Samsung Electronics has used Computex 2026 to outline a broader AI memory strategy, highlighting HBM5, thermal management, and advanced packaging as it prepares for next-generation AI systems. The company also pointed to deeper alignment across memory, foundry, logic, and packaging.

South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy announced on June 2, 2026, that it would sharply streamline domestic approval procedures for extreme ultraviolet equipment used in semiconductor fabrication, reducing installation lead times from 34 days to 9 days to accelerate advanced production lines. The ministry said the change reclassifies EUV tools from high-pressure gas manufacturing facilities to a new "specific equipment" category after a partial revision to the Enforcement Decree of the High-Pressure Gas Safety Control Act.

SK Hynix is reportedly preparing to mass-produce a new generation of 200-layer-class NAND flash memory based on floating-gate (FG) architecture at its Dalian Phase 2 facility in China, as the company seeks to strengthen its position in the fast-growing enterprise SSD (eSSD) market for AI data centers.

Micron outlined a broad AI memory and storage strategy ahead of Computex 2026, saying surging demand across data centers and intelligent edge devices is reshaping the semiconductor landscape. The company announced solutions spanning high-bandwidth memory, low-power DRAM and PCIe Gen5 SSDs, and said these products address growing requirements for capacity, bandwidth and efficiency as AI workloads expand from training to large-scale inference and agentic systems.

In 2026, a global compute shortage spanning chips, cloud services, servers, and data-center components is sweeping across the industry. The scarcity of compute and broad price hikes are running through the entire AI sector, pushing Nvidia's market value higher, lifting cloud revenue and profits at Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to record levels, and driving the valuations of AI startups OpenAI and Anthropic to nearly US$1 trillion.

Phison Electronics announced a collaboration with Intel to bring aiDAPTIV memory extension technology to Intel AI PC platforms running Intel Core Ultra processors, aiming to enable larger on-device AI workloads and reduce reliance on cloud processing. The partners said the effort, which includes support for the OpenVINO toolkit, will cover ISV software validation, technology demonstrations, and development of optimized workloads for local execution.

After sharp swings in the memory spot market in April and May 2026, the industry's tight supply-demand balance has not changed. Spot prices through the end of May have recovered modestly from April, while the third-quarter memory contract price increase is expected to slow from a high base but remain firmly on an upward trend, with quarterly gains likely to stay in the double-digit 10-20% range.

Yangtze Memory Technology is moving its retail SSD brand into the Asia-Pacific consumer market, beginning with Taiwan and later expanding to Singapore and South Korea. The shift comes as memory supply remains tight, prices stay high, and global markets face a storage landscape shaped by rising AI, gaming, and PC demand.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek said it will permanently cut the API price of its flagship model by 75% from June 1, prompting debate across the global AI industry. Amazon AWS said the move may matter less as a price war than as a bid to change how AI infrastructure is built and sold.

ByteDance is creating a new chip similar to those made by Nvidia partner Groq to help the Chinese creator of TikTok handle its AI inference loads, according to The Information. Its expansion into language processing units (LPUs) marks another step in the development of its domestic AI infrastructure.

After Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wrapped up his "trillion-dollar banquet" for Taiwan AI supply-chain giants, GTC Taipei is set to become a highlight of Computex 2026. Nvidia will also host its first "South Korean partners night" in Taiwan.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said the artificial intelligence industry is entering a rapid growth phase that could keep revenue rising sharply into 2027, while supply-chain bottlenecks are likely to persist as demand continues to outstrip capacity.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang's pre-Computex meetings in Taipei are drawing close attention from South Korean companies seeking a bigger role in the global AI supply chain. With demand for AI infrastructure rising, their interest reflects how the next phase of AI development could shape worldwide competition, partnerships, and technology access.

Winbond Chairman Arthur Chiao said market sentiment in the second half of 2026 would carry the strong momentum seen in the first half, with the overall market remaining in a supply shortage. He expects the current shortage will be difficult to ease in the near term, and said capacity constraints might not be resolved until the second half of 2027.

SpaceX's IPO prospectus details an early-stage "Terafab" initiative to build large-scale AI chip manufacturing capacity. Still, the company warns of significant execution uncertainty, unfinalized partnerships, and capital intensity risks. The plan, still in preliminary form, depends on future agreements and could face delays, cost overruns, and supply-chain constraints.

Samsung Electronics has started shipping samples of its latest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chip, the 12-layer HBM4E, marking the industry's first delivery of the next-generation AI memory product, according to the company. The move underscores intensifying competition among memory suppliers as demand accelerates for higher-performance components used in AI computing systems.

ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China's top DRAM maker, has been cleared by China's securities regulator for its highly anticipated IPO, which could raise funds worth CNY29.5 billion (approx. US$4.4 billion) for the company. The Shanghai Stock Exchange said on May 27 that it had cleared a listing review for its STAR Board.

Solidigm, the enterprise storage brand under SK Hynix, announced a leadership reshuffle this spring, naming two executives as co-chief executive officers to divide responsibilities between global operations and commercial growth. One co-CEO was appointed in March 2026, and the other took office on May 1, with leadership stating the change aims to accelerate product execution and business performance amid rising demand for storage driven by artificial intelligence.

SK Hynix is using Big Tech's rush to secure artificial intelligence (AI) memory supply as leverage for tougher long-term contracts, while resisting funding structures that could give major customers influence over its fabs or equipment.

First Micron, then SK Hynix, join the trillion-dollar club, capping an extraordinary repricing of an industry once dismissed as a commodity play. The milestone is more than a valuation story: it crystallizes a structural debate about whether AI has permanently transformed memory's earnings profile, a bubble concern as Chinese rivals ramp capacity, and a sharpening geopolitical contest over who controls the bandwidth backbone of artificial intelligence.

Global DRAM revenue climbed sharply in the first quarter of 2026, approaching the US$100 billion threshold as artificial intelligence demand and tight supply conditions pushed prices higher across the memory market, according to Counterpoint Research.

On May 26, Xiaomi Corporation reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of CNY99.1 billion (approx. US$14.6 billion) as it confronts a "super cycle" of rising memory costs. Management characterized the surge as a "new normal," opting to manage the impact through "product matrix upgrades" and operational efficiency rather than passing costs directly to consumers.

Transcend announced it will exhibit enterprise solid-state drives, DDR5 7200 memory, and embedded camera modules at COMPUTEX 2026 in the Storage and Management Solutions area, saying the showcase will demonstrate integrated capabilities in AI computing storage, high-speed transmission, and reliable data processing. The firm highlighted that as AI expands to endpoint applications, performance and stability have become baseline requirements for hardware suppliers.