Most Read – EV tie-up, Intel sells Arm, UKBIC CTO

For those written in the last week, our most popular stories on the site cover Intel selling its one million shares in ARM, a 60% profit drop at SMIC, Richard LeCain becoming CTO at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, TSMC record, and Mitsubishi, Nissan and Honda teaming up for EVs…

Let’s take them in reverse order…

5. Intel sells ARM shares
Intel has sold its 1.18 million Arm share stake for around $145 million as it looks to cut costs and shore up its finances. Arm shares hit $184 in July after starting out the year at $68. Intel had liabilities of $32 billion and cash of $11.3 billion at the end of June. It has just announced the laying off of ‘at least’ 15% of its employees – some 15,000 people – to save $10 billion.

4. 59% Q2 profit drop at SMIC
SMIC, currently the world’s No.2 foundry, had Q2 profit which was down 59.1% y-o-y at $164.6 million on revenue up 21.8% at $1.9 billion.It forecast Q3 revenue growth of 13-15%. Despite a price war in the foundry industry Co-CEO Zhao Haijun said: “SMIC will not take the initiative to cut prices,” in last Friday’s earnings call. Zhao said the industry was benefiting from trade tensions which were causing Chinese companies to switch to local suppliers.

3. Richard LeCain becomes CTO of UK’s battery manufacturing centre of excellence
Richard LeCain has been appointed chief technology officer at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC). “Richard has more than 20 years of experience working in the battery industry, having previously held technical and leadership positions at A123 Systems and Britishvolt,” according to UKBIC. He “has worked in battery plants across the world, transferring processes and designs from the lab into manufacturing”. LeCain will report into UKBIC MD Sean Gilgunn.

2. TSMC has best-ever revenue
TSMC had its best-ever revenue month in July – up 23.6% m-o-m and up 45% y-o-y at $7.9 billion with HPC contributing 52% of revenue. Revenue for January through July 2024 totaled $47 billion, an increase of 30.5% compared to the same period in 2023.

1. Mitsubishi joins Honda and Nissan in EV tie-up
Mitsubishi Motors has joined Nissan and Honda in an EV tie-upwhere all three companies share key components and software. Nissan and Honda announced an EV collaboration in March. Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida, Nissan says: “We are very pleased to welcome a new member to the strategic partnership between Honda and Nissan. Mitsubishi Motors has unique technologies and expertise.” Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe, said the industry is going through a “once in a century” period of transformation towards electrification.