DIGITIMES: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

Global top-3 memory maker status, 3Q 2026: AI servers drive record memory revenue; SSD, LPDDR upgrades ahead

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 02:55:07 GMT

DIGITIMES observes that major memory suppliers posted record-high revenue in the second quarter of 2026, with yearover-year growth remaining in the triple digits. Driven by AI demand, SSDs and LPDDR are emerging as key competitive
battlegrounds.

Sharp opens orders for Foxconn-built Nvidia AI servers, targeting JPY250 billion by fiscal 2030

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 02:48:47 GMT

Sharp Corporation began taking orders in Japan on September 15 for AI servers procured from its Taiwanese parent, Foxconn, and equipped with Nvidia processors, giving the display and consumer electronics maker a route into domestic AI infrastructure at a moment when GPU supply remains tight. The company said commercial sales are planned for fiscal 2027, and it is targeting revenue of around JPY250 billion (about US$1.6 billion) in fiscal 2030, according to Kyodo News.

Huawei reportedly scales back AITO role as Seres takes greater control

Scarlett Yu — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 02:25:31 GMT

Huawei and Seres, a Chongqing-based premium manufacturer of high-end electric NEVs, are reportedly adjusting their smart vehicle partnership in the AITO brand. Huawei would shift toward a more asset-light role, and Seres would take greater control over AITO's product, marketing, sales, and service operations.

Apple, Intel links sharpen focus on Lens Technology's next glass growth markets

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 02:22:51 GMT

Lens Technology is pushing its precision-glass expertise into two higher-value markets that could reshape its growth profile: Apple-linked foldable devices and Intel-linked through-glass-via (TGV) substrates.

US-based Teradyne opens Bengaluru office to support India's semiconductor push

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 02:18:23 GMT

Teradyne has opened a new office in Bengaluru as India expands its chipmaking ambitions, which could affect supply chains, pricing, and manufacturing capacity worldwide. The move gives the US test-equipment maker a local base in one of Asia's fastest-growing technology hubs, where demand is rising across the semiconductor industry.

Advanced processes have no ready-made answers, says TSMC's COO

Eifeh Strom — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 02:09:41 GMT

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) chairman C.C. Wei and co-chief operating officer Y.J. Mii participated in the "Cross-Generational Dialogue: Questions and Answers for the AI Era" forum on September 15. Students asked how TSMC determines whether a technology is worth long-term investment when information is incomplete and the technological direction remains unclear, as well as how people can develop the ability to judge whether answers generated by artificial intelligence (AI) are true or false in the AI era.

Interview: Forget transistors — speed is what's choking the chip supply chain, says Qnity exec

Sherri Wang — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 02:09:10 GMT

The global surge in AI demand is accelerating change across the semiconductor industry, and as Moore's Law scaling faces physical limits, chipmaking is no longer only about shrinking transistors. The industry is moving toward a "shrink and stack" model that combines continued scaling with increasingly complex 3D integration.

Commentary: China's US$4.5 trillion electronics target confronts the limits of manufacturing scale

Levi Li — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 01:58:32 GMT

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.

Beyond 2nm: Dimensity 9600 Pro gives MediaTek a bigger role in mobile AI

Levi Li — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 01:53:16 GMT

MediaTek has officially launched the Dimensity 9600 Pro, introducing a major architectural overhaul for its 2026 flagship mobile chip. Beyond the shift to a 2nm process, the new platform adopts a 2+3+3 all-big-core CPU configuration, upgrades its cache architecture, and doubles its NPU resources with a dual-NPU design to support increasingly demanding AI workloads.

Samsung reportedly taps TSMC for custom HBM base dies as new foundry dynamics emerge

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 01:51:58 GMT

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.

FSC teams with South Korean maker on TGV equipment for glass substrates

Lily Hess — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 01:43:58 GMT

Fu Chun Shin Machinery Manufacture (FSC), a major plastic injection molding machine maker, is expanding further into semiconductors by teaming up with Korean-Chinese joint venture Zhongke Xianfeng on through-glass via (TGV) equipment for glass substrates, used in next-generation advanced packaging. The two sides signed a cooperation agreement on September 14, initially targeting major printed circuit board (PCB), IC substrate, and OSAT makers in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

A Taiwan machinery maker bets on AI to challenge Japan's grip on advanced capacitors

Yunnie Cheng — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 01:43:08 GMT

High-end multilayer polymer capacitors (MLPCs) — increasingly critical to power delivery in AI servers and high-wattage GPUs and CPUs — have historically been dominated by Japan's Panasonic, which has held over 90% of the market. Now, a Taiwan-based machinery maker is aiming to challenge that grip.

Taiwan can power its AI chip boom — but not with green energy

Scarlett Yu — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:37:05 GMT

DIGITIMES Intelligence observes that discussions at the semiconductor sustainability and energy forum during SEMICON Taiwan 2026 centered on two questions: whether Taiwan will have enough electricity to support continued semiconductor expansion driven by AI, and whether that electricity will come from renewable sources.

South Korean NPU startups face validation hurdle in push for global sales

Sherri Wang — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:36:43 GMT

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.

Apple's foldable phone faces durability test as suppliers eye crease risks

Jingyue Hsiao — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:36:17 GMT

Apple's first foldable phone is drawing worldwide attention because its design choices could shape how future bendable devices are built and priced. But suppliers say one of the industry's oldest durability issues remains unresolved: whether the protective film over the inner display can lift over time, especially at the center crease.

Star Shining launches IPO plan as renewable energy assets reach 676MW

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:31:02 GMT

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.

ITRI showcases AI robots, drones to push commercialization in southern Taiwan

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:30:53 GMT

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.

China's humanoid robot race, Part 2: Upstream profits gather around dexterous hands

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:30:36 GMT

Humanoid robot makers are cutting prices and scaling production, yet much of the industry remains unprofitable. Upstream suppliers are starting to show a different economics — especially in dexterous robotic hands.

AI server tracker: BMC, cable, case suppliers post August 2026 gains

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:30:12 GMT

Taiwan's AI server supply chain continued to show strong year-over-year growth in August, although performance varied significantly across baseboard management controller (BMC), cable/connector, and server-case suppliers.

DeepSeek to hire its first CFO as it aims for public listing, expands workforce

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:29:40 GMT

DeepSeek is reportedly set to hire Wentao Yan, a partner at venture capital firm GL Ventures, as its first CFO. If the appointment takes place, it would happen at an important time for the Chinese AI startup as it seeks to go public, begins a large expansion of its workforce, and invests in chipmaking and computing capacity.

Apple exits Musk's AI lawsuit, but the fight over iPhone AI access is only getting bigger

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:29:21 GMT

The recent AI antitrust case between two of the high-tech landscape's most powerful camps appears to have quietly ended following Elon Musk's legal retreat from Apple. But the battle over AI distribution control is far from settled, as pointed accusations from SpaceXAI and X regarding Apple's behind-the-scenes role in constraining generative-AI competition have left the broader industry unsettled over questions of AI access and app visibility amid Apple's increasingly open, multi-model ecosystem.

As AI data centers hit a transmission wall, GlobalFoundries pushes into silicon photonics

DIGITIMES — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:28:56 GMT

At the China International Optoelectronics Expo (CIOE), a palm-sized metal transceiver represents the shift from copper to light in data center infrastructure, one of the biggest transformations in the industry amid the AI boom.

NVHBM is not a memory revolution; Nvidia seeks to platformize cHBM, dominate custom AI architectures

Charlene Chen — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:28:17 GMT

DIGITIMES observed that Nvidia's newly announced NVHBM is not a brand-new memory technology, but rather an extension of existing custom HBM (cHBM). It is a managed cHBM design that moves the memory controller, which originally sat on the XPU, into the HBM logic base die, and pairs it with custom physical-layer (PHY) and die-to-die (D2D) interfaces. In strategic terms, Nvidia is extending its moat from GPUs to the memory architecture of custom ASICs, and is trying to define how future custom AI chips connect to memory, hook into scale-up networks, and come together as complete AI racks.

DIGITIMES Insight: Taiwan's small IC design firms face a weaker second half after rebound

Jingyue Hsiao — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:25:01 GMT

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.

AR glasses target 2 billion myopia users as China supply chain eyes doubling shipments

Lily Hess — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:31:00 GMT

Suppliers in China's AR glasses supply chain see the approximately 2 billion people worldwide with myopia as a potential market and said shipments are set to double year after year, even as the industry continues to sift winners from losers. At this year's China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE), smart glasses remained a standout theme alongside optical communications.

Chip revenue heads to US$2.4 trillion on price, not volume, Yole says

DIGITIMES — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 17:34:00 GMT

The semiconductor industry is on track to nearly quadruple in revenue by 2031 while shipping barely more silicon than it does today, a divergence that makes pricing power, not capacity, the defining variable of the AI buildout.

AI data centers give idle EV battery capacity a second life

Levi Li — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 17:32:00 GMT

Slowing EV growth in North America, tariffs, and policy restrictions are pushing automakers and battery suppliers to repurpose idle capacity. At the same time, surging power demand and grid volatility from generative AI data centers are lifting demand for battery energy storage systems (BESS), making energy storage a key diversification market alongside defense, drones, and humanoid robots.

Research Insight: Google scales TPU systems to 1 million chips as power becomes the bottleneck

Sherri Wang — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 16:55:00 GMT

At SEMICON Taiwan 2026, Google outlined the direction of its AI infrastructure, and DIGITIMES notes that the discussion extended well beyond its next-generation TPU. Rather than focusing on a single chip, Google described how it links large numbers of TPUs into an integrated computing system spanning compute clusters, data centers, and ultimately multiple data centers, while also addressing the power constraints that emerge as the system continues to scale.

Amodei's AI slowdown call is unlikely to dent chip demand, industry sources say

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 16:50:00 GMT

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call to slow frontier AI development has stirred debate over safety, but chip industry sources say global demand for AI infrastructure is likely to keep rising. For readers worldwide, the larger issue is not whether AI spending stops, but how quickly it spreads across clouds, devices, and industries.

iPhone Duo's identity shapes Apple's foldable strategy

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 16:30:00 GMT

Apple's first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, is drawing close attention as analysts forecast shipments of 5 million to 6 million units by year-end. The device could make Apple the world's second-largest foldable phone supplier, behind Samsung Electronics, and shape how global consumers and rivals view future foldable screens.

Charts: Memory has held six of the ten fastest-growing spots in Taiwan's chip sector for seven straight months

DIGITIMES — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 16:15:00 GMT

Of the 94 listed Taiwanese semiconductor companies DIGITIMES tracks, 80 grew year-over-year in August 2026 and 14 declined. Median year-over-year growth was 27%. Sixty-three of the 94 posted faster year-over-year growth in August than in July, when the median was 21%.

DIGITIMES Insight: Intel may lack a price edge over TSMC on SK Hynix HBM base dies

Sherri Wang — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 16:15:00 GMT

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.

Astera Labs targets the KV cache bottleneck as agentic AI outgrows GPU memory

DIGITIMES — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:30:34 GMT

Astera Labs has added three products to its Leo memory controller line, aimed at a problem that arises as AI inference shifts from single queries to agents that run continuous loops: the key-value cache outgrows the HBM on the accelerator, and the usual fallback makes things worse.

Airbus weighs supplier stakes to relieve aerospace parts bottlenecks

DIGITIMES — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:57:00 GMT

Airbus is monitoring parts lead times across its supply chain and said direct equity stakes in, or takeovers of, subcontractors could be used in extreme cases to prevent supply disruptions. The comments came as the global aerospace industry continues to face bottlenecks in engines, cabin interiors and other critical components.

The Boring lands US$3 billion from UAE investors, fueling Musk's underground transit dream

DIGITIMES — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 11:01:06 GMT

Even as he leads SpaceX through the largest IPO in history and rolls out Tesla's Cybercab robotaxi fleet in Austin, Texas, Elon Musk has not let go of his ambitions for underground tunnel transportation, continuing to push forward the tunnel-drilling business of his company The Boring.