CONNECT WITH US
Thursday 27 August 2026
Washington's silicon-anode bet tests whether battery innovation can break China's graphite grip
The years-long tug-of-war between the US and China has witnessed a head-on showdown over technological might, as stringent export controls and tightening restrictions continue to push the world's two largest economies into increasingly tense competition across critical technology infrastructure.
LATEST STORIES
Friday 28 August 2026
Renesas opens physical AI and robotics lab in Beijing
Renesas Electronics has opened a physical AI and robotics lab in Beijing, a move that could speed the development of safer, smarter machines for factories, logistics, and homes worldwide. The facility is designed to help customers test, validate, and co-develop robotic systems as physical AI shifts from concept to real-world deployment.
Friday 28 August 2026
Honor Robot Phone enters mass production, making robotics central to its premium AI strategy
More than a year after Honor first debated the idea internally, its Robot Phone has moved from a contentious concept to a mass-produced commercial product. But the significance of the device extends beyond creating a smartphone with an unconventional form factor.
Friday 28 August 2026
IntelliEPI says Japan substrate outage hit 2Q26 revenue
IntelliEPI said on August 27 that revenue in the second quarter of 2026 was pressured after a Japanese substrate supplier shut down for nearly three weeks during the Golden Week holiday, reducing InP substrate availability and limiting indium phosphide production. The compound semiconductor epitaxy maker said demand for InP products tied to high-speed optical communications in AI data centers remained strong, and that substrate supply, not market demand, was the main short-term constraint.
Friday 28 August 2026
China rises to No. 2 in global CMOS image sensors, overtaking Korea with 21% share
China's CMOS image sensor industry is gaining ground beyond smartphones, with robotics emerging as one of the latest areas where domestic suppliers are linking sensor technology with higher-level perception systems.
Friday 28 August 2026
China's humanoid boom hits its next bottleneck: making robots measurable, interoperable and safe
Capital interest in China has become unusually concentrated on robotics following a state-backed commitment to redirect sizable portions of tech-related incentives from a perfectly mature EV market toward the robotics sector. Since the policy took effect, robot-oriented technologies have surged, with embodied intelligence emerging as one of the most prominent areas of development.
Friday 28 August 2026
China reshapes helium supply chain as semiconductor demand rises and import risks persist
China is accelerating efforts to secure helium supplies as semiconductor manufacturing, commercial space launches, and medical imaging lift demand for a resource the country still imports heavily.
Friday 28 August 2026
China's industrial reboot: AI, chips, robotics and 6G define next five years
China is setting out a five-year industrial strategy centred on artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, 6G, robotics and advanced manufacturing, seeking to strengthen the country's manufacturing base while turning emerging technologies into new growth engines.
Friday 28 August 2026
Regulators fast-track lithium battery M&As as China shifts from capacity expansion to consolidation
China's lithium battery industry is shifting from an era of aggressive capacity expansion toward consolidation, as regulators rapidly clear deals aimed at revitalizing existing assets and closing gaps across the supply chain. The unconditional approval of six recent transactions involving batteries, energy storage, and new-energy materials — including one cleared in just 10 days — signals that Beijing sees mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as an increasingly important tool for restructuring an industry squeezed by overcapacity and price wars.
Thursday 27 August 2026
Trump declares emergency over foreign grid equipment, likely eyeing Chinese power hardware
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 26 declaring a national emergency over the security of America's electrical grid. It restricts the purchase, import, and installation of certain foreign-made "bulk-power system" equipment on cybersecurity and national-security grounds.
Thursday 27 August 2026
MiniMax revenue surges 283% as enterprise adoption increases
Chinese AI startup MiniMax Group reported a 283.1% increase in revenue, rising from US$30.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2025, to US$116.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2026. This growth was primarily driven by the continued expansion of its global user base, surging demand for model inference, and the company's ability to translate model advancements into commercial products and services for global enterprises, developers, and individual users.
Thursday 27 August 2026
Rebellions targets 100-plus NPU racks as UK steps up chip spending
Rebellions is pursuing deployment of more than 100 NPU-based computing racks in the UK through a partnership with British AI infrastructure startup Callosum, giving the South Korean chipmaker a potential entry point into Europe's emerging sovereign computing market.
Thursday 27 August 2026
Japan bets on launch frequency as H3 moves from national program to commercial contender
The current aerospace landscape is increasingly marked by a push into satellite connectivity and space-based infrastructure, as SpaceX daringly edges deeper into the more intricate layers underpinning the construction of a proprietary space economy.
Thursday 27 August 2026
Malaysia's charging shortfall opens the door for Chinese hardware players
Southeast Asia's EV market is expected to reach US$23.58 billion by 2031, with a 2026-2031 CAGR of 31.55%. But Malaysia's charging infrastructure is falling well behind government targets, creating an opening for Chinese hardware suppliers.
Thursday 27 August 2026
HBM hybrid bonding delayed by 300°C heat and CMP dishing
As high-bandwidth memory (HBM) stack counts continue to rise, the industry originally anticipated that hybrid bonding (HB), a next-generation packaging solution, would be officially introduced with HBM5. However, process control challenges and cost barriers are threatening to delay that timeline. Simultaneously, thermal management is emerging as the central bottleneck for the memory sector.
Thursday 27 August 2026
Commentary: YMTC's high-profile IPO masks three long-term hurdles
Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) has officially kicked off its STAR Market IPO process. In the first quarter of 2026, China's largest 3D NAND Flash manufacturer delivered an impressive performance, generating CNY47.042 billion (approx. US$7 billion) in revenue and CNY33.379 billion (approx. US$5 billion) in net profit attributable to the parent company. Remarkably, its profit in a single quarter eclipsed its cumulative net earnings from prior years. This has turned YMTC's CNY33 billion (approx. US$4.9 billion) fundraising plan into one of the most anticipated semiconductor IPO in China since ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT).