DIGITIMES news - East Asia

Tuesday 28 July 2026

From models to chips: Anthropic chip ambitions pull Korea deeper into the AI silicon race

The push toward deeper sovereign control over the critical hardware stack underpinning AI models is gaining traction following news of Anthropic's outreach to SK hynix for supplies related to producing its own chips, spanning early design planning and key component procurement.

Tuesday 28 July 2026

EYEQ Lab completes 200mm SiC line validation with yield above 90%

South Korean power semiconductor maker EYEQ Lab has completed mass-production validation of its dedicated 8-inch, or 200mm, silicon carbide (SiC) line in Busan, achieving an average yield above 90%, ET News reported, citing industry sources.

Tuesday 28 July 2026

Energy storage unicorn expands in Baotou as China's industry chain accelerates integration

Inner Mongolia HyperStrong Technology is a major production subsidiary established by Beijing HyperStrong Technology in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. Its development offers a useful case study as competition intensifies among China's battery energy storage system integrators.

Tuesday 28 July 2026

China's Yunnan Germanium wins long-term InP wafer order as AI optical demand rises

Yunnan Germanium has secured a major supply deal for indium phosphide (InP) wafers, underscoring how AI data center buildouts are reshaping global demand for high-speed optical parts. The contract could bolster the company's revenue base, but execution risks, capacity expansion, and market swings will determine how much benefit reaches investors and customers worldwide.

Tuesday 28 July 2026

China faces AI compute divide as advanced capacity falls short and lower-tier resources sit underused

China's AI computing infrastructure is developing along two sharply divergent paths. As large language models and AI agents gain traction across industries, rapidly rising token consumption is driving shortages of advanced computing capacity. At the same time, portions of the country's installed lower- and mid-tier capacity remain underutilized because of software compatibility issues, weak coordination between supply and demand, and inadequate resource scheduling.

Monday 27 July 2026

South Korea, AMD team up to integrate homegrown NPUs with CPUs and GPUs

South Korea and AMD have agreed to build and demonstrate heterogeneous AI computing infrastructure integrating AMD CPUs and GPUs with homegrown neural processing units, as Seoul seeks to give its AI chip industry practical reference models and a path into the global AI computing supply chain.

Monday 27 July 2026

Samsung converts AMD and OpenAI ties into HBM4 supply wins

Samsung Electronics is showing renewed momentum in the AI memory race as it deepens ties with both OpenAI and AMD, two partnerships that could strengthen its position in the next-generation HBM4 ecosystem after ceding early ground in AI memory to rival SK hynix.

Monday 27 July 2026

CATL profit climbs 42%, but storage price pressure tests its global lead

CATL reported a 42% rise in first-half 2026 net profit as electric-vehicle and energy-storage battery shipments surged, although weaker margins and intense storage pricing highlighted the cost of sustaining its global lead.

Monday 27 July 2026

Chinese AI startup Moonshot dispute puts US-China AI cooperation at risk

Tensions between the US and China are escalating following allegations that Moonshot AI improperly extracted capabilities from advanced US-developed AI models and accessed export-controlled Nvidia hardware while developing Kimi K3. The model has drawn industry attention for approaching the performance of leading US systems despite Moonshot's comparatively limited computing resources.

Monday 27 July 2026

Samsung’s Broadcom AI chip pact expected to top US$200 billion as Hyundai expands robotics push

Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor Group used the San Francisco AI Summit to outline separate artificial intelligence (AI) expansion plans spanning semiconductors, autonomous driving and robotics.

Monday 27 July 2026

Apple reportedly seeks 20% iPhone 18 OLED price cut despite costlier M16 panels

Apple is pressing Samsung Display (SDC) and LG Display (LGD) for steep price reductions on OLED panels for the iPhone 18 series as rising memory and storage costs increase handset production expenses.

Monday 27 July 2026

Weekly news roundup: Samsung and SK Hynix favor DDR5, Intel accelerates 18A, Alibaba deepens CXMT ties

AI infrastructure, memory and advanced chipmaking led this week's tech agenda, with Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix, CXMT, Alibaba and Foxconn reshaping capacity and supply chains. Below are the most-read DIGITIMES stories from the week of July 20-26, 2026.

Monday 27 July 2026

CXMT's US$8.6 billion IPO sets off new spending cycle across China's DRAM supply chain

China's leading DRAM producer CXMT listed on Shanghai's STAR Market on July 27 after raising about CNY57.9 billion (approx. US$8.6 billion), the board's largest initial public offering to date. The deal gives the memory chipmaker fresh capital to expand capacity, develop advanced processes and accelerate new products, while creating a substantial demand pipeline for China's semiconductor equipment, materials, packaging and memory-module suppliers.

Monday 27 July 2026

DeepSeek reportedly pauses second funding round amid market and geopolitical scrutiny

Chinese artificial intelligence pioneer DeepSeek has verbally informed prospective investors that it is suspending its second fundraising round, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. The unexpected halt comes just days after leaked transcripts attributed to founder Liang Wenfeng sparked widespread online discussion about China's reliance on US hardware and its technological lag relative to American rivals.

Monday 27 July 2026

Samsung bolsters energy team as chip projects test power supply

Samsung Group is recruiting current and former government energy officials for its in-house think tank as electricity infrastructure emerges as a key issue for its semiconductor expansion in Yongin and the proposed Honam chip cluster.

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