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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (5084)	1/21/2003 4:04:04 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Infineon, UMC install tools in 300-mm fab venture Semiconductor Business News (01/21/03 03:44 p.m. EST) SINGAPORE--UMCi--the 300-mm foundry venture in Singapore between Infineon Technologies AG and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC)--today announced it has begun to equip the fab with tools from Applied Materials Inc. and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL). Current installation will focus on copper-based backend processing equipment, with front-end tools expected to follow later this year as market conditions require, according to UMCi. Initially, UMCi will use copper-enabled tools from Applied and TEL. The announcement represents a milestone for UMCi. “UMC's first 300-mm fab in Taiwan is currently in volume production for customer products,” said Chris Chi, president of UMCi, in a statement. “With the knowledge and experience gained from that operation, we expect to further improve our technology and cost competitiveness at UMCi, signifying a new area of technological leadership for Singapore's growing semiconductor industry.” Still, UMCi is off to a somewhat shaky start. Germany's Infineon, Taiwan's UMC, and the Singapore government originally announced the 300-mm foundry venture back in 2000. Located in Singapore's Pasir Ris Wafer Fab Park, the new venture plans to build a 300-mm fab in two phases. The total capacity of the $3.6 billion fab will be 40,000 wafers per month. (see Dec. 14, 2000 story ). Then, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. last year joined Infineon and UMC in the project. But earlier this month, AMD pulled out of AMD-Infineon-UMC technology development agreement and switched its allegiance to IBM Microelectronics (see Jan. 8 story ). Last week, Infineon said it remains committed to its technology development and manufacturing partnerships with UMC despite the loss of AMD (see Jan. 15 story ).

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (5084)	1/21/2003 4:42:53 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Respond to of 25522

IMO, the market is currently pricing in a YOY increase in semi capex, while (another) YOY decline in 2003 is becoming more and more likely. Intel and the foundries are the bellwethers. They have overcapacity, low capacity utilization, no visibility, and have announced lower capex in 2003. This should be expected, given all the political/military uncertainties, and the fragility of the economic recovery. Basically, the only two economies in the world with strong end-demand are the US and China, and in both cases, that demand is only being sustained by record and increasing debt loads (corporate, government, personal), clearly an unsustainable situation. Everyone is assuming that Gulf War V2.0 will be a rerun of V1.0. This will happen only if everything goes right, if all the optimistic assumptions happen. But so much could go wrong. One clear difference that has already emerged, is that there is zero popular support for this war, in Europe (except England), and in the Middle East (except Israel). We have squandered all the global sympathy and solidarity we had after 9/11.

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (5084)	1/22/2003 1:34:36 PM
From: Sam Citron	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 25522

OT I thought that's what worst case scenarios were for --not to delineate the most likely results, but the potential risks. In an attempt to negate Jacob's argument with a stroke of a mouse, you state: (1) We can leave and Iraq will not "collapse into chaos." The Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis will divide the country and their antagonism will be moderated by their need to look over their shoulders at the US and its military. Did the British supervise post-partition India to prevent the slaughter that took place between Hindus and Muslims? Did fear of foreign intervention prevent the Hutus and Tutsis from going at it in Rwanda? I do not pretend to understand the ethnic rivalries in Iraq nor can I assess the likelihood of the US helping to broker a successful transition to democracy, as is being attempted in Afghanistan. 2) Our "client" states, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, etc., are not really our "clients" and their militaries will not allow them to be overthrown because of US policy. They will not be overthrown because of US policy, but they may be due to their own policies. Usually, it is their own militaries that do the overthrowing. 3) We will not "lose the War on Terrorism." The rest of the world understands the message of Afghanistan. That message says that if the US identifies an address for terrorism, that address will be bombed into oblivion. Most of the people and nations of the world understand that the Bin Ladens have nothing to offer but destruction and a distorted vision of a return to the 7th Century. Well that's the good news. The bad news is that it may be extraordinarily costly, not only in dollar costs but to our civil liberties and the principles of an open society that we stand for. Whatever we may think about Islamic fundamentalism, it is a powerful voice in a world that regards its traditional cultures as threatened by materialistic and corrupt Western values. It is a reaction to an excessive rate of "modernization" that has not been accompanied by greater social justice or decreased relative poverty. We do not even understand this message, and until we do, we will be powerless to counter it.