China's leaders are finalizing their political and economic agenda for the rest of 2021 and beyond. How the country achieves technological independence and tackles the climate crisis will be near the top.

President Joe Biden's nominee for Commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, said she knows of "no reason" why Huawei Technologies and other Chinese companies shouldn't remain on a restricted trade list.

The European Union is planning to produce its own advanced semiconductors by 2030, part of the bloc's plans to reduce "high-risk dependencies" on technology companies in the US and Asia.

Broadcom shares fell after the company's main chip division reported revenue that just missed Wall Street estimates.

Shares of Marvell Technology fell on Wednesday as the designer of 5G networking chips said supplies could remain tight through its fiscal 2022.

The US Senate is considering including in a new bill to boost competitiveness against China $30 billion in funding for previously-approved measures to supercharge the country's chipmaking industry, a congressional source said on Thursday.

Samsung, NXP Semiconductors and Infineon Technologies were ordered to shut factories in Texas last month after a winter storm killed at least 21 people and left millions of Texans without power.

Shares of Micron Technology rose 1.8% in Wednesday morning trading after the company updated its fiscal second-quarter outlook with a more upbeat profit and revenue forecast.

Globalfoundries will invest US$1.4 billion this year to raise output at three factories in the US, Singapore and Germany, as a global shortage of semiconductors has boosted demand for chips, its chief executive said.

Chinese electric car start-up Nio said Tuesday a shortage in semiconductors and batteries will cut its production capacity in the second quarter to 7,500 vehicles a month, down from 10,000.

Samsung Electronics' foundry in Austin, Texas, still remains suspended after having been shut down by a power outage on the afternoon of February 16.

"Despite our private-sector and university leadership in AI, the US remains unprepared for the coming era... China is a competitor possessing the might, talent and ambition to challenge America's technological leadership, military superiority and its broader position in the world."

As the US looks to fulfill its semiconductor needs on its own, Arizona is fast emerging as a base for the domestic industry's revival. Already home to large Intel workforces, the state will soon add staff from Taiwan's TSMC, supplier LCY Group, and potentially Samsung, as a slew of industry giants eye sites in the sun-beaten Southwestern state.

China's Huawei plans to make electric vehicles under its own brand and could launch some models this year, four sources said, as the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, battered by U.S. sanctions, explores a strategic shift.

Siemens and ASE are developing a single platform from 2.5D and 3D packaging to fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP) technologies.

The US president signed an executive order on Wednesday requiring federal agencies to conduct 100-day reviews of supply chains for semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, electric vehicle batteries and critical minerals used in manufacturing products such as cars and weapons.

Electric-car maker Fisker said on Wednesday it will collaborate with Foxconn on an electric vehicle project and forecast that production would start in the fourth quarter of 2023.

US President Joe Biden is set to sign an executive order as early as this month to accelerate efforts to build supply chains for chips and other strategically significant products that are less reliant on China, in partnership with the likes of Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

Jack Ma's Ant Group quickly became one of China's most powerful companies, and its plans for bridging the worlds of tech and finance were growing ever more ambitious by the day. Now it appears to be turning into the kind of highly regulated Chinese bank that it hoped to supplant.

As an auto chip shortage continues to disrupt car manufacturing, ON Semiconductor CEO Hassane El-Khoury told CNBC he expects a bottleneck in orders to subside by the second half of 2021.

Security researchers have spotted a new malware operation targeting Mac devices that has silently infected almost 30,000 systems.

Looking ahead, cutting edge wafer supply might not be the biggest headache for big chip companies. As TSMC chairman Liu sees it, a renaissance is coming. One day chip design will be as easy as writing code.

As the main paper sessions close out, there were three papers that deserve some attention for their potential impact on system-on-chip (SoC) technology.

China may ban the export of rare-earths refining technology to countries or companies it deems as a threat on state security concerns, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Applied Materials on Thursday forecast second-quarter revenue above market expectations, as demand for its semiconductor manufacturing tools picked up during a global shortage of semiconductors.

Analog Devices is delaying the closure of a California chip factory as sales boom and supplies remain tight, the company's chief executive told Reuters after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

Qualcomm incoming Chief Executive Officer Cristiano Amon said US sanctions against China's Huawei Technologies may help alleviate a global shortfall in semiconductor supply. If Huawei's in-house chip unit HiSilicon can't get its designs manufactured, the company may order more chips from other providers. These limitations will also free up capacity at TSMC, Amon said in a webcast with Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall.

President Joe Biden's top economic adviser, Brian Deese, has sought the Taiwanese government's help resolving a global semiconductor shortage that's idling US car manufacturing plants, according to a letter reviewed by Bloomberg News.

Apple launched its first iPhones with 5G wireless speeds a few months ago. Now it's looking to start work on sixth-generation cellular connectivity, or 6G, indicating it wants to be a leader in the technology rather than relying on other companies.

NXP Semiconductors has had to shut down its wafer fab and assembly plants in Austin, Texas, after power was diverted to residents and hospitals. The same has happened to fabs run by Infineon and Samsung in the area.

The European Union is considering building an advanced semiconductor factory in Europe in an attempt to avoid relying on the US and Asia for technology at the heart of some of its major industries.

The earthquake that struck Saturday night off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, shaking northern and eastern Japan, has tripped up operations for many companies in a faint echo of the disruption brought by the much larger quake that hit the same area in 2011.

Apple approached Japan's Nissan in recent months about a tie-up for its secretive autonomous car project, but talks are no longer active, according to people briefed on the matter. Apple also recently halted talks with South Korea's Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia, underscoring the challenges of finding an automotive partner for its car efforts, known as Project Titan.

Qualcomm has decided to outsource production of its next-generation modem chip Snapdragon X65 and its sub-model X62 to the foundry department of Samsung Electronics, according to industry sources.

A powerful earthquake that hit Japan on Saturday was an aftershock of the devastating 9.0 magnitude quake that struck the same area almost 10 years ago, according to the national Meteorological Agency.

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia, Dagang Nexchange (DNeX) said the national sovereign wealth fund had accepted the bid.

Dan Riccio would help overcome development hurdles.

From bad to worse

China announced new anti-monopoly rules over the weekend - but that's not likely to have much impact on the market for now, argues Bank of Communications International's Hao Hong.

It's nervous about its new CPU rival.