CONNECT WITH US
Aug 20
SK Hynix's new HBM team lands in Nvidia and AMD's backyard — co-design is becoming the way to win HBM4 orders
SK Hynix is reported to be assembling a high-bandwidth memory (HBM) design team in Silicon Valley, a move that would deepen its co-design work with major US chip customers. Analysts see it as evidence that HBM competition is shifting into a customized, jointly developed phase.
Cambricon Technologies chairman and president Chen Tian-shi said the company's sixth-generation AI processor and instruction set remain under development, with the next-generation platform targeting large-model training and inference while improving programmability, ease of use, performance, power efficiency and chip area.
SK Group Chairman Tae-Won Chey said in a recent interview with CNBC that memory demand is surging explosively and that the most severe "memory shortage" will hit in 2027. He also apologized to the market for the pace of memory chip price increases, saying the rapid rise is fueling chip inflation across the industry.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has begun a fresh round of talks with the country's leading business figures, starting with a private dinner with SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won, at a time when semiconductor investment, artificial intelligence and US demands for more local manufacturing are becoming increasingly intertwined.
The global memory market is entering a sharp upcycle as cloud providers boost capital spending and demand for AI infrastructure lifts DRAM, NAND, and HBM prices. According to DIGITIMES, the three largest upstream memory chip makers are headed for a more than threefold jump in combined DRAM and NAND revenue in 2026, with supply constraints likely to keep pricing firm until new capacity arrives in 2027.
Bosch Rexroth, the industrial technology subsidiary of Bosch, showcased advanced semiconductor and smart manufacturing solutions at the 2026 Taipei International Industrial Automation Exhibition, held from August 19 to 22.
Xiaomi is preparing to take its in-house smartphone silicon further upmarket, with founder and chairman Lei Jun confirming that a new generation of its Xring chip is on the way. Supply-chain sources say the chip has already returned from fabrication, completed initial power-on testing and moved into the device integration stage.

JCET Group reported record first-half revenue for 2026, with demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure and high-performance computing lifting capacity utilization and accelerating the shift toward higher-value advanced packaging.

SK hynix is considering a large-scale memory semiconductor investment in Japan, with Miyagi Prefecture emerging as a potential site, although the company has stressed that no decision has been finalized.

Rising demand for AI computing power is increasing chip package sizes, bringing fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) into sharper focus as a next-generation packaging technology that converts traditional round wafer formats into rectangular panels, offering potential gains in both production efficiency and cost.

The AI industry is watching the rise of co-packaged optics (CPO) as faster AI systems now depend on more efficient links between chips and data centers. At DIGITIMES Tech Forum 2026 in Taipei, analyst Jerry Zheng said the technology is moving toward mainstream adoption as bandwidth demand outpaces computing gains.
SK hynix has published a technical roadmap for co-packaged optics (CPO) in the journal Nature Electronics, positioning the world's largest supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to compete not just on individual chip performance but on how memory, processors, and networking are designed together as AI computing systems scale.