China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) plans to invest CNY34.9 billion (approx. US$5.2 billion) in technology R&D and additional back-end DRAM testing capacity, stepping up investment as tight memory supply and stronger pricing give the company more room to expand.
Saimemory, a SoftBank subsidiary, has brought Shinko Electric Industries into its effort to commercialize Z-Angle Memory (ZAM), adding packaging-substrate, high-density integration and manufacturing expertise to a next-generation memory project that already includes Intel and Japan's RIKEN.
Samsung Electronics is reshaping its next-generation dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) roadmap, elevating its B1b wafer-to-wafer (W2W) hybrid bonding technology from a project-specific development to the core technology behind D0a, its first sub-10nm DRAM generation. Industry observers believe Samsung's push to commercialize B1b DRAM earlier could also benefit its next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) products, including HBM5.
South Korea's AI sector is facing a growing GPU shortage as research institutes and small companies struggle to secure enough compute for model training and deployment. As government support ends, research teams are finding it harder to continue training, while startups are being squeezed by rising rental costs and long-term contract demands from suppliers.
Global investment in AI infrastructure is expanding rapidly, driving specification upgrades across the supply chain, from AI servers to high-speed optical modules, and pushing printed circuit boards (PCBs) into a more critical role in compute upgrades. As technical complexity and product prices rise together, PCBs are quickly redefining their value in the electronics supply chain.
Samsung Electronics' foundry business has reportedly raised yield on its 2-nanometer (2nm) SF2 process to nearly 60% and is now shifting engineering work toward power efficiency and other maturity checks. The effort is part of a broader push to win larger customers for its advanced manufacturing business.
SK Hynix's US-based NAND flash and solid-state drive (SSD) subsidiary, Solidigm, is considering a US initial public offering as early as 2027, with reports indicating a potential valuation of up to US$150 billion and a fundraising target of about US$15 billion. The move comes as AI data centers drive stronger demand for high-capacity enterprise SSDs, putting AI storage businesses in focus for capital markets.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics said it will invest KRW6.78 trillion (about US$5 billion) in South Korea and Vietnam to expand ABF substrate production for AI servers and high-performance computing (HPC) markets. Part of the funding reportedly comes from advance payments by Nvidia and other global technology companies. With Samsung Electro-Mechanics having already entered Nvidia's NVSwitch and Groq 3 supply chains, the two companies' cooperation is expected to extend from an existing supply relationship to dedicated capacity.
The US and China are moving toward tariff reductions on about US$60 billion of bilateral trade following last week's Trump-Xi summit, but semiconductors and other strategically sensitive sectors remain outside the arrangement.
At Singapore's Innovate Together 2026 conference on September 25, executives and researchers from A*STAR's Institute of Microelectronics (IME), KLA, ASM International, the National University of Singapore (NUS), the SHINE Centre, and ASMPT discussed how advanced packaging is evolving beyond conventional chip integration, with optical interconnects, panel-level packaging, and talent development emerging as key challenges.
Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions division is set to announce the calculation and payout rules for its special management performance bonus in late September, after a holiday break. The move comes as SK Hynix continues recruiting experienced talent, underscoring how pay systems and workplace conditions have become key to attracting and retaining workers at South Korea's semiconductor giants.
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