Where will China's electronics manufacturing industry find growth over the next five years? The answer is taking shape in the 15th Five-Year Plan for the sector, released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC): industry revenue is targeted to exceed CNY30 trillion (US$4.47 trillion) by 2030.
The logic die at the bottom of a high-bandwidth memory (HBM) stack has become the semiconductor industry's newest contested territory. Within weeks, SK Hynix has been reported to be weighing Intel alongside TSMC, Samsung Electronics has been reported to be pairing its own foundry with TSMC, and Micron has confirmed that TSMC will manufacture its next-generation base die. What began as a single-vendor arrangement is turning into a multi-front sourcing contest — and the assumption that a second source automatically means a cheaper one is already being challenged.
South Korea's neural processing unit (NPU) startups are moving from chip development toward commercial deployment, but limited experience operating at scale remains a major hurdle to winning global customers.
Star Shining, an AUO Group affiliate, signed an IPO advisory agreement with Cathay Securities on September 15, formally starting its capital markets process in Taiwan. The renewable energy developer said it is targeting a listing in 2028 after building and managing 676MW of renewable energy capacity.
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) held its ITRI Innovation Day on September 15 in Tainan, Taiwan, bringing together research groups and startup teams to highlight 25 cross-disciplinary technologies in AI, smart robotics, and unmanned vehicles. The event was designed to move more research and development results into industrial use through demonstrations, business matchmaking, and an innovation market.
Taiwan's smaller IC design firms posted a strong revenue recovery in the first half of 2026, but the gains may prove difficult to extend. DIGITIMES said higher prices and early customer buying lifted sales, even as consumer demand remained soft. The second half now looks exposed to weaker momentum.
SK Hynix is reportedly considering Intel as an additional manufacturing source for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) base dies beginning with the HBM4E generation, a move that could reduce its reliance on TSMC and give the memory maker greater supply and cost flexibility.
Murata Manufacturing is considering a new, potentially larger expansion of multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) capacity beyond its existing investment plans, as demand from AI servers is expected to remain strong through the end of the decade.
AI servers are reshaping the global multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) market. Murata Manufacturing and Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) are steering limited capacity toward high-value server components, tightening conventional supply, lifting prices, and creating an opening for Chinese suppliers in PCs.
Unigroup Guoxin Microelectronics plans to acquire WeEn Semiconductors for CNY1.9 billion (≈ US$283 million), giving the Chinese specialty IC supplier in-house wafer manufacturing and a faster route into power semiconductors.
South Korea is updating its artificial intelligence security guidance as companies deploy AI agents capable of operating with limited human supervision, while Microsoft is proposing model-level rules requiring its systems to remain subject to human interruption and shutdown.
BYD is lining up solid-state batteries, faster charging, and higher-level automated driving around 2027, potentially removing several of the remaining barriers separating electric vehicles from gasoline cars.
