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Friday 15 May 2026
Hua Hong bets US$6bn on Wuxi as specialty chip demand lifts margins
Hua Hong Semiconductor is accelerating its growth strategy through significant capacity expansion and the development of specialty technologies to meet rising global demand. During its latest earnings call on May 14, the company highlighted robust financial performance driven by emerging applications in artificial intelligence and power management.
Friday 15 May 2026
Applied Materials posts 25-year margin high as agentic AI drives equipment boom
Applied Materials delivered record revenue and earnings in its second fiscal quarter of fiscal 2026, signaling a robust expansion in the semiconductor equipment market driven by the global build-out of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
Friday 15 May 2026
SMIC beats margin guidance even as operating profit slides
On May 14, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) released its unaudited financial results for the first quarter of 2026, reporting a modest quarterly revenue increase alongside a double-digit year-over-year gain. The company recorded revenue of US$2,505 million for the period, a 0.7% increase from US$2,489 million in the final quarter of 2025. This performance reflects an 11.5% growth compared to the US$2,247 million generated during the same quarter of the previous year.
Friday 15 May 2026
InP compound semiconductors break AI power and bandwidth barriers
Indium phosphide (InP) and other compound semiconductors are taking on a bigger role as demand rises for highly efficient light emission and ultra-high-frequency transmission. Their lower electron scattering and lower loss characteristics position them to help break through AI's energy and bandwidth barriers.
Friday 15 May 2026
Etron chair warns of US-South Korea alliance threatening Taiwan's chip industry
Memory industry profits have surged, and Samsung Electronics recently posted earnings that exceeded TSMC's revenue for the first quarter of 2026, underscoring memory's rise as a strategic resource. Etron Chairman Nicky Lu warned that amid global geopolitical shifts, the US and South Korea are highly likely to move toward a deep alliance that could pose a formidable challenge to Taiwan's semiconductor industry over the next 10 years.
Friday 15 May 2026
Taiwan IC revenue surges 29% in 1Q26, full-year outlook tops US$270 billion
Explosive AI-driven demand and a booming memory rebound push Taiwan's chip industry to NT$1.93 trillion (approx. US$61.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2026, with foundry and memory segments leading the charge.
Friday 15 May 2026
South Korea denies plan to share semiconductor tax windfall with citizens
A political debate in South Korea over how to manage windfall tax revenues from the country's semiconductor boom has intensified after remarks by a senior presidential aide sparked widespread controversy and conflicting media reports.
Thursday 14 May 2026
Memory supply crunch pushes Phison to historic earnings
Phison Electronics posted record earnings in April as the artificial intelligence boom and tightening NAND flash supply drove memory prices sharply higher, underscoring the growing influence of AI demand across the semiconductor storage industry.
Thursday 14 May 2026
AI chip boom drives record growth for Taiwan testing firm MPI
With surging demand for artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and custom AI chips, MPI Corporation said strong momentum in semiconductor testing equipment and testing interface products drove another record quarter, underscoring the rapid expansion of AI-related chip validation demand across the industry.
Thursday 14 May 2026
TSMC expands CoWoS and SoIC capacity on AI boom
TSMC said on May 14, 2026, that it is rapidly expanding CoWoS and SoIC advanced packaging capacity as AI demand drives the construction of 18 new fabs and advanced packaging facilities worldwide. At its 2026 Technology Symposium, TSMC vice president Bor-Zen Tien detailed the company's latest progress in advanced process nodes, 3DFabric advanced packaging, global expansion, and AI-powered smart manufacturing.
Thursday 14 May 2026
QBit Semiconductor targets edge AI growth as copier chips turn oligopolistic
IC design firm QBit Semiconductor will list on the Emerging Stock Board on May 15, 2026, and chairman Simon Shen, a former Kinpo executive, said the debut marks a new milestone for the company and underscores a promising growth outlook.
Thursday 14 May 2026
TSMC symposium spotlights AI expansion, advanced packaging demand
TSMC held its annual technology symposium in Hsinchu on May 14, 2026, after its North America stop, with executives noting that AI applications are rapidly expanding from cloud data centers to edge devices — driving surging demand for semiconductor compute density, high-bandwidth connectivity, power efficiency, and thermal management. Ray Wan, director of Asia-Pacific business, said TSMC will leverage advanced process technology and advanced packaging to help customers accelerate innovation in the AI era.
Thursday 14 May 2026
Japan expands push to secure legacy chip supply chain

Japan is broadening its semiconductor support strategy by expanding subsidies for domestic production of legacy chips, aiming to strengthen economic security and reduce reliance on overseas suppliers.

Thursday 14 May 2026
Tower Semiconductor secures US$1.3 billion in silicon photonics commitments as AI demand accelerates
Tower Semiconductor reported a strong start to 2026, marked by double-digit revenue growth and a significant jump in net profit. Following a "solid" first quarter, the company issued guidance for the second quarter that would represent the highest revenue in its history. Management highlighted surging growth in silicon photonics and a strategic restructuring of manufacturing in Japan as key drivers of long-term expansion.
Thursday 14 May 2026
TSMC SVP: better AI days lie ahead, remember the keyword 'COUPE'
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) used its 2026 Technology Forum on May 14 to outline a sweeping view of the AI-driven transformation in semiconductors. Co-COO and senior vice president Kevin Zhang argued that the AI revolution is advancing far faster than anticipated and is reshaping the industry from generative AI and AI agents to inference computing.
Thursday 14 May 2026
Samsung reportedly speeds up 3D NAND, packaging, and substrate plans
Samsung Electronics is reportedly reviving delayed semiconductor initiatives across next-generation NAND flash, compound semiconductors, advanced packaging, and substrates — areas it set aside after more than a year of prioritizing DRAM design and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) competitiveness. The move signals a shift from catch-up mode back toward longer-term technology investment.
Thursday 14 May 2026
Analysis: Samsung labor standoff underscores diverging Taiwan-Korea semiconductor workforce models
The ongoing Samsung Electronics labor dispute highlights sharply different labor models in South Korea and Taiwan, where firms such as TSMC operate with minimal union presence and rely instead on compensation-driven workforce stability. Industry observers say the Samsung conflict reflects broader tensions over profit sharing during the AI-driven semiconductor upcycle, while Taiwan's tech sector continues to favor high mobility and individual incentives over collective bargaining.
Thursday 14 May 2026
ASMedia reports record profit as it expands beyond PC chips into AI and automotive
Despite weakness in the personal computer market, surging DDR5 memory prices, and tight CPU supply, ASMedia Technology posted record results in the first quarter of 2026, underscoring early gains from its shift beyond PC connectivity chips into custom silicon, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and automotive electronics.
Thursday 14 May 2026
Samsung and SK Hynix rush to expand capacity as AI memory demand soars
The artificial intelligence(AI) boom is triggering an unprecedented expansion race among the world's largest memory chipmakers.
Thursday 14 May 2026
MediaTek courts Intel as Google pushes for alternatives to CoWoS
MediaTek's decision to pursue advanced packaging partnerships with both TSMC's CoWoS ecosystem and Intel's EMIB platform has become one of the semiconductor industry's most closely watched strategic moves.
Thursday 14 May 2026
Lam Research to hire 1,000-plus engineers in Taiwan on AI chip demand
Lam Research said it will hire more than 1,000 professional engineers in Taiwan in 2026 as customer demand mounts and the company expands technical support services for foundry, memory and assembly and test customers.
Thursday 14 May 2026
China's semiconductor godfather warns against 2nm fixation
While the global semiconductor industry remains fixated on 3nm, 2nm, and the AI GPU arms race, SMIC founder and "China's semiconductor godfather" Zhang Rujing is pushing a sharply different message: the future of China's chip industry may depend less on chasing the world's most advanced nodes and more on dominating the vast market still built on mature processes.
Thursday 14 May 2026
Korea races to narrow chip packaging gap with Taiwan and China

AI server demand is pushing semiconductor packaging into a new growth cycle, but the market remains heavily concentrated among a small group of global outsourced semiconductor assembly and test leaders and Taiwanese and Chinese companies, sharpening the challenge for South Korea's back-end chip industry.

Thursday 14 May 2026
GlobalWafers gains SBTi approval for 1.5°C-aligned emissions cuts and net-zero plan
GlobalWafers announced that its greenhouse gas reduction targets passed review by the Science Based Targets initiative, signaling the wafer maker has aligned its decarbonization pathway with the global 1.5°C climate goal and committed to achieving net-zero emissions across its full value chain by 2050. The approval covers both near-term and long-term targets, and the company said the moves will shape its operational and supplier strategies through the 2030s and beyond.
Wednesday 13 May 2026
Intel's preliminary Apple deal puts Samsung's foundry ambitions under pressure

Intel's reported preliminary agreement to manufacture some chips for Apple is putting new pressure on Samsung Electronics, as the US chipmaker gains momentum with major technology customers and leans on Washington's support to revive its foundry business.