DIGITIMES Asia: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

Apple, Qualcomm and MediaTek take different paths as TSMC capacity stays tight

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:44:53 GMT

TSMC is facing fierce customer competition and supply shortages as demand surges for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing chips, forcing fabless chipmakers to consider limited shifts in manufacturing partners to ease constraints.

Commentary: SEA semiconductor industry pivots towards AI as a strategic hub

Charlene Chen — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:43:37 GMT

SEMICON SEA 2026 drew heavy crowds, underscoring Southeast Asia's emergence as an indispensable "strategic hub" in the global AI compute supply chain. The region's semiconductor players are now moving from "capacity substitution" to "technological self-reliance" in what is shaping up to be a long-distance race.

Research insight: Taiwan's auto tech pushes beyond components into autonomous systems

Elaine Chen — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:43:23 GMT

A DIGITIMES Research observation at the 2026 Taipei International Auto Electronics Show found that Taiwan's automotive electronics industry is steadily shifting from supplying individual components toward integrated systems spanning autonomous driving sensors, in-cabin safety, autonomous logistics vehicles, and localized supply-chain integration.

Commentary: Musk's xAI exit shows Anthropic's AI strength

Lily Hess — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:43:05 GMT

On May 6, Elon Musk was in several places at once: confronting OpenAI in court, announcing on X that xAI would no longer operate as an independent company, and handing over a large share of his AI compute to another AI firm, Anthropic. Three years after Musk gathered 12 researchers from DeepMind, Google, and OpenAI to found xAI with the stated goal to "understand the universe," he has now moved to shut it down.

Infineon wins US patent ruling against Chinese GaN rival Innoscience

Elaine Chen — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:42:54 GMT

A patent dispute between Infineon Technologies and China's Innoscience over gallium nitride (GaN) technology has escalated after the US International Trade Commission upheld a preliminary ruling finding that Innoscience had infringed one of Infineon's GaN-related patents.

GaN patent fight between China and Europe extends beyond courtroom

Elaine Chen — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:42:43 GMT

As the global patent battle over gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors intensifies, a recent ruling by the US International Trade Commission has deepened the rivalry between Infineon Technologies and China's Innoscience while also underscoring how geopolitics is increasingly shaping the future of the power semiconductor industry.

Compeq emerges as key supplier in AI and low-orbit satellite boom

Elaine Chen — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:42:22 GMT

Compeq Manufacturing said first-quarter 2026 revenue reached a record high for the period, driven by sustained demand from major US customers for smartphones, notebooks, and low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite products, as well as growing shipments tied to AI data centers.

Chenbro expands from AI server chassis into liquid-cooling CDU

Charlene Chen — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:41:31 GMT

Chenbro CEO Corona Chen said strong AI demand is reshaping data center architecture, pushing the company beyond its traditional chassis business into systems, racks, and liquid-cooling infrastructure. She said Chenbro has moved from PC chassis to general-purpose servers and AI servers, and is now entering racks, liquid-cooling cabinets, and IT racks by leveraging its mechanical design expertise.

Himax targets 2026 rebound on auto DDI and AI glasses momentum

Lily Hess — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:41:15 GMT

Himax Technologies said its revenue and profit in the first quarter of 2026 both came in at the upper end of its original financial forecasts, and it expects operations to trend higher over the next several quarters as new automotive projects enter mass production and non-driver ICs gain traction, particularly timing controllers (TCONs) and WiseEye AI. The Taiwan-based display driver IC (DDI) maker disclosed these results in its latest earnings report.

Japan's diamond chip startups move toward production as factory and samples advance

DIGITIMES — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:41:00 GMT

Japan's diamond semiconductor sector is moving closer to practical use, as university-backed startups advance factory construction, sample production, and device demonstrations for high-frequency, high-power, and harsh-environment applications.

Apple, AI server demand power Tripod to record 1Q26 as PCB orders spill over

DIGITIMES — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:37:18 GMT

Taiwanese PCB maker Tripod Technology posted its strongest-ever first-quarter performance in 2026, driven by resilient server and memory demand tied to the global AI infrastructure buildout and spillover orders from higher-end AI server supply chains.

Interview: Cyient Semiconductors CEO on Kinetic acquisition — why power is the new compute bottleneck

DIGITIMES — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:36:59 GMT

As the semiconductor industry grapples with the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence, Cyient Semiconductors is repositioning itself away from being a primarily semiconductor engineering and ASIC services provider and toward a more product-oriented hybrid model centered on intelligent power and proprietary semiconductor products.

Taiwan's cybersecurity market shifts toward managed services as ransomware pressure mounts

Willis Ke — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:36:25 GMT

For many Taiwanese businesses, cybersecurity still means buying a router and moving on. That gap between perception and exposure has become expensive — and increasingly hard to ignore. Speaking at CYBERSEC 2026 in Taipei, executives from Zyxel Group subsidiaries Zyxel Networks and Zyell Solutions described an industry in transition: from one-time hardware purchases toward continuous managed protection, and from conventional encryption toward systems designed to withstand quantum-era threats.

Chicony reports rebound in first quarter as higher-end keyboards and imaging lift margins

DIGITIMES — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:33:27 GMT

Chicony Electronics reported a sharp profit rebound in the first quarter of 2026, excluding one-time consolidation costs tied to its Dongguan plant, executives said, with earnings per share reaching NT$2 (US$0.064), signaling a recovery in core profitability. The company disclosed these results on May 11 and said April revenue eased after some customers pulled orders into March, but it expects sales to stabilize from May. Still, it anticipates second-quarter revenue to grow quarter on quarter.

Powerlogic reports weaker first quarter as chip shortages hit gaming fan sales

DIGITIMES — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:31:03 GMT

Powerlogic reported weaker first-quarter results after upstream shortages of chips, DRAM, and GPUs prioritized for AI applications squeezed supply to the broader gaming market, delaying customer pull-ins and weighing on operations, the firm announced. The company said these supply constraints cut into demand and shipments for gaming cooling components in the first quarter of 2026.

TienPin posts more than fivefold April revenue surge as AI liquid-cooling demand climbs

DIGITIMES — Tue, 12 May 2026 00:18:46 GMT

TienPin United Enterprise reported consolidated revenue of NT$61.922 million (US$1.97 million) in April 2026, a 516.94% increase from April 2025. It said cumulative consolidated revenue for the first four months of 2026 reached NT$338 million, up 963.53% year on year. The company attributed the gains to the rapid buildout of AI computing infrastructure and increased demand for liquid-cooling and precision cleaning services for AI servers.

Transcend chair sees AI memory supercycle

Lily Hess — Mon, 11 May 2026 09:45:46 GMT

AI will bring an epochal technology revolution, as did the invention of steam power and electricity, according to Transcend Information chairman Chung-Won Shu. He argued that DRAM and NAND flash will face shortages in 2026-2027 and could remain undersupplied in 2028. He said Transcend's multi-level cell (MLC) NAND inventory, bought before certain memory manufacturers stopped production, is enough for about one year. Shu added that the company has recently broken into China's cloud service provider (CSP) supply chains, underscoring a structural change in the memory industry.

Samsung strike threat puts memory output at risk as 18-day walkout looms

DIGITIMES — Mon, 11 May 2026 09:14:49 GMT

A planned 18-day strike at Samsung Electronics is shifting investor attention from labor negotiations to the risk of memory-output disruption, as estimates from Korean media point to significant potential losses across the company's semiconductor operations.

Taiwan ranks among top 20 markets as AI adoption surges, Microsoft says

DIGITIMES — Mon, 11 May 2026 09:00:45 GMT

Microsoft's AI Economy Institute released a global update showing rapid growth in generative AI use since mid-2025 and identifying Asia as the primary engine of recent AI diffusion. The report said Taiwan ranked No. 20 globally in local AI adoption in the first quarter of 2026, while the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, and Norway led global diffusion rates during the same period.

Advantech April revenue hits record as edge AI surges

Lily Hess — Mon, 11 May 2026 08:51:38 GMT

Advantech posted a fresh monthly revenue record in April 2026 as rising demand for edge AI applications and synchronized growth across major global markets lifted the industrial PC (IPC) maker beyond a traditional IPC supplier profile. Looking to the second quarter of 2026, the company remained cautiously optimistic and said its goal of double-digit full-year revenue growth was unchanged.

AI data center spending frenzy ignites Sunon's next cooling windfall

Levi Li — Mon, 11 May 2026 08:34:58 GMT

Sunonwealth Electric Machine Industry (Sunon) said surging global investment in AI infrastructure is driving strong demand for industrial cooling products, with its electronically commutated (EC) fans expected to emerge as a major growth driver in 2027.

Delta Electronics rides AI power, liquid cooling boom to another strong month

Levi Li — Mon, 11 May 2026 08:19:28 GMT

Continuing the strong growth trajectory seen in the first quarter of 2026, Delta Electronics maintained robust year-over-year revenue momentum in April, supported by continued expansion in AI data center-related business.

For India's chip dream, Lam Research points beyond fabs

DIGITIMES — Mon, 11 May 2026 07:39:20 GMT

As India's semiconductor ambitions move from policy announcements to execution, Lam Research sees the country's opportunity extending beyond fabs to the less visible ecosystem that will determine whether it can become a meaningful part of the global chip manufacturing supply chain.

China's cybersecurity AI charges ahead despite US model lockout

DIGITIMES — Mon, 11 May 2026 07:28:50 GMT

AI is upending the world of cybersecurity, as more capable models and agentic capabilities bring about new ways to exploit vulnerabilities, along with new ways to discover and patch them. While major US AI companies have so far led the race, Chinese firms are also using AI to stay competitive and create similarly powerful tools, even as they are officially shut out of the most advanced American models.

DeepSeek's US$7bn funding bid puts China's AI race on notice

DIGITIMES — Mon, 11 May 2026 07:14:35 GMT

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is seeking to raise as much as CNY50 billion (US$7.35 billion) in its first external funding round. The deal could value the company at more than CNY350 billion (US$51.5 billion), potentially the largest funding round in Chinese AI history.

Analysis: Intel's Apple deal boosts CEO Tan's turnaround, but hard part still lies ahead

DIGITIMES — Mon, 11 May 2026 07:10:06 GMT

Intel's reported preliminary agreement to manufacture some chips for Apple devices would mark a major validation point for CEO Lip-Bu Tan's effort to rebuild the US chipmaker's foundry business. It would not, however, resolve the deeper manufacturing, cost, and organizational challenges still standing between Intel and a full-scale comeback.

Taiwan backs military-civilian cyber tech to counter AI attacks

Kevin Wang — Mon, 11 May 2026 06:35:43 GMT

AI smartphones from Chinese brands are widely available in Taiwan, yet AI text summarization involving audio content deemed politically sensitive is often interrupted, as such services rely on data transfers to servers in China. Although hostilities between Taiwan and China have not escalated, cybersecurity awareness has increased in both the military and civilian sectors, especially as Taiwan looks for ways to counter AI-enabled attacks from China.

Memory bottlenecks threaten data-center GPU efficiency as AI inference scales, says Micron SVP

Jingyue Hsiao — Mon, 11 May 2026 04:35:20 GMT

Micron's senior vice president, Jeremy Werner, told The Circuit Podcast that memory has become a strategic bottleneck for data-center inference, warning that insufficient memory can sharply cut GPU utilization while faster, larger memory can theoretically multiply the compute extracted from GPUs. The remarks underscore how storage and memory design could limit AI deployment.

Nan Pao targets semiconductor specialty materials as revenue hits record for April

DIGITIMES — Mon, 11 May 2026 04:34:19 GMT

Nan Pao Resins Chemical Group said April revenue rose 15.0% year on year to NT$2.285 billion (US$72.77 million), a record for the month, while cumulative revenue for January to April 2026 reached NT$8.122 billion, up 7.7% from the same period in 2025. The company attributed the monthly gain to raw material price swings and customer expectations of price increases, which prompted earlier order placements and stockpiling. A spokesperson added that Nan Pao accelerated new product development and won new customers during the period.

Samsung strike talks resumed with US$29 billion on the line

DIGITIMES — Mon, 11 May 2026 04:31:26 GMT

Samsung Electronics' labor and management have returned to the negotiating table under South Korean government mediation, as the company faces a planned general strike and a widening dispute over how profits from its semiconductor rebound should be shared.

Qisda sees recovery driven by AI and semiconductors, expects profit rebound through 2026

Jingyue Hsiao — Mon, 11 May 2026 04:22:38 GMT

Qisda said its operations began to recover in the first quarter of 2026 after profits bottomed out in 2025, with chairman Peter Chen saying visibility for the second and third quarters is now better than in the first quarter. Chen expects revenue and earnings to return to normal in 2026 as AI and semiconductors continue to reshape the group's direction.

Ennostar sees 2Q26 rebound on stronger component demand

Elaine Chen — Mon, 11 May 2026 04:20:23 GMT

Ennostar said its core losses narrowed significantly in the first quarter of 2026 from the previous quarter, despite the seasonally weak period for the industry, and expects a marked recovery in both revenue and shipments starting in the second quarter of 2026, driven by stronger demand for components and emerging growth in Micro LED technology.

AMD's 2nm defection to Samsung dents TSMC's AI grip

Charlene Chen — Mon, 11 May 2026 04:18:33 GMT

The AI semiconductor supply chain is showing unexpected signs of a shift, with TSMC's long-held dominance in the foundry market beginning to loosen. US chipmakers are increasingly engaging with Samsung Electronics and Intel as alternative suppliers, and AMD has already handed its 2nm order to Samsung.

DIGITIMES Insight: MediaTek denies Intel link as TSMC's packaging lead faces new test

Sherri Wang — Mon, 11 May 2026 04:14:54 GMT

DIGITIMES senior analyst Luke Lin said Warren Buffett's investment in Apple should be viewed not simply as a stock trade, but as a bet on the company and its leadership under CEO Tim Cook.

Trans-Sun Materials rides AI server wave with profit surge

DIGITIMES — Mon, 11 May 2026 03:56:51 GMT

Trans-Sun Materials Technology posted broad-based gains in the first quarter of 2026, with consolidated revenue rising 28.66% year on year to NT$379 million (US$12.07 million) and net profit attributable to the parent surging 66.34% to NT$26 million, yielding earnings per share of NT$1.07. The maker of electronic functional materials credited the performance to accelerating demand for high-performance computing infrastructure tied to the expansion of AI workloads.