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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
Australia tightens approval rules for Northern Minerals share sales
Australia has tightened scrutiny of Chinese-linked holdings in Northern Minerals, requiring government approval before certain shareholders can sell their stakes and stipulating that the buyers cannot be related entities. The move, reported by Bloomberg and Reuters, extends Canberra's effort to limit Chinese influence in a rare earths supply chain seen as strategically important.
Friday 14 August 2026
Samsung Electro-Mechanics glass substrate plan slips, with mass production now seen after 2028
Samsung Electro-Mechanics has again delayed its semiconductor glass substrate commercialization schedule after a prototype reportedly failed a customer's reliability review. The setback has pushed back the construction timetable for GlaSSEM, its joint venture with Dongwoo Fine-Chem for glass core production in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and has made equipment ordering dates difficult to pin down.
Friday 14 August 2026
Quanta posts record second quarter revenue as AI server demand surges
Quanta Computer reported record second-quarter results on August 13, driven by strong demand for AI servers and notebooks. The Taiwanese electronics manufacturer said consolidated revenue, gross profit, operating profit, and earnings per share all reached quarterly highs in the second quarter of 2026.
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
SK Hynix advances Yongin fab construction for 2027 cleanroom launch
SK hynix has pushed construction of its semiconductor campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, to 87% completion as it targets February 2027 for the start of operations at its first cleanroom. Power and water supplies have already been secured, according to Maeil Business Newspaper.
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.
Friday 14 August 2026
Samsung and SK hynix push AI deeper into fabs as semiconductor manufacturing enters autonomous era
As the world enters an AI-powered era where the persistent need for more complex architectures is driven by rising demands for higher computing performance, one bottleneck confronting the semiconductor industry lies not only in technological advancement itself, but also in the capacity to deploy standardized manufacturing processes at greater scale and speed.
Friday 14 August 2026
Gem Terminal's second-quarter profit hits 16-quarter high on copper and connector demand
Gem Terminal Industry said its net profit in the second quarter of 2026 reached a 16-quarter high as niche products and improved production efficiency in Taiwan and Vietnam lifted results. The terminal and copper materials supplier also reported strong revenue growth in July and for the first seven months of 2026.
Friday 14 August 2026
ATEN lifts second-quarter profit on higher sales, pricing, utilization
ATEN International said its second-quarter 2026 revenue rose 19% year-over-year, while gross margin improved to 62% from 59% and pretax profit jumped 235%. The Taiwan-based keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) and enterprise connectivity vendor said stronger sales, higher capacity utilization, and narrower foreign exchange losses drove the gains.
Friday 14 August 2026
Hyundai's robot foundry bet outpaces its local supply chain

Hyundai Motor Group and the South Korean government are accelerating a KRW9 trillion (approx. US$6.3 billion) robot and AI investment plan for the Saemangeum area in Jeollabuk-do, aiming to turn it into a global robot foundry. Yet analysts caution that the current funding structure can hardly support the development of the robotics sector, given that robotics R&D and core supply chains remain concentrated in the capital region and Gyeongsang-do.