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May 4
Commentary: Intel names TSMC as key partner; insider drives its comeback

One year into his tenure, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan struck a markedly different tone on the company's outlook. At the first-quarter 2026 earnings call, he said the debate a year ago centred on whether Intel could survive. Today, the focus has shifted to how quickly it can expand capacity and scale its supply chain to meet surging demand.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the company's in-house AI5 chip has completed design tape-out and entered a critical pre-production validation stage. The move has drawn renewed attention from supply chains in Taiwan and South Korea as Tesla builds a scalable computing infrastructure for vehicles, AI training systems, and humanoid robots.
As AI shifts from training to inference and from single-task use to multi-agent collaboration, South Korea's semiconductor industry is seeking to recast the market around memory rather than GPUs. South Korean academia and industry figures say the AI era will be defined by memory architectures, with the country aiming to build its own framework and challenge an order long dominated by Nvidia.
Ardentec's Longtan plant is set to begin taking AI ASIC wafer-probing orders in the third quarter of 2026, as the semiconductor testing provider moves to capture spillover demand from foundry strategic partners.
Google's TPU push hits Nvidia's neocloud grip
May 5, 14:41

Google's effort to expand its tensor processing units (TPU) beyond its own cloud is meeting resistance from some of the AI infrastructure companies best positioned to distribute alternative chips, with executives from Nebius, Lambda, and CoreWeave saying they do not plan to adopt TPUs anytime soon, according to The Information.

The PCB industry is entering a new phase of transformation in the AI era, as rising demand for high-frequency and high-speed applications accelerates upgrades in upstream copper-clad laminate (CCL) materials. Among the beneficiaries is impregnation equipment maker Asia Metal Industries (AMI).

Intel has announced that it has appointed Alex Katouzian as head of its Client Computing and Physical AI Division. With this hire, Intel seeks to align its consumer PC business with physical AI applications spanning robotics and AI -enabled devices.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company's share of China's data-center computing market has dropped to zero. The admission underscores how US export controls are reshaping the country's AI chip sector — and how urgently Beijing is moving to localize its semiconductor supply chain, from processors to silicon wafers.
The global semiconductor industry is entering a "multi-trillion-dollar" growth cycle sooner than expected, SEMI President and CEO Ajit Manocha said, urging Southeast Asian countries to strengthen cooperation to address talent, energy, and geopolitical challenges. Manocha predicted rapid revenue expansion driven by AI, IoT, and quantum demand.
Apple is exploring a significant shift in its semiconductor supply chain, holding early discussions with Intel and Samsung Electronics to produce the main processors used in its devices, according to Bloomberg. The move would mark a potential diversification away from its long-standing reliance on TSMC, Apple's exclusive partner for more than a decade.
Nanya Technology reported consolidated revenue of NT$25.49 billion (approx. US$805.3 million) for April 2026, surging 717.33% from NT$3.12 billion a year earlier and 40.29% from March, setting a record high as memory contract prices continue to rise.
Machvision sales hit a record high on strengthening AOI demand
May 5, 10:33
Machvision reported consolidated revenue of about NT$343 million (US$10.84 million) for April 2026, up 1.4% from the previous month and 3.75% from a year earlier, marking another monthly high.