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Wednesday 8 July 2026
China's AI labs race to build custom AI chips while ASICs threaten Nvidia's dominance
China's leading AI model developers are moving deeper into custom chip design, a shift that could reshape the country's AI hardware market as inference demand rises, US export controls tighten access to Nvidia GPUs, and Huawei's domestic alternatives face capacity and software constraints.
Wednesday 8 July 2026
Meituan open-sources LongCat-2.0 as China's domestic AI stack gains momentum

Meituan has open-sourced LongCat-2.0, a trillion-parameter AI model trained and deployed entirely on Chinese computing infrastructure, turning the once-anonymous Owl Alpha into a key test of China's domestic AI model and chip ecosystem.

Wednesday 8 July 2026
Foxsemicon June, 1H26 revenue hits record on AI orders
Foxsemicon Integrated Technology (FITI) posted record consolidated revenue of NT$2.451 billion (US$76.3 million) in June 2026, up 24.22% from May and 39.75% year-over-year. First-half 2026 consolidated revenue reached NT$11.855 billion, up 17.7% year-over-year and also a record for the period, underscoring steady growth momentum.
Tuesday 7 July 2026
US ruling confirms Innoscience infringed Infineon's GaN patents, imposes import ban

The US International Trade Commission's final determination against Innoscience has been upheld following the conclusion of the Presidential Review Period, confirming that the Chinese GaN chipmaker infringed a patent held by Germany's Infineon Technologies.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
Exec pleads no guilty in Singapore over alleged smuggling of Nvidia chips to China

Alan Wei Zhaolun, an executive at Aperia Group, pleaded not guilty in a fraud case alleging that he and three others illegally misrepresented themselves to obtain servers containing Nvidia chips before rerouting them to China. He has been accused by Singaporean prosecutors of money laundering and other charges, as Singapore emerges as a hub for illicit AI chip flows to China.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
LGES posts higher second-quarter sales, supported by US production credits
LG Energy Solution (LGES) reported stronger second-quarter sales and a swing back to operating profit, a result that could matter for global investors tracking how policy incentives are shaping vehicle manufacturing profits. The company said US production credits boosted its results, while underlying operating performance would have been weaker without those subsidies.
Tuesday 7 July 2026
Exclusive: Soaring lithium prices and China's mass production ignite a global sodium battery race

A more than 3x rise in China's lithium carbonate price over the past year has pushed sodium-ion batteries back into the spotlight, with the technology increasingly seen as a potential mainstream alternative to lithium batteries. But US industry players say sodium batteries made in the US still cost more than lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, and subsidies from federal and local governments have yet to create a viable market in the near term.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
LGES targets humanoid robot battery boom as Tesla Optimus supply looms

LG Energy Solution (LGES) is emerging as a key battery supplier for humanoid robots, as demand for high-performance batteries shifts from electric vehicles to physical AI systems with tighter space, weight and runtime requirements.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
CATL's profit surge widens China's battery lead over global rivals

China's battery industry is widening its lead at home and abroad. Market leader CATL posted record profits while expanding its dominance in overseas electric vehicle (EV) markets. The results underscore the growing imbalance between battery suppliers and automakers.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
World models can lift South Korea in self-driving tech
The global autonomous-driving industry is locked in fierce competition around end-to-end (E2E) self-driving technology, but a world model that can reason through unknown scenarios is the real key to physical AI autonomy, according to an automotive tech researcher in South Korea.
Tuesday 7 July 2026
Samsung, SK Hynix reportedly seek China-free chip tool buffer against US controls
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are reportedly accelerating efforts to reduce China's role in their semiconductor supply chains in preparation for the possibility of tighter US export controls. The two companies are said to be restructuring their sourcing of materials, components, and manufacturing equipment that rely heavily on China, while gradually replacing some Chinese-made semiconductor tools with alternatives from South Korea, the US, and other countries.
Tuesday 7 July 2026
Huawei's Mate 90 to debut Kirin 2026 processor built on Tau Law

Huawei's next-generation flagship Mate 90 smartphone series has reportedly entered the chip packaging and testing stage, according to sources within China's supply chain. The lineup is expected to launch in September 2026 and will be the first to feature Huawei's new Kirin 2026 flagship processor, which is based on the company's Tau Scaling (τ) concept. The device is expected to be one of Huawei's flagship demonstrations of its post-Moore semiconductor strategy.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
AI's bottleneck has shifted from chips to infrastructure — China plans it centrally, US fights it out locally

The cancellation of Blackstone-owned QTS' planned Digital Gateway data center project in Virginia underscores a new challenge for the artificial intelligence industry: securing enough land, power, and community support may now matter as much as securing enough AI chips.

Tuesday 7 July 2026
Fulltech's Thailand plant targets AI and satellite demand
Fulltech held the groundbreaking ceremony for phase one of its new Thailand plant on July 5, 2026, with chairman Yuan-Pin Chang saying the project will require about NT$3.1 billion (approx. US$96.8 million) in total investment and that production capacity has already been fully booked by customers. The plant is scheduled to begin mass production in the third quarter of 2027.
Tuesday 7 July 2026
SK data center bet sets sights on intelligence exports

South Korea is moving to position itself as an exporter of "intelligence" rather than just the chips and equipment that go into building it, with SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won outlining an AI data center plan expected to involve more than KRW1,000 trillion (approx. US$652.7 billion) in investment, according to Hankyung.