Entering 2026, the electronics supply chain is defined by strong demand, shifting trade policies, and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty. Customers increasingly seek supply assurance and smarter inventory strategies. For global leaders like NewPower Worldwide - one of the industrys fastest-growing independent distributors, powered by its advanced sourcing technology, EMPOWER, - adaptability is critical. NewPower Worldwide's experts weigh in on the trends that will shape the year ahead.What does NewPower Worldwide see as the greatest opportunity for distributors this year — and the biggest risk to growth?The greatest opportunity for distributors in 2026 lies in delivering value well beyond traditional pick？and？ship distribution. As customers look for supply chain assurance, inventory optimization, and cost efficiency, the distributors that pair creative, data？driven solutions with broad market coverage - rather than chasing a single hot sector - will lead.NewPower Worldwide is leaning into this by combining global reach, advanced analytics, and value？added services to help customers navigate complexity and unlock working？capital and continuity benefits across many different end markets.The biggest risk is twofold. First, there is the danger of overreliance on any one trend, particularly the rapidly expanding AI segment, where market corrections or consolidation could create temporary headwinds. Second, the more unpredictable threats - geopolitical shocks, wars, trade disputes, or OEM？specific disruptions like those seen recently with Nexperia - can reshape supply chains overnight and are largely outside any distributor's direct control.NewPower Worldwide mitigates these risks through a diversified customer and end？market portfolio and a suite of value？added services, from kitting and inventory management to surplus reduction, allowing rapid adjustment to shifting conditions while continuing to deliver stability and measurable results for customers.How would NewPower Worldwide describe its business outlook for 2026 — bullish, cautious, or uncertain — and what key factors are driving that sentiment?NewPower Worldwide's outlook for 2026 is bullish with measured optimism. The surge in AI and Artificial Intelligence–driven applications, especially high-performance computing, continues to fuel strong global demand for electronic components, supported by robust growth in cloud infrastructure, automotive electrification, and industrial automation.？At the same time, we remain mindful of macroeconomic volatility, geopolitical tensions, and emerging trade restrictions that could add to supply chain complexity. The key is balance - maintaining confidence in long-term AI and broader technology growth while staying adaptable to disruption. NewPower Worldwide's global network, real-time market intelligence, and customer-first execution give us the strength and agility to perform in both favorable and uncertain conditions, positioning us to capture the upside of AI and Artificial Intelligence–driven demand while actively managing risk.How are current or potential tariffs and trade shifts shaping NewPower Worldwide’s sourcing, pricing, or customer strategy heading into 2026?At NewPower Worldwide, agility and diversification continue to define our sourcing and customer strategy as we head into 2026. Global trade conditions remain fluid, with evolving tariffs and regional policy changes influencing pricing and supply dynamics, so we have focused on strengthening supplier relationships, diversifying our sourcing base, and maintaining a flexible structure that can adapt quickly to shifting trade landscapes.NewPower Worldwide's proprietary EMPOWER technology enhances this adaptability by providing real-time market intelligence, pricing visibility, and predictive analytics that help us anticipate changes before they impact our customers. EMPOWER plugs directly into our customers' operating systems, our suppliers' platforms, and the sophisticated systems used by our transportation and logistics providers, enabling fast, accurate data exchange and reducing errors. This deep integration, combined with real-time visibility into global routing options, allows us to navigate around tariffs, congestion, and other logistical challenges - often avoiding or significantly reducing their impact - while ensuring continuity of supply, pricing stability, and a consistently higher level of customer support across all markets.In NewPower Worldwide's view, what will separate successful distributors from the rest by 2030?By 2030, the line between franchised and independent distribution, which began to blur a decade ago, has effectively disappeared. Customers now control their own destinies and are taking, or about to take, significant measures to manage their supply chains as effectively as possible. The distributors who will succeed are those who evolve alongside their customers - providing measurable value through adaptability, transparency, and strategic partnership.At NewPower Worldwide, we are already embracing this new model by building long-term relationships founded on trust, leveraging EMPOWER for deep data intelligence, and offering global inventory programs that help our customers navigate uncertainty with confidence. Distributors that evolve with their customers to become true collaborators - anticipating needs, delivering customized solutions, and enhancing supply chain control - will define success and lead the distribution industry in the coming decade.For more information, visit  NewPower Worldwide official webiste or email. 

Attopsemi, a pioneering provider of innovative One-Time Programmable (OTP) IP solutions, today announced a significant technological leap: its proprietary I-fuse technology has achieved silicon validation on the 7nm FinFET process. Following the previous success on 12nm process, this latest milestone reinforces Attopsemi's technical agility in scaling its proprietary solutions alongside the cutting edge of semiconductors.Unlike conventional OTP solutions, I-fuse offers a comprehensive portfolio spanning multiple generations—from polysilicon to High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) and FinFET—without requiring additional mask layers or Boolean masking operations. This ensures seamless integration and high portability across a broad spectrum of process technologies.Attopsemi's revolutionary I-fuse is programmed below "thermal runaway." This allows electromigration (EM) to serve as the one and only one programming mechanism, ensuring high reliability guaranteed by fundamental physics. By utilizing metal as the fuse material, I-fuse benefits from the inherent scalability of Moore's Law: as metal width and height shrink, so do programming current and overall IP footprint. This scalability makes metal I-fuse stand out among other OTP technologies.The integration of I-fuse into advanced FinFET nodes enables a new generation of applications where small area, high reliability, low-power programming and low current read are critical. This OTP technology is poised to significantly impact the global semiconductor community, especially for AI and chiplets that need chips on very advanced nodes and from heterogeneous process technologies on the same package."Being able to scale I-fuse across FinFET nodes from 12nm to 7nm demonstrates I-fuse can be ported directly to 2nm GAA and beyond. The fundamental I-fuse programming mechanism for GAA is still the same, different MOS structures built by GAA are just to deliver currents." said Shine Chung, Chairman of Attopsemi.Attopsemi continues to make significant strides in providing high-performance, cost-effective OTP technologies. Its rapid growth and technical milestones demonstrate a ready-to-deploy solution now available across an expanding range of world-class foundries.

SK hynix Inc. (or "the company", www.skhynix.com) announced today that it has achieved record financial results in 2025 – 97.1467 trillion won in revenue, 47.2063 trillion won in operating profit (with an operating margin of 49%), and 42.9479 trillion won in net profit (with a net margin of 44%).The results significantly exceeded the previous record set in 2024. The annual revenue increased by more than 30 trillion won while the annual operating profit nearly doubled year-on-year, marking the highest annual performance in the company's history.Growth momentum accelerated further in the fourth quarter. In addition to HBM, demand on conventional memory solutions for servers increased sharply, to which SK hynix responded proactively. As a result, the company achieved record-high quarterly performance across all three indicators, with revenue rising 34% to 32.8267 trillion won, operating profit surging 68% to 19.1696 trillion won, and operating margin reaching 58% quarter-on-quarter.SK hynix emphasized that 2025 marked a year in which the company once again demonstrated its world-class technological leadership. In response to an AI-centric demand structure, the company secured both growth and profitability by enhancing technological competitiveness and expanding its portfolio of high value-added products.In the DRAM segment, HBM revenue more than doubled year-on-year, making a significant contribution to the company's record performance. Conventional DRAM entered full-scale mass production of 1cnm process, or the sixth-generation of the 10-nanometer technology. The company also solidified its leadership in server modules, with the development of the 256GB DDR5 RDIMM - a high capacity server module based on 32Gb fifth-generation 10nm-class (1b) DRAM.For the NAND business, despite sluggish demand in the first half, the company completed its development of 321-layer QLC products. SK hynix also achieved the highest annual revenue on record, responding to customer demand centered on eSSD in the second half.The company noted that as the AI market shifts from training to inference while demand for distributed architectures expands, the role of memory will become increasingly critical. Accordingly, not only demand for high-performance memory such as HBM is expected to grow continuously, but also for overall memory products including server DRAM and NAND as well.In response, SK hynix plans to further strengthen its proven quality, technological leadership and mass-production capabilities, based on the customer trust it has secured as the only industry player capable of stably supplying both HBM3E and HBM4 simultaneously. In particular, having successfully completed the preparation stages to mass produce HBM4 - for the first time in the industry - in September last year, the large-scale production of the next-generation HBM has been underway to meet customer requests, the company said.The company also sets to maintain its HBM4 leadership while strengthening customer and partner collaboration to supply optimized products in 'Custom HBM', which continues to gain traction as a key differentiator.For conventional DRAM, SK hynix intends to accelerate the transition to the 1cnm process, expanding its AI memory product portfolio to include solutions like SOCAMM2 and GDDR7. For NAND, the company plans to maximize product competitiveness by transitioning to 321-layer technology, while actively addressing AI data center storage demand by leveraging Solidigm's QLC eSSD.SK hynix stated that it will prioritize meeting customer demand amid supply-demand imbalances by reinforcing partnerships. To this end, the company plans to maximize production capacity of the M15X fab in Cheongju at an early stage. The company also intends to secure stable mid-to-long-term production capabilities through the construction of the first fab in the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster.The construction of the advanced packaging facilities in Cheongju and Indiana, the U.S., are also progressing smoothly. This enables the company to establish integrated global manufacturing capabilities spanning front-end and back-end processes, having able to respond flexibly to changes in customer demand.Meanwhile, backed by record-high financial performance, SK hynix announced a large-scale shareholder return program to enhance shareholder value.The company will deliver an additional dividend of 1 trillion won, equivalent to 1,500 won per share. Combined with the regular quarterly dividend of 375 won, the year-end dividend will total 1,875 won per share, bringing total dividends for FY2025 to 3,000 won per share, or 2.1 trillion won in aggregate.SK hynix also plans to cancel 15.3 million treasury shares (approximately 12.2 trillion won based on the closing price on the 27th) equivalent to 2.1% of total shares outstanding, signaling a long-term commitment to enhance per-share value and shareholder returns.Song Hyun Jong, President and Head of Corporate Center, said that SK hynix will continue to generate sustainable performance growth while maintaining the optimal balance between future investment, financial stability and shareholder returns, based on the company's technological edge. "We will strengthen our role not merely as a product supplier, but as a core infrastructure partner in the AI era, enabling customers to meet their AI performance requirements."4Q25 Financial Results (K-IFRS). Credit: SK hynixFY2025 Financial Results (K-IFRS).Credit: SK hynix