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Tuesday 10 March 2026

Samsung union plans 18-day strike, adding risk to HBM supply chain

Samsung Electronics' labor union recently announced that employees who do not participate in a planned 18-day general strike from May 21 to June 7, 2026, will face penalties, sparking widespread concern and controversy across South Korea. The vote on whether to proceed with the strike began March 9 and runs through March 18.

Tuesday 10 March 2026

TSMC's Arizona fab turns profitable, validating US chipmaking push

TSMC's Arizona facility posted strong profitability in the fourth quarter of 2025, underscoring the commercial viability of advanced chip manufacturing in the US, according to DIGITIMES Research senior analyst Luke Lin.

Tuesday 10 March 2026

Phison says NAND prices jumped 50% overnight as supply crunch continues

NAND flash prices have surged amid tightening supply, with some manufacturers raising quotations by as much as 50% overnight, according to Phison Electronics CEO Khein-seng Pua.

Monday 9 March 2026

Industry mulls thicker HBM standards for 20-layer stacks

Global semiconductor companies are discussing relaxing thickness standards for next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) as the industry moves toward higher stack counts in future designs, according to ZDNet Korea.

Monday 9 March 2026

Micron: LPDRAM server demand to outpace market; Taiwan key production base

The rapid expansion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) is driving a new phase of transformation in data center memory architecture, according to Micron Technology.

Monday 9 March 2026

Nvidia halts China-bound H200 production, shifts TSMC capacity to Vera Rubin

Nvidia has halted production of artificial intelligence (AI) chips intended for the Chinese market and redirected manufacturing capacity at TSMC to its next-generation Vera Rubin platform, as regulatory barriers in both the US and China continue to cloud prospects for sales to Chinese customers, the Financial Times reported.

Monday 9 March 2026

Weekly news roundup: TSMC probe, AI boom, and memory price surge

Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of March 2 - March 8, 2026.

Monday 9 March 2026

India roundup: Japan, South Korea deepen push as semiconductor and tech investments expand

Japanese and South Korean firms are expanding their presence in India as the country strengthens its semiconductor and technology ecosystem. Rohm has partnered with Suchi Semicon for back-end manufacturing, while Hanmi Semiconductor and OLED materials firm Lordin are advancing India plans alongside Micron's new facility.

Monday 9 March 2026

LCD TV panel prices rise in 1Q26 as demand stays strong

After the Lunar New Year, LCD TV panel prices have continued to climb, driven by inventory buildup for sports events and rising costs. This momentum pushed February's LCD TV panel prices up by about US$1-2 per unit. Entering March, industry insiders expect sustained strong demand for LCD TV panels, with prices forecast to increase another US$1-3.

Monday 9 March 2026

Component price surge hits business PC market harder than consumer segment

Rising costs for memory, passive components, and battery modules are intensifying pressure on PC makers, while DynaPack and Acer Taiwan report shortages that are constraining supply and driving prices higher.

Sunday 8 March 2026

Adata chairman expects NAND price surge in 2H26

Memory module giant Adata reported record-high operations in 2025, with chairman Simon Chen forecasting a strong memory market throughout 2026. He highlighted that upstream manufacturers' inventory levels have dropped to critically low points, supporting their confidence for aggressive price hikes.

Sunday 8 March 2026

Phison rides AI wave to record profits; foresees explosive growth through 2026

Phison Electronics Corp. (TPEX: 8299), a global leader in NAND flash controllers and storage solutions, has reported a blockbuster fourth quarter for 2025, driven by an insatiable global appetite for AI-ready storage. The company posted record-breaking revenue of $719 million (NT$22.8 billion), with EPS hitting an all-time high of NT$21.74.

Friday 6 March 2026

AP Memory expands S-SiCap capacity as chipmakers shift toward custom memory

AP Memory expects growth momentum to extend into 2026, with revenue visibility already exceeding the typical six-month outlook seen in previous years. Tight supply in the global memory market has prompted customers to secure supply earlier than usual. Although rising memory wafer costs may pressure margins, the company expects gross margin to remain around 45%.

Friday 6 March 2026

Samsung reports faster-than-expected 2nm yield gains, aims to triple HBM revenue

Samsung Electronics announced that its 2nm process yield is improving faster than expected, signaling strong progress in semiconductor manufacturing. The company also revealed plans for wafer production at its Texas Taylor foundry and reaffirmed confidence in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) business.

Friday 6 March 2026

MacBook Neo lowers Apple’s entry barrier, challenging budget laptops

Apple this week unveiled a series of new products, including the latest MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models, but the launch drawing the most attention has been the new entry-level MacBook Neo lineup. Unlike other MacBook models powered by Apple's M-series Apple Silicon processors, the new product line uses A-series chips typically designed for mobile devices, with pricing set at around NT$20,000 (approx. US$631).

Friday 6 March 2026

South Korean Academia: NAND scaling nears ceiling; China seen closing gap

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is driving strong growth in the memory market. Compared with DRAM, which still has room for structural innovation, NAND flash has largely relied on vertical stacking for years and is now approaching the limits of its current architecture, according to South Korean academics. As a result, the segment faces increasing risk of being caught up by Chinese manufacturers.

Friday 6 March 2026

SK Group chairman reportedly to meet Nvidia CEO at GTC

SK Group chairman Chey Tae-Won is expected to attend Nvidia GTC 2026 in San Jose, California, on March 16, 2026, where he will likely hold high-level talks with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. The discussions are expected to center on the upcoming AI accelerator "Vera Rubin," launching in the second half of 2026, which uses sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4). This cooperation highlights deepening ties in next-gen AI semiconductor development.

Friday 6 March 2026

Commentary: Memory price surge and the Middle East conflict bring severe challenges to Transsion

Rising geopolitical risks in the Middle East threaten to directly impact Chinese smartphone brands deeply rooted in emerging markets. For Transsion, known as the "king of low-end phones" in Africa, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region is not only a major sales hub but also a critical market segment.

Friday 6 March 2026

Memory boom lifts Adata to record 4Q profit as inventory hits NT$30B early

Memory module maker Adata achieved record-high profits in 2025, with its fourth quarter consolidated revenue, gross margin, operating margin, pre-tax and after-tax net income, and earnings per share all reaching new single-quarter highs. The company's full-year pre-tax net income surpassed NT$10 billion (US$315 million), while 2025 earnings per share hit NT$23.18. Adata also confirmed it reached its originally planned NT$30 billion inventory target ahead of schedule at the end of February 2026.

Friday 6 March 2026

Notebook shipments buoyed by early-2026 orders amid memory shortages and Apple's MacBook Neo reveal

Memory supply shortages and price hikes continue to impact the notebook market, prompting major non-Apple brands to accelerate shipments. This surge has helped original design manufacturers (ODMs) maintain relatively stable shipment volumes in the first quarter of 2026. ODM Inventec initially forecasted a double-digit percentage decline in shipments for the first quarter compared to the previous quarter. However, actual shipments in the first two months exceeded expectations, with the quarterly drop narrowing to single digits.

Thursday 5 March 2026

Memory spot prices surge, straining procurement capital and risking industry cycle instability

The global memory market faces a widening supply-demand gap as manufacturers wield strong pricing power and limit spot-market supply, driving rapid spot-price increases that intensify procurement capital pressures across the supply chain. Industry observers warn that if spot prices continue their rapid ascent, the divergence between spot and contract prices could accelerate risks of an industry cycle collapse.

Thursday 5 March 2026

Persistent DRAM shortage to push prices and capacity investments higher, Nanya says

DRAM supply-demand tightness and rapid AI-driven demand expansion will drive contract prices up and prompt sustained capacity investment, Nanya Technology (NTC) president Pei-Ing Lee said, forecasting quarter-by-quarter operational growth into 2026 and a recovery of NT$12.5 billion (approx. US$390 million) cumulative losses from 2023–2024.

Thursday 5 March 2026

Micron unveils 256GB SOCAMM2, scaling AI server memory to 2TB per CPU

Artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure is evolving faster than traditional server hardware cycles can accommodate. As AI workloads expand in scale and data intensity, memory architecture has become a key constraint in next-generation data center systems. In response, a new memory standard known as SOCAMM2 is gaining attention across the AI server ecosystem.

Thursday 5 March 2026

Memory price surge drives Transcend's profits higher, signaling tighter DDR4 market and potential industry margin gains

Memory module maker Transcend Information saw its net profit double from a year ago in 2025, as rising memory prices and sustained demand lifted margins and revenues. The company said consolidated fourth quarter results showed strong sequential and year-over-year gains that underpin expectations for continued momentum into the first quarter of 2026.

Thursday 5 March 2026

Commentary: HBM hybrid bonding race heats up, but memory makers slow to adopt

Competition in the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market is intensifying, prompting equipment makers such as Hanwha Semitech and Semes to accelerate development of hybrid bonding tools for HBM production. These newer entrants aim to challenge the thermal compression bonding (TCB) equipment segment dominated by Hanmi Semiconductor. Industry observers, however, say significant technical and cost barriers remain before hybrid bonding can be adopted at scale.

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