EVs, plus demand for silicon carbide and clean energy.  

The target revenue for Q4 is in the range of $215 - $235 million. Additionally, Wolfspeed plans to make over $1 billion in revenue for fiscal 2023. CapEx guidance for fiscal 2023 is being increased to $1 billion to support increased investments and revenue growth.

October 26, 2022

MaxLinear

Revenue for Q3 was $285.7 million, up 2% sequentially. Wi-Fi revenues in Q3 more than tripled year-over-year and are on track to earn over $200 million in sales during the 2023 financial year.  

By market, broadband was down 14% verses Q2, industrial and multi market revenue was down 3%, while connectivity was up 46% and infrastructure was flat. 

As far as constraints go, wireless is the most constricted due to demand outpacing supply, but this is likely to lessen by the end of the year as supply improves. 

Product announcements during Q3 included additions to the WAV700 product family, availability of the Panther III and the latest generation of AnyWAN Broadband SoCs, which supports operators and OEMs ability to cost-effectively upgrade networks and permits rapid roll outs of new high-performance multi-gigabit solutions for customers. 

Lead times have begun to shorten, and bookings have lessened, but moving into 2023 the backlog of orders will be the most extensive that MaxLinear has seen. Pending improved capacity of substrates, it will take time for this backlog to lessen. However, MaxLinear has secured dedicated capacity that should be available in Q1 so constraints should start to see some signs of relief by the end of this year. 

The acquisition of Silicon Motion is still ongoing but moving ahead without any major roadblocks. 

Q4 revenue is expected to be in the $285 – $295 million range. Broadband is likely to decline, alongside the infrastructure market due to substrate supply issues. Industrial multi market revenue will likely be flat, but connectivity is projected to rise. Data center revenue is predicted to be a market to watch as it shows tremendous growth potential. 

October 25, 2022

Texas Instruments

Revenue followed previously set forecasts and came in at $5.2 billion, a sequential increase of 1%. In comparison to the quarter prior, analog revenue rose 13%, embedded processing grew 11%, and the other (misc.) segment grew 20%.  

By market, personal electronics dropped around 15%, industrial verticals held steady, enterprise systems were up in the mid-single digit range while growth within communications was in the high single-digits. Meanwhile, communications equipment revenue was up in the high single digits range, while enterprise systems came in around the mid-single digits.  

Automotive was the strongest market and increased, sequentially, by 10%. 

While there are hotspots were lead times are lengthier, they mostly stayed within the same range as Q2.  

RFAB2 in Richardson, Texas is now in production. LFAB in Lehi, Utah will be following suit later this year. Construction of the SM-1 and SM-2 in Sherman, Texas is on schedule and is continuing as planned. 

Thanks to the CHIPs Act, TI accrued about $50 million on the balance sheet in Q3 due to the 25% investment tax credit for investments in U.S. factories. These assets specifically target manufacturing efforts that will go into effect in starting in 2023. 

In supply, there was an increase in order cancellations as customers are working to align order backlog to demand. However, industrial and automotive customers are increasing safety stock and holding higher inventories, so demand is strong in those markets. 

Additionally, the situation is still unfolding, but the impact of the regulations on trade between the U.S. and China is expected to be minimal. Only 25% of revenue comes from China based customers and 99% of TI parts fall into the lowest category of the restrictions. 

Moving into Q4, most markets, excluding automotive, will likely experience declines. Q4 revenue is expected to be in the range of $4.4 – $4.8 billion. 

October 25, 2022)

Silicon Laboratories

Third-quarter revenue grew 46% year-on-year and reached $270 million. Verticals with the most growth were smart home applications, up 6% sequentially and 40% year-over-year, and commercial automation. IoT revenue nearly doubled within the last two years thanks to the first few products on the Series 2 platform.  

Disruptions from COVID-19 lockdowns in China affected distributor shipments to end customers and forced facilities to hold higher inventories as they waited to ship out orders. Order backlog did decline in Q3 but is still high compared to years prior. 

Silicon Labs successfully launched a complete nano development solution and Pro Kit for Amazon Sidewalk. Wi-SUN also announced the FG25 SoC and EFF01 front-end module chipset, a new flagship SoC and power amplifier for Wi-SUN. 

In expansion news, the Silicon Labs Development Center in Hyderabad, India is now over 500 employees and building a strong reputation as the region’s leading IoT wireless development center. It has already launched India’s first campus-wide Wi-SUN network at the IIIT-Hyderabad Smart City Living Lab. One of its biggest focuses is supporting an innovative street lighting application utilizing 30-built in network nodes that will connect streetlamps to remote monitoring systems. 

Regarding supply, the situation varies greatly depending on the customer. Some customers have oversupply, which is leading to projects being pushed out, particularly within the consumer market. However, the backlog of orders is still extensive, and supply has yet to fully match demand.  

Lead times are generally between 26 - 52 weeks, averaging closer to the 26 week range. Even when supply stabilizes, customers are more likely to see lead times at roughly a quarter. 

The latest trade restrictions between the United States and China are unlikely to drastically impact Silicon Labs. Overall business in China is relatively low, around 13 – 14%, and the percentage of supply coming from foundries based in China is even smaller. 

Despite strong demand and profits, gross margins dropped by 90 basis points compared to Q2. Industrial and commercial business is expected to increase slightly in Q4, while home and life is likely to decline due to downtrends in demand. Forecasts indicate Q4 revenue will be in the $245 million to $255 million range. 

October 25, 2022

Teradyne Inc

Third quarter sales reached $827 million. Semiconductor test revenue totaled $576 million, SOC revenue contributed $451 million and memory amounted to $125 million. System test group revenue was $116 million, the storage test segment delivered $70 million in revenue thanks to strong sales in defense and aerospace, while production board test revenue as $46 million. In Wireless Test at LitePoint revenue was $46 million and industrial automation revenue was $89 million. 

Industrial automation did not meet forecast expectations set in July as slowing SOC and wireless tester demand was higher than anticipated. As a result, the shipment plan for the SOC market has been reduced by $300 million. 

Despite Europe being the largest end market for automation, it has been impacted by labor scarcity issues in Teradyne’s distribution channels. This is forecasted to reduce growth for next quarter by about five points. 

Demand within test markets is slowing for Q4 and not predicted to improve. Overall sales for Q4 will be in the range of $670 million - $750 million. Moving into 2023, inventory digestion and macro headwinds will likely lead to a decline in semiconductor unit volume and revenue. Industrial automation will be soft in 2023, but automotive will continue to be strong. Q1 revenue for 2023 will be about 10% softer than Q4. 

Regarding the U.S. vs China trade regulations, the headwind is predicted to be between $75 million - $100 million going into the new year. Additionally, Teradyne’s manufacturing footprint in China is large so the company will be accelerating capacity growth for other sites to meet the needs of customers. 

October 25, 2022

ASML

Revenue for the quarter totaled $5.64 billion, with the Logic segment representing 68% of sales and Memory representing 32%. Forecasts predict that total sales for 2022 will be €21.1 billion 

Installation windows have improved from around 14 – 15 weeks in the beginning of the year to 10 – 14 days on average. This number depends on the customers’ ability to support rapid installation. 

Despite uncertainty in the market due to global macro concerns concerning inflation, consumer confidence and the strong possibility of a recession, combined with customer’s inventory adjustments, there are still numerous requests for shipments of lithography systems.  

Thanks to continued flexibility in the supply chain, workforce and manufacturing capacity, estimates for Q4 foresee further improvements in output capability. Assuming prevailing supply chain issues are resolved in the coming quarter, ASML hopes to ship over 60 EUV systems and more than 375 DPV systems in 2023. This quarter ASML shipped 13 EUV systems. 

Demand for 2023 shipments is extremely strong and surpasses ASML’s build and shipment capacity for next year. The backlog of orders is the largest the company has seen and is over €38 billion, with EUV and immersion accounting for 85% of the orders. 

Regarding the recent U.S. export control restriction updates, the indirect impact will account for about 5% of the company’s backlog. However, ASML is a European based company with minimal U.S. technology in its systems so shipments to China can continue out of the Netherlands. Additionally, the controls target advanced nodes and the majority of ASML’s business in China is focused on mature nodes. 

While other manufacturers in the semiconductor industry are feeling the impact of economic uncertainty, ASML’s demand far outstrips supply so cancellations are unlikely to influence outlooks as the backlog will fill any gaps. Longer term, the larger application possibilities for semiconductor and secular trends are actively driving demand and supporting ASML’s ongoing expansion efforts. 

October 19, 2022

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Third-quarter revenue reached $19.23 billion, a 14.8% increase in comparison to the quarter prior. Verticals that contributed to this record revenue were smartphone (41%), HPC (39%), IoT (10%), automotive (5%) and DCE (2%). While demand within consumer end markets is soft, data center and automotive market demand remains steady.

Due to issues with capacity optimization, equipment delays and delivery challenges, TSMC is reducing CapEx by 10%. The breakdown of allocation is as follows:

  • 70-80% for advanced process technologies
  • 10% for advanced packaging and mask making
  • 10-20% for specialty technologies

As customers continue to adjust inventories, demand is predicted to be flat going into Q4. However, energy-efficient computing will be a driving factor for demand, as technology becomes more interwoven and essential to everyday life.

Ongoing tool delivery issues are currently affecting N3 production, causing demand to outpace available supply.

In 2023, TSMC plans to continue ramp up of N5 N4P, N4X and N3. Due to end-market weakness in smartphone and PCs, predictions indicate that N7 and N6 capacity utilization will not be as high as it has been in the past three years, but this situation will likely change in the latter half of the year, as it is a cyclical trend and not structural.

Forecasts for Q4 indicate revenue will range from $19.9 billion to $20.7 billion.

October 13, 2022