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Monday 10 August 2026
Ex-SK Hynix employee gets 18 months for leaking chip secrets to Chinese firms
The Seoul High Court has upheld an 18-month prison sentence for a former SK Hynix employee who leaked trade secrets tied to CMOS image sensor (CIS) technology to Chinese companies while seeking new employment, including with Huawei chip unit HiSilicon.
LATEST STORIES
Monday 10 August 2026
Commentary: What the DeepSeek-Unitree tie-up reveals about China's hard-tech financing

DeepSeek's participation in Unitree's Shanghai STAR Market IPO was made at the corporate level, not personally by founder Liang Wenfeng or a fund associated with him.

Monday 10 August 2026
FCC 26-50 extends US tech controls to chips, optical transceivers and supply-chain origins

US technology controls are reaching deeper into communications supply chains. Under FCC 26-50, the Federal Communications Commission no longer focuses only on brands or final assembly. Its emerging framework now extends to chips, modules, software, firmware, design ownership, production location and supply-chain control, raising new compliance risks for optical transceivers, networking equipment and ODM suppliers.

Monday 10 August 2026
OCI rides AI, space solar boom as SpaceX deepens polysilicon ties
South Korean solar polysilicon supplier OCI Holdings is capitalizing on its increasingly scarce position as a non-China supplier, benefiting not only from growing solar demand from US AI data centers but also from a supply partnership with SpaceX that is extending its reach from terrestrial solar projects into space applications.
Monday 10 August 2026
Moore Threads eyes HK listing after 147% revenue surge, AI GPU expansion

Chinese AI GPU developer Moore Threads is preparing a Hong Kong listing after first-half revenue jumped 147.42% year on year to CNY1.74 billion (approx. US$258 million), supported by stronger AI infrastructure demand and faster commercialization of its computing platforms. Its net loss narrowed 95.73% to CNY11.56 million, from CNY271 million a year earlier.

Monday 10 August 2026
SK Hynix faces US patent fight over HBM, 3D NAND

SK Hynix is facing an expanding US patent dispute with MonolithIC 3D. A second US International Trade Commission (USITC) investigation covers high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and 3D NAND products, alongside parallel litigation in federal court.

Monday 10 August 2026
DeepSeek takes Unitree stake to pair AI models with humanoid robots

DeepSeek has invested CNY140.8 million (approx. US$20.8 million) in Unitree's Shanghai IPO and agreed to jointly develop AI models for humanoid robots, linking one of China's highest-profile AI developers with the country's leading robotics contender at a critical stage of Unitree's public-market debut.

Monday 10 August 2026
Column: Greening the Gobi Desert—how China built Inner Mongolia's wind power ecosystem

Driven by global net-zero commitments and China's "dual carbon" goals of peaking carbon emissions before achieving carbon neutrality, Inner Mongolia is rapidly transforming from a traditional resource-based economy into a strategic hub for renewable energy and AI computing infrastructure.

Monday 10 August 2026
South Korea charges into the humanoid robot race as conglomerates mobilize

The global humanoid robot race is heating up, with the US and China battling for technological and market leadership, but a third force is rapidly emerging.

Sunday 9 August 2026
Commentary: From free flow to tight control — how tech talent became a national security asset

Tech talent has moved from being simply a hiring priority to a matter of national security. As major economies increasingly tie talent to competitiveness and national security, control over its cross-border movement is tightening. That shift is visible today: Taiwan's Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau is probing 17 companies accused of illegally recruiting tech talent in Taiwan, China is preparing to tighten exit controls on key technical workers, and the US continues expanding semiconductor and AI export controls and research security reviews.

Sunday 9 August 2026
Ajinomoto rides advanced packaging boom as ABF demand surges

Ajinomoto raised its full-year forecast on August 6 as growing demand for AI servers and high-performance computing lifted sales of electronic materials used in semiconductor package substrates, highlighting how advanced packaging is shifting more value upstream into specialized materials.

Sunday 9 August 2026
Hanwha Aerospace turns trillion-won profit into AI, unmanned warfare push
South Korea's Hanwha Aerospace posted a second-quarter 2026 operating profit of more than KRW1 trillion (approx. US$704.9 million), highlighting its ability to expand military exports and aerospace operations simultaneously. With earnings momentum strengthening, the company is now positioning unmanned warfare and AI-enabled combat systems as its next major growth drivers.
Saturday 8 August 2026
Commentary: China IC design rules reshape patent battles

China's State Council has released a revised version of the regulations on the protection of IC layout designs, set to take effect on October 15, 2026. It is the first full overhaul since the rules were issued in 2001, adding protection for photonic and quantum IC designs, increasing punitive damages for intentional infringement, and improving systems for layout design registration, licensing, and rights enforcement.

Friday 7 August 2026
Analysis: TSMC expands Japan footprint with 3nm fab, advanced packaging push
TSMC is expanding Japan's role in its global network as it prepares to add 3nm production in Kumamoto and deepens local capabilities in advanced packaging, chip design and next-generation image sensors.
Friday 7 August 2026
Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala weighs US$6.3B investment in Japan AI data center

The United Arab Emirates is considering investing as much as JPY1 trillion (approx. US$6.3 billion) in a 500MW artificial intelligence data center in Akita Prefecture, according to Bloomberg. Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment is expected to lead the investment in a project that could become Japan's largest data center.

Friday 7 August 2026
SK Hynix commits US$39 billion to new Yongin and Cheongju fabs as AI memory demand builds
SK Hynix has approved roughly KRW54 trillion (approx. US$39 billion) in new fab construction across two domestic sites, allocating KRW35.2 trillion to a second Yongin fab and KRW19.1 trillion to a new Cheongju NAND plant, in a move the company frames as securing supply capacity rather than chasing a cycle.