DIGITIMES Asia news

Friday 24 April 2026

Interview: Taiwan-Korea cooperation not limited to memory giants; Hwaseong City aims to expand alliances

When it comes to Taiwan-Korea semiconductor cooperation, the outside world often focuses on orders and R&D between memory giants such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and TSMC. However, centered on Hwaseong City in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, emphasizes that the potential of Taiwan-Korea cooperation goes far beyond this; both sides should establish more direct supply chain alliances at the SME level in equipment and components

Friday 24 April 2026

China chipmaker scales beyond security ICs into AI, automotive

Unigroup Guoxin Microelectronics reported steady growth in 2025, reinforcing its position across specialty ICs and security chips while accelerating expansion into AI, automotive electronics, and other emerging applications

Thursday 23 April 2026

Samsung and LG turn to AI at WIS 2026 to tackle sluggish consumer electronics market

Faced with declining hardware sales as high interest rates and shrinking demand crunch the global consumer electronics market, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are pursuing strategies to redefine product value. At the recent World IT Show (WIS) 2026 in Seoul, both South Korean companies showcased AI-centric strategies in their visions for future lifestyles

Thursday 23 April 2026

Chinese smartphone shipments to fall below 600 million units in 2026, lowest level since 2021

Rising upstream component costs and weak retail promotions in China, combined with traditional off-season demand overseas, are denting global smartphone supply and pricing. Consumers and suppliers worldwide may face higher prices and reduced availability as Chinese manufacturers trim shipments and prioritize higher-margin models, with implications for emerging markets and device ecosystems

Thursday 23 April 2026

SaiMemory wins NEDO backing for next-generation ZAM memory, partners with Intel

SaiMemory, a next-generation memory developer established by SoftBank, said on April 22 that its development project has been selected for subsidies by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), with the government expected to cover roughly half of the initial development costs

Thursday 23 April 2026

China hands 11.5-year sentence in rare earth, semiconductor data leak case

China is intensifying investigations and enforcement against data leaks in critical sectors across its industrial supply chain, targeting areas such as rare earths, semiconductors, and digital data resources

Thursday 23 April 2026

Tencent, Alibaba circle DeepSeek in US$20 billion AI deal talks

Chinese tech giants Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group are reportedly in talks to invest in AI startup DeepSeek, as the company seeks fresh funding that could value it at more than US$20 billion, underscoring intensifying competition and rising capital demands in the global AI sector

Thursday 23 April 2026

Volkswagen outlines aggressive EV, AI and capacity reset ahead of Beijing show

Volkswagen's plan to launch 50 electric models by 2030 while cutting global production capacity signals major structural shifts for consumers, suppliers, and markets worldwide. The company is reallocating resources toward rapid localized development, AI-defined vehicles, and software moves that could reshape competition in China while forcing difficult trade-offs across Europe and other regions

Thursday 23 April 2026

Former Samsung Electronics researcher sentenced to 7-year prison term for leaking DRAM trade secrets

A former researcher at Samsung Electronics was sentenced to seven years in prison on April 22 by a South Korean court for leaking core semiconductor trade secrets to a Chinese competitor. The case highlights how chip-making technology is increasingly regarded by governments as a national security asset under strict protection

Thursday 23 April 2026

LG Display approves KRW1.1 trillion OLED infrastructure investment

LG Display approved an investment of KRW1.1 trillion (approx. US$740 million) to build OLED technology infrastructure. The move, running from April 22, 2026, to June 30, 2028, could affect global display supply chains, technology competition, and investment flows in advanced OLED development and will significantly broaden research partnerships worldwide

Thursday 23 April 2026

SK Hynix to shift over half of NAND output to 321-layer chips

SK Hynix said it plans to expand production of its latest 321-layer NAND chips, as demand for AI applications leads to increased adoption of high-capacity enterprise storage

Thursday 23 April 2026

Shenzhen launches China's first full-stack domestic 14,000P AI cluster

Shenzhen has brought online what project materials describe as China's first 14,000P, 10,000-card AI computing cluster built around a fully domestic technology stack, marking a new stage in the country's push to reduce reliance on foreign hardware and software in large-scale model training

Thursday 23 April 2026

SK Hynix flags persistent HBM shortage as demand outpaces supply

SK Hynix said demand for high-bandwidth memory is expected to outpace supply for several years, underscoring persistent constraints in the AI memory market even as the company ramps up investment

Thursday 23 April 2026

Supermicro GPU smuggling prompts Nvidia to intensify supply chain audit

Following the recent smuggling indictment involving Supermicro co-founder Wally Liaw and others, Nvidia has significantly upgraded its global supply chain monitoring practices in recent months, according to an industry source. Already maintaining high visibility over customer lists, Nvidia now enforces stricter controls on shipments and transshipment processes, prompting multiple suppliers to expand their legal teams to comply with the intensified audits

Thursday 23 April 2026

Samsung and SK Hynix race to upgrade China chip plants as NAND demand surges

As the artificial intelligence boom reshapes global computing demand, the memory chip industry is entering a new phase of strain and restructuring — one in which both DRAM and NAND flash are seeing rapidly tightening supply

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BIZ FOCUS

Feb 9, 08:00

iCatch and DXOMARK Establish Taiwan's First Next Generation Imaging Laboratory

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RESEARCH INSIGHTS

Weekly research roundup: Qualcomm's AI strategy, memory giants and updated 2026 smartphone outlook