3º Hardware, Chips, Telco, Quantum computing, IoT, Space & Industrial - 6th May
Analyst reports:
- Global smartphone shipments fell 14.6% YoY to 268.6M in Q1 2023, the seventh consecutive quarter of decline; Samsung fell 18.9%, Apple 2.3%, and Xiaomi 23.5% (IDC)
- Chinese VCs dominate as most-active semiconductor investors: The US has been investing an unprecedented amount into the semiconductor industry. With the passage of legislation to encourage design and manufacturing domestically, the US has spurred on a new race with its rivals to ensure access to the best silicon on the market. But it's a race that, at least from a venture capital perspective, the US is losing. (PitchBook)
News:
- AMD announces the Ryzen Mobile 7040U series, offering up to eight cores with RDNA 3 graphics and claiming to outperform Apple's M2; pricing and release date TBC (Gavin Bonshor / AnandTech)
- Sources: TSMC is in talks to spend between €7B and €10B to build a chip plant in Saxony, subsidized by Germany and in partnership with NXP, Bosch, and Infineon (Bloomberg)
- Microsoft seemingly stopped working on Surface Duo bug fixes and new features after the Android 12L update in October 2022, possibly due to the recent layoffs (Zac Bowden / Windows Central)
- Motorola debuts a flagship smartphone in the US: the $799+ Edge Plus with a 6.7" 1080p OLED, a 165Hz refresh rate, and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, shipping on May 25 (Allison Johnson / The Verge)
- Leak: the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra foldable will have a 2640x1080 HDR AMOLED 120Hz main and 1056x1066 cover display, a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, and up to 12GB of RAM (Adam Conway / XDA Developers)
- Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola review: great build quality with IP68 rating and useful PC integration features but a lackluster camera and finicky app streaming (Allison Johnson / The Verge)
- Experts say Nvidia's H800 chip for China will likely take 10% to 30% longer to carry out some AI tasks and could double some costs compared with its H100 chip (Reuters)
Startups raising funds
- Spread, a Berlin-based engineering intelligence startup for mechatronic products, raised $16m in Series A funding. HV Capital led, and was joined by insider Cavalry Ventures. Link
M&A and Private equity deals
- Brightspeed, a Charlotte-based ILEC, secured a $500m investment from Mubadala. Fiber and communications provider Brightspeed has a whopping $500 million in new funding for its expanding broadband network. Link
- Advent International and BCI completed their $4b take-private acquisition of MaxarTechnologies, a Westminster, Colo.-based satellite firm. Link
IPO & SPAC
- Arm, the chip design company owned by SoftBank, filed confidential IPO documents with U.S. securities regulators. Link
Inverstors raising funds:
- Wen Hsieh is stepping down as a partner with Kleiner Perkins to launch a $200m-targeted fund being backed by Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC. Link
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