SK Hynix reported record second-quarter revenue, underscoring the firm's strong demand for AI-related memory despite supply constraints and shifting customer buying patterns. The South Korean chipmaker said it is expanding long-term agreements with major customers to lock in demand and support investment planning. The company also expects HBM and DRAM to remain key growth drivers into the second half of 2026.
GlobalFoundries has signed a letter of intent with the US Department of Commerce for a potential US$300 million award to accelerate US development of silicon photonics technologies used in AI and high-performance computing data centres.
Memory prices are expected to remain elevated through 2026 as AI and data-center demand strains supply, with meaningful supply relief unlikely until well into 2027. A South Korean securities analyst argues that the squeeze could also make it harder for China to expand AI use, although Washington has not identified high memory prices as a policy tool.
Samsung Electronics' foundry business expects its 2nm project wins to more than double year-on-year in 2026, and the company is in talks with Broadcom and other major customers on multiple projects, foundry business EVP Sukchae Kang said on Samsung's earnings call for the second quarter of 2026. This is the clearest sign yet that its advanced-node business is gaining commercial traction after years of trailing TSMC.
Ennoconn Technologies held its 2026 Semiconductor x AI Applications Forum at Google's Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore on July 29 and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Singapore Manufacturers' Federation (SMF) on the same occasion. The event marked a further step in the Taiwanese technology group's expansion into Southeast Asia's semiconductor and artificial intelligence markets.
Samsung Electronics expects HBM4 sales to increase more than threefold sequentially in the third quarter of 2026, the company said on its earnings call. It projected that HBM4 will account for well over 60% of its total HBM revenue in the second half — a ramp that would lift its HBM market share broadly in line with its overall DRAM share and close the gap that has defined the HBM race since the AI boom began.
Samsung Electronics expects the global memory shortage to become more severe in 2027 than in 2026 and to persist through 2028, memory business EVP Jaejune Kim said on the company's second quarter of 2026 earnings call — and the company is using the crunch to fundamentally restructure how it sells memory, shifting 60-70% of its capacity into binding multi-year supply agreements.
Marvell Technology has opened 100,000 square feet of additional semiconductor R&D space in Bengaluru and plans to double its India headcount over the next three years as part of a US$250 million investment program.
