Semiconductor and printed circuit board (PCB) equipment maker C Sun announced plans to invest approximately NT$1.48 billion (US$46.87 million) to acquire a nearly 3,000-ping (106,750 square feet) production site in Nantun, Taichung, Taiwan. The expansion is intended to support the development of next-generation process equipment for artificial intelligence (AI) advanced packaging without disrupting existing plant operations in Taichung.
NXP Semiconductors reported a sequential recovery across most end markets in its fourth-quarter results, yet its core automotive business grew more slowly than anticipated. This performance highlights an uneven semiconductor rebound, where strength in the mobile and industrial sectors must offset persistent instability in the vital automotive segment.
OpenAI has been exploring alternatives to some of Nvidia's latest artificial intelligence chips, particularly for AI inference workloads. This exemplifies the intensifying competition in the inference segment of the AI chip market and has raised investor concerns about Nvidia's long-term dominance, even as both companies publicly stress the strength of their partnership.
Geopolitical tensions between the Netherlands and China led to Nexperia halting shipments at the end of 2025, raising concerns over potential disruptions in the automotive semiconductor supply chain and affecting multiple global carmakers. To meet customer demand for a "non-China supply chain," the company is reportedly planning to expand its packaging and testing capacity in Malaysia. The move aims to reduce reliance on its current "European wafer, China packaging" model and prevent future shipment interruptions.
Rising prices are no longer limited to upstream materials and PCBs; surging memory costs have further pushed up supply chain expenses, prompting synchronized responses across wafer foundries, OSAT providers, and IC design houses to reflect cost and supply-demand changes. Multiple Taiwanese and Chinese IC design companies have clearly initiated price increase mechanisms. Realtek passed on a 10% price increase for products with embedded memory as of January 1, 2026, and will raise prices again two months later, on March 1, by an average of more than 30%.
Alchip, Global Unichip (GUC), and Faraday each hold unique strengths as leading ASIC design service providers. Benefiting from major US cloud service providers' (CSPs) push for in-house chip development, their long-term operations are highly anticipated. Among them, Alchip focuses on high-end AI and sub-5nm advanced processes for US customers; GUC primarily serves TSMC-related projects; while Faraday targets mature to advanced process nodes in artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) and industrial control sectors.
Competition in the smart glasses market is heating up, with startups launching new products in rapid succession and major consumer electronics brands preparing to enter the space.
German state governments are stepping up efforts to secure new semiconductor partners in South Korea after Intel shelved plans to build fabs in Europe, leaving gaps in the region's advanced chip supply chain, according to Korean industry reporting by The Guru.
As global competition in semiconductor technology intensifies and protectionist trends tied to national strategy gain momentum, South Korea's industry is emphasizing the need to localize critical equipment. With chipmakers fully reliant on ASML of the Netherlands for extreme ultraviolet lithography tools, industry participants say South Korea must invest in X-ray lithography, a technology still at an early stage of development, to secure long-term competitiveness and reduce dependence on a single supplier.
Japanese materials maker Sumitomo Bakelite has announced plans to acquire the materials business of Japanese electronic components company Kyocera. Industry observers say the companies' product lines are highly complementary, positioning the deal to deliver stronger synergies. Leveraging Kyocera's strengths in discrete and power products in China is expected to support Sumitomo Bakelite's global market expansion.
Before Intel released its latest earnings report, market sentiment was unusually upbeat. In a DIGITIMES podcast program, DIGITIMES analyst Luke Lin noted that expectations were buoyed by anticipated US government investment, a phenomenon some investors dubbed the "Trump advisory" effect, which helped push Intel's share price to peak levels.
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