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Thursday 17 September 2026
Samsung bets on zHBM as 2.5D memory nears its limits
Samsung Electronics is betting on vertically stacked zHBM to move memory beyond the physical constraints of conventional 2.5D architectures, setting a system-level target of raising AI response throughput from about 100 to 1,000 tokens per second per user as workloads become more demanding.
Thursday 17 September 2026
CXMT cashes in on the DRAM shortage — and takes aim at HBM
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is emerging from the memory shortage with sharply higher profits and greater pricing power, giving China's largest DRAM maker more resources to expand into LPDDR6 and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) while China's domestic memory supply chain moves further upstream.
Thursday 17 September 2026
Memory LTAs lock up 50-70% of capacity
The memory industry remains in short supply, and major chipmakers are raising the share of capacity committed to long-term supply agreements (LTAs) while extending their duration from three to five years, with many in the industry expecting 2027 to be the tightest year yet. Supply chain sources said Kioxia has about 50% of its LTA capacity tied up, while South Korea's two major vendors reserve about 70% of capacity for LTAs. Micron also has around 60% of its capacity locked into such agreements.
Thursday 17 September 2026
AI's memory appetite is squeezing the electronics industry from the bottom up, Intel warns

Fast-moving advances in chip production have spurred a semiconductor boom, markedly altering the manufacturing scope of the broader high-tech industry.

Thursday 17 September 2026
SK Hynix weighs US memory options as buyers lock in 2027 supply
SK Hynix is keeping its US memory options open as customers move earlier to secure 2027 supply, with tightening availability raising pressure on memory makers to consider additional capacity.
Thursday 17 September 2026
Chip equipment, materials suppliers lead India investment pledges ahead of SEMICON India 2026

Foreign commitments timed around SEMICON India are moving deeper into the supply chain. In the three days before the 2026 edition opened on September 17, Lam Research, Applied Materials, and Fujifilm announced India plans worth a combined INR144 billion (US$1.50 billion), covering silicon components, chip equipment, and process chemicals rather than chip production itself.

Thursday 17 September 2026
SK Hynix reportedly eyes Intel Ohio plant for US memory production
SK Hynix is reportedly lining up US memory chip production and is in talks with Intel over possible cooperation, including leasing part of Intel's Ohio facilities. The move would give SK Hynix its first memory chip manufacturing base in the US as Washington steps up pressure on chipmakers to expand domestic investment.
Thursday 17 September 2026
Intel CEO warns of 2027 memory crunch and tighter CPU supply
AI infrastructure expansion is turning memory supply into a major bottleneck for the semiconductor industry. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan warned that the memory shortage in 2027 could be worse than in 2026, with cost pressure already spreading to smartphones and notebook PCs.
Thursday 17 September 2026
Samsung looks to outside suppliers as HBM boom shifts priorities
Samsung Electronics has long benefited from a level of vertical integration few technology companies can match, spanning smartphones, memory, chip design, foundry manufacturing and packaging. However, recent sourcing moves suggest those internal links are becoming more selective as individual businesses pursue their own customers, margins and capacity priorities.
Thursday 17 September 2026
Jensen Huang's Galaxy Z Fold8 spotlights Nvidia-Samsung ties

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has again been photographed using Samsung Electronics' latest foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Fold8, after being seen with a Galaxy Z Fold7 earlier in 2026. The latest sighting has drawn fresh attention to the close partnership between Samsung Electronics and Nvidia.

Thursday 17 September 2026
Charts: Memory chip designers carry Taiwan's IC design rebound
Taiwan's IC design sector is growing fast, but the gains are concentrated in memory. Combined January–August 2026 revenue at the 105 listed chip designers tracked by DIGITIMES reached NT$1.15 trillion, up 29.6% from a year earlier. Five memory-related companies added two-thirds of the NT$261.8 billion increase.
Wednesday 16 September 2026
Infineon exits NOR Flash with US$1.12 billion sale to Winbond, reviving Spansion name
Winbond Electronics will buy Infineon Technologies' NOR Flash and F-RAM business for US$1.12 billion in cash and rename it Spansion, the name of the US memory pioneer whose NOR Flash line forms the core of the business.
Wednesday 16 September 2026
Samsung advances jump 70% amid shift to long-term memory deals

Samsung Electronics' total advances received rose 70.4% in the first half of 2026, while memory suppliers and their largest customers increasingly turn to multi-year agreements to secure supply and improve demand visibility.

Wednesday 16 September 2026
Soaring memory costs threaten Netronix's e-reader growth, even as new display markets stay on track
Netronix said rapidly rising memory prices are squeezing the consumer electronics supply chain, raising e-book reader costs and slowing some e-paper display projects. Even so, the company still expects growth from color readers and advertising displays in 2027, helped by resilient supply-chain execution and demand for higher-value products.
Wednesday 16 September 2026
SK Hynix union approves revised pay deal after 25-vote rejection

SK Hynix's production workers' union has approved a revised pay agreement that raises the cash share of employee profit-sharing bonuses, ending weeks of uncertainty after members rejected the previous proposal by just 25 votes.

Wednesday 16 September 2026
SK Hynix, Intel in talks on US production to ease memory crunch
SK Hynix is in talks with Intel about a potential deal that could give the South Korean company its first memory chip manufacturing operation in the US, as tight supply pushes customers and governments to secure more domestic capacity.
Wednesday 16 September 2026
Samsung reportedly weighs Micron's newest memory for Galaxy S27
Samsung Electronics is reportedly testing Micron's most advanced 1γ LPDDR5X memory for possible use in the Galaxy S27 series, as rising costs around next-generation mobile DRAM complicate supply decisions. South Korean media say higher prices for advanced-process chips, plus the prospect of further mobile DRAM increases in the fourth quarter of 2026, are weighing on Samsung's plans.
Wednesday 16 September 2026
Apple reportedly accepts Samsung's 1Q27 memory hike, raising the 2027 smartphone cost floor
Apple's acceptance of sharply higher Samsung Electronics memory prices for early 2027 is putting a number on the cost of the AI boom for smartphones. The reported agreement comes just days after Apple limited the iPhone 18 Pro price increase to US$100, highlighting its willingness to absorb part of a historic rise in memory costs to defend shipments and market position.
Wednesday 16 September 2026
Micron unveils 512GB DDR5 RDIMM for next-gen servers

Micron has demonstrated what it calls the world's first 512GB DDR5 registered dual in-line memory module (RDIMM) across multiple server platforms, doubling the capacity of the 256GB RDIMM it began sampling in May as next-generation systems demand greater memory capacity and bandwidth.

Wednesday 16 September 2026
Samsung reportedly pushes conventional memory modules to partners in Vietnam and India as HBM crowds its back end
Samsung Electronics is reportedly handing the growth in its commodity memory module business to outside assemblers in Vietnam, India, and the Philippines, a sign of how completely high-bandwidth memory (HBM) has taken over its own packaging space. The shift keeps Samsung's scarce back-end capacity focused on its most profitable products and pushes the geography of its conventional memory supply increasingly outside South Korea.
Wednesday 16 September 2026
Hanmi Semiconductor reportedly lands first back-end foothold at Terafab
Hanmi Semiconductor has reportedly secured an order to supply advanced packaging equipment to Elon Musk's Terafab, marking the first known entry by a South Korean back-end equipment supplier into the planned US semiconductor megaproject.
Wednesday 16 September 2026
Kepler bets HBM can scale without EUV — chip giants are buying in

US memory chip startup Kepler Computing has emerged from stealth after seven years, disclosing US$468 million in total funding and a plan to rethink how high-density memory is manufactured.

Wednesday 16 September 2026
Astera says customers are rethinking HBM needs for AI accelerators

AI infrastructure customers are starting to reconsider how much high-bandwidth memory (HBM) needs to be placed alongside accelerators as external memory tiers create new options for storing key-value (KV) cache, according to Astera Labs.

Wednesday 16 September 2026
AI efficiency fuels Jevons Paradox debate over HBM demand
As artificial intelligence (AI) models move from answering questions to autonomously completing multi-step tasks, OpenAI's new model GPT-6 Astra, or Astra, is drawing fresh market attention to hardware demand amid the spread of AI agents. For the memory industry, even if the cost of a single AI task falls, rising usage and broader applications could still lift overall computing and data-access demand, leaving room for growth in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and server DRAM.
Wednesday 16 September 2026
Samsung reportedly taps TSMC for custom HBM base dies as new foundry dynamics emerge

The logic die at the bottom of a high-bandwidth memory (HBM) stack has become the semiconductor industry's newest contested territory. Within weeks, SK Hynix has been reported to be weighing Intel alongside TSMC, Samsung Electronics has been reported to be pairing its own foundry with TSMC, and Micron has confirmed that TSMC will manufacture its next-generation base die. What began as a single-vendor arrangement is turning into a multi-front sourcing contest — and the assumption that a second source automatically means a cheaper one is already being challenged.