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Monday 3 August 2026
TSMC Kumamoto fab faces first major quake test with chip-material supplies secured
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan's Kyushu region on July 28, drawing attention to the recovery of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's Kumamoto plant, Sony, and other local semiconductor facilities.
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Monday 3 August 2026
Memory makers lift capex as Kioxia holds spending to defend NAND lead
Major memory suppliers are increasing capital spending as AI-related demand from U.S. technology companies accelerates, but Kioxia is keeping investment comparatively tight. According to Nikkei Asia, the Japanese NAND maker is prioritizing technology leadership over a rapid expansion of equipment spending, reflecting caution shaped by earlier downturns in the memory market.
Monday 3 August 2026
Chinese display makers reportedly double down on large LCDs and OLED expansion

China's leading display manufacturers are stepping up investments across both LCD and OLED technologies, targeting larger TV panels and expanding into the fast-growing notebook OLED market as they seek new growth opportunities.

Monday 3 August 2026
MA-tek sells Shanghai unit, expands AI market push in Japan and the US

MA-tek announced on July 31, 2026, that it will sell 80% of its Shanghai subsidiary for about CNY1.9 billion (US$281.4 million), as global semiconductor supply chains are reshuffled and demand surges for AI, high-performance computing (HPC), advanced process nodes, advanced packaging, and silicon photonics (SiPh). The deal is expected to close and be recognized in revenue by the end of 2026.

Monday 3 August 2026
Renesas plans to phase out Takasaki factory production and expand R&D focus

Renesas Electronics plans to gradually end production at its Takasaki factory in Japan over the next two to three years while strengthening research and development there. The move reflects wider supply-chain strain in legacy semiconductor manufacturing and could affect customers, workers, and global users of analog and power chips.

Monday 3 August 2026
South Korea accelerates LEO satellite ambitions, targets sovereign communications network by 2035
As Starlink's subscriber base has surpassed 12 million and rivals such as OneWeb and Amazon's Project Kuiper continue expanding their constellations, South Korea only officially launched its low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications initiative in July 2026.
Sunday 2 August 2026
MiniMax H3 pairs 2K video with native stereo audio in China's multimodal AI race
Chinese AI start-up MiniMax launched MiniMax H3 on July 31, expanding its position in multimodal generative AI as competition among China's model developers spreads beyond large language models into video, audio, and AI agents.
Sunday 2 August 2026
Xiaomi adds SkyNomad N90 and N70 with 370,000 deliveries still needed for 2026 target

Xiaomi has entered China's range-extended electric vehicle market with two large intelligent SUVs, expanding beyond battery-only models as it confronts slowing deliveries, renewed losses and intensifying competition from technology groups including Huawei and ByteDance.

Saturday 1 August 2026
Huawei's Kirin X90 Plus and XE90 power its lightest laptop and next foldable PC
Huawei has introduced two PC processors, the Kirin X90 Plus and Kirin XE90, alongside new HarmonyOS laptops designed to extend its in-house chip strategy across high-performance and ultra-light computing.
Saturday 1 August 2026
Chinese display makers move deeper into Korean cockpits as BOE wins Hyundai's flagship display program

Chinese display suppliers are expanding into South Korea's automotive supply chain as competition shifts beyond televisions and smartphones toward software-defined vehicles, where cockpit displays are becoming a defining part of the user experience.

Friday 31 July 2026
Elon Musk denies rumored Tesla China contingency plans; discussions on supply chain localization shifts persist
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has denied a Wall Street Journal report on an internal plan within Tesla to prepare for a possible separation of its China operations. Despite his rebuttal, the report has still drawn attention to a wider transformation underway across the technology industry,
Friday 31 July 2026
Exclusive: Asian chipmakers' shift to US helium raises concentration risk
Chipmakers in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan have avoided broad helium-related production disruptions so far, but their rapid shift toward US supply is creating a new concentration risk.
Friday 31 July 2026
ByteDance merges Lark with Doubao after AI revenue hits US$4B run rate
ByteDance is reorganising Doubao, Lark and Volcengine around a more unified enterprise AI strategy, combining product development, cloud commercialisation and workplace software as its large-model business reaches an annualised revenue run rate of US$4 billion.
Friday 31 July 2026
Samsung chip engineers eye SK hynix as AI-driven bonus gap fuels talent war
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently appeared alongside SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong at a high-profile AI gathering in San Francisco, highlighting the deepening ties among the companies driving the global AI supply chain.
Friday 31 July 2026
Shanghai rises as China's lithography hub, powered by SMEE, Huawei and rising DUV rivals

China's lithography equipment sector has returned to the global semiconductor spotlight following reports that a domestically developed immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) system has entered mass production.

Friday 31 July 2026
Kioxia begins sampling 1TB 3D flash memory for AI devices
Kioxia has begun shipping samples of 1TB triple-level cell memory devices built with its 9th-generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory technology. The move signals faster, lower-cost storage options for AI-enabled PCs and smartphones, while also underscoring broader supply-chain developments that may shape device performance for users worldwide.