"We expect to see continued overall business strength in the second half of 2015 due to increased demand from memory and foundry customers compared with our previous expectations," ASML president and CEO Peter Wennink said.

Intel President Ren矇e James is among several top executives who announced plans to resign from the chip giant. Three other executives from various divisions will also leave the company.

A former executive vice president at Qualcomm was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison and fined $500,000 on charges related to a three-year-long insider trading scheme.

Meng has 30 years of telecommunications experience, eight of those with Qualcomm, which included serving as senior vice president and president of Qualcomm Greater China from 2008 to 2010.

South Korea's largest family-owned conglomerate, Samsung Group, on Monday promoted the group owner's daughter to president of its de-facto holding firm.

Taiwan announced stricter rules for investment projects by Chinese companies as President Ma Ying-jeou seeks to overcome lawmaker resistance to legislation that would boost economic ties with China.

Dongbu HiTek is not exactly a household name in the foundry business like TSMC, Globalfoundries and Samsung. But Dongbu, a company described by some as the industry's best kept secret, has been sharpening its strategy, honing its skills, and steadily expanding capacity in South Korea under Chang-Sik Choi, who became its president and CEO a year and a half ago.

Applied Materials' board of directors has appointed Gary Dickerson as president and chief executive officer (CEO) and Michael Splinter as executive chairman of the board of directors, effective September 1, 2013.

With Toshiba's existing chip facilities now running at full capacity, the company may spend some of a 38% hike in its capex budget this year on extending a factory, the company's incoming president, Hisao Tanaka, said in a recent interview.

The president of struggling Renesas Electronics said Thursday that the chipmaker is in talks with overseas companies on selling its loss-making mobile device chip operations as part of efforts to streamline its business.

A former CIO and vice president at networking hardware vendor Foundry Networks has been charged with insider trading over the company's acquisition in 2008 by Brocade Communications Systems, the US Department of Justice said.

ARM has announced that CEO Warren East has decided to retire from the company, effective 1 July 2013. Simon Segars, currently president of ARM, will become the company's new CEO.

Xi Jinping was named China's president Thursday by the country's parliament, one of the final steps in China's once-in-a-decade leadership change.

"Led by continuing strength in the Americas, the global semiconductor industry has built on its momentum from the end of 2012 with an encouraging start to 2013, but ongoing economic uncertainty is holding back more robust growth," said Brian Toohey, president and CEO of Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

The board of directors of Toshiba has nominated Hisao Tanaka, corporate senior executive VP of Toshiba, for the post of president and CEO of the company.

"Today we are announcing the new ST, aligned with the new market environment," said Carlo Bozotti, president and CEO of ST. "Based on that, we have made the decision to exit ST-Ericsson after a transition period."

When he was first elected in 2008, Taiwan's president, Ma Ying-jeou, offered Taiwanese high hopes that the island's economy would open a new chapter. He promised ground-breaking agreements with China to help end Taiwan's growing economic marginalisation.

President Barack Obama handily defeated Gov. Mitt Romney and won himself a second term Tuesday after a bitter and historically expensive race that was primarily fought in just a handful of battleground states. Obama beat Romney after nabbing the crucial state of Ohio.

Online voting is taking off in local elections, particularly overseas. But Americans shouldn't expect to vote for the president on their laptop or iPad anytime soon.

"Solid demand for wireless communications in both packaging and test was the key driver of our business in the third quarter," said Ken Joyce, Amkor's president and CEO. "Lower-than-anticipated supply of 28nm wafers in the early part of the quarter and the overall weakness in the semiconductor market and general economy constrained our growth."

Rayfield worked for the past seven years as the vice president and general manager of Nvidia's Mobile Business Unit where his team created advanced computer on a chip technology and won key mobile industry reference designs.

The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) has announced the appointment of Leo Li, chairman, CEO and president of Spreadtrum Communications, to its board of directors. In his new position, Li will represent Asia-Pacific as the first board director based in China.

Yukio Sakamoto has decided to step down as president of Elpida Memory to take responsibility for the company's fall once its takeover by Micron Technology is complete, The Nikkei reported Wednesday morning.

China and Taiwan have signed their first investor-protection agreement in the latest sign of the momentum behind President Ma Ying-jeou's drive to strengthen his country's relationship with China, its biggest trade partner and frequent political adversary.

"Shipments will start in August," Sharp's new president, Takashi Okuda, said at a press briefing in Tokyo on Thursday after the company released its latest quarterly earnings.

Broadcom President and CEO Scott McGregor said he doesn't expect the CSR technology to be a technical threat to Broadcom's technology. He said Samsung is more likely to use resulting chips for lower-end products, which could impact some of Samsung's suppliers in Taiwan.

Applied Materials investors cheered the appointment of a seasoned executive Wednesday.

The potential for Chinese fabless companies to reap greater rewards are already here, according to Allen Wu, president of ARM China. ARM-based SoCs, designed by Chinese fabless companies and shipped globally, jumped from 30 million units in 2007 to 615 million units in 2011.

Fab 1, the 300mm operation of Globalfoundries here, could be used for 20nm process technology and for processing 450mm wafers, according to Rutger Wijburg, vice president and Fab 1 general manager. Wijburg was speaking to a group of journalists being given a tour of the Dresden wafer fab on June 15.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered Saturday in downtown Taipei to protest government policies ahead of the inauguration of recently re-elected Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou. Participants said they were angry about Ma's economic policies, including his decision - announced after his January re-election - to raise utility prices.

Qualcomm has announced the appointment of Clifford Ficke as vice president and president of Qualcomm Japan.

President Obama's visit will highlight the historic public and private investments in new advanced manufacturing, R&D, and education facilities helping to revitalize upstate New York and strategically position the US in the global economy.

Chang-Sik Choi, former executive vice president of Samsung Electronics, has been named president and CEO while Chan-Hee Lee, former executive vice president of MagnaChip Semiconductor, has been named president in charge of Dongbu HiTek's foundry business.

The weak demand for TI's wireless products such as smartphones and tablets is mainly in its OMAP applications processors and connectivity products, said TI vice president Ron Slaymaker.

Qualcomm said Friday it will continue with technology acquisitions that help it grow but has no specific targets at the moment.