According to the latest report submitted by Taiwan's National Security Bureau to the Legislative Yuan, China is increasingly targeting Taiwan in an effort to circumvent international technological restrictions. Beijing has set its sights on Taiwan's high-tech sectors—particularly artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and precision machinery—seeking to lure companies to establish operations or maintain a presence in China under the framework of its 15th Five-Year Plan.
Chinese enterprise SSD (eSSD) maker DapuStor entered its IPO subscription phase in early April 2026, driven by rapid expansion in AI infrastructure. The company recently observed multiple downstream customers significantly revising their order forecasts upwards after the Lunar New Year holidays. DapuStor highlighted that QLC SSDs are becoming a key trend for North American and Chinese cloud service providers (CSPs) to ease cost and capacity pressures. Its 245TB product has officially reached customer sampling stages.
Kioxia Holdings, Japan's NAND flash memory producer, is exploring the possibility of paying its first dividend since listing in December 2024, reflecting confidence in its growing earnings amid rising memory prices, Nikkei reported. VP Yoshihiko Kawamura told Nikkei that the company is leaning toward a stable dividend rather than share buybacks, though the timing remains undecided. Kioxia plans to present its medium- to long-term capital allocation strategy — including growth investments and shareholder returns — at an investor briefing scheduled for June.
China's domestic compute chipmaker Hygon Information Technology reported strong earnings growth, underscoring its rising role in China's AI and data center infrastructure buildout.
At SEMICON China 2026, Applied Materials and ASML kept a low profile under tightening US export controls, while domestic Chinese suppliers dominated visibility and floor presence.
SK Hynix has started global shipments of a next-generation compact SSD designed for AI-driven personal computers, a move that could reshape storage choices for device makers and end users worldwide. The cSSD promises higher capacity and improved efficiency to meet growing demand for AI PC storage.
Prices for gallium arsenide (GaA) substrates — a key material used in power amplifiers for wireless communications — are rising, driven by surging costs for gallium, a critical upstream metal. After months of sustained increases in raw material prices, industry executives say a reversal appears unlikely.
Compared to short-term geopolitical turbulence, the AI megatrend represents a once-in-a-generation business opportunity. In the past, TSMC often took the lead during earnings season in releasing industry outlooks. This time, ASML will hold its earnings call for the first quarter of 2026 a day earlier on April 15, and is expected to outline how memory manufacturers and new large-scale logic foundries will reshape the semiconductor manufacturing landscape.
Broadcom recently announced two major partnership developments. The first is with Google on its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), with the collaboration set to extend through 2031. This means that Broadcom will continue to generate related revenue from multiple future generations of Google's TPU products.
Industry sources reveal that polarizer manufacturers are preparing a price hike starting in the second quarter of 2026, with increases beginning at 10%, though final approval remains pending. This is because the escalating conflict in Iran has heightened risks to the Middle East energy supply chain, driving up crude oil prices and pushing costs higher for upstream polarizer materials such as PET, adhesives, and plastics.
Intel's industrial ecosystem is converging on a vertically integrated chip model, as Intel joins the Terafab project led by SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla—marking both a revival of the IDM approach and a potential turning point in Intel's turnaround strategy.
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