Solidigm, SK Hynix's NAND subsidiary, is expanding its Taiwan production base for data center solid-state drives (SSDs), underscoring the island's growing role in the global AI server supply chain. The move could affect global SSD supply, customer sourcing, and partnerships across the fast-growing data center market.

Jedec released a new standard for silicon photonics (SiPh) testing and manufacturing controls to promote consistent reliability practices. The standard comes as SiPh experiences rapid growth due to its potential to replace copper interconnects amid AI infrastructure demand surges.

Qualcomm and Arm opened a five-day trial in US federal court in Delaware on October 5, with Qualcomm seeking to stop paying Arm royalties for up to five years, a remedy potentially worth billions of dollars. The dispute comes as Qualcomm pushes deeper into data centers, raising the stakes of a licensing relationship largely formed around the smartphone market.

Qualcomm has agreed to license patents related to Huawei's LogicFolding chipmaking technology as part of a broad multiyear patent agreement, expanding the companies' intellectual-property ties even as US export restrictions have largely ended Qualcomm's chip sales to the Chinese company.

Da Yi Cheng Technology (DYC) has rapidly expanded in recent years, benefiting from the global semiconductor capacity expansion wave, which has driven demand for second-phase electrical and mechanical installation work. The company is now applying its experience in the US, Japan, Germany, and Singapore.

Memory supply and demand will tighten further in 2027. According to supply chain sources, South Korean memory makers have recently quoted aggressive long-term contract prices for sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4). While HBM4 prices are expected to sit at around US$500-US$550 in 2026, quotes for 2027 could surge to US$1,400-US$1,600—representing a massive 1.8x to 1.9x price increase.

Despite intense technology competition between the US and China, cooperation between the two sides on the open-standard RISC-V architecture continues to deepen, with US intellectual property provider MIPS expanding its work with Chinese industry.

Taiwan memory suppliers Nanya Technology and Winbond Electronics have set new monthly revenue records for 11 and 10 consecutive months, respectively, as their September 2026 consolidated revenues continued to grow.

South Korean outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) provider LB Semicon is expanding power semiconductor backend capacity at its Gumi plant as it steps up efforts to reduce its reliance on display driver integrated circuits (DDIs) and a highly concentrated customer base, backed by new business from Qualcomm and Renesas and KRW30 billion (approx. US$22.3 million) in planned equipment investment.

Samsung Electronics has reportedly begun front-end wafer mass production of its next-generation Exynos 2700 mobile application processor, with production volume planned at more than 10% above that of the Exynos 2600 as the company prepares to expand use of its in-house chips across the Galaxy S27 lineup.

China's WG Tech has reportedly begun the second phase of investment in its through-glass via (TGV) glass substrate production line, with total future capacity projected to reach 1 million square meters a year. Analysts say Chinese makers have moved ahead of South Korean rivals by building production lines first, then accelerating product output and customer validation, giving China an early lead in glass substrate commercialization.