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Tuesday 5 May 2026

South Korea eyes memory-led AI order against Nvidia

As AI shifts from training to inference and from single-task use to multi-agent collaboration, South Korea's semiconductor industry is seeking to recast the market around memory rather than GPUs. South Korean academia and industry figures say the AI era will be defined by memory architectures, with the country aiming to build its own framework and challenge an order long dominated by Nvidia.

Tuesday 5 May 2026

Ardentec's Longtan plant to start AI ASIC testing in 3Q26

Ardentec's Longtan plant is set to begin taking AI ASIC wafer-probing orders in the third quarter of 2026, as the semiconductor testing provider moves to capture spillover demand from foundry strategic partners.

Tuesday 5 May 2026

Google's TPU push hits Nvidia's neocloud grip

Google's effort to expand its tensor processing units (TPU) beyond its own cloud is meeting resistance from some of the AI infrastructure companies best positioned to distribute alternative chips, with executives from Nebius, Lambda, and CoreWeave saying they do not plan to adopt TPUs anytime soon, according to The Information.

Tuesday 5 May 2026

Another Qualcomm exec joins Intel to lead PC and physical AI unit

Intel has announced that it has appointed Alex Katouzian as head of its Client Computing and Physical AI Division. With this hire, Intel seeks to align its consumer PC business with physical AI applications spanning robotics and AI -enabled devices.

Tuesday 5 May 2026

SEMICON SEA 2026: the trillion-dollar chip era is already here

The global semiconductor industry is entering a "multi-trillion-dollar" growth cycle sooner than expected, SEMI President and CEO Ajit Manocha said, urging Southeast Asian countries to strengthen cooperation to address talent, energy, and geopolitical challenges. Manocha predicted rapid revenue expansion driven by AI, IoT, and quantum demand.

Tuesday 5 May 2026

MediaTek ASIC surge puts 60% revenue share within reach

MediaTek raised its outlook for its application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) business during its first-quarter 2026 earnings call, signaling stronger growth prospects and sending a positive shock through the market.

Tuesday 5 May 2026

Onsemi says China remains a strong market despite softer passenger vehicle volumes

Onsemi told investors during its first-quarter 2026 earnings call, held on May 4, that China remains a key growth market for its automotive power products, even as China's passenger vehicle market softened. The company reported that "Our China automotive revenue grew year-over-year in the first quarter, despite a decline in the China passenger vehicle market of 6% for the same period," framing the performance as evidence of rising semiconductor content and share gains within Chinese electric vehicle programs.

Tuesday 5 May 2026

Onsemi sees AI data center and Treo driving revenue and margin recovery

During an earnings call on May 4, Onsemi portrayed its artificial intelligence data center business and new Treo platform as central to a recovery that began in the first quarter, saying improving order patterns and product ramps are translating into higher revenue, expanding gross margins, and stronger cash returns to shareholders.

Tuesday 5 May 2026

Lattice Semiconductor strikes $1.65B deal for AMI as AI data center demand drives record growth

Lattice Semiconductor has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AMI, a leading provider of platform firmware and infrastructure manageability software, for $1.65 billion. The deal — structured as $1.0 billion in cash and roughly $650 million in Lattice stock — is expected to close in Q3 2026 and would effectively double Lattice's total serviceable addressable market to approximately $12 billion.

Tuesday 5 May 2026

Onsemi signals early recovery as AI demand strengthens but profitability remains volatile

Onsemi reported a mixed but generally improving set of first-quarter 2026 results, signaling early signs of recovery in key end markets while highlighting ongoing volatility in profitability.

Tuesday 5 May 2026

Intel's revival runs on politics and promises — but supply bottlenecks tell a different story

Intel's share price has hit historic highs as the semiconductor industry draws significant investor attention. But is this hype justified? DIGITIMES analyst Luke Lin took a deep dive into the fundamental facts, production bottlenecks, and competitive gaps behind Intel's surge during a recent podcast.

Monday 4 May 2026

ADT lands US AI chip deal using Samsung 4nm

ADTechnology said it has signed a KRW40 billion (US$27.1 million) turnkey contract with a US-based AI fabless company to develop and supply HPC SoC chiplets for AI data-center applications using Samsung Foundry's 4nm process.

Monday 4 May 2026

Huawei targets US$12 billion in AI chip sales as China firms seek Nvidia alternatives

Huawei is set to capture the largest share of China's AI chip market this year, with revenue expected to rise at least 60% as Chinese technology companies accelerate orders for domestic alternatives to Nvidia, according to the Financial Times.

Monday 4 May 2026

DIGITIMES Chair: South Korea's 260,000 GPU plan relies heavily on Taiwanese production, highlights need for collaboration in AI era

As global demand for AI infrastructure accelerates, the collaboration between Taiwan and South Korea—the core pillars of the global semiconductor supply chain—is critical to winning the new tech race. Colley Hwang, chairman of DIGITIMES and IC Broadcasting, said South Korea's plan to deploy 260,000 Nvidia GPUs remains heavily reliant on Taiwan's manufacturing capabilities.

Monday 4 May 2026

Anthropic reportedly in talks with Fractile to buy inference chips amid AI compute crunch

Anthropic has been in talks with Fractile, a London-based startup, to purchase its inference chips for running its AI models more efficiently, as inferential AI tasks have pushed up compute demands, according to The Information. Although Fractile's AI chips are not expected to be available until next year at the earliest, the deal could give the maker of Claude more leverage with suppliers as it seeks to expand AI capacity to meet soaring demand.

Monday 4 May 2026

Realtek sees PC revenue growth despite 2026 shipment decline

Realtek's projection of a sharp fall in full-year 2026 PC shipments amid tight memory supply signals wider device-market shifts: global brands are prioritizing mid- and high-end models and premium components, boosting demand for higher-content semiconductors as unit volumes fall, with implications for laptop pricing, vendor strategies, and component suppliers worldwide.

Monday 4 May 2026

TSMC’s 3nm crunch will keep Apple Mac supply constrained until 2nm ramps up

Supply-chain participants said Apple's fiscal second-quarter 2026 performance should be read less as a demand story and more as a reflection of persistent constraints in advanced semiconductor capacity, particularly at leading-edge process nodes.

Monday 4 May 2026

MediaTek targets US$2B ASIC sales as cloud rivals chase custom-chip capacity

MediaTek has doubled its 2026 revenue target for its application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) business to US$2 billion, up from US$1 billion, as demand for custom chips continues to strengthen.

Monday 4 May 2026

L&T Semiconductor Technologies joins imec automotive chiplet program, aiming to shape global vehicle electronics

Larsen & Toubro's semiconductor unit, L&T Semiconductor Technologies, has joined imec's Automotive chiplet Program. The participation is expected to drive collaboration on packaging, die-to-die links, diagnostics, and lifecycle management, and to help shape standards for next-generation software-defined, energy-efficient vehicles worldwide.

Monday 4 May 2026

Realtek posts surge in revenue as Wi-Fi 7 adoption accelerates

Realtek reported first-quarter results on April 30, saying revenue rose to NT$36.42 billion (US$1.15 billion), driven by early customer pull-in orders that boosted demand into the second quarter, while warning of higher order uncertainty in the second half of the year. Executives said the company saw sequential margin improvement but flagged potential cost pressures from memory price moves and packaging constraints that could affect profitability going forward.

Monday 4 May 2026

Holtek raises low-margin MCU prices, expands AI server cooling and optical comms

Microcontroller (MCU) maker Holtek announced it has raised prices on low-margin MCUs following wafer foundry and packaging cost hikes in China at the end of 2025. This price adjustment has since driven order inflows for touch MCUs and other products. Holtek expects strong growth momentum in the security and health segments in the first half of 2026, with some orders already visible up to six months ahead. The company is also advancing the development of brushless DC motor (BLDC) products and external laser optical communication modules targeting AI servers.

Monday 4 May 2026

India roundup: India accelerates AI, semiconductor, and manufacturing push with major investments and startup bets

India's technology ecosystem is seeing rapid expansion across AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and electronics manufacturing. From startup bets on AI inference to multi-billion-dollar data center plans and OSAT capacity buildouts, global and domestic players are deepening commitments. The momentum underscores India's rising role in supply chains and compute-driven industries.

Monday 4 May 2026

AI data center demand boosts IDM growth in industrial market

Recovery in the industrial chip market, driven by AI data center demand, is poised to reshape manufacturers and supply chains worldwide, as Texas Instruments and NXP Semiconductors report stronger performance in their industrial segments. Improved demand visibility and projected growth through 2026 could influence component sourcing, pricing, and investment strategies for technology stakeholders.

Monday 4 May 2026

China AI chip designer VeriSilicon books US$1.1bn orders, revenue doubles

China-based chip design service provider VeriSilicon Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co. is seeing a sharp acceleration in AI-driven demand, with record orders and surging revenue in the first quarter of 2026 — even as heavy R&D spending continues to weigh on profitability.

Sunday 3 May 2026

Profile: MIT physicist Yichen Shen leads photonics chipmaker to Hong Kong IPO

On the morning of April 28, 2026, 37-year-old Yichen Shen stood at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, striking the IPO gong with a wooden mallet.

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