CG Power's chip plans rocked by turmoil at wafer company Wolfspeed
Live Events
Reports of a likely bankruptcy filing by US-based silicon carbide (SiC) wafer maker Wolfspeed are sending shockwaves through the global semiconductor industry and could impact Murugappa group-owned CG Power 's upcoming outsourced semiconductor assembly and test facility ( OSAT ) in Sanand, experts told ET.Japan's Renesas Electronics , CG Power's partner for the project, has a long-term $2-billion SiC wafer supply agreement with Wolfspeed, which is now reportedly on the brink of default.Since Renesas has already made advance payments under the contract, it risks a financial setback besides supply disruptions. CG Power's OSAT facility, which was betting on demand from Renesas, may face headwinds as a result, experts explained."Wolfspeed's impending bankruptcy will cause supply disruptions globally including Japan, China and even India," said Danish Faruqui, CEO of US-based semiconductor investment advisory Fab Economics. "If Wolfspeed undergoes bankruptcy proceedings, Renesas will face significant accounting losses to recognise impairment losses because it will likely struggle to recover the advance payment of $2 billion."This, he added, may hamper Renesas' ability to continue supporting global JVs with the vision of expanding production capabilities.Wolfspeed, in a recent SEC filing, said "substantial doubt exists" about its ability to continue as a going concern. Within three days of that, Renesas reportedly decided to halt in-house production of SiC power chips , Faruqui noted."There is a high possibility of a bankruptcy filing which shall not only be a setback to Renesas but also for its downstream partners like CG Power's OSAT," he said.Queries sent to CG Power and Renesas remained unanswered as of press time Thursday.Devroop Dhar, cofounder and board member at Primus Partners, agreed that the development could impact the CG Power venture at least in the short term."A lot will depend on the kind of financial hit that Renesas takes and how much time they take to rebound," he said."If Renesas is going to be down for a long time, then CG Power's plant would really have to be completely reassessed because both from a technology and demand perspective, they are dependent on Renesas as the STMicroelectronics is only an OSAT partner. They are not going to bring any design, capability or demand."CG Power holds a majority 92.3% stake in the joint venture OSAT, with Renesas holding 6.8%.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
30 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Mithi River desilting fraud: ED searches 15 locations, including Dino Morea's home
MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out searches at 15 locations in Mumbai and Kochi in connection with the alleged irregularities in contracts for desilting the Mithi River, which resulted in a loss of ₹65.54 crore for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The locations that were searched include the home and office of actor Dino Morea, who has been questioned twice in connection with the case; the residences of arrested intermediaries Ketan Kadam and Jay Joshi; the residence of Prashant Ramugade, a deputy chief engineer with the BMC who was also named as an accused; and the premises of Matprop Technical Services Pvt Ltd, a Kochi-based company that rented machinery and equipment for the desilting work, officials said. The searches continued until late Friday evening, and the ED found some incriminating documents, officials said. Morea could be summoned to record his statement in a few days, officials added. The ED has launched a money-laundering investigation in the case based on the FIR registered by the Mumbai police's Economic Offence Wing last month. The EOW had booked 13 people in the case, including three BMC officials. Two of them—alleged intermediaries Ketan Kadam and Jay Joshi—were arrested. Joshi was granted bail by a sessions court on Thursday. The EOW had earlier interrogated Dino Morea and his brother Santino after finding financial transactions between them and Kadam's family. The police suspect that the transactions, which took place during the period of the alleged fraud—from 2019 to 2022—could be linked to the desilting contracts. The Moreas and Kadams have known each other for around 25 years, according to the police. Santino Morea and Kadam's wife, Punita, are also directors of a Mumbai-based company, UBO Ridez Private Limited, which operates Victoria-style electric carriages. According to the EOW, the three accused BMC officials allegedly tailored the tender for the desilting contracts to benefit Matprop, resulting in the company's monopoly over the contracts. When the BMC's contractors approached Matprop for desilting equipment, they were directed to approach Joshi and Kadam, who, in connivance with the company, rented the machines at inflated rates, according to the EOW. Matprop's director, Dipak Mohan, who was also booked in the case, has denied that he or his company were involved in the fraud. The accused also allegedly fudged records to increase the amount of silt to be removed from the Mithi River to benefit the contractors and the rates that they were supposed to be paid, according to the EOW.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
36 minutes ago
- Business Standard
US Supreme Court gives DOGE access to sensitive social security data
The decision allows DOGE, once led by Elon Musk, full access to personal data in the Social Security database while the case moves forward on appeal Bloomberg By Greg Stohr and Zoe Tillman The US Supreme Court gave the Department of Government Efficiency access to sensitive Social Security information, lifting restrictions a judge said were needed to protect the privacy of millions of Americans. Over three dissents, the high court on Friday granted a Trump administration request to put US District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander's order on hold. The decision lets DOGE, the office once led by Elon Musk, have full access to personally identifiable information in the Social Security Administration database while the case proceeds on appeal. 'Under the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work,' the court said in a three-paragraph order, which didn't lay out the majority's reasoning. The court's three liberals — Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson — dissented. In an opinion joined by Sotomayor, Jackson said the court was 'creating grave privacy risks for millions of Americans.' In a separate decision, the high court said a different judge went too far by requiring DOGE officials to testify and produce records to a watchdog group. The order came in a case about whether the DOGE office is covered by US public records laws. The Supreme Court liberals dissented from that decision as well. The cases are the first Supreme Court clashes involving DOGE, the office set up by President Donald Trump to weed out what he says is wasteful spending across the federal government. Sensitive Data Musk recently left his formal government position within the administration and is now publicly feuding with Trump. In the SSA case, US Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court that 'the government cannot eliminate waste and fraud if district courts bar the very agency personnel with expertise and the designated mission of curtailing such waste and fraud from performing their jobs.' The disputed data includes Social Security numbers, addresses, birth and marriage certificates, tax and earnings records, employment history, and bank and credit card information. Hollander said two labor unions and an advocacy group for retired people were likely to succeed on their claims that unfettered access would violate the 1974 Privacy Act. 'For some 90 years, SSA has been guided by the foundational principle of an expectation of privacy with respect to its records,' the Baltimore-based judge wrote. 'This case exposes a wide fissure in the foundation.' Hollander's order allowed DOGE team members access to anonymized data only after completing the type of training and background checks required for SSA employees. She said DOGE employees could get 'discrete, particularized and non-anonymized' information if they submitted a written statement explaining why the information was needed and why anonymous data was insufficient. Hollander also ordered people affiliated with DOGE to delete data they've already acquired. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals kept Hollander's order in place on a 9-6 vote. In her dissent, Jackson said the lower courts had crafted an order 'tailored to the needs of the moment.' She said the Supreme Court had 'truly lost its moorings' by granting the government's request without requiring it to show that it was suffering any harm. 'The 'urgency' underlying the government's stay application is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes,' she wrote. Democracy Forward, the legal-advocacy group that represented the challengers, said it was a 'sad day for our democracy and a scary day for millions of people.' White House spokesperson Liz Huston hailed the decision. 'The Supreme Court allowing the Trump administration to carry out commonsense efforts to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse and modernize government information systems is a huge victory for the rule of law,' she said in an email. The case is Social Security Administration v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, 24A1063. DOGE Records The Supreme Court's action in the records case blocks a Washington federal judge's order for the administration to answer questions, produce documents and make DOGE administrator Amy Gleason available to testify at a deposition. US District Judge Christopher Cooper had authorized the group that brought the public records case, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, to gather evidence about DOGE's activities as it fights with the Justice Department over the office's legal status. The Supreme Court majority faulted Cooper for requiring the government to disclose internal DOGE recommendations and to say whether those suggestions were followed. 'Separation of powers concerns counsel judicial deference and restraint in the context of discovery regarding internal executive branch communications,' the Supreme Court said in its two-page order. Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson didn't explain their reasons for dissenting. CREW has argued that the DOGE Service should be considered an agency under the federal Freedom of Information Act, which empowers the public to see a wide range of government records. The Trump administration disagrees, arguing that DOGE plays a purely advisory role within the White House and is exempt from the law. Musk served as the public face of DOGE, but government lawyers stressed in court that Gleason is the formal head of the DOGE office. CREW's underlying public records request seeks to pry loose new information about the Tesla Inc. chief executive's role in dramatic cuts to federal spending and the workforce. The lawsuit also aims to reveal more broadly what DOGE-affiliated staff have been doing and the structure of that effort across US agencies. The case is US DOGE Service v. CREW, 24A1122.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
an hour ago
- First Post
Mukesh Ambani donates Rs 151 crore to his alma mater ICT
The Reliance chairman spent over three hours at Mumbai-based ICT – formerly the University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT) – during a function to launch Professor MM Sharma's biography, 'Divine Scientist' read more Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, on Friday (June 6) announced an unconditional grant of Rs 151 crore to the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), his alma mater from the 1970s. The Reliance chairman spent over three hours at Mumbai-based ICT – formerly the University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT) – during a function to launch Professor MM Sharma's biography, 'Divine Scientist'. He reminisced about his first lecture at UDCT by Professor Sharma, which greatly inspired him. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'I realised he is an alchemist, not of metals, but minds: he has the power to transform curiosity into knowledge, knowledge into commercial value, and both knowledge and commercial value into everlasting wisdom,' he said. He highlighted how Professor Sharma quietly influenced India's economic reforms by convincing policymakers that the key to India's growth was freeing the industry from the license-permit-raj. This would enable Indian companies to scale up, reduce import dependence, and compete globally. 'Like my father, Dhirubhai Ambani, he had a burning desire to transform Indian industry from scarcity to global leadership,' said Ambani. He added, 'These two visionary leaders believed that science and technology, combined with private entrepreneurship, would lead to prosperity.' Acknowledging Professor Sharma's contributions to the rise of the Indian chemical industry, Ambani referred to him as 'a Rashtra Guru – a Guru of Bharat'. While discussing 'Guru Dakshina', Ambani announced the unconditional grant of Rs 151 crore to ICT, following Professor Sharma's guidance. 'When he tells us something, we just listen. We don't think. He told me, 'Mukesh, you have to do something big for ICT,' and I am very pleased to announce this grant for Professor Sharma,' said the Reliance chairman.
