China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and European Commission Trade and Economic Security Commissioner Maros Sefcovic held a video conference on November 26, 2025, to address the ongoing dispute involving Nexperia, a semiconductor manufacturer with headquarters in the Netherlands and a subsidiary in China. Both sides called for constructive communication between Nexperia's Dutch and Chinese operations, encouraging the company to resolve its internal deadlock rather than relying on government intervention.

Jtron Technology, a semiconductor test equipment engineering and technical service provider that has joined the supply chains of Advantest and TSMC, is scheduled to list on the over-the-counter market in late December 2025. Jtron Chairman Yih-Min Lin stated that revenue in 2025 is almost certain to break a record high. The company's internal goal is to maintain steady growth in engineering maintenance service revenue while deepening development of its own product business.

TSMC's plan to reactivate its 6-inch and 8-inch fabs at Hsinchu Science Park has drawn strong attention from the semiconductor supply chain, according to industry sources. Although the TSMC-certified tools are old, they still meet stable quality standards and represent major orders in the second-hand equipment market.

Google's push to expand its in-house Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) platform is drawing fresh attention across the semiconductor sector, and analysts say Samsung Electronics could emerge as one of the biggest beneficiaries. If Google succeeds in building a broader AI ecosystem anchored by TPUs, Samsung stands to gain in both memory shipments and contract chipmaking.

Intel's controversial hiring of former TSMC senior vice president Wei-Jen Lo has escalated into one of the semiconductor industry's most sensitive personnel disputes in years. The situation has become tangled in legal uncertainty, national security implications, and geopolitical imbalances in technology cooperation.

Taiwan's national quantum program is entering the final year of its first phase, with Academia Sinica and other research groups achieving significant breakthroughs. These include optical Schrödinger cat state generators using heralded photon pairs and high-integration polarization-entangled Bell-state quantum light source chips.

Rapidus has denied reports suggesting it has started building a new 1.4nm fab or established a mass-production timetable.

Tokyo Electron (TEL)—a long-time close partner of TSMC and a frequent awardee—did not appear on the chipmaker's 2025 Excellent Performance Awards list. The absence is likely related to an incident involving the alleged leak of TSMC's 2nm technology that surfaced in early July 2025.

A new McKinsey report says the global semiconductor landscape is undergoing a dramatic divergence, with the US emerging as the center of leading-edge computation while Europe pivots toward securing industrial supply chains. As 2025 nears its end, the firm notes that a clear pattern has formed in the wave of greenfield Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): the US is consolidating the future of advanced logic production, and Europe is focusing on technological security and manufacturing continuity.

National Development Council (NDC) minister Chun-Hsien Yeh has pointed out that shifting global geopolitical risks are disrupting supply chains. To adapt, Taiwan aims to seize the AI trend by advancing its "five trusted industries" that are closely linked with AI development. The government's strategy includes promoting 10 major AI infrastructure projects to generate over NT$15 trillion (US$462 billion) in output value, driving nationwide industrial upgrades through AI commercialization and integration toward becoming a smart nation.

Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura visited TSMC's headquarters in Hsinchu on November 24, 2025, as part of a semiconductor investment promotion event in Taipei, saying the chipmaker remains strongly interested in expanding in Japan. The visit included talks with senior TSMC executives overseeing investments and industry-academia cooperation and marked Kimura's second trip to TSMC this year.

Dutch lithography leader ASML is facing an unprecedented wave of scrutiny after the publication of a new book, De belangrijkste machine ter wereld ("The Most Important Machine in the World"). The release has thrust the company into a debate unlike any it has previously encountered, sharply contrasting with the cooperative, ASML-endorsed narrative presented a year earlier in Focus – The ASML Way.

Samsung Electronics and India-based Reliance Industries have deepened their long-standing partnership, exploring cooperation across artificial intelligence, next-generation telecommunications, semiconductors, batteries, data centers, and engineering, following a high-level meeting in Seoul, according to the Korea Times, the Korea Joongan Daily, and the Chosun Daily.

Samsung Electronics has announced its 2026 senior executive promotions, marking a sharp departure from its five-year pattern of steadily reducing the number of high-level advancements. The company increased its total senior promotions to 161, up from 137 in the previous year, drawing widespread industry attention and signaling a strategic shift toward bolstering leadership in future growth sectors, according to ET News and Chosun Biz.

Nvidia will implement 800V infrastructure in its Vera Rubin platform by 2027, with Taiwanese firms leveraging EV expertise for AI servers, potentially boosting revenue in AI power management by 2026.

Japanese semiconductor firm Rapidus, which aims to mass-produce 2nm chips by 2027, has initiated plans for advanced technological developments, including the construction of a second factory in Hokkaido. The company has yet to commence mass production of advanced process chips.

Micron Technology announced plans to expand its DRAM memory development at its Hiroshima facility, with significant backing from the Japanese government. This move aims to boost output for high-performance and AI chip applications, according to Nikkei.

TSMC has sued former SVP, Wei-Jen Lo, for allegedly violating non-compete agreements after joining Intel, but industry insiders believe the case may be quietly dropped given the geopolitical sensitivity. Lo is likely a US citizen beyond Taiwan's reach; no formal extradition treaty exists, and escalating tensions could damage carefully maintained US-Taiwan semiconductor relations.

The European Commission has approved a EUR450 million Czech measure to support US semiconductor company Onsemi in establishing a new integrated manufacturing plant for Silicon Carbide (SiC) power devices in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. The measure, approved under EU State aid rules, aims to strengthen Europe's technological autonomy in semiconductor production and advance the bloc's digital and green transitions.

Google has been on a streak of breakthroughs in AI. Gemini 3 has been outperforming major AI models, while it has also received strong engineering feedback on Antigravity. Its already fast-rising TPU business is now seeing another major development: Google is reportedly in discussions with Meta about potentially deploying TPUs in Meta's data centers. This is fundamentally different from Google providing TPU computing services to Apple or Anthropic in the past.

Japan is preparing to designate artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion, space, and other advanced sectors as "national strategic technologies," while moving to require stricter cybersecurity protections at semiconductor plants that receive government subsidies, according to reports from Nikkei and financial news outlet Minkabu. The dual initiatives highlight Tokyo's push to strengthen technological competitiveness and reduce supply chain risks amid intensifying global competition.

Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger previously pointed to Taiwan's "precarious" position in the global geopolitical balance. This assessment has now reversed, however, as Gelsinger—now a partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Playground Global—offered high praise for Taiwan's supply chain and manufacturing prowess. As Taiwan rises in global influence with its tech hub status, experts are urging foreign players to expand collaboration with local companies, rather than worry about geopolitical risks.