DIGITIMES: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

Tata Electronics leans on INR612.8 billion in guarantees to fund iPhone, chip expansion

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 02:59:35 GMT

Tata Electronics, Apple's contract manufacturing partner, provided INR612.8 billion (US$6.38 billion) in corporate guarantees on behalf of its subsidiaries in fiscal 2026 as it expanded iPhone manufacturing and semiconductor projects, The Economic Times reported.

Taiwan launches joint cybersecurity audits for government IT service providers

Rodney Chan — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 02:52:01 GMT

Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) has launched a joint cybersecurity audit initiative aiming to reduce repeated inspections on vendors that provide the government with IT services, while strengthening government information security. MODA will expand the joint audit program in 2027.

OpenAI claims to thwart model distillation attack tied to Moonshot

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 02:51:20 GMT

OpenAI said it detected and blocked an organized adversarial distillation attack, with some activity linked to Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI. The company said it first spotted the effort on July 1 and saw a peak on July 24 and 25, when it detected about 16,000 related requests from more than 4,000 users.

US unveils South Korea's US$20B nuclear, Alaska LNG investment

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 02:47:36 GMT

The US has unilaterally announced South Korea's investment package in the US, including Alaska LNG development and the construction of eight large nuclear power plants. Seoul had previously listed those two projects as issues to be negotiated later, but Washington has already presented them as a done deal.

Qualcomm, Samsung redesign chip packaging as heat limits phone performance

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 02:30:00 GMT

Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics are redesigning how memory is packaged with flagship smartphone processors, as rising chip performance puts greater pressure on the limited cooling capacity of mobile devices.

Nvidia ties AI agent security to BlueField-4, Vera CPU

Levi Li — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 02:17:57 GMT

Over the past year, Nvidia has repeatedly observed AI agents drifting beyond approved workflows. In some cases, agents quietly escalated read permissions to write access, sent requests to unauthorized endpoints, or clicked unauthorized CAPTCHA-bypass links.

Jabil targets US$17.5 billion in data center revenue as it builds out power, cooling, and networking

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 02:12:37 GMT

Jabil's plan for fiscal 2027 puts a price tag on its move from building servers to building the power, cooling, and networking systems around them. The company expects about US$17.5 billion of cloud and data-center infrastructure revenue, up about 52%. That business sits inside an Intelligent Infrastructure segment forecast at about US$25.6 billion, up about 43%. Management laid out the roadmap segment by segment at its fourth-quarter earnings call and ninth annual investor briefing on September 30, 2026, according to a Bloomberg transcript.

Synopsys raises long-term growth and margin targets, guides fiscal 2027 revenue to US$11.15 billion

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 02:04:04 GMT

Synopsys is betting that custom silicon and AI-driven chip design will lift its growth above the double-digit pace it previously targeted. At its investor day in New York on September 30, 2026, the design software and IP company raised its long-term revenue goal to mid-teens annual growth through fiscal 2030, lifted its operating margin objective to about 50%, and issued fiscal 2027 guidance roughly two and a half months earlier than usual, anchored by a US$1 billion IP license with Amazon and a new model partnership with OpenAI.

Applied Materials' EPIC Center adds Kioxia for AI memory, 3D stacking push

Eifeh Strom — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:58:24 GMT

Applied Materials announced that Kioxia will join its Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization (EPIC) Center in Silicon Valley, California. The two companies will collaborate on developing advanced memory cells and structures, multi-chip stacking architectures, and new materials engineering technologies to improve the memory density and performance required in the artificial intelligence (AI) era.

Honor joins Taiwan foldable phone race with Magic V6

Sherri Wang — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:56:01 GMT

Honor launched its first foldable smartphone in Taiwan, the Magic V6, on September 30, about six months after formally entering the local smartphone market in April 2026. The company hopes the premium flagship will strengthen its brand while helping increase its market share and revenue in Taiwan.

Nextronics sees AI, robotics, medical demand reshaping revenue mix

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:55:00 GMT

Connector maker Nextronics Engineering said its humanoid robot-related products began shipping in 2026, while North American customers are preparing for mass production and have set a 2027 production target. The company expects those programs, alongside AI-related communications, to lift revenue sharply in 2027 and further shift its business mix toward higher-growth segments.

HPE secures US$1.2 B order from Vultr for first AMD Helios AI rack systems

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:52:43 GMT

Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced a major US$1.2 billion order from Vultr, which HPE describes as the world's largest privately held cloud infrastructure company, on September 30. The agreement marks HPE's inaugural order for the AMD Helios™ AI Rack by HPE, which will be deployed across Vultr's US cloud data centers to power large-scale model training and inference workloads for global enterprises and service providers.

China Rare Earth Group moves downstream, linking rare-earth magnets to robot direct-drive systems

Levi Li — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:48:47 GMT

China Rare Earth Innovation Technology and Beijing-based Direct Drive Tech signed a strategic cooperation agreement on September 29 to jointly develop high-performance magnetic materials for direct-drive motors, including neodymium-iron-boron magnets, flux-concentrating rings, and radially oriented magnetic rings, linking upstream rare-earth resources with robot drive modules.

Google to test AI computing in space with first orbital TPU launch

Scarlett Yu — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:46:11 GMT

Google is preparing to send its in-house AI accelerator, the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), into low Earth orbit for the first time as it explores whether AI computing can eventually expand beyond terrestrial data centers and into space. CEO Sundar Pichai recently announced that Project Suncatcher will begin its first in-orbit test on October 1, with computing power roughly equivalent to that of a single ground-based server.

ProLogium advances Dunkirk superfactory, deepens Europe battery autonomy

Charlene Chen — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:45:00 GMT

ProLogium, a maker of inorganic lithium ceramic batteries, said construction and infrastructure work at its Dunkirk superfactory in France has started in phases, including power infrastructure and grid connection work, with a target to energize the construction site in early October 2026. The company is also pressing ahead with engineering design, certification of local suppliers in France and Europe, technology localization and talent development.

Micron sees no end to the memory shortage, even after new fabs open in 2028

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:39:51 GMT

Micron told investors on September 30 that it cannot say when memory supply will catch up with demand. It expects the shortage to get worse over the next two years, even though additional cleanroom space is expected from late 2028.

China's humanoid robot lead widens, with domestic vendors supplying over 95% of global shipments

Levi Li — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:37:06 GMT

China's humanoid robot market continued to expand rapidly in the first half of 2026, with shipments exceeding 19,000 units and accounting for about 77.9% of the global total. Chinese suppliers, meanwhile, represented more than 95% of worldwide shipments, underscoring China's position as both the largest humanoid robot market and the industry's dominant source of supply.

Unimicron expands ABF substrate capacity with NT$10B Hukou land deal

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:36:43 GMT

Unimicron has moved again to ease tight ABF substrate supply, buying a Hukou site from Bridgestone Taiwan for more than NT$10 billion (US$313.65 million). The deal highlights how AI chip demand is reshaping capacity plans, as customers worldwide race to secure advanced substrate supply for the next several years.

DIGITIMES Insight: AI scaling is moving from chip shrinkage to system integration

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:35:57 GMT

TSMC said the next phase of AI performance growth will depend less on shrinking a single chip and more on combining multiple chips, memory, and advanced packaging inside larger systems. The shift could reshape semiconductor competition, as demand for compute, bandwidth, power delivery, and cooling rises in tandem. The company outlined the trend at its heterogeneous integration forum during SEMICON Taiwan 2026, saying AI computing transistors in a single CoWoS package are set to rise more than 48-fold by 2029 from 2024 levels, while total HBM bandwidth is expected to increase more than 34-fold.

Nio, Geely turn battery swapping into shared infrastructure as China's EV rivalry changes course

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:28:02 GMT

For years, China's EV makers pursued aggressive energy infrastructure expansion, racing to offer faster charging and denser networks.

GPS-free indoor drones target high-rack inspection as smart warehouses expand

Scarlett Yu — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:23:38 GMT

The drone market is expanding beyond military applications as commercial demand gains momentum. Following the rollout of drone logistics services for Taiwan's outlying islands, industry players see firefighting, disaster response, and inspection in areas that are difficult or dangerous for humans to access as among the first commercial applications poised for adoption.

AI chip packaging demand meets labor pushback: ASE's NT$5.6B Taiwan snack factory deal sparks strike vote

Eifeh Strom — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:15:15 GMT

ASE Technology Holding (ASEH) announced on July 30 that it would spend roughly NT$5.67 billion (approx. US$177.97 million) to acquire land and factory buildings in the Zhongli Industrial Park from Taiwanese snack maker Kuai Kuai, a move meant to support future capacity expansion at its Zhongli plant. The deal, however, has unexpectedly become a flashpoint, with the Kuai Kuai union recently holding a strike vote and protesting outside ASE's Zhongli facility.

AWS Trainium 3 shipments stall as supply chain sees turnaround

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:14:14 GMT

AWS's latest Trainium 3 shipments appear to be running behind expectations, but the strain reflects broader pressures that global readers will recognize across the AI hardware supply chain. Suppliers cited parts shortages, assembly complexity, and rapid demand growthas the main bottlenecks, which could affect cloud costs, capacity, and competition worldwide.

Applied Materials and Kioxia team up on AI-era memory tech

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:13:37 GMT

Applied Materials and Kioxia are joining forces at a Silicon Valley research hub to develop next-generation memory technologies that could shape AI systems used worldwide. The collaboration underscores efforts to boost memory density, speed, and energy efficiency, which are increasingly important as global demand for data-intensive computing and advanced chip packaging rises.

Memory shortages deepen as AI demand keeps server prices climbing

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:09:44 GMT

The memory market is entering the fourth quarter of 2026 with a widening split between weak consumer demand and intense server buying, underscoring how artificial intelligence workloads are reshaping supply. Spot prices for DDR5 server modules continue to rise, while some lower-grade products are softening in the channel.

SG Semiconductor builds brand and talent for Singapore chip industry

Charlene Chen — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 01:02:01 GMT

Singapore has launched the SG Semiconductor brand to strengthen its semiconductor profile and attract talent, aiming to create a globally recognizable industry identity beyond its existing R&D system. Yee-Chia Yeo, A*STAR vice president for innovation and enterprise, said the initiative is not just a website or information platform, but a way to connect Singapore's wafer manufacturing, equipment, materials, research institutes, and universities into a more visible ecosystem.

Apple Pay arrives in India with a limited card rollout

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:55:00 GMT

Apple's entry into India's payments market gives its device users a new way to pay by card, but its initial reach will depend on bank and merchant integrations in a country where a domestic real-time system already dominates digital transactions. The service launched on September 30 for eligible Axis Bank Visa and Mastercard credit cardholders, placing Apple's wallet alongside, rather than replacing, India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Jabil targets 24% growth in FY27 as AI hardware ramp reshapes business

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:43:45 GMT

Jabil's fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 marked the point at which AI data-center hardware became the clear center of gravity for the US contract manufacturer. Revenue for the three months ended August 31 rose 29% from a year earlier to US$10.6 billion. The GAAP operating margin widened to 5.7% from 4.1% as new capacity came online faster than planned and more hyperscale customers moved into volume production.

Synopsys and OpenAI to share revenue from AI model built to run chip design tools

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:38:27 GMT

Synopsys is betting that the surest way to keep generative AI from eroding its electronic design automation (EDA) franchise is to build the model together with the AI developer and share the proceeds. The chip design software maker said on September 30, 2026, that it has signed a multi-year agreement with OpenAI to jointly develop GPT-Synopsys, a specialized model optimized to operate Synopsys' EDA tools, under an arrangement that Synopsys CEO Sassine Ghazi told Reuters was structured so that "it will not be cannibalizing our business."

Micron's record quarter rests on pricing power as customers lock in 2027 supply

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:37:21 GMT

Micron Technology's fiscal fourth quarter showed a memory maker whose growth now comes mainly from price rather than volume, with customers committing cash years in advance to secure supply. Revenue for the three months ended September 3, 2026, reached US$54.2 billion, up 31% from the previous quarter, and GAAP gross margin widened to 86.8%.

Samsung Foundry gets boost from HBM4 as 2nm push continues

DIGITIMES — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:17:57 GMT

Samsung Electronics' HBM4 ramp is giving its foundry business a timely boost, as rising demand for the memory product translates into more work for the company's 4nm logic lines.

Jensen Huang wins Van Fleet Award as Nvidia, South Korea trio reunites

Charlene Chen — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:16:53 GMT

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attended the Korea Society's annual dinner in New York on September 28 local time and received the 2026 Van Fleet Award, with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on hand to congratulate him. The appearance underscored how Nvidia's ties with South Korea's semiconductor makers have expanded from memory supply into AI manufacturing, creating a two-way relationship in products and technology.

Qualcomm says PC chip shortages are manageable; price swings hit harder

Lily Hess — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:16:25 GMT

Qualcomm's senior vice president and general manager of the compute and gaming business, Kedar Kondap, said the biggest challenge facing the PC industry is not component shortages, but the unusually large price swings in memory and other parts. Speaking to the media during Snapdragon Summit 2026, he said that volatility is affecting the PC market.

AI boom drives Southern Taiwan Science Park revenue past NT$1.7 trillion in 1H26

Eifeh Strom — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:13:03 GMT

The Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) posted revenue of NT$1.77 trillion (approx. US$55.66 billion) in the first half of 2026, up 28.57% from the same period in 2025. Growth was mainly driven by the rapid development of the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom, coupled with Taiwan's leading role in the semiconductor industry, enabling the science park to maintain steady expansion momentum and further consolidate its position at the core of the global high-tech supply chain.

Lip-Bu Tan calls TSMC a partner rather than a rival

Yunnie Cheng — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:11:53 GMT

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan stated that Intel's relationship with TSMC is built on partnership rather than rivalry. He noted that a collaborative mindset guides key industry leaders, including TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, as they navigate the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) transformation.

How a TSMC veteran is steering Singapore's lab-to-fab chip strategy

Charlene Chen — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:11:28 GMT

Yee-Chia Yeo, vice president for innovation and enterprise at A*STAR, returned to Singapore in 2022 and has since turned years of industry experience into a strategy for advancing the city-state's semiconductor R&D and industry development. He is helping build a semiconductor model that differs from Taiwan's, with a focus on linking research more closely to manufacturing needs.

DIGITIMES Insight: Agentic AI shifts inference bottleneck to token control and task quality

Levi Li — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:07:28 GMT

DIGITIMES Intelligence observes that AI applications are moving through a clear progression: from early classification AI focused on feature recognition, to generative AI capable of creating content, and toward a broader shift into the agentic AI era in 2027. Agentic AI is expected to multiply compute demand, while multi-step reasoning introduces new risks to task quality. Efficient control of total token consumption and reliable task-quality management will therefore become critical to commercial deployment.

ASIC shipments top GPUs in 2027 as ABF substrate bottlenecks shift

Charlene Chen — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:07:06 GMT

The high-end cloud AI accelerator market will see a structural shift in 2027, with total ASIC shipments surpassing GPU shipments for the first time, driven by rising output from Google, Amazon, and Huawei. The market will move into a landscape of "dual competition between Nvidia and Google, with multiple players racing to catch up."

Trump-Xi talks leave chip policies unchanged; US guards AI advantage while China pursues self-reliance

Yunnie Cheng — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:06:23 GMT

Following the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, market observers broadly agreed that the talks yielded few surprises. The meeting produced limited substantive progress on economic, trade, or diplomatic fronts, making significant shifts in high-stakes technology policy even less likely.

ChainSea targets fourth-quarter OTC listing as AI transformation business takes shape

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:06:01 GMT

Digital transformation integrator ChainSea Information Integration plans to list on Taiwan's over-the-counter (OTC) market in the fourth quarter of 2026, with the process expected to take about a month. The listing would make ChainSea Taiwan's first OTC-listed company focused primarily on business process outsourcing (BPO).

Nvidia pushes full-stack AI agent security as OpenAI sits out partner roster

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:05:26 GMT

Amid growing concerns over increasingly autonomous AI systems, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has repeatedly argued that AI agent jailbreaks are fundamentally an "engineering problem" that can be addressed without slowing AI development.

'I tell myself every day it'll ease': Phison CEO sees years of memory shortage

Joseph Chen — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:09:51 GMT

Phison Electronics CEO Pua Khein-Seng says he tells himself every day that the memory shortage will ease tomorrow. In reality, he says, AI-driven demand has opened a gap between memory supply and demand that could take many years to close.