Taiwan's Kian Shen is counting on chassis, lightweight panel frames, and the Lean3 electric vehicle to drive growth, with third-quarter 2026 performance expected to improve from the previous quarter as July returned to profitability and non-operating income provided additional support.

Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) said on September 7 that it won a 20-year full-life-cycle contract from Canadian aerospace group Bombardier for the Challenger 3500 business jet. The award was described as AIDC's most important recent breakthrough in civil aviation and was tied to Taiwan's aerospace supply chain.

As humanoid robots increasingly move from demonstrations toward factories and commercial deployments, competition is expanding beyond finished robots into the components that determine their cost, weight and ability to move precisely.

South Korea and the US are discussing semiconductor investments in the US as part of broader bilateral negotiations, bringing US chip tariff policy closer to the investment decisions facing Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

The flagship foldable market has reached a pivotal turning point as tech giants abandon tall, narrow cover screens in favor of wider aspect ratios and custom processing hardware. Xiaomi's newly launched Xiaomi 18 Fold brings direct competition to top-tier rivals such as the Huawei Pura X Max and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, while setting the stage for Apple's anticipated entry into the category later this week. For prospective buyers evaluating these premium devices, the ultimate purchasing decision hinges on core trade-offs including display usability and internal hardware performance.

This week, DIGITIMES heads to Shenzhen to cover an expo showcasing the world of optoelectronics, a class of technologies that serves as the link between electricity and light. In today's era of pervasive digital connectivity, from smart glasses to cars to phones, this event is expected to give us a glimpse into the hardware supply chain behind these devices, and increasingly behind the global AI infrastructure build-out.

Chinese DRAM maker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) expects global memory supply to remain tight through the second half of 2026, with AI-driven demand supporting prices while the company expands capacity, upgrades processes and pushes further into server memory.

Xiaomi unveiled its new wide-fold Xiaomi 18 Fold on the evening of the 7th to address demand and competition in the foldable smartphone market. Despite a recent smartphone market slowdown caused by surging memory prices, Xiaomi has kept up a rapid launch pace, including the new Redmi Note 17 series and the Poco F9 series.

The 27th China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE 2026) will run September 9-11 in Shenzhen, bringing together more than 5,000 exhibitors from over 30 countries and regions as AI infrastructure, high-speed optical communications and AR/VR applications reshape the optoelectronics industry.

Samsung Electronics is allocating more than half of its 4nm foundry capacity to base dies for sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4) as it accelerates shipments to major AI chip customers. The share is estimated at 50–60% as of August, according to ZDNet Korea.

Apple's fall product launch is approaching, and leaked pricing for the iPhone 18 lineup is beginning to circulate in China, pointing to higher prices for the company's next-generation flagship smartphones.

Malaysia is evaluating Huawei Technologies' Ascend 910C accelerators as the compute backbone of its MYR2 billion (US$494 million) sovereign AI initiative, which is designed to keep national data under domestic control, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 7, citing people familiar with the matter. The number of chips under consideration remains unclear, and no supplier decision has been announced.

Rising smartphone prices are spreading beyond China, with Southeast Asia already showing the strain from rising handset costs and weaker replacement demand.