DIGITIMES: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

Plug and Play plans $100 million Taiwan fund, hopes one of its next five unicorns is Taiwanese

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 16:05:00 GMT

Saeed Amidi has been in Taiwan for about 20 hours, and he has been asking everyone the same question.

Taiwan carbon fee joins UK CBAM qualifying list

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 08:56:00 GMT

Taiwan's carbon fee has been formally included in the UK government's list of Qualifying Carbon Pricing Schemes (QCPS) under its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), alongside major carbon pricing systems in the EU, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. The Ministry of Environment said the move shows Taiwan's carbon pricing framework is now aligned with international systems and will help export industries respond to global carbon border measures while maintaining competitiveness.

Taoyuan eyes northern AIDC hub, touts Tatan and LNG cooling edge

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 08:55:00 GMT

Taiwan's limited land and heavy dependence on imported energy have made power a scarce and strategic resource in the compute era, putting AI data center (AIDC) site selection on the radar of industry and government. Taoyuan's Department of Economic Development chief Chang Cheng said on August 31 that the city is positioning itself as a northern AIDC demonstration base, with Tatan Power Plant and CPC Corp.'s Third Liquefied Natural Gas Receiving Terminal serving as key advantages.

SK Hynix touts up to 5.15x inference gains with custom HBM

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 08:53:42 GMT

SK Hynix is pushing computation deeper into high-bandwidth memory (HBM), saying a custom HBM architecture that places compute functions in the base die could improve large language model inference performance by up to 5.15 times as data movement becomes a growing constraint on computing performance.

Samsung eyes early 2027 LPDDR5X-PIM production, touts 3.8x performance gain

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 08:18:56 GMT

Samsung Electronics is targeting mass production of its LPDDR5X processing-in-memory (PIM) solution in late 2026 or early 2027, moving the technology closer to commercialization as the memory giant broadens its portfolio beyond HBM.

Safety rewired: AI, robots on the front line at K-Safety Expo 2026

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 07:55:00 GMT

Hard hats and fire extinguishers will certainly have their place at K-Safety Expo 2026, but visitors arriving at BEXCO in Busan from September 2–4 may find that the modern safety industry increasingly speaks the language of AI, robots, sensors and connected infrastructure.

Autonomous driving expands into Physical AI, creating new openings for Taiwan firms

Willis Ke — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 07:55:00 GMT

The autonomous driving industry is gaining momentum as advances in AI, sensing and semiconductor technologies expand opportunities in vehicle computing, machine vision and Physical AI. At Taiwan-based Turing Drive's eighth-anniversary press event, longtime partners Vecow and oToBrite shared their perspectives on the evolution of autonomous vehicles, in-vehicle computing and robotics.

Taiwan chip equipment maker Skytech opens advanced process lab with TSMC backing

Levi Li — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 07:55:00 GMT

Skytech and TSMC have opened an Advanced Process Laboratory focused on next-generation semiconductor manufacturing, highlighting TSMC's continued efforts to support Taiwan's domestic semiconductor equipment supply chain.

Japan's chip materials makers reportedly deepen Taiwan ties as AI reshapes supply chains

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 07:55:00 GMT

Japanese semiconductor materials suppliers Ajinomoto and Daikin Industries are expanding their presence in Taiwan as the AI boom fuels demand for advanced chip materials and encourages closer cooperation between suppliers and manufacturers.

Imec CEO: AI era pushes broader ties between chip, model and CSP players

Charlene Chen — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 07:45:00 GMT

Imec CEO Patrick Vandenameele said during a media briefing at SEMICON Taiwan 2026 that the Belgian research center is broadening its collaboration base in the AI era, extending beyond IC design firms to include model developers and cloud service providers as AI reshapes how computing systems are built and connected. Vandenameele said Imec is well positioned because what is happening in AI aligns with the organization's core mission, but its role has also changed significantly.

AI server demand lifts Japanese capacitor shipments by 22% in first half of 2026

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 07:40:00 GMT

Japanese electronic component shipments rose in the first half of 2026 as demand from AI servers drove strong growth in capacitors and other parts. According to Nikkei and Dempa, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) said on August 31 that global shipments by about 50 member companies increased 4% from a year earlier to JPY2.2865 trillion (US$15.45 billion) in the first six months of 2026.

ASE CEO describes AI resource squeeze as a short-term problem

Lily Hess — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 07:02:26 GMT

AI's early-stage growth is creating a short-term squeeze on land, talent, capital, and power in Taiwan, but there is no such thing as a world that cannot do without Taiwan, ASE Technology CEO and SEMI Global Board Executive Committee Chair Tien Wu said. He made the remarks at a pre-show conference on August 31 ahead of SEMICON Taiwan 2026, which runs from September 2 to 4.

Micron opens Tainan plant after 6.5 months amid labor dispute

Lily Hess — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:55:38 GMT

Micron's plant at the Southern Taiwan Science Park, which it purchased from AUO for NT$7.4 billion (US$233.8 million) in August 2024, is now officially in operation, marking a key milestone in the transformation of its Tainan site. The move comes as Micron posts record revenue and profit, while a labor dispute at its Taiwan operations has raised strike concerns.

South Korea CCL exports surge 42% on AI demand

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:55:00 GMT

South Korea's copper-clad laminate, or CCL, exports jumped sharply in the first seven months of 2026 as AI infrastructure investment and larger semiconductor packaging lifted demand, boosting revenue at suppliers including Doosan Electronic BG, LG Chem and Lotte Energy Materials.

Chinese smartphone brands raise prices as component costs climb

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:55:00 GMT

Several Chinese smartphone brands raised prices across entry-level and premium models on September 1, citing IT Home, Antutu, MyDrivers and Sina. The increases coincided with the start of the back-to-school buying season in China and reflected the pass-through of higher component costs to end customers.

Marvell CTO: power and density bottlenecks are driving CPO adoption in AI data centers

Yunnie Cheng — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:55:00 GMT

Speaking at the Silicon Photonics Global Summit ahead of Semicon Taiwan 2026, Marvell Technology CTO Radha Nagarajan highlighted that the core focus for upgrading connectivity in the AI data center era has shifted firmly to power consumption. He noted that the acceleration of co-packaged optics (CPO) adoption is primarily driven by two critical bottlenecks: power and unit density.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics discloses major MLCC supply deal tied to AI server demand

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:45:00 GMT

Samsung Electro-Mechanics disclosed on September 1 that it has concluded a single sales and supply contract worth KRW1.072 trillion (about US$778.9 million) for MLCCs, equal to 9.5% of the company's most recent annual revenue.

Tim Cook concludes 15-year Apple tenure, John Ternus takes over

Yunnie Cheng — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:42:42 GMT

Tim Cook's tenure as Apple CEO has officially drawn to a close after nearly 15 years. Cook stepped down as CEO and became Executive Chairman, while Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus took over as CEO. The move marks Apple's first major leadership transition since Cook succeeded Steve Jobs in 2011.

K-Safety Expo 2026 to open in Busan, spotlighting AI-driven safety technologies

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:34:57 GMT

K-Safety Expo 2026, South Korea's leading dedicated safety-industry exhibition, will open September 2 at BEXCO in Busan, bringing together companies, government agencies, research institutions and overseas buyers across disaster prevention, industrial safety, public security, fire and rescue, and transportation and maritime safety.

Foxlink, Yongwei to sell Shinfox stake, cede control

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:34:27 GMT

Foxlink and Yongwei Investment Holdings each held board meetings on the 31st and decided to participate in the tender offer for Shinfox Energy, planning to dispose of their Shinfox shares at NT$0.05 per share. The move would strip the Foxlink Group of control over Shinfox and reduce the financial drag from the renewable energy company's losses.

Commentary: DeepSeek out, SMIC in? TIME100 AI maps China's widening AI battleground

Levi Li — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:34:13 GMT

TIME unveiled its 2026 TIME100 AI list on August 27 with a notable change in its China lineup. DeepSeek founder Wenfeng Liang, named among the "Leaders" in 2025, disappeared from this year's list, while Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) co-CEO Mong-song Liang made a rare appearance.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics takes glass substrates to Semicon Taiwan

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:33:46 GMT

As AI packages grow larger, the next substrate battleground is rapidly extending from traditional organic materials to glass. Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) will make its first appearance at Semicon Taiwan 2026, with advanced packaging and glass substrate expert Gang Duan traveling to Taiwan to unveil the company's roadmap for next-generation advanced packaging substrates aimed at AI infrastructure.

BYD's overseas business overtakes China for the first time as price war erodes domestic margins

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:30:00 GMT

BYD sold more abroad than at home in the first half of 2026, a threshold the company crossed for the first time and the clearest signal yet that the center of gravity of its car business has moved offshore. Overseas revenue reached CNY181.3 billion (US$26.88 billion), compared with CNY163.5 billion in China, according to the geographic breakdown in the interim report released on 28 August. A year earlier, the split ran the other way, by a wide margin.

BYD widens overseas lead over Geely, but profits still lag

Levi Li — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:20:25 GMT

BYD and Geely Auto were nearly neck and neck in vehicle sales in the first quarter of 2026, raising expectations of a close contest between China's two leading new-energy vehicle makers. The gap widened sharply in the second quarter, however, largely because BYD sold more vehicles overseas. Even so, stronger international sales have yet to reverse the company's profit decline.

ASML says High NA EUV has reached its first high-volume logic product

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:13:20 GMT

ASML told a SEMICON Taiwan audience that its High NA EUV platform has been used for a high-volume logic product for the first time, a threshold the company frames as the point at which 0.55 NA lithography moves from qualification into production service.

Trymax lands multi-year AOI order as InP laser capacity race tightens

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT

Applied Optoelectronics (AOI) has placed a multi-year purchase order with Dutch equipment maker Trymax Semiconductor Equipment for plasma ashers and UV curing systems destined for its Sugar Land, Texas wafer fab, in a deal Trymax describes as worth several million US dollars.

Tmytek moves toward Taiwan listing as millimeter-wave demand nears mass production

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 05:55:00 GMT

Tmytek is preparing to list on the Taiwan Innovation Board as its millimeter-wave platforms approach commercial scale. For global telecom, satellite, and defense customers, the timing may matter because it could shape supply availability, manufacturing capacity, and the speed at which next-generation connectivity reaches the market.

Research insights: AI Fabric optical interconnects move into racks as 400G/lane and CPO maturity emerge as key variables

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMT

DIGITIMES observed that as AI systems continued to scale, interconnect requirements inside AI data centers had expanded from chips, packages, and boards to racks, clusters, and eventually inter-data-center connections.

SEMI lifts 2028 wafer fab equipment forecast to US$220 billion

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 04:24:51 GMT

SEMI has raised its forecast for global wafer fab equipment (WFE) sales in 2028 to US$220 billion, up from about US$200 billion projected in July, as stronger investment in advanced logic and memory pushes the semiconductor capital spending cycle higher.

Z.ai runs GLM inference on 100,000 Chinese AI chips, eyes overseas CSPs

Levi Li — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 04:07:16 GMT

Chinese large-model developer Z.ai says it can now support large-scale inference using roughly 100,000 domestically produced AI chips, while its GLM models are also moving closer to overseas cloud deployment.

Chinese court freezes US$318M in Nexperia assets, further escalating corp rift

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 04:06:30 GMT

A Chinese court has ordered the freezing of more than CNY2.14 billion (approx. US$318 million) in domestic assets belonging to Dutch semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia and its equipment division. The decision marks the latest escalation in an ongoing legal and geopolitical debate between the Netherlands-based chipmaker and its Chinese parent company, Wingtech Technology.

Imec maps chip scaling to 2040, says AI's next gains need full-stack integration

Levi Li — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 03:56:19 GMT

Imec has extended its advanced semiconductor roadmap into the early 2040s, arguing that sustained AI scaling will depend on closer integration across logic, memory, interconnects and system architecture.

China's memory chipmakers post a record 1H — but not all of it came from chips

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 03:55:00 GMT

Nine listed Chinese memory and memory-adjacent chip companies have now filed their first-half 2026 results, and together they measure the depth of the current DRAM and NAND upcycle more precisely than any forecast. They also show how differently each company reached its number: some rode pricing, one rode an acquisition, another rode a stake revaluation, and the largest of them simply arrived at a scale nobody in the sector previously operated at.

LG Energy Solution secures long-term US lithium supply

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 03:52:40 GMT

LG Energy Solution has signed a long-term supply agreement with Smackover Lithium for battery-grade lithium carbonate, a move that could strengthen supply chains for energy storage systems and electric vehicles at a time when global demand for critical minerals remains tight.

Apple reshuffles leadership, shifts Schiller out of App Store

DIGITIMES — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 03:50:32 GMT

Apple has made another major management shake-up. After Tim Cook stepped down as CEO and was succeeded by John Ternus, formerly head of hardware engineering, veteran Phil Schiller is also stepping back from day-to-day operations, giving up responsibilities tied to the App Store and product launch events while remaining at Apple as an Apple Fellow to work on undisclosed projects.