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Thursday 8 January 2026
China reportedly tells firms to pause Nvidia H200 orders to push domestic AI chips
Chinese authorities have reportedly asked domestic tech companies to halt orders for Nvidia's H200 AI chips, according to Reuters, signaling tighter oversight even as US export licenses near completion. The move reflects Beijing's broader push to prioritize domestic semiconductor development while managing foreign chip adoption.
Thursday 8 January 2026
CES 2026: Snapdragon X2 Plus strengthens Qualcomm's AI PC push as power efficiency becomes a key battleground
Qualcomm Inc. introduced its Snapdragon X2 Plus platform at CES 2026, the newest addition to the Snapdragon X series aimed at professionals, emerging creators, and regular users. The platform promises fast, responsive performance, along with multi-day battery life and portability, addressing diverse computing needs.
Thursday 8 January 2026
Samsung Electronics posts sharp profit rebound in fourth quarter on AI-driven memory demand
Samsung Electronics reported a strong rebound in profitability in the fourth quarter of 2025, supported by rising memory chip prices and sustained global demand from AI data center operators, according to its preliminary consolidated financial results released under fair disclosure rules.
Thursday 8 January 2026
Huawei's Ascend 950 tests South Korea's AI market
Huawei has signalled a renewed push into South Korea's AI infrastructure market, outlining plans to introduce its next-generation AI processor — widely expected to be the Ascend 950 — packaged with an end-to-end stack spanning hardware, software, networking, and storage.
Thursday 8 January 2026
RISC-V's rise: A third CPU ecosystem in 5-10 years?
Bao Yungang, vice director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Computing Technology and chief scientist at the Beijing Open Source Chip Academy, predicts RISC-V will become the world's third mainstream CPU ecosystem alongside x86 and Arm within five to ten years.
Wednesday 7 January 2026
Marvell to acquire XConn to expand PCIe and CXL switching portfolio
Marvell Technology has agreed to acquire XConn Technologies to strengthen its position in PCIe, CXL, and UALink switching for AI data center infrastructure, as demand grows for scale-up connectivity in multi-rack accelerator systems.
Wednesday 7 January 2026
CES 2026: AMD's Lisa Su predicts YottaScale compute to be turning point
AMD CEO Lisa Su stated at CES 2026 that the industry has officially entered the "YottaScale" era, marking a shift toward new performance benchmarks. In an interview with CNBC, Su also explained that AI has not slowed the company's hiring pace, that AMD is actively recruiting and prioritizing candidates who are "AI forward."
Wednesday 7 January 2026
CES 2026: Nvidia CEO spotlights humanoid robots, supply chain cites training gaps

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang used his CES 2026 keynote to focus on agentic AI and Physical AI, outlining how the company is extending AI into systems that operate in the physical world. Supply-chain sources said that humanoid robots are viewed as one development direction for Physical AI, with implications for high-performance microcontrollers; however, training remains constrained by scarce and fragmented data.

Wednesday 7 January 2026
Nvidia CEO downplays memory supply concerns, highlights exclusive use of HBM4
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang addressed concerns regarding recent memory supply shortages during a press conference at CES 2026, stating that Nvidia will be the exclusive consumer of sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) in the near term. Huang expressed confidence that this exclusivity will provide Nvidia with strategic advantages.
Wednesday 7 January 2026
H200 shipments to China set to start with low-profile approach, says CEO Jensen Huang
Nvidia has expressed optimism about resuming sales of its H200 AI chips to China, while stressing that any return to the market will proceed quietly, without public announcements or regulatory fanfare.
Wednesday 7 January 2026
CES 2026: Nvidia and AMD deliver underwhelming speeches
The day before the opening of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2026) in Las Vegas, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) each held keynote speeches. Like Computex, Nvidia hosted its keynote and showcase independently outside the exhibition venue, while AMD served as CES's first official keynote speaker. There was a clear sense of rivalry between the two, with each having a unique approach and style.
Tuesday 6 January 2026
CES 2026: AMD enlists OpenAI and Fei-Fei Li to unveil new AI roadmap

AMD CEO Lisa Su kicked off the CES 2026 keynote sessions by establishing a singular, dominant theme: Artificial Intelligence. Taking the stage, Su emphasized that AI adoption is outpacing the rise of the internet, driving a hundredfold surge in global compute demand in just three years.

Tuesday 6 January 2026
CES 2026: Intel's 18A Panther Lake narrows the gap between iGPUs and discrete graphics
At CES 2026, Intel unveiled its first mobile processor built on the 18A advanced process node, the Core Ultra Series 3, code-named Panther Lake. The launch marks Intel's first large-scale production of 18A chips at Fab 52 in Chandler, Arizona, a milestone seen as critical to reviving its mobile PC business. The debut also served as a direct response to lingering market doubts over Intel's process-node execution, signalling renewed confidence in its next-generation manufacturing roadmap.​
Tuesday 6 January 2026
Drone boom drives shift to higher-end flight controllers

Rising use of commercial drones in logistics, energy inspection, surveying, and infrastructure monitoring is reshaping demand for microcontrollers and edge-computing components. The shift is pushing suppliers beyond basic motor control and toward higher-performance flight systems.

Tuesday 6 January 2026
CES 2026: Qualcomm unveils Dragonwing IQ10 robotics processor and general-purpose physical AI stack
Qualcomm Technologies introduced a next-generation robotics architecture at CES 2026, featuring the Dragonwing™ IQ10 Series processor for advanced industrial autonomous mobile robots and full-size humanoids. The comprehensive stack integrates hardware, software, and AI to enable scalable, energy-efficient, real-world deployment of intelligent robots across retail, logistics, and manufacturing.
Tuesday 6 January 2026
CES 2026: Nvidia unveils 'Vera Rubin' architecture with 10x cost efficiency, lays out roadmap to Kyber
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang officially introduced the "Vera Rubin" platform at CES 2026 on January 6, 2026. The launch marks a pivotal shift in the company's hardware innovation cycle. Describing AI computing demand as "going through the roof," Huang positioned the architecture—named after astronomer Vera Rubin—as the engine for the "AI Industrial Revolution."
Tuesday 6 January 2026
Nvidia showcases end-to-end AI stack from deskside supercomputers to autonomous driving
At CES 2026, Nvidia unveiled a suite of AI innovations spanning data center, enterprise, robotics, and autonomous vehicles. Highlights include the Rubin six-chip AI platform, DGX Spark and DGX Station deskside supercomputers, BlueField-accelerated Enterprise AI Factory, Inference Context Memory Storage, Alpamayo autonomy models, and expanded DRIVE Hyperion and robotics frameworks.
Tuesday 6 January 2026
CES 2026: Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon X2 Plus platform to power next-generation Copilot+ PCs

Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon X2 Plus platform at CES 2026, expanding its Snapdragon X Series lineup for Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs. The new processor targets modern professionals, content creators, and everyday users seeking high performance, integrated AI capabilities, and extended battery life in thin and lightweight devices. Qualcomm said select systems from major OEM partners are expected to reach the market in the first half of 2026.

Tuesday 6 January 2026
Nvidia at CES: Alpamayo, Rubin, and the rise of reasoning AI
On January 5, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang opened the company's CES keynote in Las Vegas by welcoming the live and global audience, wishing attendees a Happy New Year, and setting expectations for a wide-ranging presentation. With thousands in the auditorium and millions watching worldwide, Huang positioned the talk as both a technology roadmap and a statement about how quickly AI is reshaping computing.
Monday 5 January 2026
Weekly news roundup: TSMC widens 2 nm edge as South Korea boosts chip spending; Huawei eyes memory bottlenecks
These are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories in the week of Dec 29 - Jan 4.
Monday 5 January 2026
Taiwan fortifies silicon shield with 2026 push to set global chip agenda
As AI server and semiconductor companies look set to close out a profitable 2025, recent Chinese military encirclement exercises and live-fire drills around Taiwan have once again highlighted the island's geopolitical tensions. US President Donald Trump has stated that China doesn't want to invade Taiwan.
Monday 5 January 2026
TSMC's CoWoS outsourcing to ASE and Amkor challenges Samsung
As its most advanced packaging lines are operating at full capacity, TSMC has transferred part of its advanced packaging orders to outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) giants ASE and Amkor, rather than allowing customer orders to flow to its largest competitor, Samsung Electronics. The company is instead prioritizing subcontract capacity to relatively neutral OSAT players and plans to further incorporate them into TSMC's ecosystem.
Monday 5 January 2026
Trump orders divestment of EMCORE chip assets, tightening US scrutiny of foreign semiconductor deals
US President Donald Trump has ordered the divestment of certain semiconductor assets of EMCORE Corporation following a national security review that identified risks linked to foreign ownership, according to a White House executive order and a statement from the US Treasury Department.
Monday 5 January 2026
India roundup: OSAT players claim legacy packaging price parity

Indian OSAT players aim for price competitiveness on par with Malaysian rivals, as L&T Semiconductor is scheduled to announce products at CES.

Monday 5 January 2026
Taiwan IC design industry faces intensifying G2 pressures in 2026
Taiwan's integrated circuit (IC) design sector faces intensified challenges as 2026 begins that may push its global revenue ranking to third place, largely due to competitive pressures from the US and China. The dominant reliance on consumer electronics revenue offers limited growth prospects, as AI-driven expansion primarily benefits cloud computing sectors.