A recent survey found that 36% of nearly 120 US manufacturers have already reshored or are actively reshoring production, while more than 60% have capital investment plans for doing so. Taiwan's investment in the US is also rising, and Taiwanese firms' moves will become clearer after the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (TEEMA) completes plans by the end of 2026 for overseas science parks in Texas and Arizona and begins soliciting investment.

South Korea and the US have hit an impasse in final-stage investment talks over commercial viability safeguards, with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung saying that some parts are hard to accept. The deadlock is raising concerns that the months-long negotiations over South Korea's investment plans in the US could collapse.

Samsung Electronics has formed a dedicated organization to develop and deploy robots in its semiconductor fabs, with equipment preventive maintenance (PM) expected to be the first target as the chipmaker pushes automation into work that still depends heavily on engineers.

Leading Interconnect Semiconductor, a Zhen Ding Technology subsidiary, has broken ground on an AI advanced packaging substrate project in Bao'an, Shenzhen, with total investment expected to be at least CNY12 billion (approx. US$1.79 billion). The new site is designed to add four factories and expand the company's ability to develop, manufacture, and deliver high-end flip-chip ball grid array (FCBGA) products for AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and advanced packaging customers.

AI's shift from data centers into cars, robots, wearables, and connected devices is widening the market for fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI), while China is building a domestic supply chain spanning substrates, foundry capacity, and chip design.

SK Hynix is pushing deeper into logic design as it develops a next-generation 3D DRAM architecture that could separate memory-cell processing from the peripheral circuits that control it, allowing each to be optimized with different manufacturing technologies.

Major Taiwanese optical lens maker Largan Precision announced on September 17 that it acquired around 7,468.43 square meters of land and 12,215.54 square meters of building space in the Nantun District, Taiwan, for NT$1.17 billion (approx. US$36.82 million), to be used for future capacity expansion. The purchase marks the company's seventh land acquisition in 2026, with the acquisitions mainly involving ready-to-use factory buildings and land, in a move suggesting it is preparing for co-packaged optics (CPO).

South Korea's DB HiTek is gaining pricing power as tightening 8-inch foundry supply, high utilization, and stronger demand for power-management chips improve conditions across mature-node manufacturing.