SK hynix Inc. (or "the company", www.skhynix.com) announced today the launch of its corporate venture capital (CVC) brand, "SK hynix Ventures," aimed at expanding strategic partnerships within the global AI ecosystem and securing future innovative technologies.To mark the occasion, SK hynix held the inaugural "SK hynix Ventures Day" in Silicon Valley, where executives shared investment strategies with global venture capitalists and startup representatives while discussing future technological cooperation to respond to shifts in the AI industry.The event was attended by CEO Kwak Noh-Jung and key executive leadership, alongside representatives from global VC firms and executives from leading startups.Expanding Beyond Tech Sensing to Become a Strategic Partner in the AI EcosystemSince 2015, SK hynix has operated a CVC organization, pursuing both direct investments and indirect investments via fund commitments in promising early-stage startups within the semiconductor and emerging tech sectors. By investing in enterprises across key regions including the U.S., China, Israel, and Japan, the company has achieved returns exceeding twice its cumulative investment to date. Furthermore, it has accumulated a track record of discovering new supply chains and customers by pursuing technological collaborations—such as joint equipment development and Proof of Concept (PoC)—with portfolio companies.While past CVC activities focused primarily on "Tech Sensing" to explore future technology trends and "Path Finding" to discover new business opportunities, the company now plans to expand its CVC scope. Driven by recent advancements in AI technology and industry expansion, the role will evolve from simply discovering promising companies to leading collaborative innovation across the entire ecosystem.Discussing Cooperation in AI Computing, Data Centers, and Optical InterconnectThrough SK hynix Ventures, the company plans to broaden its investment scope from traditional semiconductors and emerging tech to the broader AI ecosystem. SK hynix aims to discover technologies and companies with high growth potential in core AI industry sectors—including AI computing, data centers, system software, and optical interconnect—and continually expand its CVC investments.Meanwhile, the event was attended by promising startups in the U.S. AI computing and data center technology sectors. These companies shared perspectives on future technological innovations, discussing the growing importance of computing, memory, and system software innovations driven by advanced AI models, alongside the performance and power efficiency of optical-based systems for AI data centers."Competitiveness in the AI era stems not just from rapidly securing innovative technologies, but from ecosystem capabilities where customers, partners, and startups create new value together," said Kwak Noh-Jung, CEO of SK hynix. "Through SK hynix Ventures, we will support the growth of promising companies and grow into a global partner that jointly designs the future of AI infrastructure based on strategic investments and technological cooperation."Credit: SK hynixCredit: SK hynix

As AI continues to accelerate demand for high-speed optical connectivity, technologies such as silicon photonics, CPO, LPO, NPO and OCS are moving rapidly toward commercial deployment. The next challenge is turning these technologies into scalable, high-yield production.At SEMICON Taiwan 2026, September 2–4 in Taipei, ficonTEC will showcase its intelligent automation solutions at Booth R8124, highlighting how precision automation, assembly and testing can help photonics companies move from advanced technologies to volume production.From assembly and test to intelligent manufacturingAs photonic devices become more complex and volumes increase, manufacturing requires greater precision, repeatability and throughput. ficonTEC's solutions address key stages of the process, including automated assembly, active alignment, fiber preparation and electro-optical testing, with a focus on connecting these capabilities into scalable production environments.The company's presence at SEMICON Taiwan will focus on a key industry question: How can photonics scale at the speed required by AI?The topic will also be explored during the Silicon Photonics Global Summit, held alongside SEMICON Taiwan.ficonTEC's André Lalonde will present "AI Is Scaling Faster Than Test – Rethinking Wafer, Chip and Module Test for the Photonics Era," addressing the evolving requirements for wafer-,chip-and module-level testing.On September 3, Moritz Seyfried will present "Intelligent Manufacturing for AI at Scale," examining how manufacturing intelligence can support the growing production requirements of AI-driven photonics.Together, the exhibition and presentations highlight ficonTEC's focus on connecting assembly, test and manufacturing intelligence to help the photonics industry transition from engineering development to high-volume production.As AI infrastructure continues to scale, the ability to manufacture photonic technologies with the required precision, yield and throughput will become increasingly important.AI is scaling fast. Photonics must scale with it.

As AI-driven high-performance computing (HPC) and chip-to-chip optical interconnects continue to see rapid growth, Hauman Technologies, a leader in test and measurement solutions, has introduced a breakthrough GHz-class, massively parallel bandwidth testing technology in collaboration with AUO Corporation. Designed to address testing efficiency and throughput bottlenecks for next-generation optical communication light sources, the technology made its official debut at SEMICON Taiwan on September 2.Overcoming Mass-Production Bottlenecks with Parallel High-Speed Testing For years, high-frequency characterization of Micro LED chips has relied on time-consuming, die-by-die measurement procedures. While these methods are well suited to detailed device characterization, their limited throughput presents a major challenge for industrial-scale production and broader commercial adoption.Hauman's newly unveiled Micro LED response-time measurement technology addresses this challenge by enabling simultaneous, parallel high-speed testing across multiple dies. With temporal resolution down to 20 picoseconds (ps), the technology captures the transient optical response of individual light sources at different time intervals, enabling key bandwidth-related parameters to be derived without conventional dynamic scanning.By shifting high-speed characterization from sequential measurement toward parallel acquisition, Hauman aims to bring die-level high-speed screening closer to the throughput requirements of semiconductor manufacturing. Advancing Optical Interconnect Testing in Collaboration with AUOThe collaboration combines Hauman's 20-picosecond temporal resolution and high-throughput parallel measurement capabilities with AUO's expertise in optoelectronic integration, Micro LED mass transfer, and low-power optical engines.Together, the companies are working to optimize Known Good Die (KGD) screening for optical communication devices, supporting next-generation AI data centers and "wide-and-slow" optical interconnect architectures."Our latest technology represents a major step forward in high-frequency testing throughput and the viability of production-scale deployment," said Ying-Chu Lin, Vice President of Hauman's Semiconductor Business Division. By enabling parallel measurement across multiple dies while maintaining die-level visibility, we aim to bring high-speed optical characterization closer to the requirements of semiconductor manufacturing.We look forward to working with semiconductor, optoelectronic device, and packaging and testing industry partners to further advance high-throughput optical measurement for next-generation optical interconnects. For more information, please visit Hauman Technologies. Credit: Hauman Technologies