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Friday 3 July 2026
Renesas trims chip portfolio to focus on AI servers and EVs

Renesas Electronics has completed the sale of its timing device business to US fabless semiconductor specialist SiTime, tightening its portfolio around AI servers, electric vehicles, embedded computing and software-led chip design.

Friday 3 July 2026
Seoul seeks Kumamoto's chip playbook, but Japan's model isn't easy to copy

As South Korea moves to accelerate a new semiconductor cluster in the country's southwest, ruling-party officials have returned to one comparison: Kumamoto.

Friday 3 July 2026
UBTech CEO says robots will take over most physical jobs in 20 years
UBtech Robotics founder and CEO Jian Zhou said at the company's 2026 global launch event that humanoid robots will gradually take over most physical and repetitive work within the next 20 years, as China's labor-intensive manufacturing sector faces mounting worker shortages and rising costs.
Friday 3 July 2026
Chinese power chip price hikes lift Taiwanese suppliers
Inflationary pressures are hitting the semiconductor supply chain in 2026 as Chinese power device makers raise prices, while Taiwan-based firms say their flexibility, quality, and service advantages are becoming more visible as the search for non-China supply chains gains momentum.
Friday 3 July 2026
Samsung's HBM4E yield tops 70%, sharpening AI memory race with SK Hynix and Micron
Samsung Electronics is moving closer to commercialising HBM4E, its seventh-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM), after internal testing showed reliability yields above 70%, strengthening its bid to gain ground in the AI memory market.
Friday 3 July 2026
Huawei's Ascend AI chips target South Korea in new Nvidia challenge

Huawei is reportedly preparing to launch its AI chips in South Korea for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2026, as rising demand for AI infrastructure opens a new market for alternatives to Nvidia-based systems.

Friday 3 July 2026
Innoscience says Infineon removed disputed GaN products from Shanghai trade show after patent challenge
Chinese gallium nitride (GaN) chipmaker Innoscience said on July 2 via its official WeChat account that certain GaN products from Infineon Technologies displayed at electronica China 2026 were covered by an ongoing patent dispute and had already been barred from sale under a Chinese court ruling. According to Innoscience, after its representatives identified the products during the exhibition and raised objections, the disputed exhibits were removed from Infineon's booth.
Friday 3 July 2026
South Korea battery industry urges tax reform as US, Europe rules bite
The South Korean government treats batteries as a strategic asset tied to national economic and energy security, but industry leaders say the growth and survival of South Korea's companies now depend almost entirely on regulatory shifts in the US and Europe amid fierce competition from China. They are calling for urgent, concrete tax support at home, especially a direct refund system that would also benefit loss-making companies.
Friday 3 July 2026
Apple's iPhone slips in China as local brands hold off challenge
Apple's iPhone lost momentum in China in the first five months of 2026, while domestic smartphone brands largely preserved their home-market advantage. The shift came as volatile memory prices, changing pricing strategies and government subsidies made competition in China's handset market harder to predict.
Thursday 2 July 2026
China power chip makers raise prices, exposing AI server squeeze on mature-node supply

China's power semiconductor makers are entering a broader price-hike cycle, as AI server demand, raw material inflation, and tight mature-node capacity force suppliers to defend margins after years of low-end price wars.

Thursday 2 July 2026
South Korea plans CIA-style fund to build its own Palantir

South Korea plans to set up a government-backed venture fund modeled on the CIA's In-Q-Tel, betting that direct state investment can help produce homegrown security-technology companies in fields such as AI, drones, cyber defense and aerospace.

Thursday 2 July 2026
SoftBank leads Japan's sovereign AI push, with Foxconn eyeing the compute backbone

Japan's sovereign AI push is moving from policy ambition to industrial buildout, with SoftBank-backed Noetra at the center, and Foxconn emerging as a likely infrastructure partner. Backed by substantial public funding, the program signals Tokyo's intent to treat compute capacity, data centers, and domestic control over AI systems as strategic priorities.

Thursday 2 July 2026
Huawei raises prices despite China smartphone gains, exposing AI cost squeeze
Huawei's planned July price increase shows that China's smartphone cost crunch has moved from supplier negotiations to consumer pricing, even for a domestic brand gaining market share.
Thursday 2 July 2026
Sovereign connectivity race accelerates: Japan readies subsidy for Rakuten-led satellite network

Japan is preparing to support a Rakuten-led low-Earth orbit satellite communications project, as the country looks to reduce reliance on foreign satellite networks and build a domestic direct-to-mobile connectivity layer for disasters, remote areas, and future digital infrastructure.

Wednesday 1 July 2026
Samsung, SK Hynix southwest fab plans put Gwangju's silicon photonics ambitions in focus
Samsung Electronics' and SK Hynix's planned memory investments in South Korea's southwest have mostly been viewed as a push to balance regional development and tap into local renewable energy.