Touch Taiwan 2027 will take place on April 21–23, 2027, and will expand its scope with two dedicated co-located shows: the Advanced Packaging & Testing Expo and the Silicon Photonics Technology Applications Expo. Spurred by surging demand for AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and high-speed data transmission, the new additions will run alongside the established Smart Manufacturing and Smart Display exhibitions, creating a unified platform spanning semiconductor technologies, optical communications, intelligent manufacturing, and end applications.

South Korean inspection equipment manufacturer Hanwool Semiconductor has secured an order to supply ultrasonic inspection equipment for multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) to a subsidiary of Taiwan's Delta Electronics Group.

Chemical and solvent distributor Yuan Jen Enterprises is actively expanding its electronic materials business. Company chairman Yuan-Jen Hsu stated that Yuan Jen established a dedicated Electronic Materials Division in September 2025 to focus on semiconductor peripheral materials. Alongside its existing portfolio of electronic-grade hydrogen peroxide, electronic-grade isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and acetone, the company is actively seeking opportunities in next-generation semiconductor materials, prioritizing advanced packaging and specialty wiring materials as its main growth vectors.

First-generation Taiwanese entrepreneurs are retiring or leaving their businesses, driving a clear rise in second- and third-generation succession in recent years. At Chimei, for example, Chia-Chang Shi has become chairman of the company his father, Wen-Long Shi, had founded. Similar transitions are becoming increasingly common among small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Following stronger-than-expected demand for its Galaxy Z Fold8, Samsung Electronics submitted an expedited wafer production request to United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) that was ultimately turned down. As a result, Samsung scaled back its September 2026 component production volume by 10%. Amid persistent capacity tightness at mature process nodes, Samsung is now evaluating GlobalFoundries (GF) as a secondary foundry partner for its OLED smartphone DDIs, with potential adoption set for late 2027 at the earliest.

The rapid expansion of AI and data center chip package sizes is accelerating the adoption of glass substrates, with SEMI's Beth Keser now forecasting market entry around 2028, two years earlier than she previously expected. Beth Keser, SEMI's vice president of technology coalitions, said package dimensions are growing too quickly for the industry to wait until around 2030, her earlier forecast.

Topco Scientific (TSC) is evaluating a new base in Boise, Idaho, as the US enters a fresh wave of chip manufacturing expansion and Micron ramps up advanced memory investment. The company already operates service bases in Phoenix, Arizona, and Dallas, Texas, and plans to strengthen its local technology, engineering, and supply chain capabilities to pursue memory and advanced-process opportunities.

Kingboard Laminates Holdings (KB Laminates), a leading Chinese manufacturer, announced its eighth price increase of 2026 on October 13, raising prices by 15% for laminates and prepreg (PP) made with style 2116 or thinner fiberglass fabrics.

Taiwanese power management IC (PMIC) vendors reported their September and third-quarter 2026 revenue, with results diverging as PC exposure widened the performance gap. Global Mixed-mode Technology and Leadtrend posted both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth in the third quarter, while Anpec Electronics and uPI Semiconductor reported declines from the previous quarter, amid weak PC supply-chain demand.

Flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) manufacturer Complex Micro Interconnection (CMI) reported September 2026 revenue of NT$163 million (≈ US$5.1 million), down 15.43% year-on-year, bringing consolidated revenue for the first nine months to NT$1.718 billion, a decline of 7.52%. The company attributed the weaker September performance to memory and CPU shortages, which dampened customer orders for components used in commercial and consumer notebooks.

As the customer base for AI accelerators expands rapidly and consumes IC substrate capacity, advanced packaging remains a critical industry bottleneck. Consequently, supply chain attention has shifted from upstream T-glass cloth used in copper-clad laminates (CCL) to the advanced manufacturing equipment required to expand IC substrate capacity.

Samsung affiliates plan to invest a combined KRW12.26 trillion (approx. US$9.18 billion) in semiconductor operations across South Korea and Vietnam, but the projects face different financial and supply-chain challenges. Samsung Electronics plans to finance about 63% of its Vietnamese memory testing investment through future profits, while Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) faces potential equipment delivery delays and material supply constraints as it expands semiconductor substrate production.

South Korean electronic materials supplier YMT is accelerating its expansion into glass-substrate electroplating. The company plans to increase related capacity to roughly four times its current level by the end of 2026 to meet customer demand for through-glass via (TGV) development.

Korea Alcohol Group is accelerating its shift toward semiconductor materials with a KRW450 billion (US$337 million) production base at Yesan County in South Korea's South Chungcheong Province, which will also link up its operations in raw-material supply, high-purity solvents, process chemicals, and recycling.

The AI buildout is still lifting Taiwan's server supply chain faster than almost any other industry, yet September's filings show the lift concentrating into fewer hands. The 49 listed Taiwanese companies tracked across the AI server chain reported combined September revenue of NT$2.95 trillion (US$92.35 billion), up 55.0% from a year earlier and 3.8% from August. Strip out Hon Hai Precision Industry, and the same group's September revenue fell 6.8% from August. For the first nine months, the group has booked NT$21.39 trillion, up 53.9% year-on-year.

Under what the industry terms the "Filter Moore's Law," each process node shrink lowers tolerance for airborne molecular contaminants, causing filtration demand to grow exponentially. For global airborne molecular contamination (AMC) filtration leader Ye Siang Enterprise, that demand is now showing up in record revenue.

Sumitomo Bakelite announced that it is expanding production capacity for encapsulation materials used in advanced chip packaging at its facilities in Singapore and Suzhou, China. This is expected to approximately double its production capacity for mold underfill (MUF) materials and approximately triple that for compression-molding granules.

The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure is driving demand for higher power and voltage levels, pushing power semiconductor development toward greater efficiency, higher power density, and tighter integration.

This week's (October 5 to October 11, 2026) coverage highlights intensifying efforts to build resilient semiconductor and AI hardware supply chains. Elon Musk's Terafab project faces manufacturing, packaging, printed circuit board (PCB) yield, partnership, and governance questions, while Intel remains involved and TSMC's role may be limited. Samsung reportedly advances HBM4E high-bandwidth memory validation and glass interposer testing. Vicor expands patent litigation over AI server power systems. Taiwan restricts China-made fiberglass sleeves, and China's new five-year plan prioritizes advanced PCBs, materials, equipment, and domestic investment.

As explosive AI computing demand drives hardware architecture change, Taiwan Printed Circuit Association (TPCA) is set to open its annual flagship event, with the 21st International Microsystems, Packaging, Assembly and Circuits Technology Conference (IMPACT-IAAC 2026) kicking off on October 19, followed by the 27th TPCA Show 2026 from October 20 to 22.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics (Semco) has reportedly completed initial reliability testing of its 100mm glass substrates and moved to package-level verification using customer chips, marking progress toward commercializing next-generation packaging technology as AI accelerators grow larger and more complex. The development comes as the company expands its existing semiconductor substrate business while facing uncertainty over the commercialization timeline for glass substrates.

South Korea's JNTC plans to invest KRW347 billion (approx. US$259 million) in glass substrate manufacturing as it reports a sharp reduction in copper-filling time for thick glass cores, potentially easing a major bottleneck in advanced semiconductor packaging. The investment comes as the company advances customer evaluations, although meaningful mass-production revenue is not expected until 2028.

Malaysia is moving from traditional semiconductor back-end manufacturing toward higher value-added work, with advanced packaging set to drive growth over the next two to three years, according to Nur Hilwani, Technology & Market Analyst, Semiconductor Equipment at France-based Yole Group. Talent, IP ownership and supply-chain gaps remain hurdles.