China's leading panel maker BOE Technology has recently estimated that its net earnings for first-half 2021 would shoot up tenfold to reach CNY12.5-12.7 billion (US$1.934-1.965 billion), and its major peers in Taiwan have also reported impressive business results for the period, mainly due to continuous supply crunch and price hikes, according to industry sources.

The reason why I am so optimistic about the competition between TSMC and Samsung is that neither quantum technology nor in-memory computing will dictate the outcome before 2025. Even if Samsung is able to make a breakthrough, it will not enter commercialization and make a significant impact until sometime in the 2030s.

Japan-based Fanuc recently delivered its 750,000th industrial robot to a Europe-based client, according to president and CEO Shinichi Tanzawa for Fanuc Europe.

Sales of smartphones in the China market increased 12% sequentially to 25.56 million units in June, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Technology (CAICT).

With COVID-19 infections surging in Malaysia, several ODMs are planning to shift orders from their plants in the Southeast Asian country to those in China and have obtained the approval from their clients, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

Taiwan Surface Mounting Technology (SMT) is currently the only provider of SMT services for Apple's miniLED backlighting applications, but China-based Luxshare Precision Industry is expected to become a second provider in fourth-quarter 2021 at the earliest, according to industry sources.

Authority in Vietnam's Bac Giang province is stepping up efforts to help Foxconn (Hon Hai) fully resume production at its three plants there in the wake of COVID sugres, according to a local eport.

Huawei has reportedly obtained a patent for Si IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistors) from China's authorities.

South Korea's SparkLabs Korea, Daewoo E&C Vina, and Bespin Global have signed a strategic partnership to construct a smart city platform in Vietnam, according to SparkLabs Group.

China-based OSATs including Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology (JCET), Huatian Technology and Tongfu Microelectronics have stepped up their deployments in the advanced packaging field eyeing a global presence in the AI and HPC chip sectors, according to industry sources.

China-based foundries including Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) and Huahong Group have cut back their capacity support for orders placed by Taiwan's fabless chipmakers as they give priority to fulfilling orders from their local customers in China, according to industry sources.

As a top player in the car supply chain, Huawei has established partnerships with many Chinese carmakers. However, one of the biggest carmakers in China, SAIC Motor, has said it has no intention to work with Huawei on building "soulless" automobiles.

TSMC is coming under pressure from the US over its plan to expand foundry capacity in China, according to industry sources.

China-based CanSemi Technology has raised funds to carry out its upcoming capacity expansion project, in which the specialty IC foundry will add an additional 20,000 12-inch wafers in monthly production capacity and enhance its offerings to include 55nm process technology.

China's top three LCD panel makers BOE Technology, China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) and Chongqing HKC will account for over 50% of global LCD TV panel production capacity in 2021, with the proportion set to climb to nearly 70% in 2023, according to market sources.