Semiconductor supply chains, custom silicon, high-bandwidth memory (HBM), robotics, and India's chip buildout shaped this week's technology agenda, with major moves from Google, Marvell, SK Hynix, Micron, Samsung, and Taiwan's chipmakers. Below are the most-read DIGITIMES stories from the week of August 17-23, 2026.
Gujarat clears longer shifts for Micron chip plant
Gujarat has approved 12-hour shifts at Micron Technology's Sanand assembly-and-test plant, while retaining India's 48-hour weekly cap. Micron expects to test tens of millions of chips in 2026 and hundreds of millions annually from 2027. The ruling comes as Gujarat hosts six India Semiconductor Mission projects from Micron, Tata Electronics, CG Power, Kaynes Semicon, Suchi Semicon, and Crystal Matrix, representing nearly INR1.4 trillion (US$14.63 billion) in investment and about 50,000 jobs.
Kaynes Semicon maps next-generation chip expansion
Kaynes Semicon plans to pursue silicon photonics (SiPh) and co-packaged optics (CPO), post-quantum security, and neuromorphic computing under India Semiconductor Mission 2.0, CEO Raghu Panicker told DIGITIMES. The company sees semiconductor testing as an early entry point, has begun test-program and chip-testing work for MixxTech, and is building capabilities spanning quad flat no-lead (QFN), flip-chip ball grid array (FC-BGA), power modules, system-in-package, and reliability.
Kaynes is also recruiting specialist talent, including CPO expertise from Singapore and optics researchers from IIT Hyderabad, as it targets emerging semiconductor segments where global leadership is still less entrenched.
Samsung China sales surge on memory recovery
Samsung Electronics' China sales surged 272% to KRW71.43 trillion (US$50.4 billion) in 1H26, while Americas sales rose 141% to KRW143.37 trillion. Its chip division generated 68.5% of revenue and 97.4% of operating profit, with DRAM share rising to 39.4% from 34.0% in 2025. Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Hong Kong Techtronics, and Supreme Electronics were its five largest disclosed customers, accounting for about 25% of sales; Nvidia was absent.
Taiwan chip growth shifts beyond TSMC
TSMC grew 37.0% year to date to NT$2.87 trillion (US$90.15 billion) in January–July 2026 but saw its share of Taiwan-listed semiconductor manufacturers' revenue fall to 81.8% from 85.9%, as the other 26 companies grew 85.3%. Nanya Technology, Winbond, and Macronix were the main drivers, lifting combined revenue to NT$356.19 billion and their share to 10.2% from 4.3%; Nanya alone surged 660.9%. UMC grew 12.4%, while Nuvoton fell 0.3%.
Aurotek expands robotics and physical AI strategy
Aurotek unveiled its first multi-brand, multi-form-factor lights-out factory solution at Automation Taipei, integrating autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), autonomous forklifts, wheeled, service, and humanoid robots. Chairman I-sheng Chang outlined a three-tier strategy spanning core automation and surface-mount technology (SMT) solutions, functional robotics, and future humanoid robots and physical AI.
The company, which has expanded robotics since 2023 and entered healthcare, hospitality, and food service in 2026, is also targeting robotics as a service (RaaS) to accelerate SME adoption.
SK Hynix deepens custom HBM design in US
SK Hynix is reportedly expanding an HBM architecture design team in San Jose to work directly with major US chip customers on customized HBM and 3D DRAM base dies. The team will handle circuit design, yield and quality improvement, and next-generation architectures as HBM4 shifts competition toward deeper co-design with AI chipmakers. Its Silicon Valley location puts SK Hynix close to Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom, strengthening early-stage technical collaboration and customer lock-in.
Google-Marvell chip deal reshapes ASIC competition
Marvell signed a long-term custom chip agreement with Google covering inference accelerators, network interface controllers (NICs), storage and memory controllers, and near-memory compute, with potential procurement reaching US$120 billion through fiscal 2033. Marvell also granted Google warrants for up to 58.97 million Marvell shares at US$206.58 each, worth up to US$12.2 billion.
The deal intensifies competition with MediaTek in inference TPUs and Broadcom in networking peripherals, while reinforcing Google's multi-vendor strategy to limit supplier pricing power.
Article edited by Ysi Chen
