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Thursday 18 September 2025
Taiwan bets big on silicon photonics to capture US$100 billion global market
Taiwan is racing to advance its silicon photonics capabilities, aiming to develop high-efficiency 400Gbps optical modules within one to two years, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
Thursday 18 September 2025
CoPoS emerges as successor to CoWoS: K&S aligns with AI chip demands
Advanced packaging has emerged as the centerpiece of semiconductor innovation, with industry attention now focused on what will replace the dominant chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) process. Many suppliers see chip-on-panel-on-substrate (CoPoS) —a panel-level packaging method that converts round wafers into square panels— as the frontrunner for near-term adoption.
Thursday 18 September 2025
FPT eyes leadership in Vietnam's semiconductor packaging and testing sector
Vietnamese technology giant FPT Corporation is intensifying its push into the semiconductor industry with plans to establish a new backend semiconductor manufacturing facility in the central city of Đà Nẵng.
Thursday 18 September 2025
Commentary: China's tech industry eyes global expansion at homegrown expos
A pair of major technology expositions in China has concluded, offering a look into the country's tech supply chain, which is navigating US trade tensions with a firm commitment to self-reliance. The China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE) and the SEMI-e Shenzhen International Semiconductor Exhibition underscored both the ambition and inherent challenges facing the industry.
Thursday 18 September 2025
Baidu's Kunlun chip nab China Mobile contract, but still trails Huawei Ascend ecosystem
Baidu, one of China's leading internet companies, has cultivated its in-house Kunlun chip for years and recently secured a significant contract with China Mobile, marking the first step in its commercialization process of supplying external customers.
Thursday 18 September 2025
White House taps Samsung for health tech initiative, sidelining Chinese rivals
Samsung Electronics is the only South Korean tech company invited to a new US government initiative focused on modernizing the nation's healthcare system. The program, dubbed "Make Health Tech Great Again," is a public-private partnership launched by US President Donald Trump.
Thursday 18 September 2025
EU and Japan plan joint rare earth development in Greenland to reduce reliance on G2 supply
Amid uncertainties posed by major powers such as the US and China, Japan and Europe are strengthening their ties. The scope of Japan-EU cooperation could potentially expand to include the development of rare earth resources in Greenland.
Thursday 18 September 2025
Taiwan's Transcom deepens investment in defense and satellite communications

Transcom, a specialist in high-power amplifiers, is making bold strides into the dual frontiers of national defense and space communications. Leveraging its deep expertise in compound semiconductor technologies such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN), the company is expanding the application of its amplifier technology to address both pressing geopolitical demands and the rapidly growing low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite market.

Thursday 18 September 2025
Nvidia, TSMC face antitrust scrutiny as US-China tensions spotlight market power
Just as Washington and Beijing are preparing to resume trade talks, China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has thrown a wrench into the works. The agency accused Nvidia of violating the country's antitrust laws, putting the company back in the spotlight just months after a controversy over its H20 chips had begun to fade.
Thursday 18 September 2025
Hanwha Semitech stakes early lead in hybrid bonding race for SK Hynix's HBM4
Hybrid bonding machines are set to become critical by 2027, when chipmakers move into mass production of 20-layer, sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4). Global equipment suppliers are racing to bring their systems to market ahead of that transition.
Thursday 18 September 2025
Kaynes Semicon, Mirrorcle Technologies sign MoU to produce MEMS mirrors in India
Bengaluru-based Kaynes Semicon has signed a memorandum of understanding with California's Mirrorcle Technologies to manufacture MEMS mirrors and optical systems in India.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
Taiwan's MPI, WinWay, and Chunghwa Precision join advanced chip test race
SEMICON Taiwan 2025 gathered a wide range of packaging and test equipment suppliers, all unveiling their latest technologies and solutions. Central to the event was the emerging "advanced test interface battle," as companies sought to overcome bottlenecks in high-frequency and high-speed testing, thermal control, accuracy, reliability, and cost performance.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
SMIC initiates testing of domestically produced lithography machines to bypass US sanctions
In response to US export controls and to reduce reliance on ASML, China has begun testing its first domestically manufactured deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machine. According to media reports, SMIC is currently testing immersion-type DUV equipment developed by a Shanghai-based startup, which can support chip production down to 7nm technology nodes.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
Taiwan semiconductor industry holds home advantage, says economics minister
Taiwan's AI server exports have doubled, with manufacturers' GPU and graphics card production capacity fully booked, driving remarkable export growth for the country. Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin stated on September 16 that the success of Taiwan's technology industry is not accidental.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
Commentary: Handcuffing workers shocks South Korea; MAGA strategy risks backfiring
On July 30, 2025, US President Donald Trump announced that the US would reduce the "reciprocal tariff" rate imposed on South Korea from 25% to 15%. In return, South Korea pledged to invest US$350 billion in the US, with 90% of the investment profits returning to America. However, by mid-September, hundreds of South Korean workers were handcuffed and detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) due to visa violations. Could this incident severely damage Trump's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) agenda?
Wednesday 17 September 2025
Tesla, Valens deals boost Samsung Foundry in 4nm race against TSMC
Samsung Electronics' foundry business is quietly expanding its client roster after securing a landmark US$16.5 billion contract with Tesla in July 2025 to manufacture AI chips. Analysts believe the deal could mark a turning point for the company starting in 2026.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
Qualcomm dominates physical AI with robot and automotive chips
Robots and self-driving cars are driving the emergence of "physical AI," a new era of on-device processing that's shifting focus away from cloud-based large language models. According to South Korean startup Maum AI, this trend is creating new demands for semiconductors.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
China's Big Fund Phase III opens with Piotech Jianke investment in hybrid bonding technology
Chinese chip equipment maker Piotech said on September 12 its unit Piotech Jianke (Haining) Semiconductor Equipment has kicked off a new funding round at a CNY2.5 billion (approx. US$350 million) pre-investment valuation, seeking to raise as much as CNY1.04 billion. The deal drew in China's Big Fund Phase III, marking the state-backed vehicle's first publicly disclosed investment since its launch.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
China opens anti-dumping probe into US chipmakers amid tariff tensions

China's Ministry of Commerce has announced a sweeping anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into certain analog ICs imported from the US, in a move widely seen as both a retaliatory response to recent US tariff extensions and a strategic effort to bolster its domestic chip industry.

Wednesday 17 September 2025
NXP outlines SDV, robotics, and smart-glasses plans as new leadership prepares to take charge
Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors plans to complete its CEO transition by October 2025. Current CEO Kurt Sievers, who will remain in the position until then, made what is likely his final visit to Taiwan as chief executive during SEMICON Taiwan 2025. Incoming CEO Rafael Sotomayor also attended the event and met with Taiwanese partners as part of the planned leadership change.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
TSMC's US success revives semiconductor ambitions across India, Vietnam, and the Middle East
TSMC's successful establishment of a chip manufacturing plant in Arizona has reignited semiconductor development efforts in countries including India, Vietnam, and Qatar. Industry sources note that while the US, Europe, and Japan maintain leadership in semiconductor manufacturing through strong government support, emerging regions are increasingly seeking cooperation with Taiwan's semiconductor ecosystem to advance their own industries.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
Taiwan chip makers hit green energy wall
Taiwan's green energy market is confronting a severe electricity shortage, raising concerns among renewable energy providers and large enterprises, particularly in the semiconductor industry. Despite rising commitments to sustainability through the RE100 initiative, insufficient green power supply threatens to derail companies' environmental targets and potentially cause significant order shifts to overseas competitors.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
Nvidia's Jensen Huang reverses quantum strategy, bets billions on next computing era
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is making a big U-turn on quantum computing. After years of downplaying the technology's timeline, the tech titan is now pouring money into quantum startups.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
TSMC's 7nm EUV pioneer and Nighthawk Force leader honored as ITRI laureates
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) held its 14th Laureate Ceremony on September 15, 2025. Five new academicians were awarded honors, spanning semiconductor, engineering construction, and biomedical fields. The honorees include TSMC executive vice president and co-chief operating officer Y.J. Mii and former senior vice president of Corporate Strategy Development at TSMC Wei-Jen Lo.
Wednesday 17 September 2025
Navitas grows beyond chargers with solar, motor drives, and AI power supplies
At SEMI-e 2025 in Shenzhen, Navitas Semiconductor outlined its push beyond consumer chargers, highlighting its progress in solar inverters, energy infrastructure in and AI data centers.