South Korea's revised Criminal Act took effect September 13, extending the scope of espionage offenses from acts benefiting North Korea to those benefiting any foreign country or equivalent organization, as South Korea strengthens protection of semiconductors and other strategic technologies.
Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm are expanding discussions over 2nm foundry cooperation, with pricing, yield, and process optimization still unresolved as Samsung seeks to regain a share of Qualcomm's flagship processor business.
Gritek plans to strengthen its position in China's large-diameter silicon wafer market by acquiring the remaining stakes in two semiconductor materials companies, according to a company announcement.
A worldwide nuclear comeback, fueled by artificial intelligence data centers and semiconductor demand, is tightening supply chains and labor markets just as Taiwan considers restarting idle reactors.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian recently revealed that Google's overall payback period for AI server investments is less than two years, with in-house silicon recovering its costs in half that time. This translates to a payback period of less than one year for servers using Google's in-house silicon, including its tensor processing units (TPUs). Industry observers note this rapid capital return gives application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design service partners, such as MediaTek and Broadcom, substantial room for upward revenue revisions as Google doubles down on its TPU strategy.
India's semiconductor companies have raised nearly half of their all-time equity funding since the start of 2025, and deal activity this year is already at a multi-year high. The figures arrive days before SEMICON India 2026, the country's flagship semiconductor conference, opens in New Delhi on September 17.
Hua Hong Grace (HHGrace) has completed the share issuance for its acquisition of a 97.4988% stake in Huali Microelectronics (HLMC), strengthening the company's position in China's semiconductor foundry market.
As AI computing bandwidth keeps rising, optical interconnect architectures are moving beyond pluggable optical modules toward near-packaged optics (NPO) and co-packaged optics (CPO). But large-scale deployment will depend on more than optical-engine performance. Precision alignment, serviceability, manufacturing yield, and whether the supply chains for light sources, packaging, testing, and materials can advance in step are becoming equally critical.
Taiwan's ASIC design-service suppliers all posted year-over-year revenue growth in August 2026, but the underlying figures point to sharply different stages of the custom-silicon cycle.
Taiwan's semiconductor testing supply chain continued to ride strong AI and high-performance computing (HPC) demand in August 2026, with all four major suppliers posting year-over-year revenue growth.
The exhibitor list for Semicon India 2026 suggests the country's semiconductor push has moved past announcements and into procurement. The show has drawn 535 exhibiting companies, up 52% from 351 in 2025 and 97% from 271 in 2024. Moreover, the sharpest growth is not in chipmakers, but in areas that fabs purchase only once construction is real: cleanroom and utility contractors, specialty gas and chemical suppliers, and metrology and inspection tool vendors.
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