Let’s take them in reverse order:
5. Money raised and spent at Waymo tops $25bn
Alphabet plus some outside investors have put another $5.6 billion into Waymo, Alphabet’s self driving car subsidiary. Waymo is running Robotaxi services in San Francisco, Phoenix and LA using retro-fitted Jaguar EV’s and clocking up around 100,000 rides a week. The new investment takes Waymo’s total funding to $10.85 billion. The company raised $2.25 billion in 2021 and $3 billion in 2020. Between 2016, when Waymo became a separate subsidiary of Alphabet, and 2020, it is estimated that Waymo’s running cost was an average of about $2.7bn a year.
4. Imec expands auto chiplet group
Ten companies – Imec, Arm, ASE, BMW, Bosch, Siemens, SiliconAuto, Synopsys, Tenstorrent and Valeo – have now joined an Automotive Chiplet Program (ACP) to evaluate which chiplet architectures and packaging technologies are best for automotive applications. “The adoption of chiplet technology would signal a disruptive shift in central vehicle computer design, offering distinct advantages over traditional monolithic approaches. Chiplets facilitate rapid customization and upgrades, while reducing development time and costs,” says Imec vp Bart Placklé
3. Double digit growth for semis this year and next
2025 semiconductor sales will grow 14% to $717 billion, says Gartner, after 19% growth this year to reach $630 billion following the 11.7% 2023 decline. “The growth is driven by a continued surge in AI-related semiconductor demand and recovery in electronic production, while demand from the automotive and industrial sectors continues to be weak,” says Gartner’s Rajeev Rajput.
2. Charlie Sporck
Charlie Sporck, who has died of the age of 96, was one of the great men who pioneered the semiconductor industry, writes David Manners. At his retirement dinner his great friend Gordon Moore compared him to Johnny Appleseed but where Appleseed planted trees Charlie built fabs. He built fabs and ran them better than anyone else. He learned about manufacturing at General Electric before joining Fairchild in 1959. At Fairchild he ran the manufacturing operation working with Bob Noyce, Gordon Moore, Andy Grove and Jerry Sanders who became lifelong friends.
1. Intel announces successor to head of process technology development
Intel has announced a successor to its head of process technology development one year before it plans to unveil a world-leading process – 18A. Ann Kelleher (pictured), an Intel evp, has been Intel’s head of technology development since 2020, tasked with executing the 5N4Y (Five Nodes In Four Years) programme aimed at bringing Intel back to industry process technology leadership. The fifth of the five nodes is the 18A process. Kelleher’s successor is to be Navid Shahriari currently running the company’s design engineering activity in Arizona.
