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Tuesday 12 May 2026
TSMC CoWoS shortage drives SK Hynix-Intel 2.5D push
TSMC's tight CoWoS supply is reportedly pushing SK Hynix to work with Intel on advanced packaging, as the industry looks to diversify the 2.5D packaging supply chain for AI accelerators.
Tuesday 12 May 2026
Trade talks to test US-China leverage on rare earths, tariffs, and AI
US President Donald Trump is set to travel to China this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping for trade talks. The meeting comes at a time when both powers are grappling with technological competition, trade tensions, and the Middle East conflict. Many observers are not expecting a transformative outcome, but rather a continuation of small gestures to tamp down a trade war that erupted last year.
Tuesday 12 May 2026
Samsung labor dispute rattles global supply chain
Samsung Electronics' escalating labor dispute has sparked global supply-chain concerns, with Apple and HP said to be warning they could exit the company's ecosystem. Suppliers, industry groups, and clients are now assessing contingency measures as mediation resumes, with potentially wide-ranging implications for production schedules, procurement stability, investor confidence, and the wider technology hardware market at large.
Tuesday 12 May 2026
TSMC's US and Japan expansion lifts Trusval
Taiwan-based semiconductor facility engineering firm Trusval reported strong results for the first quarter of 2026, supported by continued growth in global AI computing demand, TSMC's accelerated expansion of 2nm process and advanced packaging capacity, and ongoing fab construction projects across the semiconductor, high-tech, and memory industries.
Tuesday 12 May 2026
Applied Materials and TSMC team up at EPIC Center to fast-track AI chip development
Applied Materials and TSMC have announced a partnership to accelerate semiconductor technologies for AI, aiming to speed commercialization and improve the energy efficiency of chips spanning data centers and edge devices. The collaboration promises global supply chains, cloud services, and device makers faster access to advanced nodes and reduced time from development to high-volume manufacturing.
Tuesday 12 May 2026
Taiwan AI testing boom lifts KYEC, MPI, and WinWay to record 2026 revenue
Taiwan's semiconductor testing and probe card supply chain maintained solid momentum entering 2026, driven by continued AI accelerator, high-performance computing (HPC), and advanced packaging demand.
Tuesday 12 May 2026
Pan Jit and subsidiary sponsor Make NTU 2026 hackathon to push robotic gripper innovations
Pan Jit International and its subsidiary participated in Make NTU 2026, a 36-hour student hackathon hosted by the electrical engineering student association at National Taiwan University, and sponsored corporate awards focused on robotic gripper applications. The event, held in 2026, aimed to promote projects that combined artificial intelligence, sensing, smart control, and innovative design to explore smart robotics and related future technologies.
Tuesday 12 May 2026
Commentary: Trump-Xi summit may offer China a pause, not a truce

Ahead of the expected Trump-Xi summit in Beijing, the US and China are first holding preparatory talks in South Korea, placing trade, technology, and semiconductor export controls at the center of the negotiation track.

Tuesday 12 May 2026
Intel's revival secret: Suppliers with TSMC's stamp of approval
With TSMC capacity under mounting supply-demand pressure, Intel — once written off by many as a company fighting for survival — is staging a credible comeback.
Tuesday 12 May 2026
Apple, Qualcomm and MediaTek take different paths as TSMC capacity stays tight
TSMC is facing fierce customer competition and supply shortages as demand surges for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing chips, forcing fabless chipmakers to consider limited shifts in manufacturing partners to ease constraints.
Tuesday 12 May 2026
Commentary: SEA semiconductor industry pivots towards AI as a strategic hub
SEMICON SEA 2026 drew heavy crowds, underscoring Southeast Asia's emergence as an indispensable "strategic hub" in the global AI compute supply chain. The region's semiconductor players are now moving from "capacity substitution" to "technological self-reliance" in what is shaping up to be a long-distance race.
Tuesday 12 May 2026
Infineon wins US patent ruling against Chinese GaN rival Innoscience
A patent dispute between Infineon Technologies and China's Innoscience over gallium nitride (GaN) technology has escalated after the US International Trade Commission upheld a preliminary ruling finding that Innoscience had infringed one of Infineon's GaN-related patents.
Tuesday 12 May 2026
GaN patent fight between China and Europe extends beyond courtroom

As the global patent battle over gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors intensifies, a recent ruling by the US International Trade Commission has deepened the rivalry between Infineon Technologies and China's Innoscience while also underscoring how geopolitics is increasingly shaping the future of the power semiconductor industry.

Tuesday 12 May 2026
Japan's diamond chip startups move toward production as factory and samples advance

Japan's diamond semiconductor sector is moving closer to practical use, as university-backed startups advance factory construction, sample production, and device demonstrations for high-frequency, high-power, and harsh-environment applications.

Tuesday 12 May 2026
Interview: Cyient Semiconductors CEO on Kinetic acquisition — why power is the new compute bottleneck
As the semiconductor industry grapples with the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence, Cyient Semiconductors is repositioning itself away from being a primarily semiconductor engineering and ASIC services provider and toward a more product-oriented hybrid model centered on intelligent power and proprietary semiconductor products.
Monday 11 May 2026
Samsung strike threat puts memory output at risk as 18-day walkout looms
A planned 18-day strike at Samsung Electronics is shifting investor attention from labor negotiations to the risk of memory-output disruption, as estimates from Korean media point to significant potential losses across the company's semiconductor operations.
Monday 11 May 2026
For India's chip dream, Lam Research points beyond fabs
As India's semiconductor ambitions move from policy announcements to execution, Lam Research sees the country's opportunity extending beyond fabs to the less visible ecosystem that will determine whether it can become a meaningful part of the global chip manufacturing supply chain.
Monday 11 May 2026
Analysis: Intel's Apple deal boosts CEO Tan's turnaround, but hard part still lies ahead

Intel's reported preliminary agreement to manufacture some chips for Apple devices would mark a major validation point for CEO Lip-Bu Tan's effort to rebuild the US chipmaker's foundry business. It would not, however, resolve the deeper manufacturing, cost, and organizational challenges still standing between Intel and a full-scale comeback.

Monday 11 May 2026
Samsung strike talks resumed with US$29 billion on the line
Samsung Electronics' labor and management have returned to the negotiating table under South Korean government mediation, as the company faces a planned general strike and a widening dispute over how profits from its semiconductor rebound should be shared.
Monday 11 May 2026
AMD's 2nm defection to Samsung dents TSMC's AI grip
The AI semiconductor supply chain is showing unexpected signs of a shift, with TSMC's long-held dominance in the foundry market beginning to loosen. US chipmakers are increasingly engaging with Samsung Electronics and Intel as alternative suppliers, and AMD has already handed its 2nm order to Samsung.
Monday 11 May 2026
DIGITIMES Insight: MediaTek denies Intel link as TSMC's packaging lead faces new test

DIGITIMES senior analyst Luke Lin said Warren Buffett's investment in Apple should be viewed not simply as a stock trade, but as a bet on the company and its leadership under CEO Tim Cook.

Monday 11 May 2026
Tesla AI5 ignites Samsung-LG race for ABF substrates, robot parts

LG Innotek is seeking to enter Tesla's AI semiconductor supply chain by targeting ABF-based FC-BGA substrate orders for the automaker's AI4 chips, intensifying its competition with Samsung Electro-Mechanics (Semco) across both autonomous driving and humanoid robotics hardware.

Monday 11 May 2026
OpenAI and chipmakers roll out MRC to prevent AI training slowdowns
OpenAI said it has partnered with chipmakers and cloud providers — including AMD, Broadcom, Intel, Microsoft, and Nvidia — to develop a new networking protocol aimed at improving the performance and reliability of large-scale AI training systems.
Monday 11 May 2026
Chinese semiconductor suppliers expand SEA presence at SEMICON SEA 2026
At SEMICON Southeast Asia 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, China's semiconductor equipment makers are steadily "infiltrating" the Southeast Asian market, extending from back-end packaging and testing into front-end processes while setting up subsidiaries in Singapore and Malaysia and using localized branding to break through. The shift is reshaping the competitive landscape at the region's annual semiconductor showcase.
Monday 11 May 2026
ASE, Wus to jointly build Kaohsiung advanced packaging plant by 2029
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and PCB manufacturer Wus Printed Circuit are teaming up to build a new packaging facility in southern Taiwan, as the world's largest chip assembler moves to expand capacity ahead of surging AI-driven demand. The plant, to be located in the Kaohsiung Nanzih Technology Industrial Park, is scheduled to open in September 2029.