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Wednesday 17 June 2026
Commentary: US delays DeepSeek blacklist, exposing AI export-control dilemma
The US has held back from adding Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, memory chipmaker CXMT, and more than 100 other entities to a key trade blacklist, underscoring Washington's struggle to balance national security controls with a broader effort to contain tensions with Beijing.
LATEST STORIES
Thursday 18 June 2026
NIO founder warns China's auto market could shrink by 20% this year
Nio founder and chairman William Li warned at the 2026 China Auto Chongqing Summit that China's auto industry has entered its "most brutal final stage," saying 2026 passenger-vehicle retail sales in China could fall 15% to 20% from last year. He urged the industry to prepare early as the Chinese new energy vehicle market enters a more severe phase of competition.
Thursday 18 June 2026
Imec, Sony unveil backside interconnect method for 3D chip stacking

Imec and Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (Sony) have jointly presented a new integration method for connecting the front and back sides of semiconductor wafers, a step the two organizations say could support future 3D chip-stacking designs for logic and memory devices.

Thursday 18 June 2026
Japan lasers in on India's Assam state for chip and infrastructure corridor

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to visit Assam in northeastern India in early July 2026. According to Nikkei, more than 50 Japanese companies and business groups, including Suzuki, Itochu and Toyota Tsusho, are expected to accompany the delegation, with market attention focused on cooperation in semiconductors and infrastructure.

Thursday 18 June 2026
BMW opens Neue Klasse reservations early; car business margin forecast unexpectedly cut in half
Although BMW's Neue Klasse BEV lineup is receiving strong market feedback and demand, it is also facing challenges due to weakness in the Chinese auto market and the conflict in the Middle East. It has lowered its financial outlook, cutting its automotive business margin forecast from the original 4-6% range to 1-3%.
Thursday 18 June 2026
Unitree IPO tests China's bet on low-cost humanoid robots

Unitree Robotics is heading toward a Shanghai listing with a pitch drawing attention well beyond China: humanoid robots can be built cheaply enough, and at enough scale, to begin taking on narrow labor tasks.

Thursday 18 June 2026
Clevo PC shipments grow against trends, targeting double-digit on-year growth
PC shipments have been affected by shortages and price increases for memory and processors, and market research firms generally expect full-year 2026 shipments to decline by double digits. Clevo, which focuses on niche markets, expects its 2026 shipments to grow compared with 2025, with a possibility of achieving double-digit shipment growth.
Thursday 18 June 2026
SMIC narrows Intel's metal pitch gap, but Kirin 9030 teardown shows China's chip limits remain

A teardown of Huawei's latest Mate 80 Pro Max smartphone has put China's semiconductor progress back under scrutiny, after analysis showed the HiSilicon Kirin 9030 processor was made on SMIC's third-generation 7nm-class N+3 process with a local metal pitch narrower than that of Intel's 18A chip used in Panther Lake.

Thursday 18 June 2026
Samsung to offer 2nm prototype runs as South Korea pushes chip design

Samsung Electronics' foundry division plans to open its Multi-Project Wafer, or MPW, service to its 2nm process next year, giving South Korean fabless chip designers access to one of the most advanced foundry nodes being commercialized without having to pay for a full wafer run, according to ZDNet Korea and iNews24.

Thursday 18 June 2026
Taiyo Yuden to boost AI server MLCC capacity, resists price hikes

Taiyo Yuden is preparing to accelerate production of multilayer ceramic capacitors, or MLCCs, as AI servers and hyperscale data centers tighten supply across the global component market. But the Japanese supplier is resisting the kind of broad price increases now spreading through parts of the industry.

Thursday 18 June 2026
Samsung said to open fab data to suppliers in AI factory push

Samsung Electronics is developing and operating a data-sharing platform with semiconductor materials, components and equipment suppliers, according to a report by South Korea's ETNews, which cited industry sources.

Thursday 18 June 2026
China launches probe into Beidou infrastructure quality scandal

China has launched a probe into a Beidou high-precision smart monitoring project in Shandong, after reports of severe construction defects at the base sparked public concern over the quality of new infrastructure projects. The project, with a total investment of nearly CNY300 million (US$44.4 million), has drawn scrutiny after its base structures were described as "easy to tear apart by hand."

Thursday 18 June 2026
SK Group tops KRW2,000 trillion as AI memory demand and Nvidia visit lift valuation

SK Group's combined market capitalization on the South Korean stock market surpassed KRW2,000 trillion (US$1.32 trillion) for the first time as of the June 16 close, driven by strength in AI memory demand and a high-profile visit by Nvidia's CEO that reinforced ties with SK Hynix and broader AI infrastructure plans. According to reports from SBS, YTN, ET News and Yonhap, the group's 19 listed subsidiaries reached a combined market value of KRW2,019.6 trillion, a 2.5% increase from the previous trading day.

Thursday 18 June 2026
WUS and its subsidiary keep complementary AI partnership
A recent open letter from the UK-based fund Palliser Capital called Taiwanese printed circuit board (PCB) maker WUS Printed Circuit one of the most undervalued AI PCB companies in the capital market. This has once drawn industry attention to the current business cooperation between WUS and its subsidiary in China, WUS Printed Circuit Kunshan.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
Nvidia Vera CPU strains LPDDR supply as AI servers tap phone memory

Nvidia is expected to surpass Apple and Samsung Electronics' mobile division to become the world's top buyer of LPDDR, as AI servers and AI PCs pull low-power memory beyond smartphones, MoneyToday reported, citing electronics industry sources.

Wednesday 17 June 2026
BOE starts production at China's first 8.6G AMOLED line
BOE Technology Group has begun mass production at its Chengdu high-tech zone facility, a move that could reshape the supply of OLED displays for notebooks and tablets, while intensifying competition in a market where manufacturers across Asia are racing to expand higher-generation panel capacity for global electronics buyers.