Groq has reportedly requested Samsung Electronics' foundry division to increase wafer production for its inference AI chips, reflecting the booming market demand. Industry sources expect Samsung's foundry business to boost profitability by deepening collaboration with Groq and scaling up output

LG Energy Solution (LGES) is reportedly preparing to replace cathode materials supplied by its parent company, LG Chem, in batteries destined for Tesla, opting instead for products from South Korean battery materials maker L&F to better meet Tesla's specifications

Nvidia is preparing to resume production of its GeForce RTX 3060 graphics processing unit (GPU) through Samsung Electronics' foundry business, according to reports from the Korea Economic Daily and Wccftech

Samsung Electronics' labor union recently announced that employees who do not participate in a planned 18-day general strike from May 21 to June 7, 2026, will face penalties, sparking widespread concern and controversy across South Korea. The vote on whether to proceed with the strike began March 9 and runs through March 18

The global semiconductor industry is rapidly expanding production capacity, with Taiwan, the US, and China accelerating memory, advanced packaging, and wafer foundry construction plans. Supply chain sources report a sharp order increase for 2026, driven not only by TSMC's large-scale expansions in Taiwan and the US but also by accelerated memory fab projects from Nanya Technology and Micron, alongside continuous growth in China's semiconductor output

China's electric vehicle industry is shifting its competitive focus from driving range to charging speed, as automakers and battery suppliers race to cut recharging times and improve energy replenishment efficiency

Japan plans to boost domestic semiconductor sales to JPY40 trillion (approx. US$253.5 billion) by 2040, a sharp increase from current levels, as the government intensifies efforts to rebuild its chip industry and capture growing demand from AI and data center applications, according to Nikkei

Chinese display maker BOE has signaled that its capital spending will decline in the coming years, raising concerns among South Korean display equipment suppliers that have relied heavily on Chinese demand for growth

AI-generated video technology is rapidly disrupting the film and television industry. The recent AI-generated Chinese short drama Huo Qubing has gone viral on social media, sparking discussions with its near-realistic visuals and extremely low production costs

China's commerce ministry has warned that the conflict between Dutch chipmaker Nexperia and its Chinese subsidiary could trigger another global semiconductor supply chain crisis, raising fresh concerns over potential disruptions to automotive chip supplies

China's draft 15th Five-Year Plan for 2026–2030 signals that Beijing is seeking to rebalance its economic model while keeping technological development at the center of national strategy

Despite holding a dominant position in the memory chip industry, South Korea's system semiconductor ecosystem remains underdeveloped, with the country's IC design market share at only about 2%. Kyung-ho Kim, the newly appointed chairman of the Korea Fabless Industry Association (KFIA), has outlined plans to build a design ecosystem closely tied to actual market demand and to strengthen collaboration with domestic foundries

Geopolitical strains between China and Japan have intensified following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks on "Taiwan contingencies," impacting Japanese firms' access to high-purity tungsten powder. Although companies maintain inventories, urgent material needs from advanced semiconductor process gases and PCB drill bits face price pressure, prompting some major PCB drill manufacturers to consider price hikes

Global semiconductor companies are discussing relaxing thickness standards for next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) as the industry moves toward higher stack counts in future designs, according to ZDNet Korea