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Friday 15 August 2025

Weltrend sees strong 2025 growth on AI server cooling chip demand

Weltrend Semiconductor projects strong double-digit revenue growth in 2025, fueled by rising demand for motor driver ICs in AI server cooling systems and an improving product portfolio.

Friday 15 August 2025

GlobalFoundries folds MIPS into AI, edge computing ambitions

GlobalFoundries (Nasdaq: GFS) has finalized its acquisition of MIPS, a US-based supplier of AI and processor IP, in a bid to fortify its position in differentiated semiconductor manufacturing and expand into high-growth segments such as artificial intelligence, edge computing, and advanced computing solutions.

Friday 15 August 2025

AI boom fuels Foxconn's best-ever second quarter; growth to accelerate in Q325

Foxconn, the world's largest electronics manufacturer, reported record second-quarter results on August 14, 2025, with revenue, operating profit, and net income all reaching historic highs for the period. The company credited surging demand for AI servers and expects strong momentum to continue into the third quarter. However, rotating CEO Kathy Yang also flagged ongoing trade tariffs and currency fluctuations as key risks to monitor.

Friday 15 August 2025

Can Tesla's chip shift uplift Samsung foundry services?

Over the past two weeks, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promoted his company's new partnership with Samsung Foundry for manufacturing its AI chips. At one point, South Korean media speculated that Samsung might even take over exclusive foundry orders for Tesla's Dojo chips originally handled by TSMC, only to discover later that Musk had decided to shut down the supercomputer project.

Friday 15 August 2025

Taiwan's motor driver IC makers capture AI server market share

Taiwan's IC design houses are seeing steady returns from years of investment in motor driver ICs, with demand rising across a wider set of applications and competition intensifying.

Friday 15 August 2025

China pushes back against Nvidia H20 chip exports amid US trade tensions

Chinese authorities have recently voiced concerns about the reauthorization of shipments for Nvidia Corporation's H20 AI chips, highlighting fears that these chips could be remotely disabled by the US. This capability, they argue, could be exploited to hinder China's AI development. In response, reports indicate that Beijing is encouraging domestic cloud providers to shift away from Nvidia's chips in favor of locally produced alternatives.

Friday 15 August 2025

Trump's corporate crackdown: When national security overrides boardroom independence

Since the US first announced reciprocal tariffs in early April 2025, President Donald Trump has frequently delivered "surprises" to the global market over nearly four months. Recently, he took to social media to publicly criticize Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, demanding his immediate resignation. He also called on companies like Nvidia and AMD to hand over to the US government 15% of their revenue from sales of specific AI chips to China, sparking a new round of market turmoil.

Friday 15 August 2025

DeepSeek's R2 stalls as Huawei Ascend chips fall short of Nvidia H100's capabilities

In the 2025 AI arms race, China's DeepSeek has become both a showcase of ambition and a cautionary tale on domestic chip limitations. Founded in Hangzhou in 2023 and backed by hedge fund High-Flyer, the startup's R1 large language model — trained on Nvidia H100 GPUs — gained global recognition in January for advanced reasoning, coding, and multilingual performance, positioning it alongside OpenAI's GPT-4.

Friday 15 August 2025

Asicland, Primemas team up for chiplet SoC efforts

Leading South Korean IC design firm Asicland is partnering with fellow IC design startup Primemas to spearhead an ecosystem for chiplet-based system-on-chip (SoC) platforms.

Friday 15 August 2025

Samsung turns to MediaTek for Galaxy Tab S11, reducing Qualcomm dependence

Samsung Electronics' upcoming Galaxy Tab S11 series is reportedly set to feature a MediaTek Dimensity 9400 application processor (AP), a notable shift from its previous reliance on Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform. Analysts say the move is part of Samsung's broader strategy to reduce component costs and improve bargaining power when sourcing APs.

Friday 15 August 2025

Taiwan gains competitive edge as China faces steep US tariffs

On July 31, 2025, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to adjust reciprocal tariff rates, setting the provisional tariff for Taiwan at 20%, effective from August 7, 2025. According to senior government officials in Taiwan, relief measures have been initiated, and affected businesses are urged to apply within the stipulated timeframe. For traditional industries, China faces tariffs exceeding 50% on related goods, which provides Taiwan with a competitive opportunity to gain market recognition.

Thursday 14 August 2025

Exynos comeback? Samsung nears decision on Galaxy S26 flagship chip strategy

Samsung's Exynos flagship processors may return in the 2026 Galaxy S26 lineup, industry sources say, marking a potential revival after years on the sidelines. Built on Samsung's gate-all-around (GAA) manufacturing process, the new Exynos chips are reportedly closing the gap with TSMC's 3nm products in performance and power efficiency, a development insiders see as key to regaining market share.

Thursday 14 August 2025

Samsung wins Apple iPhone image sensor deal in Texas, eyes Qualcomm next

Samsung Electronics plans to begin producing its in-house–designed high-performance CMOS image sensors (CIS) at its Austin, Texas, wafer fab in 2027 for Apple's iPhones. Industry analysts in South Korea say the tech giant's one-stop strategy, which covers both design and manufacturing, proved decisive in securing the deal as Apple seeks to expand US-based production.

Thursday 14 August 2025

Taiwan's Fitipower eyes PMIC expansion as DDI market softens

Taiwanese IC design house Fitipower Integrated Technology expressed cautious optimism for the remainder of 2025 during its earnings call on Thursday, pointing to continued strength in its power management IC (PMIC) business despite mounting macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges.

Thursday 14 August 2025

Rubin testing supply chain takes shape: Taiwanese firms invest heavily in AI accelerator opportunities

With Nvidia's Rubin GPUs powering the next generation of AI servers scheduled to enter the market in the second half of 2026, recent developments show an accelerated expansion in Taiwan's IC packaging and testing supply chain capacity. Several Taiwanese companies have announced plans to increase their capital expenditure budgets for 2025 to prepare for a surge in orders driven by volume growth in AI GPUs and AI ASICs.

Thursday 14 August 2025

Tencent widens AI chip sourcing as Beijing puts H20 under the microscope

Tencent reported second-quarter 2025 revenue of CNY184.5 billion (approx. US$26 billion), a 15% increase from a year earlier, with net profit rising 18% to CNY69.2 billion. On the earnings call, executives said the company now has several suppliers for AI inference chips, a disclosure closely watched amid intensifying scrutiny of US semiconductor use in China.

Thursday 14 August 2025

Commentary: Huawei's Mate 80 showcases near-100% China supply chain in high-end smartphone drive

Over the past five years, Huawei's drive to localize smartphone components has shifted from a crisis response into a calculated, strategic effort to build a self-reliant supply chain. With the Kirin 9030 set to debut in the Mate 80, the series is widely seen as a near-fully domestic flagship, a culmination of Huawei's transformation from relying on stopgaps to reshaping its position in the industry.

Thursday 14 August 2025

Alchip sees profit dip as 7nm cycle ends, bets on 3nm AI chips for growth

Alchip Technologies, a leading provider of high-performance ASICs, reported a sharp decline in second-quarter net profit on August 13, citing lower-than-expected volume production and delays in revenue recognition from non-recurring engineering (NRE) projects. Net profit for the period came in at NT$1.323 billion (approx. US$44 million), down 9.6% quarter-over-quarter and 16.6% year-over-year.

Thursday 14 August 2025

GMT warns of slower 2H25 growth as tariff uncertainty persists

Global Mixed-mode Technology (GMT) expects the traditional second-half sales surge to be subdued this year, as early order pull-ins by clients in the first half could leave little room for seasonal growth. The Taiwan-based power management IC supplier said it remains determined to deliver peak-season performance but noted that tariff uncertainty, particularly on US-bound goods, is clouding the supply chain outlook.

Thursday 14 August 2025

Commentary: Trump's trillion-dollar shakedown and how tariff threats turned into investment windfalls

Following South Korea's shocking announcement to invest US$350 billion in the US, with 90% of the profits staying in the US, Nvidia and AMD reportedly have agreed to pay 15% of their chip sales revenue from China to the US government. This equally astonishing arrangement secures export licenses from the US government for Nvidia's H20 and AMD's MI308 chips shipping to China.

Thursday 14 August 2025

Global DDR5 market pressured by CXMT's ramp-up

After a strong showing in the first half of 2025, driven by AI infrastructure investments and data center expansion, prices for DDR5 DRAM are projected to fall significantly in early 2026, according to new market forecasts.

Wednesday 13 August 2025

China orders Alibaba, ByteDance to stop buying Nvidia H20 chips as tech tensions escalate

China's growing mistrust of Nvidia's H20 GPU is spilling into open confrontation, with regulators ordering leading internet firms, including Alibaba and ByteDance, to suspend orders amid security concerns. The move comes despite US President Donald Trump's formal approval of the chip's export, underscoring the deep political undercurrents shaping tech supply chains.

Wednesday 13 August 2025

Samsung, SK Hynix eye HBM boost as Nvidia gets China AI chip approval, 15% tariff threatens margins

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are poised to benefit from Washington's reported decision to allow Nvidia to resume exports of its lower-tier H20 artificial intelligence chips to China, which contain the South Korean companies' high-bandwidth memory (HBM) components.

Wednesday 13 August 2025

Taiwanese IC design houses signal caution on 3Q25 outlook amid weak Chinese consumption and fading pull-in momentum

Taiwan's integrated circuit (IC) design companies have released financial reports and forecasts that signal a cautious outlook for the third quarter of 2025. Tariff-driven pull-ins in the first half of the year are expected to moderate customer purchasing behavior moving forward, raising concerns over overall demand in consumer electronics markets.

Wednesday 13 August 2025

US export levy targeting Nvidia and AMD may expand to other semiconductor firms

The White House confirmed on August 12, 2025, that the Trump administration is still finalizing details around a 15% "export levy" applied to Nvidia and AMD's AI chip sales to China, with potential plans to extend this policy to other semiconductor companies.

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