Mitsui has concluded a strategic business partnership agreement with Kaynes Semicon Private Limited, an OSAT (semiconductor back-end process) company in India, and AOI Electronics, the largest Japanese OSAT company. The agreement aims to support the start-up and operation of Kaynes' OSAT business and to facilitate sales of products manufactured by Kaynes.

Despite holding a dominant position in the memory chip industry, South Korea's system semiconductor ecosystem remains underdeveloped, with the country's IC design market share at only about 2%. Kyung-ho Kim, the newly appointed chairman of the Korea Fabless Industry Association (KFIA), has outlined plans to build a design ecosystem closely tied to actual market demand and to strengthen collaboration with domestic foundries.

Geopolitical strains between China and Japan have intensified following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks on "Taiwan contingencies," impacting Japanese firms' access to high-purity tungsten powder. Although companies maintain inventories, urgent material needs from advanced semiconductor process gases and PCB drill bits face price pressure, prompting some major PCB drill manufacturers to consider price hikes.

Global semiconductor companies are discussing relaxing thickness standards for next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) as the industry moves toward higher stack counts in future designs, according to ZDNet Korea.

The global space communication industry is expanding as the commercialization of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites accelerates, with upstream printed circuit board (PCB) suppliers like Compeq Manufacturing Co. and Unitech Printed Circuit Board Corp. expected to reach peak shipments in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The White House is reportedly drafting a new regulatory framework that would tighten US oversight of global AI chip exports. This move could reshape how advanced computing power is distributed worldwide.

As the industry makes strides toward physical AI, Advantech is asserting its role as not only a hardware provider but as a vital architectural bridge between global silicon giants and the realities of the manufacturing floor. During the Automation World (AW) 2026 expo in Seoul, Advantech outlined its vision to stabilize what it describes as "a bit of chaos."

The rapid expansion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) is driving a new phase of transformation in data center memory architecture, according to Micron Technology.

RF front-end supplier RichWave reported at an investor briefing on March 6 that steady demand for Wi-Fi 7 coincided with a slight sequential revenue decline in the fourth quarter of 2025 and modest gross margin improvement driven by product mix shifts.

Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of March 2 - March 8, 2026.