UMC and GF or Samsung and GF?

One of the interesting rumors in Taiwan last week was the possibility that UMC and GF will do a deal to merge or UMC will buy some GF fabs. I have talked to quite a few industry experts about it and will talk to more this week at the GSA US Executive Forum (more at the end). The US Executive Forum is what they call a C Level event which means it is invitation only and expensive.

This year’s program looks very good. Notice the heavy AI emphasis, as I have said many times before AI will touch most every chip and will keep pushing the leading edge processes, absolutely. EDA CEOs Wally Rhines and Aart de Geus will be there. Wally does a great “Industry Vision” loaded with facts and figures and Aart is not afraid to ask the difficult questions on his panel so both of these talks should be interesting.

Keynote: Looking To The Future While Learning From The Past, Daniel Niles / Founding Partner / AlphaOne Capital Partners

Keynote: Convergence of AI Driven Disruption: How multiple digital disruptions are changing the face of business decisions, Anthony Scriffignano / Senior Vice President & Chief Data Scientist / Dun & Bradstreet

Significance of AI in the Digitally Transformed Future
This session will discuss how developments in machine learning, deep learning and AI are impacting technology segments and market verticals and the significance of Artificial Intelligence in the Digitally Transformed Future.

AI and the Domain Specific Architecture Revolution
Wally Rhines / President and CEO / Mentor, a Siemens Business

AI Driven Security
Steven L. Grobman / Senior Vice President and CTO / McAfee

Innovating for AI in Semis and Systems

AI Accelerators in the Datacenter Ecosystem
Kushagra Vaid / General Manager & Distinguished Engineer – Azure Infrastructure / Microsoft

Delivering on the promise of AI for all – from the data center to the edge of cloud
Derek Meyer / CEO / Wave Computing

Driving the Evolution of AI at the Network Edge
Remi El-Ouazzane/Vice President and COO, Artificial Intelligence Products Group / Intel

The Physics of AI: Architecting AI systems into the Future
Sumit Gupta / Vice President AI, ML and HPC / IBM

AI Panel Discussion
The panel will discuss the innovations in the semiconductor and systems space that are empowering Artificial Intelligence and the collaboration opportunities between semiconductor and systems players to enable emerging markets.

Moderator:
Aart de Geus / Chairman and Co-CEO / Synopsys

Panelists:
– Derek Meyer
– Sumit Gupta
– Kushagra Vaid
– Remi El-Ouazzane

Keynote: Long Term Implications of AI & ML
Byron Reese / CEO, Gigaom / Technology Futurist / Author

VIP Reception
Book signing by Byron Reese
The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity

Back to the UMC GF Samsung rumor. Remember, GF has built-out fabs in Singapore, the US, and Europe. GF also has the IBM patents and technology plus the ASIC group which has been spun out. Think about UMC’s pros and cons and see if they match up to GF’s assets and keep in mind, whatever UMC does not need Samsung may want. The ASIC business for example (UMC has Faraday). It would also give GF’s owner a somewhat graceful exit from the semiconductor industry. If you combine UMC and GF it gets you a $5B pure-play foundry which is much closer to TSMC’s $15B.

Of course Samsung could just buy GF outright so there is always that. Just a rumor of course but not unlike the “GF buys IBM semiconductor” rumor we started a while back: GLOBALFOUNDRIES Acquires IBM Semiconductor Unit!

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