Despite intense technology competition between the US and China, cooperation between the two sides on the open-standard RISC-V architecture continues to deepen, with US intellectual property provider MIPS expanding its work with Chinese industry.

Taiwan memory suppliers Nanya Technology and Winbond Electronics have set new monthly revenue records for 11 and 10 consecutive months, respectively, as their September 2026 consolidated revenues continued to grow.

South Korean outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) provider LB Semicon is expanding power semiconductor backend capacity at its Gumi plant as it steps up efforts to reduce its reliance on display driver integrated circuits (DDIs) and a highly concentrated customer base, backed by new business from Qualcomm and Renesas and KRW30 billion (approx. US$22.3 million) in planned equipment investment.

China's WG Tech has reportedly begun the second phase of investment in its through-glass via (TGV) glass substrate production line, with total future capacity projected to reach 1 million square meters a year. Analysts say Chinese makers have moved ahead of South Korean rivals by building production lines first, then accelerating product output and customer validation, giving China an early lead in glass substrate commercialization.

Japan's Kyushu Semiconductor Industry Exhibition, known as K-Semi, grew 36% at this year's edition in Fukuoka, held from September 30 to October 1, 2026, as chip makers expanded their presence in Kyushu. The event also added a semiconductor design zone for the first time and was held alongside the debut Kyushu Next-Generation Energy Exhibition, or K-Ene.

Severe floods triggered by days of extreme rain in Thailand have paralyzed transport in Bangkok and several other areas, disrupting local auto and components supply chains and drawing attention to damage at Taiwanese companies with factories in the country. The flooding has also slowed shipments from Taiwan PCB makers in Thailand as road and airport transport remain affected.

Huawei is increasingly framing its semiconductor strategy around a simple constraint: if advanced process nodes remain limited, more performance must come from architecture, interconnect and system-level efficiency.

Chinese semiconductor manufacturers have stockpiled hundreds of immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems worth billions of dollars in recent years, prompting a Washington think tank to call for tighter export controls on equipment that could still support advanced chip production.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington and Beijing are likely to agree on a way to alert each other when artificial intelligence goes wrong, signaling that AI safety is becoming a bilateral security issue even as the Trump administration relies on voluntary industry pledges rather than binding rules at home. Speaking on The Axios Show on October 3, Bessent also rebuked AI executives who call for regulation, and confirmed that the government had once stepped in on a model release by Anthropic.

China's National Day holidays have opened one of the fourth quarter's most important promotional windows for consumer electronics. For smartphones, the timing is especially significant: Apple, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and Honor have all launched new models since September, while Huawei introduced its Mate 90 series on October 1.

With South Korea preparing for the fifth launch of its Nuri rocket, the country's space ambitions took center stage at AEROTEC 2026, the second International Aerospace Technology Exhibition held recently in Changwon, a major hub for South Korea's aerospace industry.

DeepSeek has released a new version of DeepSeek Harness, adding an experimental compatibility layer for Anthropic's Claude Code Mods and sharpening its broader effort to build an open, highly extensible software layer for AI agents.

General Interface Solution (GIS) Holding is gaining traction in optical communications and other new products despite weak consumer electronics demand caused by rising memory prices. Its laser-source packaging and testing business has entered customer qualification and, if progress stays on track, could begin shipments in the fourth quarter of 2026, with a larger revenue contribution from the first quarter of 2027.

As South Korea prepares for the fifth launch of its Nuri rocket, small and medium-sized enterprises are taking on increasingly important roles in the country's space supply chain alongside major aerospace companies such as Hanwha Aerospace.

South Korea's Hyundai Rotem is accelerating its expansion into aerospace propulsion systems, showcasing 10-ton- and 35-ton-class methane rocket engines under development at AEROTEC 2026 as it targets growing demand for reusable launch vehicles.