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Monday 19 January 2026
Weekly news roundup: memory shortages, packaging power, TSMC's global pivot
Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories of the week of January 12-18, 2026.
Monday 19 January 2026
OpenAI taps Cerebras for US$10 billion AI chip buildout
OpenAI said it would partner with the artificial intelligence chip maker Cerebras to build 750 megawatts of ultra-low-latency AI computing capacity, a project that will come online in phases starting in 2026. Construction is expected to begin this year and continue through 2028.
Monday 19 January 2026
Commentary: US and Taiwan finalize tariff deal, securing favorable terms for semiconductor exports

The US and Taiwan have formally concluded a tariff agreement that sets a 15% rate on covered goods, alongside a sweeping package of Taiwanese commitments aimed at deepening ties with the American semiconductor industry. Under the deal, Taiwan will make US$250 billion in direct investment in US semiconductor manufacturing, while its government will provide an additional US$250 billion in credit guarantees.

Monday 19 January 2026
OpenAI and Cerebras reach US$10 billion agreement to reduce Nvidia dependence
OpenAI has reached a multi-year compute procurement agreement worth more than US$10 billion with AI chip startup Cerebras Systems, with the intention to enhance ChatGPT performance and reduce its reliance on Nvidia. According to The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, OpenAI said in a statement that it has committed to purchasing up to 750 MW of computing capacity from Cerebras by 2028. Contract terms were not disclosed, but people familiar with the matter said the deal value exceeds US$10 billion.
Monday 19 January 2026
Taiwan's DDI chipmakers fight for survival beyond displays

Taiwanese DDI vendors rode a post-pandemic growth wave, but demand turned increasingly uncertain in 2025. Weak consumer end markets, slowing specification upgrades, and intensifying competition from Chinese rivals have sharply raised pressure on local suppliers.

Sunday 18 January 2026
Research Insight: Qualcomm's Ventana deal signals push to reduce Arm reliance and deepen RISC-V bets
On December 10, 2025, Qualcomm Inc. disclosed its acquisition of Ventana Micro Systems in the US without revealing the deal's financial terms or completion date. The company highlighted that the move would reinforce its global leadership in the RISC-V ecosystem and improve its CPU development capabilities, complementing its existing Oryon custom CPU team.
Saturday 17 January 2026
Research Insight: System-level design, energy efficiency, and TCO drive AI hardware competition
AMD introduced its Helios system platform at CES 2026, marking a significant move in cloud AI computing competition from traditional single-chip performance to full rack-scale solutions. This development follows Nvidia's GB200 NVL series release and Google's TPU-based rack product plans disclosed by Broadcom, underscoring an industry trend toward delivering computing power through integrated system platforms rather than isolated chips.
Saturday 17 January 2026
Top 10 Chart: Taiwan's IC design sector ends 2025 with an AI-led split
Taiwan's IC design segment posted a visibly divergent finish in December 2025, with AI/HPC, data center, and enterprise storage-related suppliers closing the year strongly, while consumer electronics-facing lines weakened amid seasonality, cautious panel and handset component pull-ins, and ongoing inventory adjustment.
Saturday 17 January 2026
In Jodi Shelton’s new podcast, Jensen Huang says Nvidia was forged by suffering

In the inaugural episode of a new leadership podcast, Jensen Huang offers a strikingly unvarnished account of how Nvidia became one of the world's most valuable technology firms.

Friday 16 January 2026
Xiaomi reportedly skips 2nm for Xring O2, chooses TSMC 3nm to cut costs

Xiaomi's second-generation in-house mobile processor, the Xring O2, will skip TSMC's 2nm process and instead use the company's 3nm N3P node, underscoring a trade-off between performance, cost, and supply availability. The choice also suggests the chip may not power Xiaomi's most premium flagship smartphones.

Friday 16 January 2026
Taiwanese power semiconductor firms report mixed 2025 results amid supply chain shifts
Taiwanese power semiconductor companies, including Taiwan Semiconductor Company (TSC), Panjit International, and Eris Tech, have recently disclosed their 2025 revenue results, anticipating benefits from order shifts driven by Nexperia. Market analysts project that these effects will take full shape in the first quarter of 2026. Concurrently, these firms are developing power management products to enter the growing AI server market, driven by rising demand for higher power density in AI data centers.
Friday 16 January 2026
MediaTek scales flagship performance with Dimensity 9500s and 8500
MediaTek has launched the Dimensity 9500s and Dimensity 8500 mobile processors, both carrying over key technologies from the company's flagship Dimensity platform. The new chips deliver upgrades in performance, power efficiency, AI processing, imaging, gaming, and connectivity, targeting the premium smartphone market.
Friday 16 January 2026
US imposes 25% chip tariff under Section 232, but Taiwan secures strategic carve-outs in high-stakes talks
The US White House has formally announced a 25% import tariff on semiconductors under Section 232, while outlining multiple exemption mechanisms that could mitigate the impact on key suppliers. Against this backdrop, a high-level Taiwanese delegation is in Washington for a new round of trade negotiations aimed at safeguarding Taiwan's semiconductor sector and its role in the global, AI-driven supply chain.
Friday 16 January 2026
Vietnam to set up national semiconductor chip prototyping center
Vietnam's Ministry of Science and Technology has decided to establish a national center for semiconductor chip prototyping, a move aimed at developing high-quality human resources and supporting businesses in one of the country's fastest-growing technology sectors.
Friday 16 January 2026
Huawei matches Nvidia in China's AI chip market, 2026 power shift in play
Soaring demand for high-end computing power, combined with geopolitical pressure and supply-chain constraints, is reshaping China's AI chip market at a structural level. Bernstein estimates that Huawei's share of China's AI chip market rose from about one-third of Nvidia's level in 2024 to reach parity with Nvidia in 2025. The shift marks a new phase in which domestic suppliers are taking the lead.
Friday 16 January 2026
Commentary: 90-day negotiation is key in US chip tariffs
The White House has finally released details regarding chip tariffs. Despite previous concerns, tariff rates and products included are relatively limited. The tariff rate has been set at 25%; chips imported for data centers, startups, technology R&D, maintenance and replacement, consumer applications, industrial control applications, as well as any chips used to build US industries, are all exempt from the tariffs.
Thursday 15 January 2026
NIAR chair urges ITRI to take charge of applying research
National Institutes of Applied Research (NIAR) chairman Cheng-wen Wu has called on the Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories (EOSL) of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to take up the mantle and connect with the wafer-level and chip-level platforms at the NIAR's Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI).
Thursday 15 January 2026
China takes cautious stance on US H200 chip export, prioritizes local chipmakers
The US government confirmed this week the conditions for exporting the H200 AI chip to China, reportedly including third-party lab testing before shipment to ensure compliance with AI technology standards. Additionally, the number of AI chips sold to Chinese customers cannot exceed 50% of those sold to US customers. Chinese buyers must also prove they have implemented sufficient security measures and that the chips will not be used for military purposes.
Thursday 15 January 2026
CES 2026 insights: Taiwan IC designers push beyond consumer markets
The 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2026) has concluded, with global IC design leaders including Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Advanced Micro Devices focusing on automotive and robotics technologies while advancing system-level solutions.
Thursday 15 January 2026
Chinese AI startup Z.ai unveils first multimodal model trained on Huawei Ascend chips
Chinese artificial intelligence startup Z.ai, formerly known as Zhipu AI, has unveiled GLM-Image, a multimodal AI model trained entirely on Huawei's Ascend chip platform, marking a notable milestone in China's push to build a self-reliant AI computing stack. The company said GLM-Image was developed using Huawei's Ascend 800T A2 servers and the MindSpore AI framework, making it the first publicly disclosed multimodal model trained on this domestic hardware platform.
Thursday 15 January 2026
Maxscend's first annual loss exposes fab-lite strain and legal risks
Maxscend Microelectronics is heading for its first annual loss since going public, marking a sharp reversal for one of China's leading RF chipmakers as it struggles with a costly business transition, intensifying competition, and mounting legal pressure from Japan's Murata Manufacturing.
Thursday 15 January 2026
Intel CPU squeeze forces Asus Chromebook shift to MediaTek

For several months, the global memory market has been hit by severe supply shortages and rapid price increases. As memory makers shift capacity toward higher-margin products, consumer electronics — especially notebook PCs — have taken the hardest hit. The market remains cautious about major brand vendors' shipment momentum and profitability in 2026.

Thursday 15 January 2026
Trump invokes Section 232 to levy 25% tariff on Nvidia H200, AMD MI325X chips
On January 14, US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose an immediate 25% tariff on a narrow category of advanced semiconductors, citing national security risks from heavy US reliance on foreign chip supply chains.
Wednesday 14 January 2026
Iluvatar CoreX sets three-generation GPU plan, eyes H200 performance
As China's domestic GPU developers accelerate public listings and expand both technological and capital investment, competition is shifting toward next-generation computing power. Iluvatar CoreX said it will unveil a three-generation GPU roadmap on January 26, 2026, outlining a new GPGPU architecture, cloud-based AI training and inference products, and high-performance computing infrastructure plans.
Wednesday 14 January 2026
Cerebras Systems seeks US$1 billion funding round with US$22 billion valuation
AI chip startup Cerebras Systems is reportedly in talks to raise US$1 billion in a new financing round, aiming for a valuation of up to US$22 billion, according to Bloomberg. The company plans to continue pursuing its initial public offering (IPO) as part of a broader strategy to expand its AI computing hardware and cloud services.