DIGITIMES: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

Apple and Samsung drive foldables toward 4:3 displays as market enters next design cycle

Scarlett Yu — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:40:41 GMT

The global foldable smartphone market is entering a new product cycle as Apple prepares to debut its first foldable iPhone and Samsung Electronics reportedly reshapes its foldable portfolio around a wider display format. The simultaneous shift by the industry's two largest premium smartphone brands could accelerate the adoption of a new form factor, with the 4:3 aspect ratio emerging as the next battleground in foldable device design.

Xiaomi raises 2026 phone target as memory prices strain brands

Lily Hess — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:39:26 GMT

China's smartphone market is seeing a shift in demand trends. Xiaomi has reportedly raised its full-year 2026 smartphone shipment target from about 90 million units to 110 million, a roughly 16% increase, as the company expects consumer memory prices to be near a sustainable peak and close to reversing.

Samsung expands Nvidia ties as AI inference drives NAND demand

DIGITIMES — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:39:14 GMT

Samsung Electronics is expanding its Nvidia relationship into NAND flash as AI inference creates demand for high-capacity enterprise storage.

Memory shortage to worsen in 2027 as AI inference strains supply, Silicon Motion CEO says

Sherri Wang — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:39:01 GMT

The global memory shortage will worsen in 2027 and may not begin to ease until the second half of 2028, with prices likely to remain elevated for the next two to three years, according to Wallace Kou, president and CEO of Silicon Motion.

Moonshot AI welcomes Musk challenge as enterprise API revenue hits 70%

Joseph(C) Chen — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:38:43 GMT

Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI said it welcomes competition from the world's top model developers after Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested his in-training 2-trillion-parameter model could "possibly surpass Kimi." The company also disclosed that roughly 70% of its business-to-business revenue now comes from API services, underscoring the growing weight of enterprise customers in its commercialization strategy.

China weighs stricter AI and chip export curbs after Kimi K3 benchmark win

DIGITIMES — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:38:29 GMT

China is considering tighter export controls on artificial intelligence and semiconductor technologies amid intensifying competition with the US in frontier AI. The proposed measures, reported by Financial Times, would also target overseas acquisitions of advanced technology startups and could appear in the next revision of Beijing's export control catalogue.

Anthropic wins approval for US$1.5 billion copyright settlement with authors

DIGITIMES — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:38:15 GMT

Anthropic has secured court approval for a US$1.5 billion settlement to resolve a major copyright lawsuit brought by authors over training its Claude chatbot on unauthorized works. The agreement, approved by a US District Court judge, was described as the largest copyright settlement in US history.

AI infrastructure spending is reshaping Southeast Asia's PCB supply chain

Jingyue Hsiao — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:37:58 GMT

Rising investment in AI servers, high-speed networking, and satellite communications is accelerating a shift in Southeast Asia's electronics industry. Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia are moving beyond traditional consumer device assembly and building a deeper regional ecosystem for printed circuit boards, advanced substrates, and semiconductor-related manufacturing.

Taiwan's looming AI literacy gap risks fueling misinformation

Rodney Chan — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:37:39 GMT

Academia Sinica has warned that the rapid spread of AI could create broader social risks if people lack the basic knowledge needed to judge whether AI-generated information is true. As Taiwan's highest academic institution, it is preparing an AI policy proposal to help inform policymaking, according to Academia Sinica president Chien-Jen Chen.

Microsoft evaluates Kimi K3 for Copilot to lower inference costs

DIGITIMES — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:37:25 GMT

Microsoft is evaluating Moonshot AI's open-source Kimi K3 model for some Copilot functions as it looks for lower-cost alternatives to OpenAI and Anthropic systems. According to The Information, the software company has already started adding Kimi K3 to Azure while its engineering teams assess whether the model can be used in Copilot.

Analysis: Why Taiwan solar makers' overseas push is hitting a cloudy patch

Jingyue Hsiao — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:35:13 GMT

Taiwan's solar manufacturers are looking beyond the island for growth as China's oversupplied solar sector keeps prices low, local approvals in Taiwan slow project rollouts, and global energy markets stay volatile. Their push highlights risks for global clean-power buyers, who still face cost pressure, grid constraints, and shifting technology priorities.

TSMC's Arizona capex draws Taiwanese capital, with J&V Energy staking US$88M on land for spillover gains

Charlene Chen — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:35:00 GMT

TSMC continues to expand its investment in Arizona, accelerating not only the relocation of semiconductor equipment and materials suppliers to the US, but also attracting Taiwan's capital markets into the region.

OpenAI chair says enterprise AI will shift from token costs to outcomes

DIGITIMES — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:34:38 GMT

OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor said businesses will soon stop closely tracking token costs as artificial intelligence spending management becomes more automated. Speaking to CNBC, he said third-party providers are already taking over that work and predicted that corporate IT teams will focus more on industry-specific use cases and outcome-based pricing within 12 months.

Tesla's EV platform powers Optimus scale production edge

Lily Hess — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:34:24 GMT

Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus is set to begin mass production at the end of July, according to supply chain sources. Tesla previously retooled an electric vehicle production line in just 46 days to support the new robot, underscoring how seriously it views humanoid robots as a key growth direction.

Japan weighs new standards post to gain an edge in AI and chips

DIGITIMES — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:34:11 GMT

Japan is considering creating a senior government position to coordinate international standardization across ministries and industry, as Tokyo seeks to convert a sweeping investment drive into a stronger global position for Japanese companies in artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors and other strategic technologies.

'Two companies, one business': how Zeiss and ASML are riding the AI boom to dominate EUV

Lily Hess — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:33:59 GMT

Zeiss, the exclusive supplier of ASML's extreme ultraviolet (EUV) optical systems, says the two companies operate as though they were one business. The comment comes as ASML's results for the second quarter of 2026 beat expectations, with the lithography equipment maker lifting its full-year outlook again. Zeiss Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (SMT) President and CEO Frank Rohmund said the strong ASML report is good news for Zeiss as well, underscoring a partnership that has become deeply intertwined.

GLT helps Smobio Technology scale biotech materials for global orders

Eifeh Strom — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:33:32 GMT

Smobio Technology, a strategic investment of Global Lighting Technologies (GLT), will officially list on Taiwan's Emerging Stock Board on July 24. The company's precast gel products have gained interest from international biotech companies, and it is actively discussing opportunities for private-level collaborations.

Interview: Why agentic AI could be SiPearl's biggest break—and Europe's

DIGITIMES — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:33:20 GMT

Philippe Notton has spent nearly 20 years traveling to Taiwan roughly once a month. That rhythm—born from his time at MStar Semiconductor and deepened across four companies on three continents—shaped how he thinks about building chips, building companies, and building Europe's only independent advanced CPU business.

Taiwan nuclear debate heats up as Academia Sinica leaves door open to research

DIGITIMES — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:33:03 GMT

Taiwan lawmakers and Pegatron chairman Tung Tzu-hsien are stepping up calls for nuclear power to strengthen the island's energy resilience, while Academia Sinica said it currently lacks an in-house nuclear power research program but remains open to working with outside research teams.

Academia Sinica quantum chip platform targets production by end of 2026

DIGITIMES — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:30:44 GMT

Academia Sinica said its quantum chip fabrication platform in Tainan is moving through equipment calibration and is expected to start producing quantum chips by the end of 2026. The institute also said its larger quantum technology laboratory building is still under construction and is scheduled to open in 2028.

Ablecom expands Taoyuan capacity to meet rising AI server rack demand

DIGITIMES — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:30:28 GMT

Ablecom Technology said it is expanding production capacity in Taoyuan, Taiwan, as demand grows for AI high-density compute and hyperscale data center buildouts. The chassis and advanced thermal solutions supplier said output of its next-generation high-density server racks will increase by more than 1,000 units per month once new capacity ramps up.

Haesung DS lands CXMT as DDR5 substrate customer, weighs panel production for DDR6

DIGITIMES — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:53:26 GMT

Haesung DS has reportedly added China's CXMT as a customer for DDR5 package substrates as the South Korean supplier expands its DDR5 business and considers panel-based production for higher-layer-count products expected with the DDR6 generation.

Google developing 'frozen' chip that embeds Gemini models for efficiency gains

DIGITIMES — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:44:45 GMT

Google is reportedly developing a new chip that embeds information from its Gemini AI models directly onto the silicon to boost efficiency. If the anticipated performance gains materialize, this new design would mark a deeper integration of the tech giant's hardware and AI capabilities.

Goldkey secures NT$3.6 billion loan to expand AI server memory business

DIGITIMES — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:36:58 GMT

Goldkey Technology has completed and signed a three-year syndicated loan worth NT$3.6 billion (US$111.3 million) to support inventory growth and working capital needs tied to AI servers and other high-demand markets. The Taiwan memory module maker said the financing will also back materials purchases as it prepares to expand its high-end RDIMM business in the second half of 2026.

Huawei Kirin 9030 shows SMIC's 7nm gains and ongoing efficiency gap

DIGITIMES — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:09:54 GMT

A teardown of Huawei's Kirin 9030 flagship processor — built on SMIC's 7nm-class N+3 process — reveals continued density progress from China's leading chipmaker, but a significant efficiency gap against global peers remains.

Ishihara Sangyo doubles high-purity titanium dioxide capacity on AI server demand

DIGITIMES — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 07:05:00 GMT

Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha plans to double production capacity for high-purity titanium dioxide used to make dielectric materials for multilayer ceramic capacitors, as rising AI server power requirements increase demand for the components.

Trump offers tariff relief to aluminum producers investing in US smelters

DIGITIMES — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:56:16 GMT

US President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation creating a new incentive program that would cut import tariffs on primary aluminum for companies that invest in expanding domestic smelting capacity, marking the latest effort by the administration to boost US metals production.

China's magnet exports hit records — but the tap stays political

DIGITIMES — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:51:44 GMT

China's exports of rare-earth permanent magnets reached record levels in the first half of 2026, yet the same customs data reveal a market increasingly shaped less by demand than by Beijing's discretion — flowing freely to most of the world, throttled to the US, and, since January, newly restricted to Japan.

Taiwan's top motherboard makers slash 2026 shipments again, with Asus, Gigabyte below 10M units

Levi Li — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:50:13 GMT

Taiwan's four largest motherboard brands have cut their 2026 shipment forecasts for a second time as memory and CPU shortages, rising component prices, and weaker upgrade demand deepen the PC market downturn, according to supply-chain sources.

Kimi K3 surge traces to Moonshot AI's GTC roadmap

Charlene Chen — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:31:10 GMT

Moonshot AI's open-source large language model (LLM) Kimi K3 has surged in popularity after its launch, drawing attention across multiple model benchmarks and forcing the company to suspend new member subscriptions after a rapid influx of users strained computing capacity. A review of CEO Zhilin Yang's March 2026 technical talk at Nvidia GTC in San Jose, California, shows K3 was not an overnight hit, but the result of months of work on model architecture and training techniques.

Cautionary tale for Taiwan's electric scooter industry: Supply-chain feud nearly turns to disaster

Kevin Wang — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 05:53:41 GMT

Electric scooters have been traversing a bumpy road in Taiwan, with sales numbers tied to government subsidies, and cost measures squeezing margins for brands and suppliers alike. These tough conditions have led many to fade away from the market, as they seek to cut losses by postponing the launch of new models. However, brands focusing solely on electric scooters must launch new products to sustain market attention, cash flow, and investor confidence.

Power and water constraints cast doubt on South Korea's Honam memory cluster, experts say

Scarlett Yu — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 05:42:45 GMT

South Korea's plan to develop a semiconductor cluster in the Honam region (Jeolla Province) is facing mounting scrutiny over whether the area can support the enormous energy and infrastructure requirements of advanced memory manufacturing.

Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron pull back on in-house CXL controller plans

DIGITIMES — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 04:53:59 GMT

Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology are reportedly scaling back or shelving plans to commercialize internally developed Compute Express Link (CXL) controller chips, shifting more controller work to specialist fabless suppliers while continuing to develop CXL-based memory products.

Middlemen emerge as ASEAN's No. 2 AI compute buyers

Charlene Chen — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 04:24:36 GMT

In the AI computing race, Nvidia AI server chips remain red-hot, even as the US-China trade confrontation shows no sign of easing. Although Shopee and YTL Group are among the biggest buyers of AI chips for data centers, industry sources familiar with ASEAN semiconductor distribution say many mid-sized "middlemen" have effectively become ASEAN's second-largest compute buyers, lending fresh credibility to earlier claims of black-market GPU smuggling and proxy buyers.

China's EUV gap keeps semiconductor catch-up in check

Lily Hess — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 04:05:59 GMT

As the US continues to tighten export controls on advanced semiconductor equipment to China, questions are mounting over whether China can narrow the gap with leading-edge manufacturing through mature nodes and advanced packaging. German manufacturer Zeiss said advanced packaging can improve overall chip performance, but it cannot fully replace the process advantages delivered by extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography.