The recent craze for OpenClaw "lobster raising" in China has sparked massive token consumption, with Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) calling it the first killer app of AI agents. In response, Phison teamed up with Intel to introduce a "hybrid lobster solution" that addresses soaring cloud costs and security risks, selling out its initial batch on Chinese e-commerce platforms

Toshiba, Rohm, Mitsubishi Electric, and partners begin talks on integrating Japanese power device and semiconductor businesse

The global semiconductor industry is undergoing a structural transformation. SEMI estimates that in 2025, capital expenditures (CapEx) by the four largest US cloud service providers (CSPs) will reach US$400 billion, more than twice the total semiconductor industry CapEx. When including Chinese cloud providers and sovereign AI investments, global AI infrastructure spending could surpass US$1 trillion by 2027

Sony Group's gaming subsidiary, Sony Interactive Entertainment, announced on March 27 that it would raise the global retail price of its flagship home console, the PlayStation 5, effective April 2. In Japan, the suggested retail price of the standard model will climb to JPY97,980 (approx. US$613), a steep increase of roughly 23%. A Japan-only version, introduced in 2025 without a disc drive and limited to the Japanese language, will remain unchanged at JPY55,000

The global semiconductor memory market is expected to surpass US$600 billion by 2026, as artificial intelligence accelerates a shift toward high-performance storage, according to industry executives

Advanced wafer manufacturing is approaching physical limits near the 1nm node, according to Zheng Li, director and CEO of JCET Group

China's Ministry of Commerce has launched an investigation into what it describes as US trade barriers affecting green products, citing domestic trade law provisions that allow authorities to examine restrictive measures imposed by other countries

Samsung Electronics has backed AI chip design startup Normal Computing in a US$50 million funding round, expanding its push into AI-driven electronic design automation and next-generation semiconductor architectures. The move targets faster chip development cycles and rising energy constraints in AI infrastructure

Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of March 23-27, 2026

NeurIPS' new rule barring institutions on the US Treasury Department's OFAC entity list from submitting papers, reviewing, or editing risks fracturing global AI collaboration, excluding major Chinese companies, and prompting academic backlash that could reshape cross-border research ties, the composition of leading AI conferences, and the governance of global science

AI-driven demand is tightening global memory supply, pushing NAND flash and server DRAM into shortages, price hikes, and capacity constraints. Server memory demand is expected to grow more than 40% in 2026, accounting for over half of total storage usage

India is reporting steady progress in expanding domestic manufacturing capacity across electronics, automotive, and other industrial sectors under its "Make in India" and production-linked incentive (PLI) programmes, with investments, output, and exports continuing to scale

India is recalibrating FDI rules, semiconductor incentives and AI policy while expanding power capacity and attracting global players like Tesla, Keysight and DNP. Data center ambitions are rising amid talks with Meta and Google. However, challenges persist, including rising GPU costs and declining smartphone shipments, highlighting a complex but accelerating industrial transformation