SoftBank Group's agreement to acquire the robotics division of Switzerland's ABB for approximately US$5.4 billion is a significant strategic move. The deal highlights Japan's increasing dominance in industrial automation and simultaneously marks a substantial withdrawal for Europe from the rapidly evolving, AI-driven robotics race

China's Moonshot AI has launched its Kimi K2 Thinking model, which tops OpenAI's GPT-5 in multiple reasoning and coding tests while delivering lower training costs and full commercial availability. Company executives made a rare online appearance to answer questions, confirming the model was trained on Nvidia H800 GPUs and dismissing claims that the training cost reached US$4.6 million

Samsung Electronics is targeting 2027 to turn its foundry business profitable, driven by expected orders from major clients such as Tesla and the full-scale operation of its new Texas fab, according to South Korean media outlet ET News. The company has reportedly shared this goal with partners while outlining future investment plans

BenQ Medical Technology, a subsidiary of Qisda Corporation, remained profitable through the first three quarters of 2025. The company's president, Michael Guan, said BenQ Medical is stepping up efforts to advance its three main product lines, expecting two of them to see substantial growth momentum in 2026, with most of the products contributing to sales

US export controls on advanced chips are starting to show real impact. People familiar with the matter say China is running short of high-end semiconductors, pushing Beijing to step in and influence SMIC's production allocation. The government is prioritising Huawei and other state-backed companies viewed as strategically critical

Samsung Display (SDC) has reportedly started mass production of OLED on silicon (OLEDoS) panels, which will be used in Samsung Electronics' extended reality (XR) headset, the Galaxy XR. As a key component of XR devices, SDC's entry into the OLEDoS market is expected to significantly intensify competition

South Korean AI chip startup Rebellions is accelerating its global expansion, establishing a US entity and appointing two senior Silicon Valley executives to strengthen its position in the North American market

Huawei used its sixth Innovation and Intellectual Property Forum on November 11, 2025, to highlight its growing in-house technology portfolio and its effort to position intellectual property as a global public good. Held in Beijing and featuring international IP experts, the event also marked the release of Huawei's annual Top 10 Inventions, a set of technologies that reflect the company's ambition to secure strategic capabilities in computing, storage, operating systems, optical interconnects, and communications

Hyundai Motor is reportedly grappling with shortages of Chinese-made permanent magnets, a key component in electric and hybrid vehicle motors, as Beijing's export controls on rare earth materials begin to ripple through South Korea's auto industry

Analysts believe Tesla is shifting from battery-buying to battery-making, as its procurement team is reportedly in active communication with South Korean suppliers of cathode materials, anode materials, and copper foil for batteries. This reflects Tesla pursuing vertical integration to boost profitability and establish a self-contained ecosystem. According to the Korea Economic Daily, Tesla has also discussed orders with a South Korean copper foil manufacturer, with supply expected to begin in 2026

Under persistent US export restrictions, Huawei Technologies has doubled down on its vast patent portfolio and heavy R&D spending to reinforce its standing in global communications and computing. The company generated about US$630 million in patent and technology licensing revenue in 2024 while intensifying investments in AI computing, cloud infrastructure, and international standards initiatives

Infineon Technologies struck a cautious tone on its automotive outlook during its 2025 earnings call, with CEO Jochen Hanebeck highlighting ongoing challenges in China's electric vehicle (EV) market and competitive pressures on power modules, even as demand for microcontrollers and Ethernet solutions continues to strengthen

Chinese humanoid robot developer AgiBot has completed a corporate restructuring that triggered market speculation over a potential IPO plan

Elon Musk's declaration that he is "very excited about chips" has rattled the global foundry industry. His plan for a massive Tesla-built wafer fab threatens to turn what was once a victory for Samsung's foundry arm into its next big headache