A fresh wave of memory price hikes is sweeping across the semiconductor supply chain, spreading from AI memory products into manufacturing, packaging, and testing, and upstream materials and critical components. Known Good Die (KGD), long a low-profile yet tightly linked segment of the ecosystem, is now emerging as a key pressure point in the latest pricing surge.

MediaTek's performance in ASICs has been the center of market interest as it continues to heavily invest in Taiwan and North America to break into the cloud AI market. Rumors have risen that the ASIC business could potentially be worth US$10 billion by 2027.

Texas Instruments' latest commentary during its Q4 2025 earnings call on January 27, 2026, shows a company increasingly shaped by industrial, automotive, and data center demand, even as consumer-facing segments remain uneven. Management framed fourth-quarter results as broadly in line with expectations, while emphasizing that the mix of end markets—not pricing—is driving both near-term performance and longer-term strategy.

Texas Instruments (TI) signaled urgency around capacity planning, stressing that today's capital spending choices will determine its ability to serve demand years ahead, while downplaying fears that rising memory prices are constraining near-term demand across its core markets.

As the Trump administration intensifies its push for US-based semiconductor manufacturing, Micron recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for its planned megafab in the town of Clay, north of Syracuse, New York, braving freezing temperatures to mark the start of the project.

NAND flash prices are soaring, with industry insiders expecting upstream contract prices to surge over 100% in the first quarter of 2026. As NAND manufacturers aggressively upgrade their processes, Samsung Electronics will cease shipments of MLC NAND by the end of the second quarter of 2025, repurposing cleanroom space for DRAM production. Meanwhile, 3D NAND capacity is shifting toward V8 and V9 stacking technologies, leading to a substantial reduction in overall NAND output in 2026.

China has reportedly been conditionally approving corporate purchases of Nvidia's H200, reshaping HBM supply-demand dynamics. According to Seoul Economic Daily and G-enews, Bloomberg reported that Chinese authorities granted conditional approval for major Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Tencent Holdings, and ByteDance to purchase Nvidia's H200. Due to the H200's heavy HBM requirements, this development will also impact Samsung and SK Hynix.

A deepening global memory chip shortage is beginning to raise serious concerns within the automotive industry, as surging demand from artificial intelligence (AI) applications increasingly crowds out supply. With software-defined vehicles (SDVs), advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and in-vehicle infotainment becoming mainstream, automakers are now facing mounting risks tied to memory availability, pricing, and product design.

TSMC is now worth US$1.7 trillion. The chip giant has surpassed Broadcom and Meta to become the world's sixth-largest company. But the milestone has triggered fresh concerns in Taiwan.

Lightmatter has announced parallel collaborations with Global Unichip Corp. (GUC) and Cadence to accelerate the deployment of Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) in data centers. By integrating Lightmatter's photonic technology with GUC's ASIC capabilities and Cadence's design IP, the trio aims to eliminate the connectivity bottlenecks that are restricting hyperscale AI workloads.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics (Semco) achieved a record annual revenue of approximately KRW11.31 trillion (approx. US$7.79 billion) in 2025, marking a 10% increase from the previous year, propelled by strong demand for AI and server multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), according to reports from Money Today and ZDNet Korea. Operating profit climbed 24% to KRW913.3 billion, while quarterly results also showed significant growth.