ASE Receives Packaging and Testing Order for Qualcomm's New CPU

According to "Digital Times" report, industry insiders revealed that ASE has obtained an order from Qualcomm to package and test Oryon, which is a new CPU based on the Nuvia development architecture.

It is reported that Nuvia is a CPU architect IC design startup based on the Arm instruction set architecture. It was acquired by Qualcomm in 2021, and Qualcomm plans to launch Oryon in 2023. Research M series CPU.

According to industry insiders, the increasing number and wide application of semiconductors has led to a simultaneous increase in the demand for packaging and testing in the back-stage, and ASE Group has therefore launched large-scale investment and expansion of production. Not long ago, ASE held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new plants (Factory 4 and 5) in Penang, Malaysia, and announced that it will invest US$300 million within five years to expand the production plant in Malaysia and purchase advanced equipment. The new plant is expected to be completed in 2025.

Due to the high inventory level of high-volume ICs used in consumer electronics, most packaging and testing service providers have experienced lower packaging/testing capacity utilization, according to people familiar with the matter. In contrast, demand for flip-chip packaging of ICs used in high-performance computing and networking/communication remained fairly stable, but order volumes were smaller.

Semiconductor packaging and testing service providers predict that the utilization rate of foundry capacity in Q1 will bottom out in 2023, and the capacity utilization rate will rebound in the next quarter. Therefore, the utilization rate of packaging and testing capacity is expected to rebound accordingly in 2-3 months.