Is the PCB becoming a key bottleneck? Industry insiders reveal: Manufacturing processes face challenges, Nvidia's Kyber rack may experience delays.
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SemiAnalysis: Bottlenecks in AI semiconductor development may extend to key materials such as tungsten.
BlockBeats reported on June 30th that SemiAnalysis, an independent research firm specializing in semiconductors and AI, published an article stating that one of the most underestimated ways to participate in AI semiconductor development may not be the chips themselves, but rather the materials. As the industry accelerates the production of more advanced semiconductors, demand growth is not only seen in GPUs and wafer fab equipment, but also in the key materials supporting modern chip manufacturing. Tungsten is cited as an example. It is one of the most critical materials in semiconductor manufacturing, valued for its high-temperature stability and resistance to electrical abrasion. Wafer fabs rely on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to fill deep, high aspect ratio vertical vias connecting multi-layered chip architectures, while simultaneously using physical vapor deposition (PVD) to deposit ultra-thin structural barrier layers around them. Because tungsten covers both core deposition stages, it is irreplaceable in advanced chip production. Tungsten supply appears to be increasingly constrained. High-purity tungsten metal powder is the primary raw material for manufacturing tungsten hexafluoride (THF), the gas used in CVD. Japan, which has key tungsten hexafluoride (Tfluoride) suppliers such as SK Materials and Shin-Etsu Chemical, is facing a sharp rise in prices and a significant reduction in imports of tungsten raw materials, making it almost impossible to continue producing key Tfluoride materials. This price pressure is also reflected in South Korea's Tfluoride import prices, which have risen by 151% this year. With the increasing complexity of semiconductors and the growing demand for AI, bottlenecks may not only appear in chips or equipment, but also in key materials at the bottom of the entire supply chain.
The National Development and Reform Commission disclosed five key work plans for the artificial intelligence industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, emphasizing the strengthening of key technologies such as models, computing power, and data.
According to Mars Finance, at a press conference held by the Shanghai Municipal Government on July 7, Wang Ruomeng, Deputy Director of the Innovation and High-Tech Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, disclosed the working plan for my country's artificial intelligence industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan period: First, accelerate independent innovation. Strengthen research on key technologies such as models, computing power, and data; increase basic research; generate more original achievements; and contribute Chinese wisdom to the global development of artificial intelligence. Second, strengthen application-driven development. Focus on areas with significant economic contributions, high strategic value, and good social benefits; open up a number of high-value scenarios; and create a number of benchmark applications. At the same time, pay attention to the impact of artificial intelligence on employment, promote the creation of new jobs and empowerment of traditional jobs through artificial intelligence, and prioritize its application in "dangerous, dirty, tiring, and heavy" scenarios. Third, deepen ecological collaboration. Continuously promote deep adaptation of software and hardware, common prosperity of open and closed sources, integration of industry, academia, research, and application, and differentiated regional development to significantly improve the efficiency of ecological collaboration. Fourth, adhere to openness and win-win cooperation. Extensively carry out international cooperation in artificial intelligence, promote open-source and inclusive technology, support the Global South in strengthening artificial intelligence capacity building, and actively participate in international governance in the field of artificial intelligence. Fifth, ensure safety and controllability. We must coordinate development and security, accelerate legislation in the field of artificial intelligence, improve the system of rules and regulations, prevent risks such as data misuse, deepfakes, and privacy breaches, and ensure that the development of artificial intelligence is for human use and under human control. (Cailian Press)
Myanmar's AI-driven telecom fraud industry exposed: Starlink becomes key infrastructure, encrypted payments and OpenAI/Google models incorporated into toolchains.
A leaked investigative report from a Myanmar scam Odaily park reveals that global telecom fraud is rapidly evolving towards an "AI industrialization + cross-border encrypted payment" system. These fraud networks use cryptocurrencies to transfer funds and employ automated tools based on large models for multilingual script generation, identity spoofing, and emotional manipulation. The investigation shows that these systems heavily utilize OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini to support "large-scale social media fraud," while funds are rapidly laundered and transferred through on-chain payments and cross-border channels, forming a two-tiered structure of "AI customer acquisition + encrypted settlement," enabling the fraud industry to achieve high automation and transnational expansion capabilities. Furthermore, Elon Musk's Starlink has become the leading network service provider in the Myanmar scam industrial park, with US ISPs handling nearly one-fifth of the park's traffic. In response to the allegations, OpenAI stated that fraudsters using ChatGPT behave in a manner highly similar to ordinary users, making identification difficult. However, they have been using behavioral pattern recognition and risk control systems to ban approximately 100,000 suspicious accounts monthly. Google stated that its AI models have security safeguards in place and emphasized its commitment to "responsible AI development" to limit the use of tools for fraudulent and other illegal purposes. (Red Star News)
Industry insiders: Computing power rental prices continued to rise this month; demand for training cards and inference cards may diverge.
According to Mars Finance, regarding Meta's plan to launch a cloud infrastructure service called "Meta Compute," which aims to sell AI computing power to external customers, an industry insider in the computing power leasing sector told the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily reporter that Meta has previously invested heavily in AI but the results have been slow to materialize. Leasing computing power can not only recoup cash flow but also signifies that it is distancing itself from its previous generation of outdated hardware and its blind expansion strategy. He also revealed that its leasing server supplier mentioned that prices would continue to rise at the beginning of this month. He predicts that the demand for inference cards and training cards may diverge. As the scale and performance of open-source large-scale models continue to climb, some applications are shifting from self-developed fine-tuning to directly calling existing models, creating a significant "temperature difference" in the market between high-end new training cards and inference/older training cards. (Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily reporter Huang Xinyi)
Did Meta "drag down" tech stocks? Industry insiders: Overcapacity in computing power is a misinterpretation.
According to Mars Finance, on July 2nd, A-share technology stocks plummeted, with semiconductors, computing hardware, and memory chips among the sectors experiencing significant declines. Taking the "Double Innovation Board," a major hub for technology stocks, as an example, the ChiNext Index and the STAR Market Composite Index fell by 5.71% and 5.64%, respectively. Market sentiment suggests the sharp drop in A-share technology stocks stemmed from the market's interpretation of Meta's sale of computing power as an indication of computing power surplus. However, many industry insiders believe this is a misinterpretation; Meta's sale of computing power does not signify the end of AI capital expenditure, but rather indicates the maturation of AI infrastructure business models. (Securities Times)
Key A-share pre-market news on June 30
Mars Finance News, June 30th: Key A-share pre-market news: 1. Premier Li Qiang chaired an executive meeting of the State Council on June 29th, hearing reports on the development of artificial intelligence, studying the current foreign trade situation and related work on building a strong trading nation, and reviewing and approving the "15th Five-Year Plan for Carbon Peaking" and the "15th Five-Year Plan for National Health." The meeting pointed out the need to deeply grasp the evolution trend of artificial intelligence and accelerate breakthroughs in key technologies and the construction of ultra-large-scale intelligent computing clusters. 2. The State Council issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for Educational Development," systematically deploying measures to improve the forward-looking layout of educational resources, strengthen the regional layout of education, and optimize the talent training layout, clarifying six comprehensive reform tasks including deepening educational evaluation reform. The plan clarifies the exploration of extending the years of compulsory education. It promotes artificial intelligence education throughout all educational stages, enhances students' artificial intelligence literacy, and strengthens their ability to raise and solve problems. It promotes the improvement and expansion of higher education, with an increase of more than 100,000 undergraduate students enrolled in "Double First-Class" universities. 3. The Ministry of Commerce issued an announcement adding 20 Japanese entities to its export control list, prohibiting exporters from exporting dual-use items to these entities, and prohibiting foreign organizations and individuals from transferring or providing dual-use items originating in China to these entities; ongoing related activities must cease immediately. Simultaneously, the Ministry of Commerce also added the 20 Japanese entities to its watch list. 4. On June 29, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted 157.5 billion yuan of 7-day reverse repurchase operations and 300 billion yuan of overnight reverse repurchase operations, resulting in a net withdrawal of 19 billion yuan. This was the first practical application of overnight reverse repurchase operations. It is worth noting that the PBOC only announced the operation amount, not the interest rate, for this overnight reverse repurchase operation. 5. South Korea is making every effort to build a new semiconductor cluster. Samsung announced an investment plan totaling 2655 trillion won; SK Group announced an investment of 1100 trillion won to expand semiconductor supply. South Korean officials also stated that DRAM production capacity is expected to double within five years, and the global memory market is expected to quadruple within five years. 6. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology are being sued by some U.S. consumers for allegedly manipulating memory chip prices. The plaintiffs allege that these three companies, which produce the vast majority of DRAM chips globally, colluded to control supply and prices starting in 2022, driving DRAM prices up by approximately 700% over the past four years. 7. Nearly 20 analog and power semiconductor companies worldwide are set to launch a new round of price increases on July 1st, following multiple rounds of tiered price adjustments this year. Many manufacturers report full order books and significantly improved capacity visibility. 8. Guangzhou City issued its first penalty for "stealing floor area" in the real estate market. The Liwan District Urban Management Bureau penalized a local urban village renovation project, finding that this project, primarily for residential use, had illegally converted decorative columns into structural columns, covering an area of nearly 200 square meters, without planning permission. 9. China Securities Index Co., Ltd. will release the CSI Smart Selection New Power System 100 Index on June 30th, selecting 100 listed companies whose businesses belong to the core areas of six major sectors of new power systems: power supply, grid, load, energy storage, power system intelligence, carbon trading services, and equipment manufacturing as index samples. 10. The world's "hottest" memory ETF—Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM)—recently rebalanced its portfolio, including A-share memory chip giant GigaDevice for the first time, with a weighting of 2.91%, making it the ETF's 8th largest holding. 11. Nanya New Materials announced a plan to invest 790 million yuan in a high-end copper-clad laminate R&D and industrialization project; Haichuan Intelligent announced a plan to acquire a 15.3% stake in Nanjing Jiyi Semiconductor for 130 million yuan; Guanghetong announced a plan to acquire a 37.16% stake in Hangsheng Electronics for 1.428 billion yuan; Maixinlin announced an 890 million yuan contract for the purchase of computing server equipment. 12. *ST Yazhen announced the removal of its delisting risk warning on July 1st; *ST Dasheng announced the removal of its delisting risk warning; *ST Aiai announced that its stock will have its delisting risk warning removed on July 1st. 13. All three major US stock indexes closed higher: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.59% to 52,182.74 points, the S&P 500 rose 1.18% to 7,440.43 points, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.07% to 25,820.14 points. 14. The three major European stock indexes closed slightly lower: the German DAX fell 0.18% to 24,626.89 points; the French CAC40 fell 0.21% to 8,367.33 points; and the UK FTSE 100 fell 0.23% to 10,484.22 points. 15. Major Asia-Pacific stock indexes showed mixed performance. The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.15% at 69,468.11 points. The South Korean KOSPI index fell 0.2% to 8394.65 points; the South Korean KOSDAQ index rose 8.13%, briefly triggering a circuit breaker during the session. International precious metals futures generally closed lower, with COMEX gold futures falling 1.61% to $4030.50 per ounce and COMEX silver futures falling 1.54% to $58.76 per ounce. The WTI crude oil futures contract rose 1.72% to $70.42 per barrel; the Brent crude oil futures contract rose 1.34% to $73.57 per barrel. Google has begun restricting Facebook's parent company Meta's use of its large AI model, Gemini, because Meta's computing power demands exceed Google's existing capacity. 19.Anthropic A new agreement has been renegotiated with Amazon, changing the billing method from hourly to token-based. Under this new agreement, Amazon may pay higher fees for Anthropic's technology. 20. US commercial space company Rocket Lab announced it has agreed to acquire satellite communications operator Iridium Communications in a deal valued at approximately $8 billion. This acquisition will help the company circumvent three key obstacles to building its satellite communications business. 21. Reports indicate that Baidu's AI chip company, Kunlun Chip, plans to list in Hong Kong with a target valuation of approximately $50 billion. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that Tencent has become a Kunlun Chip customer, and ByteDance is also considering using its AI chips. However, sources close to ByteDance stated that ByteDance currently has no intention of cooperating with Kunlun Chip. 22. On the evening of June 29th, an industry insider close to CATL revealed that Jianxiawo Coal Mine has obtained all production-related permits, with the most crucial safety production license being obtained yesterday. 23. Several developers revealed they have received upgrade reminder emails from DeepSeek. According to the emails, the prices for V4 Pro and V4 Flash models will remain unchanged during normal times, but API prices will be adjusted to twice the normal rate during peak hours. 24. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bagae told the media on the evening of the 29th local time that Iran has no plans to hold any negotiations with the United States in the coming days. 25. The Israeli Defense Minister stated that the Israeli military is prepared to take independent military action against Iran and reiterated that the Israeli military will maintain a long-term military presence in southern Lebanon. (Science and Technology Treasure Broadcast)