Samsung Electronics has reportedly locked up as much as 70% of its memory production capacity under long-term supply agreements (LTAs), as relentless AI infrastructure demand for high bandwidth memory (HBM) tightens the broader chip shortage. In some cases, spot prices for memory products are now as much as 5 times the LTA contract price.

Huawei Technologies increased first-half revenue in 2026 while profit fell sharply, highlighting the growing cost of its effort to build a self-sufficient technology stack spanning AI chips, smartphones, operating systems and computing infrastructure.

A South Korean-Indian joint venture has completed a semiconductor materials plant in South Korea, aiming to strengthen regional supply chains for photoresist materials and reduce reliance on Chinese raw materials.

China's leading DRAM maker CXMT has reportedly begun small-volume production of HBM3E, a step that could ease one of the most important hardware constraints on China's domestic AI chip industry. US export controls have restricted Chinese access to advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM), making local supply increasingly critical to scaling homegrown AI processors.

Humanoid robot scaling is still constrained by price, and Chinese humanoid robots — which command the largest global market share — show a sharp gap between consumer and industrial models. Industrial versions demand high load, high precision, and strong stability, making several precision transmission parts a key battleground for Chinese players and Taiwan suppliers.

India has unveiled the next phase of its semiconductor policy, a move that could reshape global chip supply chains, investment flows, and talent markets. The expanded program aims to deepen local design and manufacturing capacity, while giving multinational companies and developers a larger role in one of technology's most strategic sectors.

China's push to build computing infrastructure in orbit is moving beyond experimental projects, with several initiatives this year pointing towards a more coordinated effort to develop space-based AI and data-processing capabilities.

SEMICON Taiwan 2026 is set to open soon as Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International said AI is pushing a new wave of technology upgrades across the global chip industry. At an August 31 pre-event briefing, the group said the changes are accelerating work in AI computing, advanced process technology, heterogeneous integration, and quantum computing.

China is testing a new route for combining quantum computing with generative AI, moving beyond model training toward the decision layer used by AI agents. Beijing Guoguang Liangchao Technology has introduced Xenomi, a family of large language models that uses quantum annealing for selected routing, tool-selection, and task-decision workloads while leaving language understanding to conventional AI models.

Buima swung back to profitability in the second quarter of 2026 as a recovery in its battery module shipments and gains from asset disposal lifted results. The company said demand tied to low Earth orbit satellites, wearable devices, and other applications helped improve profitability, while margin measures and earnings per share reached quarterly records.

When DeepSeek burst onto the scene in early 2025, it wiped nearly US$600 billion from Nvidia's market value in a single day. By the summer of 2026, Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 had triggered another wave of anxiety, sharpening divisions in Silicon Valley over the growing strength of China's open models.

Ninety-six percent of professionals in Taiwan use AI in the workplace, topping the Asia-wide average of 93%, according to a new survey released by Robert Walters. The report, which covered nearly 5,000 professionals and employers across 10 Asian markets, showed that Taiwanese companies are already using AI far beyond basic tasks and are preparing for broader changes in job design and skills.

Nidec Chaun-Choung Technology plans to establish a dedicated liquid-cooling team and deepen cooperation with major cloud service providers, citing rising thermal-management demand from AI servers. The company also plans to expand cooling capacity beyond its existing operations in Kunshan, China, to Hanoi, Vietnam, with mass production and shipments expected to begin in 2028.

If vision serves as a robot's eyes, tactile sensors function as its skin and peripheral nerves. In China, leading dexterous-hand makers have increasingly begun treating tactile sensing as a standard feature. The shift was particularly visible at the 2026 World Robot Conference, where queues formed throughout the day at tactile-glove demonstration areas as visitors took turns grasping objects and watching real-time changes in touch data. According to Chinese market research estimates, tactile-sensor penetration in dexterous robotic hands has risen from about 20% in early 2025 to more than 60% in 2026.

Taiwan’s manufacturing business-climate indicator moved into the index’s red “prosperity” category in July, with the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) saying on August 31 that a sharper rise in optimism among local manufacturers lifted its operating environment index. At the same time, year-over-year export growth to the US fell to 28.0% from 267.6% in January, the lowest level since February 2025.