DIGITIMES: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

Broadcom says CPO fits scale-out better than scale-up

Lily Hess — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 04:43:05 GMT

Broadcom Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Core Switching Group Asad Khamisy said at the Semicon Taiwan 2026 master forum that co-packaged optics (CPO) is not necessarily the best answer for scale-up networking, arguing that scale-out applications offer higher value and can cut power consumption by about 70% compared with pluggable optical modules.

Microsoft unveils two-segment reporting structure, standalone Azure financials

DIGITIMES — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 04:13:10 GMT

Microsoft has unveiled its consolidation of its operating segments from three down to two: Agents and Infra alongside Devices and Consumer. The tech giant also announced plans to disclose standalone quarterly revenue for its Azure cloud unit.

CXMT expands global hiring to Japan for DDR5, LPDDR technology upgrade

Levi Li — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 03:55:00 GMT

Chinese DRAM maker CXMT has launched its 2027 global recruitment campaign, opening roles across circuit design, R&D, mass-production technology, manufacturing operations, information technology and artificial intelligence. Positions are based in Hefei, Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and overseas markets including Japan.

Taiwan LED packaging provider Ligitek pivots to silicon photonics; 1.6T modules eye 2H27 revenue

Levi Li — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 03:43:46 GMT

Ligitek is accelerating its move from LED packaging into silicon photonics (SiPh) and high-speed optical communications, with 1.6T product samples already tested and volume-production equipment due from late 2026 through the first quarter of 2027. Chairman I-hsin Tung said recent optical throughput tests exceeded industry benchmarks, with revenue contribution expected in the second half of 2027.

Zeiss deepens Taiwan bet as advanced chip packaging raises the stakes for inspection tools

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 03:21:57 GMT

Zeiss is expanding its Taiwan presence as artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates demand for smaller chips, vertical stacking, and 2.5D and 3D heterogeneous integration. The shift is increasing the need for metrology, inspection, and failure analysis, and Zeiss is planning a semiconductor innovation center in northern Taiwan to support validation and application development.

Huawei, Xiaomi to launch new foldable smartphones ahead of Apple

Eifeh Strom — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 03:11:57 GMT

Samsung Electronics launched its new Galaxy Z series foldable smartphones, including its first wide-folding model, kicking off this year's foldable smartphone battle. With attention on the upcoming release of Apple's debut foldable smartphone, the market reported on September 2 that Xiaomi and Huawei will unveil new foldables on September 7, ahead of Apple.

Solomon leverages AI vision and optical tech to tap semiconductor inspection market

Eifeh Strom — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 02:57:13 GMT

Solomon Technology, a Taiwanese artificial intelligence (AI) 3D vision company, is showcasing two key inspection applications that integrate its core AI vision and optical technologies at Semicon Taiwan 2026. The applications include full-wafer warpage detection inside front-opening unified pods (FOUP)/cassettes and through-glass via (TGV) aperture defect inspection technology, aimed at preventing equipment downtime during manufacturing processes and ensuring the yield and quality of next-generation advanced packaging.

TSMC doubles down on equipment purchase as AI demand is outpacing semiconductor supply chain planning

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 02:50:15 GMT

TSMC says surging AI demand is stretching the global chip industry beyond its usual planning cycle, with fast-changing procurement needs, labor shortages, and infrastructure constraints affecting markets far beyond Taiwan. The company is expanding aggressively, but executives say the pace of demand is still outrunning the ecosystem's ability to respond.

SK Hynix weighs Kioxia production tie-up in Japan

DIGITIMES — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 02:38:31 GMT

SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won has raised the possibility of jointly producing semiconductors with Japan's Kioxia, taking SK Hynix's exploration of a Japanese manufacturing base a step further by publicly identifying its NAND rival as a potential production partner.

Intel pre-funds EMIB-T and CPU capacity, will address DRAM through partners rather than fabs

DIGITIMES — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 02:21:37 GMT

Intel's US$23 billion equity raise in August was pre-funding for a capacity build driven by demand and process confidence rather than distress, chief financial officer David Zinsner said, committing Intel to equipping fabs in Ireland, Arizona, and Oregon before 14A reaches high-volume manufacturing in 2028. At Deutsche Bank's 2026 Technology Conference on August 27, he put numbers on the advanced packaging business, a data center CPU cycle Intel expects to undersupply into 2028, and a gross margin now "comfortably in the 40s."

Taiwan's supply chain is 'one of a kind,' MediaTek CEO says

Sherri Wang — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 02:11:44 GMT

MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai said Taiwan's supply-chain capabilities are unmatched as the technology industry moves into the AI and robotics era, while joking that the chip designer will need significantly more capacity in the years ahead.

Apple, Xiaomi and Nvidia chase terabyte-class bandwidth for AI chips

Levi Li — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 02:11:38 GMT

For decades, semiconductor performance gains largely came from shrinking process nodes, from 22nm and 14nm to 7nm and 3nm. AI is changing the constraint: processors are getting faster, but moving enough data to feed them is increasingly difficult.

AUO unit eyes TSMC ecosystem as merger benefits emerge

Yunnie Cheng — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 02:09:44 GMT

AUO Group's AET SustainTek, formed in September 2025 through the merger of AUO Envirotech and AUO Digitech, is expanding across the semiconductor supply chain and has reportedly entered the ecosystem of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). After the merger, AET SustainTek's core operations turned profitable in 2025, and the company is targeting a full-year profit in 2026.

China packaging specialist SJSemi reaches 3.3-reticle 2.5D scale for AI, HBM integration

Levi Li — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:54:34 GMT

Chinese advanced packaging provider SJ Semiconductor (SJSemi) has expanded its silicon-interposer-based 2.5D packaging platform to 3.3 times the standard reticle size, enabling denser integration of multiple dies and high-bandwidth memory for AI chips and high-performance computing (HPC).

AI substrate shortages widen as Unimicron signals capacity support through 2029

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:51:39 GMT

Unimicron chairman SC Chien said the company is working to ease the tightening shortage of AI substrates as MediaTek seeks capacity support for the next three years, during a public appearance at Semicon Taiwan 2026. Chien appeared alongside ASE Technology CEO Tien Wu, TSMC senior vice president and deputy co-chief operating officer Cliff Hou, MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai and Foxconn chairman Young Liu.

Win Semiconductors unveils 0.1μm GaN for AI, satellite links

Charlene Chen — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:48:08 GMT

Taiwanese compound semiconductor maker WIN Semiconductors said on September 1, 2026, that compound semiconductors are the backbone of AI and satellite communications, as it unveiled 0.1μm GaN technology aimed at higher-speed transmission. Senior associate vice president Chuck Huang made the remarks at the NExT Forum.

UniVista expands China EDA stack with AI agents, native 3DIC tools

DIGITIMES — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:47:44 GMT

Shanghai UniVista Industrial Software Group has launched an Agentic EDA framework, a native 3DIC physical-design tool and an advanced-process closure platform, expanding China's domestic toolchain for chip verification, 3D integration and digital back-end design.

ChangXin Memory's 'Hefei Project' exposed in Samsung DRAM theft case

DIGITIMES — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:47:29 GMT

South Korean prosecutors allege that Chinese memory maker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) set up an internal "Hefei Project" in 2016 to obtain Samsung Electronics' core DRAM technology and recruit its engineers, with phased goals laid out in advance.

BYD Semiconductor scales 4D radar chip for L2-L4 driving, deepening its in-house automotive sensing stack

DIGITIMES — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:47:19 GMT

BYD Semiconductor has begun mass production of a new automotive-grade 4D millimetre-wave radar chip built around its Xuanji A3 intelligent-driving architecture, expanding its in-house sensing stack for L2 to L4 driving functions.

TRUMPF targets advanced packaging as AI chip makers chase higher density and better cooling

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:47:01 GMT

As AI chips grow more powerful, the race is shifting beyond transistor scaling to packaging, glass substrates, and thermal control. For global readers, that means the next gains in AI performance may depend as much on manufacturing breakthroughs as on chip design, with supply chains and costs likely to change.

Google to expand Taipei AI infrastructure center as Taiwan ties deepen

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:42:32 GMT

Google will expand its AI infrastructure research and development center in Taipei's Shilin district, adding 60% more office space, as it deepens work with Taiwan's supply chain on next-generation computing. The move underscores Taiwan's growing role in global AI development, where chip, cooling, and data-center advances affect users worldwide.

Broadcom puts 30GW, US$350 billion of custom AI silicon on the calendar through fiscal 2028

DIGITIMES — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:42:04 GMT

Broadcom used its third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call on September 2 to convert a quarter-by-quarter AI story into a dated, customer-by-customer deployment schedule running into fiscal 2029. Chief executive Hock Tan told analysts that across the company's six XPU customers there is demand for 30GW of accelerated compute in fiscal 2027 and 2028 combined, and that Broadcom expects to ship "US$350 billion of AI semiconductors to these customers in the next two years." He was explicit that not all 30GW will come online inside those two fiscal years — "we judge it conservatively to be somewhat less" — and that the revenue figures, not the gigawatt figures, are the commitment.

China optical module makers ride AI boom as 800G, 1.6T orders stretch into 2027

Levi Li — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:35:03 GMT

AI infrastructure expansion is accelerating demand for 800G and 1.6T optical modules, lifting first-half 2026 results across major Chinese suppliers and extending order visibility into 2027.

HPE has already bought the supply behind its raised fiscal 2027 plan

DIGITIMES — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:25:52 GMT

The most consequential figures on HPE's fiscal third-quarter earnings call on September 2 were not the results but the commitments standing behind them. According to Bloomberg's transcript of the call, the company has more than doubled its networking purchase commitments in a single quarter, carried US$11.8 billion of inventory into the fourth quarter, and signed multi-year supply agreements locking component capacity it can reallocate every 90 days. With two newly disclosed anchor deals, that pre-buying is what underwrites the roughly US$4 billion added to the fiscal 2027 revenue framework over the past quarter.

HPE's constraint has shifted from demand to memory

DIGITIMES — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:16:02 GMT

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's fiscal third-quarter results, reported on September 2, are the point at which the Juniper Networks deal and the enterprise AI cycle stopped being a cost story and became a margin story. Revenue reached US$12.2 billion in the three months to July 31, up 34% from a year earlier, and GAAP operating margin widened to 11.4% from 2.7%. What now limits the business is neither demand nor integration. It is component supply.

Lutnick confirms chip tariffs are coming, with relief tied to manufacturing in America

DIGITIMES — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 01:10:42 GMT

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has confirmed that the Trump administration is preparing a new round of semiconductor tariffs built around an exemption for companies that manufacture in the US — a design that shifts foreign chipmakers' tariff exposure away from what they ship and onto how much they are willing to spend on American fabs. For Taiwan's suppliers, already committed under a bilateral trade deal, the question is no longer whether tariffs arrive but how large a US footprint buys a company out of them.

Broadcom's custom AI silicon takes over the income statement as revenue climbs 86%

DIGITIMES — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 00:00:18 GMT

Broadcom's third quarter, ended August 2, 2026, is the point at which custom AI silicon stopped being an adjacent product line and became the shape of the company. Revenue reached US$29.6 billion, up 86% from a year earlier and 33% from the previous quarter. AI semiconductor revenue of US$16.7 billion — up 221% year on year, and 54% sequentially — is now larger than everything Broadcom billed, across every product and both segments, in the same quarter of 2025.

VinFast reportedly pauses India manufacturing work on three EVs, a year after opening its Tamil Nadu plant

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:35:13 GMT

VinFast has suspended plans to manufacture three electric vehicles in India and ordered suppliers to halt work while it reassesses costs, according to two sources and a company memo reviewed by Reuters. The pause stalls the localization push the Vietnamese automaker had placed at the center of its India strategy, barely a year after opening its first factory outside Vietnam.

CPO material race widens as Taiwan eyes key role

Charlene Chen — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:34:47 GMT

At the Semicon Network Summit 2026, speakers from Marvell, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research's Holst Centre, the UK Semiconductor Centre, and the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) discussed the future of silicon photonics (SiPh). They said the industry's bottlenecks have shifted from materials to packaging precision, materials platform selection, and the manufacturing tools needed to support both.

Auras sees ASIC revenue reaching 50% in 2027, eyes microchannel cooling production in 2028

Kevin Wang — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:34:06 GMT

Cooling specialist Auras Technology is expanding from GPU platforms to ASIC-related products as its next growth driver, amid the ongoing shift toward liquid cooling in AI servers, with chairman Steve Lin highlighting sustained progress in projects for major international cloud service providers (CSP) such as AWS and Meta.

Alpha Networks, ITRI develop B5G/Pre-6G Massive MIMO base stations

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:33:42 GMT

Network equipment maker Alpha Networks said it has teamed up with Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Chen Lung Technology to jointly advance the "B5G/Pre-6G public network Massive Antenna Radio Unit project."

JPC Connectivity sees AI demand driving orders into 2027 as margins benefit from longer lead times

Jingyue Hsiao — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:33:27 GMT

JPC Connectivity said demand tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure continued to strengthen in the second quarter of 2026, lifting orders for optical communications, high-speed transmission, and high-power products. The connector and cable maker said visibility now stretched into 2027, and in some cases into 2028, even as tight supply and longer lead times for key components continued to constrain near-term delivery.

Column: From automation to autonomy—what robotics still needs to make the leap

Jingyue Hsiao — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:32:48 GMT

I visited Automation Taipei 2026 in mid-August, where the show looked lively and occupied a footprint 7% larger than in 2025. Physical AI and vision-language-action (VLA) models dominated the venue. Yet most robots on display still repeated fixed motions behind barriers, highlighting how far robotics has to go to move from automation to autonomy.

SB Energy eyes US listing as Nvidia commits US$1.5 billion

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:32:26 GMT

SB Energy, the data center and power infrastructure company under SoftBank Group, filed for an IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on September 1, planning to list under the ticker "SBE" on Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas. The deal could value the company at more than US$50 billion, while Nvidia's promised US$1.5 billion investment has emerged as the most prominent backing for the offering.

Analysis: India's fast-growing FWA market may widen, but suppliers still face margin pressure

Jingyue Hsiao — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:31:57 GMT

India's fixed wireless access (FWA) market is expanding quickly as 5G rollouts accelerate and policymakers push local manufacturing, but Taiwanese networking suppliers say the opportunity comes with familiar risks. Telecom demand in the country remains strong, yet vendors with experience in India warn that growth does not automatically translate into profit.

PlayNitride sees 3.2T AI links opening a new front for Micro LED, but auto weakness weighs on 2H26

Levi Li — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:31:27 GMT

Micro LED is moving beyond displays into AI optical communications, with PlayNitride targeting commercial deployment within two years if industry standards and supply-chain integration progress as planned.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics eyes 30% MLCC price hikes, ABF up too

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:31:04 GMT

Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) is set to expand the scope of its price increases, with market reports saying the company will raise direct-supply prices for multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) sold to OEMs and ODMs in the fourth quarter of 2026, while ABF substrate prices are also climbing. With supply constrained and demand for AI servers strong, further price increases are likely in the near term.

SK Hynix wafer purchases jump 104% on AI demand

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:30:39 GMT

SK Hynix boosted its silicon wafer purchases in the second quarter of 2026 by more than doubling spending from the previous quarter as it moved early to secure raw materials amid rising wafer prices and surging AI demand. The increase drew more attention than Samsung Electronics' modest rise over the same period.

Global smartphone outlook cut again as foldables shine

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:30:16 GMT

Global smartphone shipments are facing renewed downside pressure in 2026 as memory prices rise, handset makers pass on higher costs, and brands trim low-end models to protect margins. Forecasts for this year have also been cut repeatedly, with the most bearish view suggesting global smartphone shipments will fall nearly 17% from 2025.

Thailand AiPASS unlocks premium AI after lessons

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:29:50 GMT

Thailand has launched its TH-AI Passport and core AiPASS platform, taking a different path from South Korea's national AI push by buying access to overseas commercial AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude and offering them free to citizens. The move aims to expand AI access while addressing the country's widening AI usage gap.

Samsung to add 1,612 new equipment units at Vietnam chip plant

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:29:25 GMT

Samsung Electronics is set to install 1,612 brand-new critical semiconductor back-end processing tools manufactured in South Korea at its factory under construction in Vietnam's Thai Nguyen province. Industry analysts say the move shows Samsung is accelerating efforts to turn Vietnam into a major semiconductor back-end manufacturing base.

LCY Advanced Materials launches wet chemicals for AI chip packaging

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:29:11 GMT

LCY Advanced Materials unveiled a new wet chemical solution for next-generation high-density interconnects at the SEMICON Taiwan 2026 Heterogeneous Integration International Summit, as AI and high-performance computing rapidly push semiconductor manufacturing toward system-level scaling centered on advanced packaging.

Macronix boosts sustainability spending to NT$780 million

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 23:28:44 GMT

Macronix (MXIC) said in its latest sustainability report for 2025 that greenhouse gas emissions fell 19.8% from 2024 and 32% from the business-as-usual (BAU) baseline, beating its original 20% reduction target. The memory chip maker also said it invested about NT$780 million (approx. US$24.66 million) in environmental, safety, and health initiatives in 2025.

MiniMax, Z.ai revenues surge on API demand but adjusted losses widen

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 16:50:00 GMT

Two of China's first listed foundation-model developers are showing that demand for their technology can translate into rapidly growing revenue. Turning that demand into profit remains a much harder problem.

TIME AI 100 spotlights China's new AI guard, from Moonshot, Z.ai to AgiBot, Manus

Levi Li — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 16:36:00 GMT

TIME recently unveiled its 2026 list of the 100 most influential people in AI. Alongside leaders of major technology companies, the list includes a new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs spanning AI models, humanoid robots, and AI agents, highlighting how China's AI industry is expanding beyond large language models into a broader range of technologies and applications.

SEMICON Taiwan 2026: Physical AI drives new demand for multimodal robot sensing

Willis Ke — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 16:33:00 GMT

The rise of physical AI is creating a new wave of demand for advanced sensors as robots move from controlled demonstrations toward practical deployment. Industry experts at SEMICON Taiwan 2026 said robots will need increasingly diverse sensing capabilities to perceive, interpret, and respond to complex real-world environments in real time.

Yield has been semiconductor industry's oldest question; now it's Microsoft's test for AI

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 16:05:00 GMT

Microsoft brought the semiconductor industry's own measure of success back to it on Wednesday, and argued that AI will be judged by it.

Sandisk says HBF can match HBM bandwidth with up to 16x the capacity

DIGITIMES — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 09:54:45 GMT

Sandisk says its NAND-based High Bandwidth Flash (HBF) technology can match HBM bandwidth while providing eight to 16 times the capacity at a similar cost, positioning flash memory closer to processors as inference workloads strain conventional memory systems.