As tensions between China and Japan escalate over export controls on rare earths and semiconductor materials, China is accelerating efforts to build domestic production capacity—even as Japanese firms continue to dominate the global photoresist market.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have been investing tens of trillions of won each year to expand memory production as the global market moves into a new upcycle. That spending now faces fresh pressure from the US semiconductor tariff policy, complicating long-term investment planning at the two companies.

Eric Demers, a veteran GPU architect who until recently served as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm and led its GPU business, is leaving the company to join Intel, according to a disclosure he made on LinkedIn.

PCB maker Tripod Technology said full-year 2025 revenue reached a record high, and it expects stable momentum heading into 2026 despite ongoing inventory adjustments among automotive customers. Strong demand from server and memory module applications is driving a steady increase in utilization rates, allowing first-quarter operations to defy traditional seasonality and remain in line with the previous quarter's revenue level.

As next-generation AI server platforms enter volume deployment, supply chain constraints are extending beyond high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Bottlenecks are increasingly emerging in printed circuit boards (PCBs) and critical upstream materials, according to DIGITIMES analysis.