CONNECT WITH US
Friday 14 August 2026
SMIC's pricing power arrives as AI pushes mature-node work into China
China's largest contract chipmaker has spent most of the past two years increasing volume without much to show for it in terms of margins. The June quarter broke that pattern...
LATEST STORIES
Monday 17 August 2026
LG-Nvidia physical AI partnership speeds up as robotics chief reportedly heads to South Korea

Less than a week after LG Group and Nvidia signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU), Madison Huang, Nvidia's senior director of product marketing for Omniverse and robotics, is reportedly preparing to visit South Korea and head directly to one of LG's key robotics R&D sites.

Monday 17 August 2026
China's Vertilite commits US$741M to InP laser chips for AI optical interconnects
Chinese optical chipmaker Jiangsu Vertilite Semiconductor Technology is investing CNY5 billion (approx. US$741 million) in a new communications chip and device R&D and manufacturing base in Changzhou, expanding beyond VCSELs into high-end indium phosphide, or InP, laser chips for AI optical interconnects.
Monday 17 August 2026
LG, Nvidia step up humanoid push with robot data factory

Nvidia's Madison Huang is set to visit LG Electronics' Yangjae R&D campus in Seoul on August 18 to inspect the company's robot data factory and hold closed-door talks with senior LG executives on robotics cooperation, according to Yonhap and Chosun Biz.

Monday 17 August 2026
China battery makers rework costs as lithium prices fall and taxes rise
China's lithium battery industry is entering a new phase of cost restructuring as falling lithium carbonate prices, uncertain supply conditions and higher taxes squeeze manufacturers' margins, according to Chinese media reports.
Monday 17 August 2026
Samsung weighs Giheung R&D line for 2nm HBM foundry capacity

Samsung Electronics is reportedly considering repurposing the second line at its next-generation semiconductor R&D complex in Giheung into a foundry send-fab, a shift that would add advanced-node capacity as demand for AI memory strains leading-edge capacity.

Monday 17 August 2026
Nokia axes 1,600 jobs and Hangzhou R&D center in deepening China telecom retreat

Nokia is accelerating its retreat from China, closing its Hangzhou R&D center and cutting about 1,600 jobs as shrinking market access, geopolitical friction and a broader global restructuring reshape the Finnish telecom equipment maker's footprint in the world's largest 5G market.

Monday 17 August 2026
Fallout from Wingtech's Nexperia rupture: the price of rebuilding China's chip supply chain

Wingtech is entering a sharply different phase after dismantling much of its product-integration business and losing effective control over parts of Nexperia's overseas operations. The Chinese technology group posted a steep first-half revenue contraction and swung to a loss, while legal disputes in the Netherlands and Singapore now complicate its effort to rebuild around semiconductors and a more China-centered supply chain.

Monday 17 August 2026
Samsung Electro-Mechanics, LG Innotek substrate lines near full capacity as AI demand rises

Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) and LG Innotek pushed their semiconductor package substrate operations close to full capacity in the first half of 2026 as shipments of high-value substrates for AI accelerators, server CPUs, memory and data center networking climbed, company filings and earnings materials show.

Monday 17 August 2026
US drone tariff tests whether allies can truly replace China

Washington has spent years tightening controls on Chinese technology across strategically important supply chains. That playbook is now expanding into drones, where the Trump administration's latest tariffs seek not only to restrict Chinese market access but to reshape the economics of the broader unmanned-aircraft supply chain.

Monday 17 August 2026
Apple reportedly builds China-specific AI model with Alibaba as Qwen partnership deepens
Apple has trained a large language model (LLM) specifically for the Chinese market with support from Alibaba, according to Reuters, marking a shift from its previous reliance on third-party Chinese models for Apple Intelligence.
Sunday 16 August 2026
Samsung, SK Hynix HBM4 hiring war drains South Korea's chip design talent
South Korea's semiconductor talent shortage is intensifying as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix recruit experienced chip designers for increasingly complex HBM4 products, drawing key engineers away from fabless companies and design houses while tighter restrictions complicate movement between the country's two memory giants.
Sunday 16 August 2026
China's AI supernode build-out turns more chips into more computing power

China is accelerating construction of its national computing network, and a growing share of new capacity is likely to use supernodes. With domestic AI accelerators still trailing leading global chips in single-card performance, Chinese vendors are increasingly relying on larger card counts, high-speed interconnects and system-level optimisation to close the gap.

Sunday 16 August 2026
TV slowdown accelerates panel makers' shift to IT OLED, UBI Research found

With global TV demand slowing and panel prices continuing to fall, display makers are facing intensifying profit pressure. Analysts say the industry's bottleneck extends beyond low-priced Chinese competition and reflects a broader reshaping of the consumer electronics value chain, with OLED's next growth phase likely to depend on lower manufacturing costs and wider adoption in IT devices.

Saturday 15 August 2026
Research Insight: Unitree IPO reveals humanoid robot commercialization still in early innings
Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics has drawn significant market attention with its IPO. Based on DIGITIMES' review of the company's three-hour IPO roadshow and Q&A session on August 7, chairman Xingxing Wang and the management team provided further details on humanoid robot commercialization, embodied intelligence, and its supply chain strategy.
Friday 14 August 2026
China AI chip demand lifts Hygon revenue 67%, Sugon profit 34% as domestic computing expands

Hygon Information posted a 66.5% increase in first-half 2026 revenue as accelerating artificial intelligence deployment and stronger demand for domestically developed computing chips lifted sales of its high-end processors.