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Friday 22 May 2026
Analysis: Samsung deal prevents walkout but deepens internal rifts over compensation
Samsung Electronics and its union signed a provisional agreement late at night, about an hour before a scheduled May 21 strike, averting an industry estimate of more than KRW100 trillion (approx. US$66.8 billion) in supply chain disruption. The deal eases an immediate labor crisis but leaves unresolved structural conflicts and rising personnel costs
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Monday 25 May 2026
Huawei bypasses 3D NAND limits with 122TB AI SSD packaging breakthrough

Huawei is using self-developed packaging technology to build ultra-high-capacity enterprise SSDs, underscoring how Chinese technology companies are increasingly turning to advanced packaging and system-level engineering to navigate US semiconductor restrictions

Monday 25 May 2026
DeepSeek makes 75% API discount permanent, intensifying global AI price war

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has permanently reduced the API pricing of its flagship DeepSeek-V4-Pro model to one-quarter of its original rates, escalating competition in the global AI model market

Monday 25 May 2026
Exclusive: G2 Lithium battery rivalry heats up—US taps 4th-gen LFP to crack China's patent wall
The US is shifting from ternary batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs) toward lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for both energy storage and automotive applications. This is one tactic the US is using to circumvent Chinese patents. However, fourth-generation LFP technology is also subject to China's lithium battery export restrictions
Monday 25 May 2026
Analysis: Lisa Su moves on China — and Nvidia's CUDA moat
For AMD CEO Lisa Su, the current moment presents an opening that Nvidia does not have. Nvidia's high-end chips have repeatedly faced scrutiny and export restrictions in China, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang only recently confirmed in May that Nvidia once held as much as 95% market share there. That dominance has since been reset, with the bulk of that share ceding to domestic rival Huawei
Monday 25 May 2026
Weekly news roundup: TSMC faces its first real rivals; Agibot claims 100% success rate in factory deployment
Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of May 18-24, 2026
Monday 25 May 2026
Huawei targets AI optical networking with InP chip startup investment
Huawei is expanding deeper into AI optical networking and silicon photonics (SiPh) through a new investment in an indium phosphide (InP) optical chip startup, as rising AI data center demand accelerates upgrades across the global optical communications industry
Monday 25 May 2026
Manus eyes US$1 billion buyback after Beijing blocks Meta deal
Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup Manus is reportedly evaluating a US$1 billion fundraising round to buy back control of the company from Meta Platforms, in response to Chinese authorities ordering the company to withdraw from Meta's more than US$2 billion acquisition deal
Monday 25 May 2026
Samsung Electro-Mechanics secures large silicon capacitor supply contract
Samsung Electro-Mechanics (Semco)'s KRW1.5 trillion (approx. US$990 million) silicon capacitor supply contract with a major global company could reshape component supply for AI servers, GPUs, and HBM worldwide, promising denser integration and more stable power delivery in data centers, autonomous vehicles, and mobile devices as demand for high-performance computing grows and supply chains
Monday 25 May 2026
China's EV price war gives way to rising costs
China's electric-vehicle market is entering an unfamiliar phase: cars are getting more expensive
Monday 25 May 2026
Samsung's China exit shows Korean brands under pressure

Samsung Electronics' retreat from China's TV and home-appliance market is raising broader questions for South Korean industry, as Chinese companies gain ground in consumer electronics, autos and memory chips

Monday 25 May 2026
AI server boom lifts memory interface chip leader, but DDR5 risks linger
Montage Technology, a company that does not manufacture memory chips itself but instead supplies the interface chips linking CPUs and memory, has quietly emerged as one of the semiconductor sector's most valuable players during the current memory upcycle
Sunday 24 May 2026
China smartphone sales plunge 16% around May Day holidays as memory price hikes squeeze demand
China's smartphone sales fell 16% year‑over‑year during the two weeks surrounding the 2026 May Day holiday, a drop that signals wider implications for global supply chains and consumer demand as rising memory prices push up device costs and curb upgrades, according to Counterpoint Research's China Weekly Smartphone Sell‑Out Tracker data
Sunday 24 May 2026
Geopolitics disrupts chips — can Taiwan and South Korea cooperate to hold the line?
The global semiconductor industry is being pulled in two directions. On one side, the cost of building a single advanced chip factory has ballooned to as much as US$40 billion, concentrating production in the hands of a shrinking club of players. On the other hand, US-China technology rivalry is redrawing the map of who gets to make what — and for whom
Sunday 24 May 2026
AI server boom squeezes Samsung Electro-Mechanics' component supply

Samsung Electro-Mechanics is emerging as another beneficiary of the AI data center buildout, as demand for high-end capacitors and package substrates pushes parts of its component business closer to full capacity

Saturday 23 May 2026
SK Hynix weighs opening Seoul office at SK Group headquarters

SK Hynix is reportedly considering opening a Seoul office and sales operation inside SK Group's Seorin Building in Jongno, Seoul, a symbolic headquarters site for the conglomerate, according to Maeil Business Newspaper and Chosun Biz