DIGITIMES: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

Alibaba Cloud launches Zhenwu M890 supernode for commercial use

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 01:51:19 GMT

Alibaba Cloud has begun commercial service for its Zhenwu M890 supernode in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, giving global customers an early look at how AI infrastructure is shifting toward larger, faster, and more tightly connected systems. The launch could influence future cloud costs, model access, and enterprise AI deployment well beyond China.

China PCB makers pour billions into AI server, HPC, optical markets

Levi Li — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 01:33:13 GMT

Chinese printed circuit board (PCB) makers are stepping up investment in higher-value markets including AI servers, high-performance computing (HPC) and optical communications. Following similar expansion in semiconductors and display panels, Chinese companies are rapidly adding PCB capacity as they seek to catch up with South Korean suppliers that have established an early presence in the high-end substrate market.

Porsche exits Volkswagen carbon pool, joins Xpeng

Kevin Wang — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 01:27:17 GMT

Porsche has broken away from parent Volkswagen Group's carbon pool and teamed up with China's Xpeng, reflecting growing pressure on mainstream automakers to comply with emissions standards as they shift to multi-powertrain strategies and seek to avoid steep EU penalties.

Chinese automakers gain share in Europe as legacy carmakers partner to cut costs

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 01:25:58 GMT

Chinese automakers are reshaping Europe's car market, and the pressure is forcing global rivals into uneasy partnerships that could trim costs while raising strategic risks. For drivers, investors, and policymakers worldwide, the shift highlights how China's auto industry is now influencing pricing, supply chains, competition, and industrial policy beyond its home market.

Applied Materials sets 2028 capacity target as it commits new manufacturing hires

DIGITIMES — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:03:24 GMT

Applied Materials used its fiscal third-quarter earnings call to lay out a multi-year capacity build rather than just a strong quarter. Alongside record results, the company said it is hiring and training manufacturing and customer-support staff so it can double its quarterly system output from current levels by 2028, and is already planning a further capacity expansion to support demand growth "by 2030," according to CFO Brice Hill on the August 13, 2026 call.

Lenovo turns a memory-price shock into a share gain

DIGITIMES — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:02:56 GMT

Lenovo Group's first quarter of fiscal 2026/27 shows a company using an industry-wide cost problem as a competitive weapon. Group revenue reached US$26.9 billion for the three months ended June 30, 2026, up 43% year on year — the fastest growth in five years — while the underlying business also became more profitable, with adjusted net income up 176% to US$1.1 billion and gross margin widening to 16.5% from 14.7%. Reported results show a net loss of US$609 million, but that swing is a single non-cash item: a fair-value charge on outstanding warrants, unrelated to trading performance.

Hua Hong's fabs were already full — price is what finally made them profitable

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:58:00 GMT

Hua Hong Grace Semiconductor has been running its fabs flat out for more than a year without earning an operating profit on the work. The June quarter ended that. Revenue reached a record US$717.5 million, up 26.8% from a year earlier and 8.6% sequentially, and gross margin widened to 16.5% from 10.9% in the same quarter of 2025 — enough, for the first time in five quarters, to cover operating costs rather than merely offset them.

Lenovo says it will hit its US$100 billion revenue target early, even as memory costs squeeze devices

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:52:09 GMT

Lenovo Group told investors on its August 13, 2026 earnings call that record AI-driven growth is outpacing the company's targets, even as executives warned that memory chip shortages will continue to squeeze device costs into next year. chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang said the group's goal of reaching US$100 billion in annual revenue, originally set for "two years" from the start of the fiscal year, is now on track to be achieved "sooner than planned," with a further target of US$130 billion in revenue and a net margin above 5% raised by analysts on the call and left unchallenged by management as the multi-year direction.

SMIC's pricing power arrives as AI pushes mature-node work into China

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:51:34 GMT

China's largest contract chipmaker has spent most of the past two years increasing volume without much to show for it in terms of margins. The June quarter broke that pattern. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) reported revenue of US$3.01 billion for the three months ended June 30, 2026, up 20.0% sequentially and 36.1% from a year earlier, and gross margin of 25.3% against 20.1% in the March quarter. The margin, not the revenue line, is the news: it is the first quarter in this cycle in which SMIC has been able to convert a full order book into price.

Musk hints at FEL light source for Terafab; ASML eyes FEL-EUV push

Lily Hess — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:37:20 GMT

After EVs, rockets, and humanoid robots, Elon Musk appears to be turning his attention to optimizing the chip manufacturing process. When he unveiled a US$16.8 billion initial investment for the giant wafer fab Terafab, he also showed a concept image of the facility after completion.

Coherent beats fourth-quarter revenue estimates as AI demand lifts data center sales

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:37:03 GMT

Coherent reported fiscal fourth-quarter results for the period ended June 30, 2026, on the back of rising investment in AI infrastructure. The optics and photonics supplier said revenue reached US$2.05 billion, topping market expectations of US$1.99 billion, while non-GAAP gross margin came in at 40.2%.

Samsung chip design embraces AI, but loss of control and hallucinations remain a problem

Rodney Chan — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:35:34 GMT

The AI wave is sweeping through the chip industry, but hallucinations, loss of control, and cybersecurity risks remain unresolved even as efficiency leaps. Youngsik Kim, head of the Design Technology (DT) team at Samsung Electronics' System LSI division, has pointed out that software has already leveraged AI to cut headcount and generate significant gains, but hardware has yet to see clear benefits.

Cerebras raises 2026 outlook as hardware sales weaken

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:34:52 GMT

AI chip startup Cerebras Systems raised its full-year 2026 core revenue and gross margin outlook after reporting second-quarter results, but the company also disclosed declining hardware sales and a sharp swing in profitability metrics. The update came as investors focused on whether growth was shifting away from hardware and toward cloud services.

Qisda unit expands robot computing platform into Europe and U.S. supply chains

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:32:35 GMT

Acepillar, a unit of Qisda, said it has extended its industrial PC, motion control, and automation capabilities into humanoid robotics as global demand shifts toward high-compute, low-latency control systems. The company said its integrated computing platform has passed overseas customer validation, entered mass delivery, and is now being applied in international humanoid robot deployments, including in Europe and the US.

Asus sees stronger second-half PC demand despite memory pressure, stronger server outlook

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:32:20 GMT

Asus said record second-quarter results have set a higher base for 2026. Still, investors are now watching whether the company can sustain momentum through the second half as memory prices climb and global PC demand remains uneven. The company expects third-quarter PC revenue to rise 15% to 20% quarter-on-quarter, helped by both pricing and shipments.

SK Hynix advances Yongin fab construction for 2027 cleanroom launch

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:32:00 GMT

SK hynix has pushed construction of its semiconductor campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, to 87% completion as it targets February 2027 for the start of operations at its first cleanroom. Power and water supplies have already been secured, according to Maeil Business Newspaper.

Kioxia eyes customer trials for PCIe Gen6 optical SSD

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:31:10 GMT

Kioxia is developing a PCIe Gen6 optical SSD and hopes to work with customers on its next prototype, as the Japanese memory maker tackles cost and reliability hurdles that still stand between the technology and mass production.

Intel tests system memory to ease AI KV-cache pressure

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:30:46 GMT

Intel tests presented at the OCP APAC Summit 2026 that moving the key-value cache used in large language model (LLM) inference from GPU memory to system DRAM can raise serving throughput and support more concurrent requests when VRAM is the bottleneck, although the gains fade once compute becomes saturated.

Rapidus targets 8-reticle interposers by 2030

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:30:23 GMT

Rapidus expects interposers for high-performance chips to reach eight-reticle scale by around 2030, as larger chiplets and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) push advanced packages toward sizes that are increasingly inefficient to manufacture on conventional 300mm wafers.

Samsung and SK hynix push AI deeper into fabs as semiconductor manufacturing enters autonomous era

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:30:07 GMT

As the world enters an AI-powered era where the persistent need for more complex architectures is driven by rising demands for higher computing performance, one bottleneck confronting the semiconductor industry lies not only in technological advancement itself, but also in the capacity to deploy standardized manufacturing processes at greater scale and speed.

PixArt revenue rises on game-console demand as margin pressure grows

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:29:53 GMT

PixArt's latest results signal how shifting demand across consumer electronics and emerging sensor markets can reshape profitability for suppliers worldwide. The Taiwanese IC design company said strong sales from game consoles and other product lines lifted revenue in the second quarter of 2026, even as higher costs and a weaker product mix weighed on margins.

Interview: 'Modern warfare is a battle of PAs'–Transcom targets overseas defense, LEO satellite growth

Scarlett Yu — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:29:42 GMT

Amid escalating geopolitical tensions, defense awareness is rising rapidly worldwide, with drone and counter-drone technologies becoming key areas of development for governments and defense industries. Taiwan is also continuing to upgrade technologies for radar detection, missile defense, and other military systems.

Asia Tech Image eyes 3Q26 growth as raw material costs hit 1H margins

Kevin Wang — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:29:26 GMT

Asia Tech Image (ATII), the sensor module unit of Asia Optical Group, held its online earnings call for the second quarter of 2026 on August 11, with president Iris Wu personally detailing the company's outlook for the second half of the year, following sequential growth during the second quarter in terms of revenue, gross income, and earnings. In addition, Wu also outlined the company's dividend policy and competitive strengths.

China's video AI dominance paves the way for world model boom

Yunnie Cheng — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 22:55:52 GMT

Chinese AI video-generation models are taking the world by storm. This competitive edge is not only disrupting Hollywood, but could also extend into the realm of "world models."

Gem Terminal's second-quarter profit hits 16-quarter high on copper and connector demand

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 22:55:38 GMT

Gem Terminal Industry said its net profit in the second quarter of 2026 reached a 16-quarter high as niche products and improved production efficiency in Taiwan and Vietnam lifted results. The terminal and copper materials supplier also reported strong revenue growth in July and for the first seven months of 2026.

ATEN lifts second-quarter profit on higher sales, pricing, utilization

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 22:55:17 GMT

ATEN International said its second-quarter 2026 revenue rose 19% year-over-year, while gross margin improved to 62% from 59% and pretax profit jumped 235%. The Taiwan-based keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) and enterprise connectivity vendor said stronger sales, higher capacity utilization, and narrower foreign exchange losses drove the gains.

LEO satellite communications, space computing drive rising importance of GaN power amplifiers

Scarlett Yu — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 22:54:38 GMT

DIGITIMES expects SpaceX to further accelerate Starlink satellite deployments in 2027, expanding network capacity and supporting faster rollout of its direct-to-cell (D2C) services.

Taiwan Microloops posts record July revenue as AI cooling demand lifts second-half outlook

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 22:54:23 GMT

Taiwan Microloops reported stronger second-quarter and first-half 2026 results, supported by rising shipments of cooling modules for AI server customers. The Taiwan-based supplier said the improvement came as new-model products began shipping to a major cloud service provider customer in the second quarter, helping margins recover after a temporary slowdown during the first-quarter product transition.

Kaori Heat Treatment to invest NT$3 billion in Taiwan and Thailand expansion

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 22:54:02 GMT

Kaori Heat Treatment has approved a major capacity expansion in Taiwan and Thailand as demand rises for AI cooling components and fuel cells. The heat-treatment maker said its board agreed to buy land and buildings in Taoyuan's Zhongli District for NT$2.38 billion and to build a new plant in Thailand with an investment cap of 700 million baht, bringing the two projects to about NT$3 billion.

ABF substrate boom lifts Eternal Precision prices 20%

Lily Hess — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 22:53:44 GMT

Strong Ajinomoto Build-Up Film (ABF) substrate demand has driven a surge in orders for vacuum laminating equipment, with Eternal Precision Mechanics, a unit of Eternal Materials, saying customer orders and inquiries jumped sharply around Christmas 2025 and have continued since. Its Japan plant has been running at full capacity since May this year.

Beyond silicon and copper: OCP APAC looks under the hood of future AI infrastructure

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 22:53:29 GMT

AI's appetite for compute is growing at such speeds that simply building bigger versions of today's data centers may no longer cut it.

Korea's CNT pellicle race heats up as aweXome Ray pushes toward EUV commercialization

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 22:53:07 GMT

As South Korea's major memory manufacturers race to secure next-generation lithography technologies for increasingly advanced process nodes, the approaching High-NA EUV era is adding urgency to the development of pellicles capable of handling higher optical and thermal requirements.

Quanta raises 2026 capex to NT$40B as AI visibility runs to 2028

Joseph(C) Chen — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 10:25:55 GMT

Quanta Computer told investors at its August 13 earnings call that customer AI product roadmaps and order visibility now extend into 2028, prompting the company to accelerate capacity expansion and raise its full-year 2026 capital expenditure target to NT$40 billion (US$1.28 billion) from NT$30 billion. Quanta expects its overall margin for 2026 to hold steady at first-half levels.

Oracle's transformation from enterprise software to AI powerhouse

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 09:40:50 GMT

Oracle and quantum computing leader Quantinuum have entered a multi-year strategic partnership to bring Quantinuum's next-generation quantum computer, Helios, directly into Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). The collaboration aims to create a unified computing ecosystem where enterprise customers, AI research labs, and scientific institutions can access quantum processing units (QPUs) alongside existing GPU clusters and high-performance computing (HPC) hardware.

China AI chip market nears 90% domestic share in 2026—Huawei on course to eclipse Nvidia

DIGITIMES — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 08:20:43 GMT

China's high-end AI chip market could become almost entirely domestic in 2026, with local solutions expected to take nearly 90% of sales and leave Nvidia, AMD and other overseas suppliers with about 10%.