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Monday 18 May 2026
AMEC-SMIC: China's chip-equipment push moves from trials to scale
China's semiconductor equipment localization campaign is entering a more demanding phase, shifting from proving that domestic alternatives can work to showing they can meet the reliability, throughput, and yield requirements of production-scale manufacturing
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Tuesday 19 May 2026
XPeng introduces mass-produced Robotaxi built on in-house AI chips
XPeng unveiled its first mass-produced robotaxi on Tuesday, marking a major milestone in China's rapidly accelerating race to commercialize Level 4 autonomous driving
Tuesday 19 May 2026
TDK expands bonding equipment investment, launches first mass production of nanocomposite materials
Japanese electronic components manufacturer TDK will make its largest-ever capital investment in fiscal 2026, running from April 2026 to March 2027, to address surging demand related to artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on batteries, hard disk drive (HDD) components, and multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC)
Tuesday 19 May 2026
Lens Technology's Ju Teng bid puts China's notebook supply chain in focus

Lens Technology is seeking control of Ju Teng International Holdings in a deal that could cost as much as US$337 million, expanding the Chinese precision manufacturing supplier's reach in notebook casings and hardware components as electronics suppliers position for a new wave of AI-enabled devices

Tuesday 19 May 2026
Samsung narrows bonus gap as payout split threatens strike deal
Samsung Electronics and its South Korean labor union resumed talks on May 19 in a last-ditch effort to avert an 18-day strike set to begin May 21, with the two sides reportedly closing in on some differences
Tuesday 19 May 2026
AMD gains Beijing spotlight: China courts Lisa Su for AI chip ties
Shortly after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang left China following a delegation led by US President Donald Trump, Beijing officials swiftly announced a meeting with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su, drawing market attention to a possible shift in the atmosphere surrounding US-China AI chip cooperation
Tuesday 19 May 2026
Rising memory costs hit China's OLED suppliers harder than Korean rivals
Rising memory prices are squeezing the smartphone OLED panel market. Chinese suppliers are feeling it more than their Korean rivals, as handset makers scale back production plans
Tuesday 19 May 2026
Samsung turns to health features as Galaxy Watch loses ground to Chinese rivals
Samsung Electronics is putting health care at the center of its smartwatch strategy as Chinese rivals Huawei and Xiaomi gain ground in the global wearables market
Tuesday 19 May 2026
China doubles down on AI-driven manufacturing upgrade
Chinese officials have renewed calls to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) more deeply into manufacturing as Beijing seeks to modernize traditional industries, strengthen industrial competitiveness, and cultivate new growth drivers
Tuesday 19 May 2026
China's AI token boom fuels push for national compute network

China is accelerating plans for a national computing power network as artificial intelligence (AI) token usage surges, casting AI compute as part of the country's next layer of public infrastructure

Tuesday 19 May 2026
Baidu says AI is now the majority of its business
Baidu said its core AI businesses became the majority of the company's revenue in the first quarter of 2026, driven by rapid growth in AI cloud infrastructure, expanded foundation-model support on its model-as-a-service platform Qianfan, and stronger commercial adoption of its Kunlunxin AI chips
Tuesday 19 May 2026
Analysts divided on Baidu's AI monetization as cloud growth offsets ad weakness
Analysts offered mixed assessments of Baidu after the Chinese internet company posted first-quarter revenue that topped market expectations, with some pointing to stronger AI monetization. In contrast, others warned that profitability remains under pressure from rising investment and lower-margin AI businesses
Tuesday 19 May 2026
Samsung, SK Hynix face chipmaking chemical squeeze as China feedstock costs surge
Prices for semiconductor-grade hydrogen fluoride supplied to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are expected to rise sharply between late June and July, as higher costs for a key China-sourced raw material ripple through South Korea's chip supply chain, according to industry sources cited by The Elec
Tuesday 19 May 2026
Commentary: Sanctions reshaped China's foundry sector — just not in the way markets expected
China's foundry sector is charting a different course as the global semiconductor market remains focused on AI GPUs, the 2nm process node, and advanced packaging. Led by Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) and Hua Hong Semiconductor, domestic Chinese foundries have not stalled under US sanctions; instead, they are accelerating efforts to build a China-specific foundry ecosystem amid the AI boom, recovering demand for mature nodes, and a push for supply-chain self-reliance
Monday 18 May 2026
South Korea's A2Z bets on autonomous buses as Waymo, Baidu's Apollo Go dominate robotaxi race

As Waymo in the US and Baidu's Apollo Go in China expand robotaxi services on public roads, South Korea's autonomous-driving industry is under pressure to find a viable route of its own

Monday 18 May 2026
China's car market enters a brutal shakeout
China's auto market is entering a far more difficult phase. Domestic demand has slowed sharply, and for many carmakers the industry increasingly resembles a road with no visible end. Yet from the perspective of the automotive supply chain, two very different stories are unfolding inside the same market