As AI infrastructure increasingly absorbs both capital and management attention across China's technology sector, even profitable businesses are finding themselves vulnerable when they sit outside the strategic core.
China has introduced five automotive chip certification and accreditation industry standards aimed at easing a key obstacle to domestic semiconductor adoption: getting locally designed chips qualified for production vehicles.
Rising chip and copper prices are rapidly increasing cost pressure on LG Electronics.
South Korea is looking beyond semiconductors and artificial intelligence for its next generation of strategic industries, naming seven technology fields it plans to cultivate over the next 10 to 20 years.
Amid a global shortage of AI semiconductor equipment, Hanmi Semiconductor announced on August 18 that it will acquire a factory owned by Mercury in the Juan National Industrial Complex in Incheon, South Korea. The site, covering 221,683 square feet, will become Hanmi Semiconductor's eighth and largest production base.
Mobile humanoids became Rainbow Robotics' biggest revenue source in the first half of 2026, while ROBOTIS posted rapid actuator growth and Doosan Robotics expanded its North American automation business, showing how South Korea's physical AI push is beginning to generate sales even as profitability remains uneven across robot makers.
LG Electronics has secured its first order for laser direct imaging (LDI) equipment used in semiconductor packaging, marking an early commercial milestone as it expands into chip packaging.
China AIoT chip designer Rockchip posted record first-half 2026 results, with revenue rising 40.6% year on year to CNY2.88 billion (US$427 million) and net profit surging 61.73% to CNY859 million, supported by accelerating edge AI adoption.
China's humanoid robot industry is entering a larger real-world test of AI, mobility and performance, with 2,056 robots set to compete in Beijing as domestic makers including Unitree Robotics accelerate development of faster and more capable machines.
VeriSilicon posted record first-half 2026 revenue of CNY1.86 billion (US$276 million), up 91.37% year-on-year, as AI computing demand lifted custom silicon and mass-production services.
Chinese AI chipmaker Biren expects first-half 2026 revenue to reach CNY1.15-1.3 billion (US$171-193 million), up about 1,852% to 2,107% from a year earlier, as demand for GPGPU computing expands across AI coding, long-horizon AI agents and generative AI workloads, according to Cninfo data cited in a report by the Hong Kong Economic Times (HKET).
