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Thursday 13 August 2026
Tencent starts paying for AI in cash, core business is covering the bill
Tencent Holdings used its second quarter to show what an AI build-out costs a company that can afford one. Capex reached CNY52.8 billion (US$7.81 billion), up 176% from a year earlier, and free cash flow turned negative for the quarter after large prepayments for computing capacity.
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Friday 14 August 2026
China AI chip demand lifts Hygon revenue 67%, Sugon profit 34% as domestic computing expands

Hygon Information posted a 66.5% increase in first-half 2026 revenue as accelerating artificial intelligence deployment and stronger demand for domestically developed computing chips lifted sales of its high-end processors.

Friday 14 August 2026
South Korea's memory-chip exports surge 277% as system chips slip

South Korea's semiconductor export boom was heavily concentrated in memory in July. Memory-chip export value surged 276.9% year over year, while system semiconductor exports slipped 0.7%, as server demand and higher memory prices created a sharp split between the two segments.

Friday 14 August 2026
Alibaba Cloud races ahead with Ulanqab AI infrastructure
Since early 2026, AI upstarts such as DeepSeek have increasingly pivoted toward building or co-owning their own data centers. This reflects a broader shift across China's AI sector: moving away from asset-light models reliant on leasing server space to gaining deep control over computing infrastructure. AI firms are no longer merely buying GPUs; they are stockpiling strategic compute assets, with 10,000-to-100,000-card GPU clusters becoming the baseline requirement.
Friday 14 August 2026
Alibaba Cloud cuts AI data center build time to 100 days, triples global modular capacity
Alibaba Cloud has cut the delivery cycle for large AI data centers to 100 days with its CUBE 5.0 modular architecture, while lowering construction costs by more than 10% and increasing computing density as demand for AI infrastructure accelerates.
Friday 14 August 2026
Chinese analog chipmaker Novosense returns to profit on AI server, auto demand
Suzhou Novosense Microelectronics expects to return to profitability in the first half of 2026, with revenue rising nearly 67% as demand for AI computing infrastructure, automotive electronics, server power supplies, and renewable energy systems lifts semiconductor shipments.
Friday 14 August 2026
US report puts China-linked tariff evasion through Asia under the spotlight

A new US government-linked report says American tariff revenue is being drained by tens of billions of dollars a year through illegal transshipment, with exporters routing China-origin goods through more than 40 third countries — many of them in Asia — to dodge higher US duties. The report, titled "The Great Transshipment Scam," traces the practice to Chinese exporters' response to the Section 301 tariffs imposed in 2018 and estimates current annual illegal transshipment flows at US$40 billion to US$303 billion, depending on methodology.

Friday 14 August 2026
SK Hynix looks beyond memory with new global growth team
SK Hynix has set up a dedicated team to search for growth opportunities beyond its core memory business and has put a senior group executive in charge, a move aimed at turning the company's lead in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) into a wider role in AI infrastructure.
Friday 14 August 2026
DeepSeek raises API prices sharply as V4 Pro targets agentic AI market
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has officially launched its V4 Pro model with significantly enhanced agent capabilities, while sharply increasing API prices as it seeks to expand beyond its reputation for low-cost AI.
Friday 14 August 2026
SMIC plans to single out AI chip revenue as demand outpaces its current reporting categories
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is considering disclosing revenue from artificial intelligence (AI)-related "peripheral chips" as a standalone line item, possibly from the third quarter of 2026 or later, executives said on the company's second-quarter earnings call.
Friday 14 August 2026
Alibaba Cloud launches Zhenwu M890 supernode for commercial use
Alibaba Cloud has begun commercial service for its Zhenwu M890 supernode in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, giving global customers an early look at how AI infrastructure is shifting toward larger, faster, and more tightly connected systems. The launch could influence future cloud costs, model access, and enterprise AI deployment well beyond China.
Friday 14 August 2026
China PCB makers pour billions into AI server, HPC, optical markets
Chinese printed circuit board (PCB) makers are stepping up investment in higher-value markets including AI servers, high-performance computing (HPC) and optical communications. Following similar expansion in semiconductors and display panels, Chinese companies are rapidly adding PCB capacity as they seek to catch up with South Korean suppliers that have established an early presence in the high-end substrate market.
Friday 14 August 2026
SMIC's pricing power arrives as AI pushes mature-node work into China
China's largest contract chipmaker has spent most of the past two years increasing volume without much to show for it in terms of margins. The June quarter broke that pattern. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) reported revenue of US$3.01 billion for the three months ended June 30, 2026, up 20.0% sequentially and 36.1% from a year earlier, and gross margin of 25.3% against 20.1% in the March quarter. The margin, not the revenue line, is the news: it is the first quarter in this cycle in which SMIC has been able to convert a full order book into price.
Friday 14 August 2026
Samsung chip design embraces AI, but loss of control and hallucinations remain a problem
The AI wave is sweeping through the chip industry, but hallucinations, loss of control, and cybersecurity risks remain unresolved even as efficiency leaps. Youngsik Kim, head of the Design Technology (DT) team at Samsung Electronics' System LSI division, has pointed out that software has already leveraged AI to cut headcount and generate significant gains, but hardware has yet to see clear benefits.
Friday 14 August 2026
Kioxia eyes customer trials for PCIe Gen6 optical SSD

Kioxia is developing a PCIe Gen6 optical SSD and hopes to work with customers on its next prototype, as the Japanese memory maker tackles cost and reliability hurdles that still stand between the technology and mass production.

Friday 14 August 2026
Rapidus targets 8-reticle interposers by 2030
Rapidus expects interposers for high-performance chips to reach eight-reticle scale by around 2030, as larger chiplets and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) push advanced packages toward sizes that are increasingly inefficient to manufacture on conventional 300mm wafers.