South Korean electronics giants Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are expanding their television product offerings beyond their traditional core focus areas to counter fierce pricing competition from Chinese companies. Both firms are diversifying into each other's market segments in an effort to sustain sales and market share in a challenging global environment

Japan is preparing to designate artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion, space, and other advanced sectors as "national strategic technologies," while moving to require stricter cybersecurity protections at semiconductor plants that receive government subsidies, according to reports from Nikkei and financial news outlet Minkabu. The dual initiatives highlight Tokyo's push to strengthen technological competitiveness and reduce supply chain risks amid intensifying global competition

Xiaomi has unveiled MiMo-Embodied, an open-source foundational model that integrates autonomous driving with embodied intelligence. The research team includes Fuli Luo, a former DeepSeek deep learning researcher who recently joined Xiaomi

Baidu CEO Robin Li says AI will become the core of China's "new-quality productive forces," adding that the company will deepen investment in AI infrastructure and model development as Beijing pushes its national "AI+" strategy

Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has opened a new shared pilot line capable of producing gate-all-around transistors, a move aimed at helping domestic companies develop 2nm and next-generation chip technologies. The facility, located at AIST's Advanced Semiconductor Research Center in Tsukuba, gives Japanese firms access to production-grade tools needed to prototype and validate GAA structures

China's "first domestic GPU stock," Moore Threads, is preparing for its STAR Market IPO, drawing strong investor interest as Beijing prioritises homegrown AI compute. The overwhelming subscription and ultra-low allotment rate highlight how closely the market is tracking China's GPU self-sufficiency effort

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently indicated that the design finalization of Tesla's AI5 chip is imminent, sparking speculation about Samsung Electronics' semiconductor foundry in South Korea as the likely production site

China's semiconductor expansion is running into fresh obstacles as the US tightens export controls on advanced chipmaking tools. CXMT and other Chinese chipmakers are likely to face constraints on equipment investment despite Beijing's push for domestic alternatives. While the government moved early to accelerate local equipment development, replacing leading-edge tools remains difficult in the near term

Murata Manufacturing sued Chinese RF front-end leader Maxscend Microelectronics in a German court over alleged patent infringement involving RF filters, marking an escalation of the China-Japan semiconductor patent dispute into Europe

TCL CSOT began mass production of 21.6-inch inkjet-printed OLED medical monitor panels in November 2025 and is expanding the technology to notebooks and tablets, while Samsung and LG are cautiously evaluating its market potential

The global memory market is once again nearing an inflection point. With AI workloads spreading across end devices, DRAM has turned into the central bottleneck dictating shipment rhythms for PCs, servers, and AI PCs. Korean suppliers continue to curb production and keep the market tight, prompting rising expectations for new, credible sources of supply

Samsung Electronics' long-running foundry partnership with Baidu is facing renewed questions after the Chinese tech giant unveiled a five-year roadmap for its Kunlun AI chips without identifying a manufacturing partner. Industry analysts say the omission reflects growing pressure from geopolitical and regulatory headwinds that are reshaping cross-border semiconductor cooperation

Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC) has strengthened its position in the global NAND Flash market, exceeding a 10% shipment share in the first quarter of 2025 and rising to 13% in the third quarter, according to Nikkei, citing Counterpoint Research. The increase brings the Chinese supplier close to overtaking Micron Technology, the world's fourth-largest NAND vendor

Samsung Display (SDC) recently declared its commitment to ensuring the profitability of its 8.6-generation IT-use OLED line A6, aiming to reach a level that competitors cannot match. According to South Korean media, including The Elec and Money Today, SDC president Cheong Lee emphasized five key business engines during D-Talks: foldable panels, IT, automotive, monitors, and XR OLEDoS. He pledged to expand competitiveness based on technological barriers

Amid rising US–China tech tensions and China's "Robot Plus" initiative, humanoid and service robots have emerged as the next major strategic sectors. Yet even as China's humanoid robotics market expands rapidly, core compute remains heavily reliant on suppliers such as Intel and Nvidia, fueling concerns over technological autonomy