Vietnamese automaker Kim Long Motor announced plans to collaborate with Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer BYD on a US$130 million battery factory in central Vietnam, signaling a growing push into the region's electrification sector

Chinese customers who had planned to use Samsung Electronics' foundry services abandoned a number of projects in 2025 as US regulatory pressure on China intensified and uncertainty peaked ahead of mass production, according to Korean industry sources. Market participants say conditions may look different in 2026

In January 2025, while the global AI and semiconductor industries remained focused on advanced process nodes and high-performance GPUs, China's large-scale model DeepSeek-R1 emerged unexpectedly

Samsung Electronics reported record quarterly revenue and operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2025, as surging memory prices and tight supply, driven by the artificial intelligence boom, more than offset seasonal weakness in smartphones, televisions, and home appliances. The company also warned that an acute chip shortage is expected to persist, creating cost pressures for its mobile and display businesses

Alibaba has unveiled its in-house high-end AI processor, Zhenwu 810E, advancing its strategy to vertically integrate AI chips, cloud infrastructure, and large language models. Developed by T-Head Semiconductor, the processor appeared on Alibaba's website on January 29, 2026, following an earlier mention on CCTV News, highlighting Alibaba's vertically integrated AI supercomputing framework that combines in-house chips, Alibaba Cloud's computing platform, and the open-source Qwen large language models from Tongyi Lab

China's microcontroller (MCU) vendors have started raising prices, led by Cmsemicon's increases across MCU and related products, marking the first upward move in a market that has been depressed for years

SK Hynix is moving to lock out competitors in the high-stakes battle for AI memory, deploying a "one-team" operational strategy that integrates the chipmaker directly into its customers' design processes just as it confirms the mass production of its next-generation HBM4

Samsung Electronics posted record quarterly revenue and operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2025, underscoring how AI-driven demand for advanced memory has become the company's main earnings engine, even as smartphones, TVs, and home appliances faced seasonal slowdowns and margin pressure

China's optical industry is confronting significant challenges as several lens module manufacturers reportedly plan layoffs early in 2026, prompted by sluggish smartphone sales and intense price competition. Industry sources indicate that the sector's difficulties are unlikely to abate in the coming year due to persistent market and macroeconomic pressures

Chinese microcontroller (MCU) supplier Cmsemicon has raised prices on its MCU and NOR Flash products by 15% to 50%, citing tighter chip supply and higher packaging and testing costs. The company said the adjustment is part of a broader price increase cycle across China's semiconductor sector in early 2026, which began with AI processors and memory products and has since extended to wafer fabrication, backend services, and upstream materials and components

As artificial intelligence (AI) technology advances, the robotics market is maturing rapidly. South Korean electronic component makers are reportedly viewing robots as their next growth engine. According to ChosunBiz, major South Korean component manufacturers now consider parts for humanoid robots among key mid-to-long-term growth drivers

The Japanese government has agreed to become the first international partner in a US-led initiative accelerating scientific research through AI. According to media outlets including Nikkei and The Register, on January 27, 2026, Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) announced its formal participation in the Trump administration's Genesis Mission program

In recent years, data center development has focused on boosting the performance of CPUs, GPUs, and other compute processors. As computing scale continues to expand, the incremental benefits of single-chip performance improvements are declining. The core challenge is now how to efficiently coordinate and scale large pools of computing resources across system-level architectures

Global technology companies, including Google, are increasingly shifting new product introduction (NPI) stages away from China to reduce geopolitical risks, with recent reports indicating Google has begun relocating NPI for its premium smartphones to Vietnam. Industry insiders note initial progress but emphasize significant structural hurdles in this complex transition

SK Hynix announced on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, it will establish a new US-based entity dedicated to artificial intelligence solutions, backed by a planned US$10 billion investment