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Friday 6 November 2026
Commentary: Marvell's Lumentum deal holds a lesson for smartphone makers on supply chain integration
Marvell announced on November 2 that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Lumentum Holdings in an all-stock transaction valued at nearly US$115 billion. Subject to regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2028.
Thursday 5 November 2026
EU launches EUR525 million push to close chip design gap
The European Union has launched a EUR525 million (approx. US$590 million) initiative to strengthen its semiconductor design industry, seeking to narrow the gap with the US and China while generating demand for chip manufacturing facilities in Europe.
Thursday 5 November 2026
Cirrus Logic rides iPhone content wave, but backend squeeze, PC slump cloud the path ahead
Cirrus Logic reported revenue of US$559.5 million for its fiscal second quarter ended September 26, up 22% sequentially and roughly flat year-on-year. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at US$2.70, with gross margin reaching 53.8% — a recent high point that the company signaled will not hold.
Thursday 5 November 2026
US pressure on overseas AI compute squeezes Chinese tenants and Southeast Asian data centers as Beijing pushes domestic chips
Chinese AI developers are losing a key route to advanced US chips, renting them in data centers outside China, as Washington and US companies stretch American controls over compute well beyond US borders. The squeeze falls heavily on Southeast Asian data center operators that built capacity around Chinese demand. Beijing, meanwhile, is pressing its own tech giants to rely less on American hardware.
Thursday 5 November 2026
Arm reports record fiscal 2Q27 revenue on licensing momentum and AGI CPU demand
Arm delivered a record-breaking second quarter for fiscal year 2027, reporting total revenue of US$1.44 billion, up 27% year-over-year. This milestone marks the company's fifth straight quarter of growth exceeding 20%, driven by massive acceleration in its licensing business and strong demand for its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
Thursday 5 November 2026
Anthropic's Claude reportedly cuts custom chip design timelines with a 15-person team
Anthropic has reportedly told investors that its chip design team, comprising just 15 people, is using its Claude models to design custom chips. It and another frontier lab, OpenAI, are beginning to probe the AI-assisted chip design market as a new business area, even as they seek to produce their own silicon.
Thursday 5 November 2026
GlobalFoundries secures nearly US$1 billion in custom chip design wins as it expands into physical AI

GlobalFoundries is gaining traction in custom silicon, processor intellectual property (IP) and physical AI applications, as the chipmaker seeks to expand its role beyond wafer manufacturing and capture more value from customer chip development. The company secured custom silicon design wins representing nearly US$1 billion in lifetime revenue during the third quarter, CEO Tim Breen said on its November 4, 2026, earnings call.

Thursday 5 November 2026
Qualcomm wins Starlink Mobile infrastructure deal as SpaceX advances terrestrial network
Qualcomm has secured a role in SpaceX's planned US terrestrial mobile network, turning Starlink Mobile's ambitions for integrated satellite and ground-based connectivity into a named infrastructure deployment. Announced November 4, the multi-year agreement calls for rollout to begin in 2027, with tens of thousands of sites planned over the life of the deal.
Thursday 5 November 2026
Qualcomm's September-quarter revenue falls 8% as handset slump outweighs automotive gains
Qualcomm's fiscal fourth quarter showed a company whose growth now comes almost entirely from outside the smartphone, but not yet at a scale that can offset a shrinking handset business. Revenue fell 8% from a year earlier to US$10.3 billion for the three months ended September 27, according to the company's November 4 earnings release, as a memory-driven downturn in phone demand weighed on its largest product line while automotive chips grew sharply.
Thursday 5 November 2026
Arm's quarterly revenue rises 27% as licensing outpaces smartphone-weighed royalties
Arm's September quarter showed demand for its technology moving toward data centers while its smartphone royalty base slowed. Revenue rose 27% from a year earlier to a record US$1.44 billion for the fiscal second quarter ended September 30, according to the company's November 4 shareholder letter. Still, the gain came mostly from licensing deals rather than from the per-chip royalties that make up Arm's recurring income.
Thursday 5 November 2026
Airoha targets multibillion growth as 100G ramps, 200G tapes out
Airoha, a MediaTek subsidiary, expects its optical communications business to deliver another multiple-fold increase in 2027 as 100G pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM4) digital signal processor (DSP) shipments ramp and its 200G product targets tape-out by the end of the year. The company also reported record quarterly revenue and profit in the third quarter of 2026, driven by its wired networking infrastructure and wireless edge AI businesses.
Thursday 5 November 2026
Empyrean's EDA acquisitions could give Korean chip designers cheaper tools—and stronger Chinese rivals
China's efforts to build a complete domestic chip-design software stack are gathering pace through acquisitions and strategic investments. Empyrean Technology's latest transactions target gaps in verification, placement and routing, and logic optimisation, strengthening its challenge to established electronic design automation (EDA) suppliers.
Thursday 5 November 2026
AI chips need 1.5 years to move beyond cloud: HCLTech
HCLTech said AI chips will need about 1.5 years to move into mass adoption beyond cloud infrastructure, as the industry develops integrated semiconductor platforms to support large-scale AI deployment. The company made the remarks in a white paper released with Omdia on November 3, which highlights Taiwan's key role in powering the next phase of AI infrastructure growth.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
Former Intel packaging chief Navid Shahriari joins MediaTek as senior vice president
MediaTek announced that Navid Shahriari will join the company on November 9 as Senior Vice President, reporting to the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
Broadcom loses final appeal over Samsung chip supply deal
South Korea's Supreme Court has upheld a KRW18.664 billion (approx. US$13.9 million) fine against Broadcom for pressuring Samsung Electronics into a long-term smartphone component purchasing agreement by disrupting supplies, bringing the US chipmaker's legal challenge to an end.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
Onsemi to buy Ferric for US$600M to strengthen AI processor power delivery
Onsemi has agreed to acquire Ferric, Inc., a developer of integrated voltage regulator (IVR) technology, for US$600 million in cash plus up to US$175 million in contingent consideration tied to revenue milestones, the company announced on November 2, 2026. Alongside the deal, Onsemi raised its 2030 AI data center revenue target by US$500 million to more than US$3 billion.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
Marvell's Lumentum deal gives optical DSP rivals until 2028 to court its customers
Marvell's proposed all-stock acquisition of Lumentum faces a challenge beyond a shrinking takeover premium: whether optical module makers will shift orders away from its dominant optical digital signal processor (DSP) business.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
GCS Holdings welcomes Marvell's Lumentum deal, locks in 2027 InP supply
Marvell Technology and optical communications laser maker Lumentum announced on November 2 that they had signed a definitive agreement for Marvell to acquire Lumentum in an all-stock transaction. Compound semiconductor maker GCS welcomed the deal, saying it will give Marvell's optoelectronics business a more complete product portfolio.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
Onsemi targets every stage of AI power delivery while holding back automotive restocking
Onsemi is pitching its AI data center business as a play on the entire power path inside an AI rack, and for now it is prioritizing that business and industrial customers over automotive restocking. On its third-quarter 2026 earnings call, the US chipmaker repeated that AI data center revenue should double in 2027 from a higher 2026 base. It also guided automotive revenue down by a high single-digit percentage in the fourth quarter, which management called a supply decision, not a strategic one.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
AMD expands server CPU ambitions as Helios moves its AI business to rack scale
AMD is pursuing a larger role in AI infrastructure by combining its growing server CPU franchise with rack-scale systems, broadening its offering beyond individual processors. The company's earnings call highlighted demand for CPUs that run agents and support accelerators, alongside the first revenue shipments of Helios systems built around its newest AI GPUs.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
AMD expects more than 80% revenue growth in 2027, led by data centers
AMD expects company-wide revenue to grow more than 80% in 2027, an expansion increasingly dependent on delivering AI systems and server processors at scale. Data centers already generate nearly two-thirds of sales, but management's outlook leaves execution and product mix central to how much demand converts into revenue and profit.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
AMD plans for a weaker PC market in 2027 as embedded growth gains momentum
AMD is preparing for another difficult year in PCs even as demand for its data center products exceeds available supply. The company's earnings call exposed the widening gap between its businesses: higher component costs are weighing on PC purchases, gaming revenue is contracting, and embedded processors are providing a separate source of growth. Chief executive Lisa Su nevertheless expects company-wide revenue to grow more than 80% in 2027.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
Bosch creates semiconductor division to expand in robotics, external chipmaking
Bosch plans to create a dedicated semiconductor division as it seeks more business in robotics, AI infrastructure, and manufacturing for external customers, extending a chip strategy rooted in automotive electronics into additional markets.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
AMD's data center surge shifts growth toward AI systems as cash conversion weakens
AMD's third-quarter results show its data center business becoming the main driver of growth and profitability, even as gaming demand retreats. The next test is whether a steep expansion in AI systems and server processors can deliver stronger cash generation without eroding the margins underpinning that growth.
Wednesday 4 November 2026
Taiwan eyes US FDPR alignment to block AI transshipment
As US export controls make it increasingly difficult for China and other restricted nations to obtain advanced chips and AI servers, Taiwan is taking proactive measures to tighten its own export controls and prevent the nation from becoming a transshipment loophole. Under the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) between Taiwan and the US, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) plans to align local regulations with the US Foreign Direct Product Rule (FDPR).