DIGITIMES: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

Hiroca Holdings 2Q26 loss narrows as China plant consolidation supports recovery

Eifeh Strom — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 05:25:00 GMT

Automotive components manufacturer Hiroca Holdings stated on August 27 that although losses were still recorded in the second quarter of 2026 due to weak pull-ins from China's domestic market, the loss narrowed slightly compared with the first quarter. Continued optimization of its product mix and stable overseas orders for high-margin products also helped cushion the downturn.

Taiwan Mobile acquisition of Systex moves forward as review committee deems terms fair, reasonable

Eifeh Strom — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 05:15:00 GMT

Taiwan Mobile's acquisition of Systex has moved forward, with Systex's tender offer review committee completing its review on August 27, concluding that the terms of the tender offer are fair and the funding source is reasonable.

China's Kaizhong eyes data centers and dexterous hands

Charlene Chen — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 04:55:00 GMT

At GATE 2026, Kaizhong, a major Chinese commutator maker, used its display to showcase how its automotive business has laid the groundwork for expansion into data centers, dexterous hands, and drones. The company is also targeting new opportunities in Southeast Asia as Chinese automakers deepen their regional footprint.

Huawei's Ascend 910C sold out in China, but Nvidia's H200 supply gap persists

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 04:45:00 GMT

Huawei's Ascend 910C is already sold out in China, but domestic chips still cannot fully replace Nvidia's H200s. The shortage matters beyond China because AI compute constraints, pricing, and supply chain shifts are reshaping how quickly companies worldwide can deploy advanced inference systems.

Nvidia forms PAC to expand Washington lobbying

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 04:13:15 GMT

According to Bloomberg, Nvidia has formed a federal political action committee (PAC), expanding its Washington presence as governments debate artificial intelligence rules that could affect businesses, workers, and consumers worldwide. The move underscores how major technology firms are preparing for a longer policy battle over AI, competition, and market access.

Nvidia's upbeat outlook points to tighter AI supply chains ahead

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 04:07:43 GMT

Nvidia's latest earnings and forecast suggest AI demand remains far ahead of available supply, with implications for memory, power, cooling, and networking worldwide. The chipmaker's guidance points to continued price pressure and a broader buildout of infrastructure that will shape AI adoption across markets and industries.

Samsung eyes zHBM products from 2029 as heat remains key hurdle

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 03:45:00 GMT

Samsung Electronics expects products based on its first-generation zHBM specifications to appear in 2029 or later, giving the 3D memory concept unveiled earlier this month an initial product window. Heat remains a key engineering hurdle as Samsung works to stack HBM directly above AI accelerators.

Exemption that shields US$143 billion of US server imports is now on the table

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 03:22:28 GMT

For all the noise Donald Trump has made about taxing semiconductors, the measure that actually took effect in January 2026 barely touched the machines the AI build-out runs on. A 25% Section 232 duty landed on a narrow band of advanced logic chips, and an explicit carve-out spared anything imported for use in US data centers. That carve-out is why US$143.2 billion of computer processing units entered the US in the first half of 2026 without meaningfully paying it.

Samsung diverges from TSMC on FOPLP: retains 415×510mm panel size, targets 2028 mass production

Yunnie Cheng — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 03:08:37 GMT

Samsung Electronics' packaging technology lead, Lee Hee-seok, outlined the company's advanced semiconductor packaging roadmap at Advanced Semiconductor Packaging & Chiplet Show (ASPS) 2026. Beyond sharing target production timelines and specifications for fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) and glass substrates, Lee emphasized AI's pivotal role in driving packaging R&D forward.

Insight: China's next AI frontier is silicon, not smarter models

Levi Li — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 02:55:16 GMT

For the past two years, China's AI companies have competed on a single axis: whose model performs best. That contest is starting to give way to a harder one — whether those models can actually run, at scale, on chips made in China, as US restrictions on advanced AI chip exports raise the stakes of that question.

Taiwan passes drone procurement bill allocating NT$240 billion for 6 years

Rodney Chan — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 02:44:17 GMT

Taiwan's Legislative Yuan on August 27 passed a defense drone procurement bill, allocating a total of NT$240 billion (approx. US$7.59 billion) for six consecutive years for purchases prioritizing Taiwan-made drones.

Long-term contracts tie up InP capacity due to data center optics demand

Lily Hess — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 02:43:42 GMT

Compound semiconductor supply-chain players say China has recently eased some substrate export controls, but the upgrade of high-frequency transmission in AI data centers toward 200G and 400G has made optical communications a key technology breakthrough, creating a severe indium phosphide (InP) substrate shortage and sparking a trend toward signing long-term contracts and locking up capacity to secure stable supply.

Analysis: Nvidia beats, Taiwan wins — and hyperscalers race to make AI pay

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 02:37:54 GMT

Nvidia reported revenue of US$96.221 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, more than doubling from a year earlier and underscoring the global rush to build AI infrastructure and expand computing power. The results also signal a continued boost for Taiwan's suppliers as hyperscalers shift purchases from Blackwell to Blackwell Ultra and Vera Rubin.

Exclusive: IC design faces wire bonding bottleneck in 2027

Yunnie Cheng — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 02:31:19 GMT

Surging AI chip demand continues to outstrip TSMC's advanced packaging capacity. At the same time, massive AI server shipments are driving up demand for CPUs, networking equipment, power management ICs (PMICs), and peripheral silicon, rapidly soaking up traditional packaging capacity. IC design insiders reveal that several outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers have already warned clients that traditional packaging capacity could face a deficit exceeding 20% by 2027. New capacity cannot be added quickly enough, with the supply of wire bonding equipment emerging as the primary bottleneck.

SK Hynix weighs closer ties with Kioxia in NAND

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 02:26:00 GMT

SK Hynix is weighing closer cooperation with Japan's Kioxia Holdings in NAND flash, extending the strategic message from its newly launched US HBM expansion into a memory segment where the two companies remain direct competitors.

YMTC builds China chip supply chain around Wuhan fabs with 'Wutong Tree' Plan

Levi Li — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 02:01:21 GMT

Competition in China's memory sector is extending beyond wafer capacity and process technology into semiconductor equipment, materials and components. YMTC is expanding its domestic supplier network around its Wuhan fabs, with 17 semiconductor companies signing projects worth more than CNY6 billion in the Wuhan Donghu New Technology Development Zone (China Optics Valley).

Vanguard says Taoyuan fab fire did not disrupt production

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:52:29 GMT

Vanguard International Semiconductor said a fire broke out late on August 27 on the roof of its Wafer Fab 3 in Taoyuan City, Taiwan, but the incident caused no major impact on production line operations. The company said it activated emergency procedures immediately and evacuated employees from the plant.

Lam Research breaks ground on Oregon lab expansion for AI chip development

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:51:28 GMT

Lam Research has begun work on a new Oregon research lab as part of a more than US$3 billion global investment aimed at speeding development of advanced AI chips. The expansion could affect semiconductor supply chains, innovation timelines, and manufacturing capacity for companies and consumers worldwide as demand for faster, more efficient computing rises.

Anthropic opens research preview of hardware standard for AI agents

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:51:18 GMT

A new hardware standard could make it easier for AI agents to operate laboratory and factory equipment across borders and industries. Anthropic says its Model Hardware Standard aims to speed device integration, improve safety, and support around-the-clock automated experiments for researchers, engineers, and manufacturers worldwide.

Renesas opens physical AI, robotics lab in Beijing

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:51:11 GMT

Renesas Electronics has opened a physical AI and robotics lab in Beijing, a move that could speed the development of safer, smarter machines for factories, logistics, and homes worldwide. The facility is designed to help customers test, validate, and co-develop robotic systems as physical AI shifts from concept to real-world deployment.

Google moves AI safety team into global affairs in DeepMind overhaul

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:45:00 GMT

Google is shifting a roughly 90-person artificial intelligence responsibility team out of DeepMind and into its global affairs organization as part of a wider reorganization in early September. The move, which brings the group closer to companywide lobbying and public policy, has prompted internal concerns that it could reduce the team's independence and its ability to identify risks and cybersecurity threats in new models.

Workday says Taiwan, Hong Kong firms lag in AI workflow integration

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:30:00 GMT

Enterprise AI tools are spreading quickly across Taiwan and Hong Kong, but a new Workday study found that many employees are still losing time to disconnected systems, repeated data checks and manual information transfers. The report, based on 6,100 professionals globally, including 200 respondents in Taiwan and Hong Kong, showed that a quarter of local workers still spend seven hours or more each week moving information and verifying data.

Marvell raises its outlook twice in two quarters as custom silicon, scale-up optics broaden

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:14:05 GMT

Marvell Technology used its second-quarter fiscal 2027 earnings call on August 27 to lift its revenue outlook for a second consecutive quarter, and the composition of the raise says more about the AI infrastructure cycle than the headline number does. Management now expects fiscal 2027 revenue of roughly US$12 billion, up from approximately US$11.5 billion a quarter ago, and fiscal 2028 revenue of approximately US$18 billion, up US$1.5 billion from the US$16.5 billion guided three months earlier. Growth is accelerating off a larger base: fiscal 2028 is now guided at about 50% growth, up from roughly 45% previously.

Kioxia, Sandisk plan more than US$31 billion in Japan investments

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:10:42 GMT

A major chipmaking investment in Japan could ripple through global supply chains as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure accelerates. Kioxia and Sandisk say the spending will expand flash memory output, support stable supply, and reinforce a long-running US-Japan partnership in advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

SK Hynix breaks ground on US$4 billion Indiana plant that will package, not make, HBM

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:00:07 GMT

SK hynix broke ground on August 27 on a US$4 billion advanced packaging plant in Purdue Research Park, its first US high-bandwidth memory (HBM) site.

Marvell revenue climbs 37% to a record US$2.74 billion on data center demand

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:34:41 GMT

Marvell Technology's second quarter of fiscal 2027 was the point at which its data center business stopped being the growth engine attached to a diversified infrastructure chipmaker and became substantially the whole company. Revenue for the three months ended August 1, 2026, reached a record US$2.74 billion, up 37% from a year earlier, with the data center end market contributing US$2.17 billion, or 79% of the total, against 74% a year ago. Everything else - the carrier, enterprise networking, consumer, and automotive businesses grouped as communications and other - grew 10% and shrank as a share of the company.

Honor Robot Phone enters mass production, making robotics central to its premium AI strategy

Levi Li — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:32:03 GMT

More than a year after Honor first debated the idea internally, its Robot Phone has moved from a contentious concept to a mass-produced commercial product. But the significance of the device extends beyond creating a smartphone with an unconventional form factor.

LG Innotek wins Zoox camera module order for robotaxi production

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:31:46 GMT

LG Innotek said it will mass produce and supply automotive camera modules for Zoox, Amazon's autonomous vehicle unit. The deal marks the Korean component maker's first mass production win for a robotaxi camera module and extends a partnership that began during Zoox's early development phase.

Samsung absorbs memory costs to chase smartphone crown

Lily Hess — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:31:14 GMT

Global smartphone shipments are set to shrink sharply in 2026 as soaring memory and core component prices hit the market, but Samsung Electronics is moving in the opposite direction. Rather than passing costs fully on to consumers like some rivals, Samsung plans to keep shipment volume steady through the Galaxy S26, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Galaxy A series, and could even retake the No. 1 spot in global smartphone shipments.

Taiwan's next biotech prescription: AI drug discovery, smart devices, biomedical chips

Scarlett Yu — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:30:43 GMT

Taiwan is charting a new direction for its biomedical industry, drawing on its strengths in semiconductors, AI hardware, precision manufacturing and healthcare. AI-powered drug discovery, smart medical devices and biomedical chips are emerging as priority areas.

IntelliEPI says Japan substrate outage hit 2Q26 revenue

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:29:51 GMT

IntelliEPI said on August 27 that revenue in the second quarter of 2026 was pressured after a Japanese substrate supplier shut down for nearly three weeks during the Golden Week holiday, reducing InP substrate availability and limiting indium phosphide production. The compound semiconductor epitaxy maker said demand for InP products tied to high-speed optical communications in AI data centers remained strong, and that substrate supply, not market demand, was the main short-term constraint.

Global LCD TV shipments above 70 inches rise as large-screen prices fall

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:29:30 GMT

Global shipments of LCD TVs larger than 70 inches have climbed sharply over the past four years, with models above 98 inches rising 12-fold, according to a Nikkei report citing Counterpoint Research. The shift reflects a broader move by manufacturers toward larger, higher-margin sets as the LCD market matures.

China rises to No. 2 in global CMOS image sensors, overtaking Korea with 21% share

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:29:12 GMT

China's CMOS image sensor industry is gaining ground beyond smartphones, with robotics emerging as one of the latest areas where domestic suppliers are linking sensor technology with higher-level perception systems.

China's humanoid boom hits its next bottleneck: making robots measurable, interoperable, safe

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:27:34 GMT

Capital interest in China has become unusually concentrated on robotics following a state-backed commitment to redirect sizable portions of tech-related incentives from a perfectly mature EV market toward the robotics sector. Since the policy took effect, robot-oriented technologies have surged, with embodied intelligence emerging as one of the most prominent areas of development.

China reshapes helium supply chain as semiconductor demand rises, import risks persist

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:27:13 GMT

China is accelerating efforts to secure helium supplies as semiconductor manufacturing, commercial space launches, and medical imaging lift demand for a resource the country still imports heavily.

China's industrial reboot: AI, chips, robotics, 6G define next five years

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:26:55 GMT

China is setting out a five-year industrial strategy centred on artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, 6G, robotics and advanced manufacturing, seeking to strengthen the country's manufacturing base while turning emerging technologies into new growth engines.

Wah Lee targets 2Q27 ODM phase as robotics push moves beyond components

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:26:37 GMT

Wah Lee Industrial is targeting the second quarter of 2027 to move its Physical AI push into an ODM development phase, signaling an effort to capture more value beyond supplying materials, components and conventional automation systems.

US targets Singapore's Apex Logistics in widening probe into illicit Nvidia chip smuggling to China

DIGITIMES — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:26:20 GMT

Efforts to curb the illicit trade of advanced AI hardware to China have intensified following a series of indictments and probes targeting the supply chain.

Regulators fast-track lithium battery M&As as China shifts from capacity expansion to consolidation

Willis Ke — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:25:57 GMT

China's lithium battery industry is shifting from an era of aggressive capacity expansion toward consolidation, as regulators rapidly clear deals aimed at revitalizing existing assets and closing gaps across the supply chain. The unconditional approval of six recent transactions involving batteries, energy storage, and new-energy materials — including one cleared in just 10 days — signals that Beijing sees mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as an increasingly important tool for restructuring an industry squeezed by overcapacity and price wars.

AI chip demand squeezes capacity, Data Image secures 1-year supply

Lily Hess — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:24:39 GMT

As strong AI demand continues to soak up semiconductor capacity, some ICs and passive components are seeing shortages and longer lead times. Qisda's display maker Data Image has stepped up policy-driven inventory buildup, with some industrial control products now carrying supply lead times of as long as one year and materials for the first and second quarters of 2027 already secured in advance.

HITCON expands Taiwan's cybersecurity focus from agentic AI to post-quantum cryptography

Kevin Wang — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:24:22 GMT

With the recent surge of generative AI in enterprise and consumer applications, AI has begun taking on new roles, moving from simply answering questions to autonomously planning tasks and deploying external tools to execute these tasks. Agentic AI was thus a prominent topic at the recent 2026 Hacks in Taiwan Conference (HITCON) organized by the Association of Hackers in Taiwan, with sessions focusing on cybersecurity risks resulting from AI agents' greater system privileges, data access, and use of external tools.

P-Duke Technology optimistic on 2H26 growth as demand surges across three niche markets

Eifeh Strom — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:23:56 GMT

P-Duke Technology, a manufacturer of specialized niche power supplies, said during its earnings call on August 26 that it remains optimistic about its outlook for second-half and full-year 2026.

Siemens Taiwan chief to lead European Chamber in Taiwan from September 2026

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 10:45:00 GMT

The European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan said on August 27 that Siemens Taiwan president and chief executive Frank Grunert will become its chairperson on September 1, 2026. The decision was approved unanimously by the chamber's council and puts a senior Taiwan-based executive in charge of the group representing European business interests on the island.