DIGITIMES: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

ADATA posts record 3Q revenue as memory prices rise

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 09:45:13 GMT

ADATA Technology reported record consolidated revenue of NT$53.03 billion(NT$53.03 billion)in the third quarter of 2026, topping NT$50 billion for the period as tighter memory supply and higher prices lifted sales. The memory module maker also said September consolidated revenue reached NT$15.73 billion, up 200% year-over-year but down 16.9% from August after it strategically adjusted shipments.

Cerebras' stock slide stops after Sam Altman calls it 'close partner'

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 09:31:15 GMT

Cerebras' stock rebounded by 9% after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gave reassurance that the two companies are close partners days after a report cast doubt on their relationship, causing the chipmaker's stock to drop 20% last week. The episode raises concerns over its current concentration on a few large customers.

TSMC Texas-Terafab buzz drives Taiwan contractors to move fast

Charlene Chen — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 09:18:34 GMT

TSMC has not officially announced anything, but Taiwan's semiconductor facility engineering supply chain is already rushing to Texas after reports that the company is discussing a collaboration with Elon Musk's "Terafab" plan. DYC chairman Chung-Ping Hsieh said his company only received the news last week and has already begun mapping out a Texas strategy, while some faster-moving Taiwan contractors have even set up local offices.

LG lands 5GW North American data center cooling deal

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 09:17:45 GMT

LG Electronics has signed a long-term agreement to supply chillers for data center projects totaling more than 5GW of capacity in the US and Canada, giving the South Korean company greater visibility into future demand as it expands its North American cooling business.

BenQ Materials expands Xpore circular textile push

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 08:57:39 GMT

BenQ Materials showcased its eco-friendly performance fabric brand Xpore at the Taipei Innovative Textile Application Show (TITAS) 2026, marking the brand's second appearance at the event. The company introduced three core green technologies, six product lines and the commercial rollout of Xpore e2cycle, its electronic-waste recycling process, as it seeks a larger role in the global green materials supply chain.

AMD to expand Taiwan supply chain investment as AI demand drives capacity needs

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 08:48:53 GMT

AMD CEO Lisa Su said the company plans to further increase investment in Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain as demand for CPUs, GPUs, and AI computing continues to outpace available capacity.

ITRI sees hardware, AI, sensing drive quadruped robot rollout

Lily Hess — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 08:27:00 GMT

As AI advances rapidly, the robotics industry is evolving from traditional automation equipment into a productivity tool for every industry, Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) said. ITRI added that robots will gradually move into manufacturing, inspection, welding, warehousing, medical care, and even homes, and that hardware, AI, sensing, and virtual-physical integration will be key to turning robots from simply machines that can move into ones that can work.

Chinese LCD panel makers tighten supply to lift prices — Taiwan suppliers eye order shifts

Levi Li — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 08:23:56 GMT

Chinese panel makers moved to cut production during the National Day holiday after issuing their first price increase notices in September, combining pricing signals with supply controls to stabilize LCD TV panel prices and profitability.

South Korea keeps sovereign AI contest on track, adds KRW4.7T frontier program after hours of confusion

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 07:22:00 GMT

South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said its Sovereign AI Foundation Model Project will run to completion as originally planned. The statement reversed, within hours, a vice minister's suggestion that the national-team AI competition would wind down as the government launches a new KRW4.7 trillion frontier AI program.

China's 15th five-year plan elevates PCB role in AI supply chains

Charlene Chen — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 07:12:11 GMT

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission have released the 15th Five-Year Plan for the development of the electronic information manufacturing industry, aiming to push revenue at large-scale enterprises above CNY30 trillion (US$4.5 trillion) by 2030 and foster world-class companies in semiconductors, advanced computing, consumer electronics, basic electronics, and energy electronics.

Samsung secures customer backing for US$5B substrate expansion

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 07:05:50 GMT

Samsung Electro-Mechanics is investing KRW6.78 trillion (approx. US$5 billion) to expand FCBGA capacity in South Korea and Vietnam. The projects are backed by customer funding and medium- to long-term volume commitments, as demand for high-performance package substrates pushes Korean production lines toward high utilization.

Taiwan bets on SiPh, CPO to tackle AI data center power bottlenecks

Willis Ke — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 07:02:39 GMT

Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has launched two research programs targeting silicon photonics (SiPh) and next-generation AI data center power systems, seeking to address energy and performance bottlenecks as high-speed computing shifts increasingly from copper to optical interconnects.

TSMC tops global FDI ranking as AI infrastructure redraws overseas investment

Levi Li — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 07:01:13 GMT

The direction of global corporate investment in physical assets is becoming clearer. According to the fDi Report 2026 and an analysis by Visual Capitalist, announced greenfield foreign direct investment by multinational companies exceeded US$1.3 trillion in 2025, up 2.2% from a year earlier.

Taiwan's NSTC seeks AI data center power tech to reduce grid impact of load spikes

Kevin Wang — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 06:20:00 GMT

Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has recently issued a call for proposals on "high-performance power conversion and system management technologies for next-generation AI data centers." The aim is to help AI-related industries discover and develop usable technologies that can reduce AI's impact on the power grid. The effort targets power consumption, the single biggest customer-side issue facing companies in AI chip design and manufacturing and AI server assembly.

Apple, Qualcomm renew patent deal, iPhone modem shift deepens

Lily Hess — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 06:03:00 GMT

Qualcomm announced on September 24 that it has renewed its global patent licensing agreement with Apple, with the new contract set to take effect on April 1, 2027. The terms and value of the deal were not disclosed, but Apple's long-running move toward in-house modem chips continues to draw close attention.

Drone share tops 10% as Calin Technology eyes LEO optics, auto growth

Yunnie Cheng — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 05:48:08 GMT

Optical lens maker Calin Technology is seeing its new business ventures bear fruit. Revenue from its drone camera module segment has surpassed 10% of total sales in 2026 and is targeting over 15%, making it the company's fastest-growing product line this year. Meanwhile, automotive lens revenue is projected to remain flat in 2026 before returning to growth in 2027, driven by a new design-in project with a US automaker.

China National Day EV charging surges 49% as highway grid faces peak-load test

Yunnie Cheng — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 05:01:19 GMT

China's National Day holidays have driven a massive surge in long-distance electric vehicle (EV) travel. According to data from China's National Energy Administration cited by The Paper, the 62,700 monitored highway charging facilities across the country completed 2.97 million EV charging sessions from October 1 to 3, a 48.41% increase compared to the same period in 2025. Total electricity delivered reached 71.62 million kWh, up roughly 49.39% year-over-year.

Nittobo expands glass cloth output as AI chip demand strains global supply

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 04:47:47 GMT

Nittobo is expanding production of its T-Glass glass cloth as demand from AI chip makers tightens a critical part of the global semiconductor supply chain. The move matters beyond Japan because shortages of this insulating material could slow advanced chip production, raise costs, and affect technology markets worldwide.

How RobCo and the robotics unicorn wave are redefining industrial automation

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 04:40:39 GMT

Physical AI is shifting from a hardware niche into the next foundational computing platform, driving record investor capital into embodied intelligence systems.

Arcadyan September revenue hits record on mobile communications strength

Lily Hess — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 04:29:44 GMT

As the networking market enters its traditional peak season, customer demand is gradually recovering. Arcadyan Technology announced on October 5 its September revenue, which reached NT$5.06 billion (approx. US$159.3 million), up 7.0% month-over-month and 8.5% year-over-year. This marked a record high.

Skyworks closes Qorvo deal, forming US RF and analog powerhouse

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 04:28:10 GMT

Skyworks Solutions (Nasdaq: SWKS) has completed its combination with Qorvo, creating a US-based supplier of high-performance radio frequency (RF), power management, and analog and mixed-signal semiconductors. The company expects annual cost synergies of US$500 million or more, and says the deal will add to non-GAAP earnings per share right away.

Huawei's Kirin 9050 Pro reveals new logic folding chip design

Charlene Chen — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 04:26:08 GMT

Huawei's Kirin 9050 Pro has been fully broken down by Chinese and overseas researchers, giving the market a closer look at the company's "LogicFolding" approach. Analysis from Geekerwan and die-shot images posted by Kurnal Insights show that the flagship SoC in the Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max uses two vertically stacked dies rather than a traditional single-plane chip design.

Thunder Tiger's new drone tests signal broader defense market ambitions

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 04:22:36 GMT

Thunder Tiger's successful launch and takeoff tests of its new Iron Triangle PAPADELTA drone line highlight how global defense customers are shaping the next phase of unmanned systems. The company is using the platform to target longer-range missions, mobile deployment, and export opportunities across the US, Europe, and other markets.

3.2T optical upgrade triggers PCB redesign, shrinking supplier pool to 3

Yunnie Cheng — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 04:15:35 GMT

As AI computing clusters continue to expand, performance requirements for scale-out interconnects between racks are rising rapidly. This is pushing traditional pluggable optical transceivers from 800G to 1.6T and accelerating the transition toward future 3.2T products, a shift reshaping printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing from substrate materials to processing technologies.

Samsung steps up HBM cooling as TSMC expands CoWoS

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 04:15:08 GMT

Samsung Electronics is expanding its thermal-management efforts for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) beyond the memory stack as increasingly large chip packages raise heat-management challenges.

BizLink revenue rises on European site restart, Interplex integration

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 04:04:20 GMT

BizLink-KY said September revenue climbed as it ended summer shutdowns at its European facilities and consolidated Interplex Datacom's data communications business, underscoring how global supply chains and AI infrastructure demand are reshaping sales trends worldwide. The company said momentum should remain strong as data center orders expand and new products ramp up.

Solidigm expands Taiwan SSD production base to tap AI server supply chain

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 03:57:53 GMT

Solidigm, SK Hynix's NAND subsidiary, is expanding its Taiwan production base for data center solid-state drives (SSDs), underscoring the island's growing role in the global AI server supply chain. The move could affect global SSD supply, customer sourcing, and partnerships across the fast-growing data center market.

Jedec unveils new standard for silicon photonics reliability qualification and testing

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 03:52:28 GMT

Jedec released a new standard for silicon photonics (SiPh) testing and manufacturing controls to promote consistent reliability practices. The standard comes as SiPh experiences rapid growth due to its potential to replace copper interconnects amid AI infrastructure demand surges.

AM Intelligence expands India AI infrastructure push with 20,000 more Nvidia Rubin GPUs

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 03:36:14 GMT

AM Intelligence (AMI) is widening its AI infrastructure push in India and Malaysia, adding to a regional buildout that could matter well beyond Asia. The latest orders expand access to frontier computing for cloud providers and developers, while signaling a shift in global AI capacity toward new hubs outside North America.

Qualcomm takes Arm to trial again, with billions in royalties at stake

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 03:04:04 GMT

Qualcomm and Arm opened a five-day trial in US federal court in Delaware on October 5, with Qualcomm seeking to stop paying Arm royalties for up to five years, a remedy potentially worth billions of dollars. The dispute comes as Qualcomm pushes deeper into data centers, raising the stakes of a licensing relationship largely formed around the smartphone market.

Notebook downturn splits supply chain: ODMs lean on servers, component makers seek new growth

Scarlett Yu — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 02:56:09 GMT

Notebook shipments performed better than expected in the first half of 2026, but the market entered a sharp downturn beginning in September, in stark contrast to previous years, when the month typically marked the start of the peak season.

Electric scooter sales rise 33% in September but year-over-year slowdown persists

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 02:55:12 GMT

Taiwan's motorcycle market emerged from the seasonal lull in September 2026, with total registrations rising to 70,189, up 16.78% month-over-month. Electric scooter sales also rebounded, with 3,482 units sold in the month, up 32.9%.

September auto market beats expectations; Hotai sees stable Q4

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 02:48:59 GMT

Hotai Motor said Taiwan's auto market should remain stable in the fourth quarter, after September sales came in better than expected and the company kept its full-year 2026 forecast at 430,000 vehicles. The distributor also said sales of Toyota, Lexus, and Hino models will still target 165,000 units in 2026.

Taiwan unveils new 5-year quantum tech program to speed adoption

Rodney Chan — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 02:40:32 GMT

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has announced the details of its next five-year quantum research program as Taiwan prepares to wrap up its current NT$8 billion (US$252.14 million) National Quantum Team project by the end of 2026.

Samsung recasts India as global innovation base after three decades of manufacturing

DIGITIMES — Tue, 6 Oct 2026 02:34:53 GMT

Samsung Electronics says its India operations, which it set up in 1995, have evolved from a manufacturing base into a global innovation hub. The South Korean company is pitching the country as a source of technology for its worldwide business, rather than only as a market and production base.