As indicated by the survey of global market intelligence firm TrendForce, 1Q24 marked the entry of a traditional off-season for the consumer end, where the sporadic appearance of urgent orders within the supply chain were mostly replenishment of inventory among individual clients, and exhibited sluggishness in momentum on the whole. Simultaneously, automotive and industrial equipment applications have been receiving ongoing revisions in forecast under escalating economic risks, including inflation, geopolitical conflicts, and energy shortages. AI servers, attributed to the extensive CapEx input and competitions among major global CSPs, as well as the establishment of LLMs (Large Language Models) between enterprises, became the sole support for the supply chain throughout 1Q24. On account of aforementioned factors, the top 10 global foundries generated a total revenue of US$29.2 billion at a QoQ drop of 4.3% in 1Q24.
On June 5th, Vanguard and NXP announced plans to jointly establish VisionPower Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (VSMC) in Singapore to build a 12-inch wafer plant. TrendForce posits that this move reflects the trend of global supply chains shifting “Out of China, Out of Taiwan”(OOC/OOT), with Taiwanese companies accelerating their overseas expansion to improve regional capacity flexibility and competitiveness.
The Samsung Electronics Union is reportedly planning to strike on June 7, TrendForce reports that this strike will not impact DRAM and NAND Flash production, nor will it cause any shipment shortages. Additionally, the spot prices for DRAM and NAND Flash had been declining prior to the strike announcement, and there has been no change in this downtrend since the announcement.
TrendForce reports that a reduction in supplier production has led to unmet demand for high-capacity orders since 4Q23. Combined with procurement strategies aimed at building low-cost inventory, this has driven orders and significantly boosted enterprise SSD revenue, which reached US$3.758 billion in 1Q24—a staggering 62.9% QoQ increase.
TrendForce reports that NVIDIA’s Hopper H100 began to see a reduction in shortages in 1Q24. The new H200 from the same platform is expected to gradually ramp in Q2, with the Blackwell platform entering the market in Q3 and expanding to data center customers in Q4.