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Wednesday 1 October 2025
China's copper foil sector pushes back against price war with processing fee hike
China's PCB industry has, in recent years, been entangled in a vicious price war, leading many local PCB manufacturers to collapse under the pressure of internal cutthroat competition. This underlying issue is now spreading upstream to the copper-clad laminate (CCL) supply chain
Tuesday 30 September 2025
GlobalFoundries opens Beijing office, doubles down on localizing production for China market
US-based foundry GlobalFoundries (GF) has faced numerous challenges in its China strategy, from halting investment in a 12-inch fab in Chengdu to shifting toward mature process partnerships. The company recently announced the opening of a new office in Beijing, signaling its commitment to navigating US-China tech tensions and domestic competition while deepening its presence in the Chinese semiconductor market
Tuesday 30 September 2025
South Korea's NIRS fire cripples 647 govt services, exposes lithium battery safety gap
A fire broke out on September 26, 2025, at South Korea's National Information Resources Service (NIRS), disrupting 647 government services spanning finance, administration, and other sectors. The blaze originated from lithium batteries supplied by LG Energy Solution (LGES) at NIRS's main office in Daejeon, prompting ongoing recovery efforts, according to Chosun Biz and Seoul Economy Daily
Tuesday 30 September 2025
DeepSeek launches new open-source AI model with Huawei, Cambricon, Hygon support
DeepSeek unveiled its next-generation large language model, DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp, on September 29, 2025, and released it as open source on Hugging Face. The new model features a sparse attention architecture that reduces computational resource consumption while improving inference efficiency, especially for long-text tasks, advancing China's AI software-hardware collaboration
Tuesday 30 September 2025
Richard Yu to lead Huawei's Investment Review Board in strategic AI pivot

Huawei is doubling down on its artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions. On September 29, company founder Ren Zhengfei personally signed off on the appointment of Richard Yu (Yu Chengdong), Executive Director and Chairman of the Consumer Business Group, as the new head of the company's powerful Investment Review Board (IRB)

Tuesday 30 September 2025
Commentary: How a US$20M TSMC tape-out led to Xiaomi's 3nm breakthrough
At Xiaomi's 2025 annual conference, founder Lei Jun spoke with calm restraint about the company's self-developed Xring O1 chip. Yet beneath that composure were moments of risk and suspense: the US$20 million bill for the first TSMC 3nm tape-out, engineers guarding chip samples in an unmarked paper bag at the airport, and the late-night message, "system lit up." When Lei answered his first call powered by the Xring O1, the wave of emotion was indescribable, the kind only insiders could fully understand
Tuesday 30 September 2025
LCD TV panel prices hold steady as China cuts production, rebound expected in Q1 2026
Prices for LCD TV panels stabilized in the third quarter, following months of decline, and remained flat across all sizes in August and September. As the industry moves into the fourth quarter, demand for LCD TV panels is expected to soften. However, Chinese producers are set to scale back output during the National Day holiday. Industry executives anticipate that supply and demand will remain balanced through year-end, limiting price swings; however, a rebound in the first quarter of 2026 cannot be ruled out
Tuesday 30 September 2025
Lei Jun’s ten-year bet: Why Xiaomi chose hard road to chip independence

On the evening of September 25, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun took the stage for his sixth annual keynote, titled simply: "Change." But behind the polished presentation was the story of a company that nearly walked away from one of the most defining — and divisive — decisions in its history: whether to build its own smartphone chips, or abandon the dream for good

Tuesday 30 September 2025
Samsung chair sees humanoid robots as new growth engine
Samsung chairman Lee Jae-yong is making humanoid robots a central pillar of the conglomerate's future, pursuing an aggressive investment strategy that analysts say could reshape the company's revenue profile
Tuesday 30 September 2025
China's Zhaoxin breaks into healthcare: 6,000+ hospital PCs run x86 chips against Intel, AMD

Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor has scored a breakthrough in China's healthcare sector. On September 23, the x86 chipmaker announced that over 6,000 of its processor-powered desktops won a major hospital procurement bid, an important step for Chinese x86 CPUs in mission-critical medical deployments

Tuesday 30 September 2025
Pimax micro OLED VR headsets promise record field of view, face shipping delays
Pimax has introduced three micro OLED VR headsets using its patented ConcaveView optical technology: the entry-level Dream Air SE, the mid-range Dream Air, and the flagship Crystal Super. All feature high-resolution visuals, lightweight design, and immersive performance, with preorders already open. Shipments of the Dream Air and Dream Air SE have been delayed, with deliveries unlikely before December 2025
Tuesday 30 September 2025
New era of vehicle cyber threats puts entire supply chain on alert

As the global mobility industry undergoes rapid digitalization and platform integration, the promise of greater efficiency, user experience, and innovative business models is becoming a reality. However, so too are the growing cybersecurity risks that threaten not only connected vehicles and their automakers but also suppliers deep within the value chain, including battery manufacturers

Tuesday 30 September 2025
South Korea's Rebellions raises US$250M from Arm and Samsung, valued at US$1.4B
South Korean AI semiconductor startup Rebellions has raised US$250 million in a Series C round, backed by Arm Holdings Plc, Samsung Ventures, and Pegatron's VC arm, accelerating its push to mass-produce energy-efficient AI chips and expand internationally. The round values the five-year-old company at US$1.4 billion, according to a company statement
Tuesday 30 September 2025
Non-China supply chain pushes 12-inch SiC into advanced packaging, but China stands to gain
The surge in AI chips fueling CoWoS packaging demand has put silicon carbide (SiC), a third-generation semiconductor, on the verge of entering this high-value arena. The shift is set to begin within the "non-China supply chain," though its ripple effects could reinvigorate the global SiC industry, China included. From SEMICON Taiwan 2025 to South Korea's ICSCRM conference, 12-inch SiC in advanced packaging has become one of the most discussed topics across the semiconductor stage
Tuesday 30 September 2025
US expands entity list restrictions to cover affiliates of blacklisted firms
The US Department of Commerce has issued a new rule that broadens the reach of its export control regime by targeting affiliates of companies already on restricted lists. The change, announced by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), automatically subjects any entity that is at least 50% owned by one or more companies on the Entity List or the Military End-User (MEU) List to the same restrictions