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Monday 24 August 2026
Shanghai accepts YMTC's STAR Market listing application
China's largest NAND flash maker is moving toward a major Shanghai listing, but global investors will be watching more than the size of the deal. YMTC's IPO comes as chip demand rises, US export controls bite, and memory markets remain highly cyclical, raising questions about whether its rapid profit surge can last.
Monday 24 August 2026
Alibaba plans HKD80 billion share placement to fund AI expansion
Alibaba Group Holding said it plans to raise HKD80 billion (US$10.2 billion) through the placement of newly issued shares to non-US investors outside the US, a move that could bolster its artificial intelligence ambitions and shape competition in global cloud and AI markets. The company said the proceeds would be used entirely to expand its AI capabilities and infrastructure.
Monday 24 August 2026
AI chip boom lifts South Korean semiconductor materials makers' profits in 2Q26
The AI semiconductor investment boom is increasingly spilling over into the materials supply chain. South Korea's major semiconductor materials suppliers broadly improved profitability in the second quarter of 2026, as stronger demand for advanced materials drove sharp operating profit growth. With customers expected to expand capacity from 2027 onward, the sector could see another wave of revenue growth.
Monday 24 August 2026
Xiaomi unveils second-generation humanoid robot at Beijing conference

Xiaomi unveiled its second-generation humanoid robot at the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing, where the machine made its first public appearance and performed gestures for attendees. The demonstration highlighted the company's latest push into humanoid robotics, with the robot able to follow live commands and recognize scenes through a large model.

Monday 24 August 2026
Galbot's fast rise marks new wave in China's humanoid robot race
Beyond established players such as Unitree Robotics, AgiBot and UBTech Robotics, a new wave of challengers is emerging quickly in China's humanoid robot sector. Among them is Galbot, which, despite being only three years old, closed a CNY2.5 billion (approx. US$350 million) funding round in March 2026 that lifted its post-money valuation above CNY20 billion. It is also the only embodied AI company that investor CATL has backed twice, and has vaulted into the first tier of China's humanoid robot makers.
Saturday 22 August 2026
Automation Taipei 2026: If AI is advancing so fast, why is the factory floor still so hard to automate?
For all the extraordinary progress made by artificial intelligence, the physical world remains stubbornly difficult to automate.
Saturday 22 August 2026
Column: Lessons in supply chain resilience from China Huadian's power-compute coordination model
As AI develops rapidly, data centers are driving equally rapid growth in electricity demand. The stability of future energy supplies will directly determine whether AI computing capacity can continue to expand.
Friday 21 August 2026
China chip equipment maker Piotech posts 1,324% profit surge, advanced deposition scales up
Piotech Inc. reported a sharp rise in first-half 2026 earnings, helped by stronger demand for semiconductor deposition equipment, wider adoption of new process tools and improving economies of scale.
Friday 21 August 2026
Ubtech expands humanoid push as Nvidia executives quietly visit WRC booth

As the first publicly listed humanoid robot company, Ubtech Robotics is often referred to in China as the sector's "first humanoid robot stock." At the 2026 World Robot Conference (WRC) in Beijing, the company found itself sharing the spotlight with recently listed Unitree Robotics, as both showcased their latest humanoid platforms.

Friday 21 August 2026
Cambricon advances sixth-gen AI silicon, broadens support for DeepSeek, Qwen and GLM
Cambricon Technologies chairman and president Chen Tian-shi said the company's sixth-generation AI processor and instruction set remain under development, with the next-generation platform targeting large-model training and inference while improving programmability, ease of use, performance, power efficiency and chip area.
Friday 21 August 2026
Huawei, China power giant Huaneng explore AI compute-power coordination
China Huaneng Group said on August 20 that chairman Wen Shugang and president Zhong Guodong recently visited Huawei in Shenzhen, where they met Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei to discuss potential cooperation in artificial intelligence, computing power and "compute-power coordination."
Friday 21 August 2026
Lee Jae-myung meets SK chief Chey Tae-won with US chip investment pressure in focus
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has begun a fresh round of talks with the country's leading business figures, starting with a private dinner with SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, at a time when semiconductor investment, artificial intelligence and US demands for more local manufacturing are becoming increasingly intertwined.
Friday 21 August 2026
Xiaomi's Xring O3 nears launch on TSMC N3P, testing its in-house chip strategy
Xiaomi is preparing to take its in-house smartphone silicon further upmarket, with founder and chairman Lei Jun confirming that a new generation of its Xring chip is on the way. Supply-chain sources say the chip has already returned from fabrication, completed initial power-on testing and moved into the device integration stage.
Friday 21 August 2026
JCET profit surges 79% on AI demand, with advanced packaging and CPO gaining scale

JCET Group reported record first-half revenue for 2026, with demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure and high-performance computing lifting capacity utilization and accelerating the shift toward higher-value advanced packaging.

Friday 21 August 2026
SK Hynix weighs Japan memory fab in Miyagi, but says no investment is final
SK hynix is considering a large-scale memory semiconductor investment in Japan, with Miyagi Prefecture emerging as a potential site, although the company has stressed that no decision has been finalized.