Chinese AI agent startup Manus is returning to independent operations, marking a concrete break from Meta months after Chinese regulators forced the US tech group to unwind its acquisition of the company.

China's leading DRAM maker CXMT has reportedly raised its DDR5 production yield above 90%, narrowing the gap with Samsung Electronics and strengthening its position in the global PC memory supply chain.

Japan has drawn up a plan for more than JPY370 trillion (approx. US$2.33 trillion) in combined public and private investment across 17 strategic sectors, including AI and space, through fiscal 2040, which runs from April 2040 to March 2041.

South Korea is moving to reinforce its semiconductor materials and components ecosystem as chipmakers accelerate capacity expansion and the government increases financial support for suppliers.

Following growing momentum behind large-scale infrastructure buildouts in South Korea, the industry is witnessing an aggressive wave of AI-related initiatives aimed at expanding the nation's semiconductor production capacity. But the broader objective extends beyond capacity ramps alone toward building a more self-reinforcing semiconductor ecosystem across some of the most critical stages of advanced chip manufacturing.

China's silicon wafer industry is entering a new phase of simultaneous capacity expansion and consolidation, with Xi'an Eswin Material Technology investing further in a 12-inch wafer base in Wuhan while Hangzhou Lion Microelectronics moves to take full control of Zhejiang Jinruihong Technologies.

Shanghai-based AMIES Technology has secured repeat volume orders for its domestically developed AST6200 350nm stepper projection lithography system after passing process validation at a leading Chinese compound-semiconductor customer, extending the company's reach beyond its established advanced-packaging equipment business.