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DeepSeek: Stop the Panic

DeepSeek: Stop the Panic

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake:

DeepSeek nearly sank Nvidia and other AI model players. Except DeepSeek itself is barely known by anyone, its true story still a mystery, and the likely impact on the artificial intelligence market undetermined. It won’t be the last enterprise to put a dent on the AI market, however, according to Market Traction’s Steve Carr who says many more such surprises are waiting in the wings, both in the West and in China.

The race for leadership of the artificial intelligence market got scrambled last week. The debut of China’s DeepSeek AI model sparked a selling frenzy on Wall Street as spooked investors dumped Nvidia and other AI-related stocks. The implications of DeepSeek’s platform are not clear, however. Not enough is known about how it was developed, meaning a full assessment of its market implications are months away.

What is clear is that DeepSeek’s AI model isn’t a result of any mega innovation in semiconductor or software processing, considering the Chinese company is leveraging resources from other models, including ChatGPT, and depended on chips from Nvidia Corp., the market’s leading vendor of AI semiconductors. This doesn’t take away from the disruptive effects DeepSeek has had on the market already, though. Other questions were raised in a webcast discussion with Steve Carr, founder of Markettraction.io and TalkingIoT.

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Eloy: The Future of Automotive is being Created in China

Eloy: The Future of Automotive is being Created in China

By Bolaji Ojo

Jean-Christophe Eloy has been closely involved in the electronics and semiconductor industries for several decades, during which period the founder and CEO of the Yole Group has observed a handful of transitions in the sector.

Another one is taking place now, according to Eloy, who says the current transformation of the technology world is multifaceted and deeper than previous ones because it encompasses most segments of the global economy. To further complicate the situation, the industry is also trying to wrangle down the disruptive impacts of geopolitical disputes and the uncertainties associated with the applications, investments and access to innovations in artificial intelligence, he noted.

In a webcast interview with editors of the Ojo-Yoshida Report, Eloy explored diverse topics of interest to the industry, ranging from AI to the increasing role of China in the semiconductor supply chain and the outlook for leading players like Nvidia and TSMC. He also delved into the fractious issue of how Taiwan’s relationship with China and the West will be resolved, suggesting that he sees a peaceful, negotiated resolution that while not pleasing to everyone would still be acceptable on a longer-term basis.

Read More »Eloy: The Future of Automotive is being Created in China
Has US Export Control Lurched Towards AI Tyranny?

Has US Export Control Lurched Towards AI Tyranny?

By Peter Clarke

What’s at stake:

The future of the technology-based society and the world’s super-power landscape hang in the balance. A belief that control of AI development could determine winners and losers for decades has driven US bureaucrats to lay down an interim final rule (IFR) that seeks to control global access to AI technology. But in a globalized era, it is not clear that such measures will work. They may even be counterproductive.

One of the last acts of the Biden Administration was to issue yet another export control ruling – an interim final rule (IFR) – on AI chips, published on January 13, just days before the inauguration of President Trump.

This has not been debated in the US Congress, as the Department of Commerce has the authority to issue and enforce export control regulations under existing laws.

Read More »Has US Export Control Lurched Towards AI Tyranny?
Intel: The Market Awaits Bigger News

Intel: The Market Awaits Bigger News

By Bolaji Ojo

Soon, the electronics world will be treated to a special news conference to be hosted by Intel Corp. When this event will take place is uncertain, but it will hopefully occur soon. What we are certain about is that it will be more consequential and involve more than what the semiconductor supplier announced this week.

Intel Capital is being set free, the company said. As an independent firm, Intel Capital “will have the flexibility to attract external capital,” the press statement noted.

That wasn’t the news anyone was expecting to hear from Intel, hence the flaccid market response.  However, “this step supports our broader strategy to maximize the value of our assets while driving greater focus and efficiency across the business,” David Zinsner, interim co-CEO and CFO of Intel said, in a statement.

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Mitsubishi Deal Boosts Seeing Machines in SDV Market

Mitsubishi Deal Boosts Seeing Machines in SDV Market

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake:

First, Seeing Machines scored a big lifeline, improving its balance sheet and its competitiveness. More importantly, the company’s profile received a huge boost, making it an even more notable player in the software-defined vehicles (SDV) market and in applications for driver and vehicle occupant monitoring.

Seeing Machines wrapped up 2024 in grand style, scoring a much-needed investment from Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Mobility that executives believe will help the company further penetrate the automotive industry while boosting its balance sheet.

Japan’s Mitsubishi framed the transaction, in which it has purchased approximately 19.9 percent of Seeing Machines, as part of its efforts to comply with growing regulatory requirements in Europe and elsewhere to improve driver and passenger safety in automotives.

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China isn’t for Everyone, maybe not Even Nvidia

China Isn’t for Everyone, Maybe Not Even Nvidia

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake:

Nvidia stands at a crossroads. Its business is growing fast but it must satisfy hard taskmasters (China and US) with conflicting objectives. It must pick one of them, abandon the second and accept that fate has given it the opportunity to make that choice. Nvidia’s exponential growth means it can afford to exercise this option in a tech world being driven bonkers by nationalism and geopolitics. All signs point to a worsening of the unsustainable situation. Companies will eventually be forced to pick a side. Nvidia must lead the way. Will it be that bold?

Nvidia Corp. needs an urgent China exit strategy. The alternative is to abide by strangulating and conflicting requirements being imposed upon the global electronics industry by rivals America and China.

The American semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) systems builder may be one of the world’s most valuable companies, but in the hands of both the US and China it is a mere pawn in an increasingly fractious geopolitical game.

It’s time to exercise a different, and drastic option, for China.

Read More »China Isn’t for Everyone, Maybe Not Even Nvidia
Wiith AI Accelerator Incorporated, ST Calls Calls new MCU a '3rd Seminal Moment'

With AI accelerator integrated, ST Calls New MCU a ‘3rd Seminal Moment’

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake:
As MCU suppliers struggle with bloated inventory, ST is turning to AI at the edge. But is ST’s newly launched NPU-accelerated MPU a big enough leap to save the company’s MCU business? Remi El-Ouazzane, President of the Microcontrollers, Digital ICs and RF Products Group (MDRF) at STMicroelectronics believes so.

The MCU market is in turmoil.

The first symptom is the overall MCU business climate.

Declining demand for automotive MCUs forced Microchip CEO Ganesh Moorthy to retire last month, announced in tandem with Microchip’s decision to close its Arizona fab.

Similarly, amid similar inventory challenges and market pressures, STMicroelectronics reported a whopping 41 percent decline in its third quarter MCU sales. In parallel, ST faced  increased competition from Chinese MCU manufacturers and the diminishing demand for factory and industrial automation in Europe.

Read More »With AI accelerator integrated, ST Calls New MCU a ‘3rd Seminal Moment’
Whither STMicroelectronics after Annus Horibilis?

ST Looks Beyond Troubled MCU Waters

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake:

STMicroelectronics is resetting market expectations for its intermediate term performance. It’s a good move for the company, considering the challenges it faces in key market segments. Executives believe the company’s strong technology portfolio, IDM structure complimented by foundry partners and intense focus on key markets will help it achieve goals set years ago. Resetting goals may be a brilliant move but a tactical retreat and regrouping may prove even more critical to achieving the new objectives. Will ST deliver?

STMicroelectronics NV believes it will be a $20 billion company by 2030. For now, though, Jean-Marc Chery, president and CEO at ST, won’t say what revenues the company will have in 2025 and 2026. 

Chery calls 2025 “a transition year” for ST. Go ahead and add 2026 – with or without Chery’s consent. ST will by the end of 2024 fall $4 billion short of its record revenue of $17.3 billion in 2023. The CFO believes ST will cross that threshold again in 2027 or 2028.

Take your pick. 

By 2030, though ST expects revenue to be about $20 billion, a goal set years before. By then, Chery, now 64 years old, will likely have moved on, no longer CEO at ST. If you were to pose a question to the CEO in 2030, someone else will have to answer in Chery’s titular name. That’s the way this game is played. 

Read More »ST Looks Beyond Troubled MCU Waters
Can South Korea get 'processing-in-memory' to stick?

Can South Korea Get ‘Processing-in-Memory’ to Stick?

By Peter Clarke

What’s at stake:
Processing-in-memory (PIM) has not yet lived up to its potential due to the market strength of incumbent computing architectures and the cost efficiencies of keeping logic and memory manufacturing separate. A number of startups targeting their AI processors at the “edge” are now using variations on the PIM approach within embedded memory on their system-on-chip processors, but most use CMOS logic, and they cannot target the densest form of memory, DRAM. If Samsung and SK Hynix can standardize DRAM components to include PIM then the technique could transform AI processing.

South Korea’s semiconductor leaders Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are working together to standardize processing-in-memory (PIM) in the form of an LPDDR6-PIM DRAM, according to Business Korea. The tasks such a chip might do include some of the highly parallel mathematics operations that are part of machine learning, neural networks and artificial intelligence (AI).

Read More »Can South Korea Get ‘Processing-in-Memory’ to Stick?