Apple has reshaped its display supply chain with the launch of the iPhone 17, adding BOE Technology to the Pro model supplier lineup for the first time. This long-anticipated move highlights Apple's push to diversify its suppliers and could prompt South Korean rivals Samsung Display (SDC) and LG Display (LGD) to refine their strategies

In the first half of 2025, SK Hynix recorded the highest operating profit and the largest corporate tax payment among South Korean companies. The surge in demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), fueled by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) applications, significantly contributed to the semiconductor manufacturer's financial performance, according to The Chosun Ilbo

Samsung Electronics' foundry business is quietly expanding its client roster after securing a landmark US$16.5 billion contract with Tesla in July 2025 to manufacture AI chips. Analysts believe the deal could mark a turning point for the company starting in 2026

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has launched an inquiry into Futurewei Technologies, the US-based affiliate of Huawei, highlighting the company's close interactions with major US technology firms, including Nvidia. The investigation aims to determine whether Futurewei has acted as a proxy for Beijing, using US partnerships and research hubs to advance authoritarian technology initiatives while circumventing sanctions

Driven by strong AI demand, memory contract prices for NAND and DRAM rose sharply by an estimated 15-20% in the fourth quarter of 2025, breaking traditional year-end price decline patterns. Supply shortages led to aggressive procurement from cloud service providers, with high-stack 3D NAND products nearly sold out

Robots and self-driving cars are driving the emergence of "physical AI," a new era of on-device processing that's shifting focus away from cloud-based large language models. According to South Korean startup Maum AI, this trend is creating new demands for semiconductors

China is reportedly probing whether US-made analog chips are being dumped into its market, a move widely seen as targeting Texas Instruments (TI), the dominant US supplier of analog semiconductors

Chinese chip equipment maker Piotech said on September 12 its unit Piotech Jianke (Haining) Semiconductor Equipment has kicked off a new funding round at a CNY2.5 billion (approx. US$350 million) pre-investment valuation, seeking to raise as much as CNY1.04 billion. The deal drew in China's Big Fund Phase III, marking the state-backed vehicle's first publicly disclosed investment since its launch

The US and China are edging toward a framework agreement that would see TikTok's American operations spun into a new joint venture dominated by US investors, according to The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and CNBC

TSMC's successful establishment of a chip manufacturing plant in Arizona has reignited semiconductor development efforts in countries including India, Vietnam, and Qatar. Industry sources note that while the US, Europe, and Japan maintain leadership in semiconductor manufacturing through strong government support, emerging regions are increasingly seeking cooperation with Taiwan's semiconductor ecosystem to advance their own industries

Weibing Lu, partner and president of Xiaomi as well as president of the Smartphone Department, announced on September 15, 2025, that the new flagship Xiaomi 17 series will be unveiled in September. It will become the world's first smartphone equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 computing platform

Taiwan's integrated circuit (IC) design industry ranks second worldwide, trailing only the US. However, in recent years, Taiwan's position has become increasingly precarious due to rapid advancements by China. The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) believes that focusing on two main pillars—advanced chip breakthrough technologies and heterogeneous integration industry drive—while concentrating on key R&D of high-computing power, high-power, high-frequency, and high-energy-efficiency (4H) chips could help Taiwan maintain a lead over China for approximately five more years

Puya Semiconductor (Shanghai) announced on September 15, 2025, that it will acquire a controlling stake in Zhuhai Noah Changtian Storage Technology through a cash deal, giving it indirect ownership of SkyHigh Memory (SHM). The planned acquisition expands Puya's non-volatile memory portfolio by adding 2D NAND and derivative products to its established NOR flash, EEPROM, and MCU businesses, creating a more complete product lineup

At SEMI-e 2025 in Shenzhen, Navitas Semiconductor outlined its push beyond consumer chargers, highlighting its progress in solar inverters, energy infrastructure in and AI data centers