Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi secured a decisive victory in the February 8, 2026, lower house election after her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won 316 seats, surpassing the two-thirds threshold required to control parliamentary committees and initiate constitutional revisions

Global competition in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure is intensifying, and SK Group is accelerating its strategic expansion. Korean media report that SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won and senior SK Hynix executives recently traveled to the US to discuss cooperation with major technology companies, including Nvidia, while advancing plans for the proposed "AI Company" (tentative name)

Samsung Electronics is set to begin mass production of the world's first sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) chips later in February 2026, marking a major milestone in the race to supply critical components for next-generation AI hardware. Industry sources cited by the Yonhap News Agency say shipments could start as early as next week, following the Lunar New Year holiday, with Nvidia among the first customers

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's decisive victory in the lower house election has strengthened her government's ability to advance policies tied to economic security, bringing renewed attention to the future direction of Japan's semiconductor and defense technology agenda

The AI agent sector intensified in early 2026 as the simultaneous arrival of Anthropic's Claude Cowork and Peter Steinberger's OpenClaw catalyzed significant interest across the global technology community. While both represent a shift toward independent desktop agents, they operate on different ends of the permission spectrum. OpenClaw grants deep system-level access to files, applications, and chat histories, whereas Claude Cowork functions within secure, user-authorized boundaries to manage file organization, data processing, and document generation

To promote the formal deployment of South Korea's domestic NPU and reduce reliance on Nvidia, LG Consulting & Solutions (CNS), the IT services arm of South Korea's LG Group, has joined forces with local IC design company FuriosaAI. The two will jointly integrate FuriosaAI's second-generation RNGD NPU into LG CNS's enterprise agentic AI platform, targeting the public-sector digital transformation market

Universal Scientific Industrial (Shanghai) Co. (USI) posted higher earnings in 2025 despite a decline in revenue, reflecting improving profitability amid pricing pressure and uneven demand across key business segments

According to ANI and IANS, Qualcomm Technologies has completed the tape-out of its 2-nanometre semiconductor design with significant contributions from its engineering centres in India, underscoring the country's rising importance in the global race toward next-generation chip technologies and aligning with New Delhi's push to strengthen domestic semiconductor design capabilities

India and Malaysia used Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official visit to Kuala Lumpur to signal a step-change in their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, unveiling wide-ranging cooperation across semiconductors, clean energy, digital finance, and security that carries implications for supply chains, the Indo-Pacific balance, and South–South economic integration

New Delhi and Washington have established an interim trade deal framework targeting electronics, intellectual property, and supply chains. The Economic Times reports that this move aims to enhance competitiveness and improve supply chain resilience. This agreement follows discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, focusing on reducing trade barriers between the two nations

The US and India have agreed on a framework for an interim trade agreement aimed at expanding market access and strengthening supply chains, marking a step toward a broader bilateral trade agreement launched earlier this year by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi

According to The Economic Times, India's Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 will prioritise chip design companies and startups, followed by building a domestic ecosystem for semiconductor equipment and materials, and strengthening the talent pipeline to support end-to-end semiconductor development

TSMC chairman C.C. Wei recently visited Japan and appeared alongside Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to jointly announce that Kumamoto Fab 2 will be upgraded from a 6nm to a 3nm process, signaling Japan's plan to reclaim its semiconductor glory. However, according to supply chain sources, when the Japanese government first invited TSMC to build fabs in Kumamoto, it had already mapped out three major strategies that included advancing advanced packaging and constructing new facilities. Most importantly, Japan aims to leverage its strengths in equipment and materials to reinforce its critical position and bargaining power in the advanced packaging industry chain