Financial
• Silicon Labs recently announced the award of a $23 million grant from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund (TSIF) established by the Texas CHIPS Act. The TSIF investment will support a new research and development laboratory in Austin, helping to create and sustain local jobs and reinforce Silicon Labs’ dedication to preserving Central Texas’ status as a premier technology hub. This investment will allow SiLabs to accelerate its innovation roadmap, particularly around the build-out and design of their Series 3 technology, an advanced wireless platform that makes devices smarter and more connected than ever before.
• Silabs also recently announced its Q4 2024 results with revenue almost doubling over the same period in the previous year. Total revenue for the period was $166 million with Industrial & Commercial down 8% to $89 million, while Home & Life up by 11% to $78 million. Operating loss amounted to $29 million resulting in a diluted loss per share of $0,73. The company’s expectation for its Q1 2025 revenue estimates are between $175 and $180 million.
• TrendForce has reported that global sales of NEVs, including BEVs, PHEVs, and FCVs, reached 16,29 million units in 2024, marking a 25% YoY increase. The Chinese market expanded its share to 67%, dominating its rivals. The forecast for 2025 is positive with global NEVs projected to grow by 18%. US company Tesla retained its top position with Chinese company BYD narrowing the gap in second place. Volkswagen and GAC Aion, in fourth and fifth place, both experienced a negative sales growth during the same period.
• The global DRAM industry revenue passed $28 billion in Q4 2024, marking a 9,9% QoQ growth. This growth can be largely attributed to rising prices for server DDR5 and an increase in shipments of HBM. It is expected that this will lead to a decline in shipments through the first quarter of 2025.
• The NAND Flash market continues to be plagued by oversupply in the first quarter of 2025, leading to sustained price declines and financial strain for suppliers. However, it is anticipated that a significant improvement in the market’s supply-demand balance will take place in the second half of 2025.
• Microchip recently announced it would cut around 9% of its workforce as it restructures its business to combat slowing demand from automotive manufacturers. This will result in almost 2000 employees being let go in the company’s chip factories in Oregon and Colorado.
• TSMC has announced that it is increasing investment in US semiconductor manufacturing, bringing the total to $165 billion. If the three newly planned fabrication facilities proceed as planned, production is expected to begin after 2030 and will bring the US share to 22% of the global market. TSMC originally announced plans for its Arizona fab back in 2020 as part of a six-fab expansion strategy. It was also announced that in Q4 2024, the global top 10 foundries set a new revenue record, with TSMC leading in advanced process nodes.
• Under President Trump’s leadership, the US has cut funding to SA, threatening the Agoa trade benefits and foreign aid that the country enjoyed. At risk are billions of rand and markets reacted sharply to the news as the fallout from this decision could have dire consequences for the local automotive and agricultural sectors. The US has also imposed an immediate freeze on US-backed credit guarantees and funding for development, cutting off access to the World Bank and IMF.
• From 1 April, the SA government will be removing the luxury tax from smartphones costing less than R2500 to support adoption by low-income households. The current 9% tax on luxury phones will be removed as the country plans a total shutdown [once again] of the 2G and 3G networks by 31 December 2027.
Companies
• The IDC MarketScape has named Siemens a leader in worldwide Industrial Internet of Things platforms and applications. Insights Hub, Siemens’ IIoT as a service solution, enables organisations to harness real-time insights for smarter, faster decision-making across industries. Designed as a cloud-native, out-of-the-box solution, it empowers companies to unlock the full potential of data analytics and data driven artificial intelligence.
• Derivco Chief Executive Quraish Behari stepped down as CEO on 28 February 2025 to pursue other opportunities, after being with the company for 20 years. He has been succeeded by Andrew Slabbert, another stalwart of Derivco who has extensive experience in the industry and has been part of the company for 16 years.
• TCL, a pioneer in display technology across feature-rich smartphones, tablets, and connected devices, has been awarded the EcoVadis 2025 Gold Rating, recognising the company’s outstanding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. This prestigious certification places TCL in the top 2% of all companies assessed.
• Finnfund has made a follow-on investment of €2 million to Fibertime Group, enabling the company to expand its provision of fibre internet access to underprivileged communities in South Africa. The new investment supports the company in its goal to connect 1,8 million homes to the internet. At the heart of the innovation is both the fibre internet technology provided by Nokia and an affordable pay-as-you-go pricing model by Fibertime Group.
• OnDigital Media, the parent company of StarSat, has been placed into liquidation. Operating for the past 15 years as a rival to DStv, the company ceased operations in October 2024 following a raid by ICASA after the regulator ordered StarSat to shut down due to OnDigital Media’s failure to renew its broadcasting license on time.
• Ariston and Sensor Networks have announced a strategic partnership in South Africa. Building on several months of product development, refinement, and certification, the announcement culminates in the distribution of Ariston geysers equipped with Sensor Networks’ smart geyser devices which, paired with the mobile applications, will allow users to monitor and manage their household energy usage.
Technologies
• Google has unveiled Gemini Code Assist for individuals, a free version of their AI-coding assistant. This development assistant powered by Gemini 2.0 is now available to South African developers and it supports all programming languages in the public domain. The AI assistant is completely optimised for coding and is available as an extension in both Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs.
• The longest subsea broadband fibre cable is in development. Spanning a distance more than 50 000 km, the cable will connect five major continents excluding Europe. The project, recently announced by Meta Platforms, will see the US connect with Brazil, South Africa, and India amongst other regions. Called Project Waterworth, it will enable greater economic cooperation and open digital opportunities for further technological development in these regions. The new system will contain 24 fibre pairs to provide a higher throughput than any existing cable system.
• In the ESET bi-annual threat report for H2 2024, it was reported that South Africa is ranked the most targeted country in Africa with regards to cybercrime, attracting 40% of all ransomware attacks on the continent. Data collected between June and November 2024 revealed that 40% of ransomware attacks, and almost 35% of infostealer incidents occurred in SA. Across Africa, the top threat remained phishing totalling 34% of all detected online attacks.
• Microsoft has announced that it is killing off Skype, its 20-year-old Internet messaging application. The application will work until May this year after which it will officially be retired. According to Microsoft, all chats and contacts will automatically be transitioned into Teams which will thereafter take over the communication and messaging torch from Skype.
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