The Trump administration has staked much of its AI credibility on Stargate — a US$500 billion infrastructure push announced alongside Sam Altman and Masayoshi Son. The project was meant to anchor a new era of American dominance in AI. More than a year on, it has yet to move beyond rhetoric
Competition in the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market is intensifying, prompting equipment makers such as Hanwha Semitech and Semes to accelerate development of hybrid bonding tools for HBM production. These newer entrants aim to challenge the thermal compression bonding (TCB) equipment segment dominated by Hanmi Semiconductor. Industry observers, however, say significant technical and cost barriers remain before hybrid bonding can be adopted at scale
Rising geopolitical tensions and surging demand for AI applications are reshaping the global printed circuit board (PCB) industry. The Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) notes that major economies, including China, Japan, South Korea, and the US, are following distinct development paths as AI-driven supply chain restructuring accelerates
On June 6, 2025, US President Donald Trump signed two executive orders—"Unleashing American Drone Dominance" and "Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty"—mandating that the US drone industry exclude technology, parts, and materials from controlled countries (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea). The orders encourage adopting allied technologies to build an autonomous, resilient domestic ecosystem supporting the low-altitude economy and critical defense needs
A new trend is emerging in the AI infrastructure race. After MediaTek invested in US silicon photonics start-up Ayar Labs, Nvidia followed with US$2 billion investments in optical communications suppliers Lumentum and Coherent, signalling stronger momentum behind optical interconnect technologies for AI data centers
During German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit to China, the most closely watched stop was Hangzhou-based Unitree Robotics. Footage showed Merz standing with arms crossed, nodding and reacting with visible surprise to a humanoid robot's martial arts demonstration
Broadcom has begun shipping the industry's first 2nm custom compute SoC built on its 3.5D eXtreme Dimension System in Package (XDSiP) platform to Japan's Fujitsu, marking a concrete step from roadmap promise to commercial deployment in the AI infrastructure race
Germany's automotive giants—Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi (collectively known as BBA)—have engaged in aggressive price cuts in China's auto market, sparking fierce competition that has extended from electric vehicles (EVs) to internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. This price war threatens the long-standing asset value preservation moat these German luxury brands have built over 30 years
As data center computing demand expands, high-speed transmission architectures are under pressure to upgrade. Scaling high-performance computing platforms is exposing bandwidth and power consumption as core bottlenecks in data transmission and switching, elevating the role of optical interconnects and silicon photonics (SiPh). With support from AI chip leader Nvidia, the notion of optics gradually replacing copper has moved to the center of industry debate
With Northvolt, Cellforce, and ACC all defunct, Europe's battery ambitions have collided with a brutal market reality: Chinese manufacturers now own nearly 70% of global lithium battery installations, led by CATL's commanding 39.2% share. The numbers make clear this isn't a run of bad luck; it's a structural problem
The memory market is no longer just a component story — it is becoming a fault line running through the entire tech industry. As AI infrastructure buildout accelerates, cloud and data-center operators are consuming DRAM and NAND at a pace that is crowding out smartphone makers, distorting foundry economics, and forcing chipmakers to rethink how they secure supply. The consequences are rippling from factory floors in Asia to boardrooms in Silicon Valley
Samsung Electronics and Intel have alternated for years as the world's largest semiconductor company. From 2011 to 2023, Samsung and Intel each claimed the top spot four and nine times, respectively. However, following the rise of generative AI, the world's largest semiconductor company in 2024 and 2025 shifted to Nvidia
When chipmakers spend big, it is usually the machines that cost the most. Process equipment — the lithography tools, deposition systems, and etch chambers that define the bleeding edge of semiconductor manufacturing — has historically commanded the largest share of TSMC's capital budget. Facilities and civil construction matter, but they have rarely led the bill. That conventional wisdom is now being tested
A proposed US tariff and duty-exemption framework could force Korean memory suppliers to accelerate US fab investments or risk losing AI server market share, according to DIGITIMES analyst Luke Lin, speaking on a DIGITIMES podcast
CCTV's 2026 Spring Festival Gala was the most robot-saturated edition in its history, turning a national broadcast into a showroom for China's humanoid and quadruped industry. Four robotics companies appeared across martial arts, comedy skits, and a holiday short film, in a coordinated push to convert visibility into orders and IPO momentum
TSMC's decision to upgrade its second Kumamoto fab to 3nm reflects long-term customer demand and supply chain strategy rather than competitive pressure from Rapidus, according to Luke Lin, speaking on a DIGITIMES podcast
