Hyundai Motor Group's humanoid robot ambitions are moving closer to commercialization, with Boston Dynamics preparing for a broader capital-market push and factory deployment of its Atlas robot. But analysts warn that China's control over rare-earth supply chains could become a key risk as the company looks to scale production

South Korea depends on the Middle East for 70% of its crude oil, and relies heavily on oil refining, petrochemicals, and power generation in its industrial sector. As a result, Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has led to wide-ranging pressures on South Korea's economic security

ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is approaching its planned STAR Market IPO with sharply stronger earnings, as a global memory upcycle helps China's leading DRAM maker move closer to offsetting years of accumulated losses

Plug and Play has closed a 6 billion Japanese yen fund — approximately US$40 million — making it one of the largest first-time seed funds ever raised in Japan, the firm announced on the first day of the Plug and Play May Summit in Sunnyvale

XPeng unveiled its first mass-produced robotaxi on Tuesday, marking a major milestone in China's rapidly accelerating race to commercialize Level 4 autonomous driving

Japanese electronic components manufacturer TDK will make its largest-ever capital investment in fiscal 2026, running from April 2026 to March 2027, to address surging demand related to artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on batteries, hard disk drive (HDD) components, and multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC)

Samsung Electronics is putting health care at the center of its smartwatch strategy as Chinese rivals Huawei and Xiaomi gain ground in the global wearables market

Chinese officials have renewed calls to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) more deeply into manufacturing as Beijing seeks to modernize traditional industries, strengthen industrial competitiveness, and cultivate new growth drivers

Baidu said its core AI businesses became the majority of the company's revenue in the first quarter of 2026, driven by rapid growth in AI cloud infrastructure, expanded foundation-model support on its model-as-a-service platform Qianfan, and stronger commercial adoption of its Kunlunxin AI chips

Analysts offered mixed assessments of Baidu after the Chinese internet company posted first-quarter revenue that topped market expectations, with some pointing to stronger AI monetization. In contrast, others warned that profitability remains under pressure from rising investment and lower-margin AI businesses

Prices for semiconductor-grade hydrogen fluoride supplied to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are expected to rise sharply between late June and July, as higher costs for a key China-sourced raw material ripple through South Korea's chip supply chain, according to industry sources cited by The Elec

Acer is gaining ground in India's PC market, with the Taiwanese PC vendor citing the latest market data showing it ranked second in the country in the first quarter of 2026

China's foundry sector is charting a different course as the global semiconductor market remains focused on AI GPUs, the 2nm process node, and advanced packaging. Led by Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) and Hua Hong Semiconductor, domestic Chinese foundries have not stalled under US sanctions; instead, they are accelerating efforts to build a China-specific foundry ecosystem amid the AI boom, recovering demand for mature nodes, and a push for supply-chain self-reliance