DIGITIMES Asia: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

Transcend reports record April revenue as memory shortage drives prices higher

DIGITIMES — Wed, 6 May 2026 00:03:27 GMT

Transcend Information posted consolidated revenue of NT$7.449 billion (roughly $235 million USD) in April 2026, marking its strongest month on record—nearly six times higher than April 2025's NT$1.073 billion. Year-to-date revenue through April already exceeded the company's entire 2025 total of NT$17.13 billion.

TV panel prices stall as China cuts output to defend prices

Lily Hess — Wed, 6 May 2026 00:03:00 GMT

The LCD TV panel market has shifted sharply from aggressive stocking to defensive procurement as global sports-event demand fades, pre-stocking cycles for China's 618 shopping festival wind down, and end-market demand loses momentum. TV brands are now focusing on inventory control and buying only as needed, while Chinese panel makers are trimming production to support prices.

DeepSeek pulls multimodal paper after brief release, reveals new visual reasoning approach

DIGITIMES — Wed, 6 May 2026 00:02:23 GMT

DeepSeek briefly released, then removed, a multimodal research paper that offers rare insight into its evolving AI strategy, drawing attention across the developer community.

Supermicro posts $10.2B in Q3 revenue, missing own guidance by $2B as working capital swings drive $6.6B cash outflow

DIGITIMES — Wed, 6 May 2026 00:02:11 GMT

Supermicro reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $10.24 billion, up 123% year-over-year but down 19% sequentially and well below both the company's own guidance of at least $12.3 billion and the analyst consensus of $12.33 billion. Management attributed the shortfall to customer datacenter readiness delays and industrywide supply constraints, saying it expects to capture the deferred revenue in coming quarters.

From China to Arizona: How AI and TSMC are redrawing Taiwan's economic map

Willis Ke — Wed, 6 May 2026 00:02:00 GMT

Taiwan's decades-long tilt toward China is giving way to a sharper, US-focused strategy. Semiconductor expansion and surging demand for AI infrastructure are redrawing the island's trade flows — and its industrial ambitions.

SoftBank, Intel target HBM limits with 9-layer memory

DIGITIMES — Wed, 6 May 2026 00:01:26 GMT

SoftBank's memory unit SAIMEMORY is preparing to present a new 3D DRAM technology developed with Intel, as the AI hardware industry seeks ways to ease the power and heat constraints of high-bandwidth memory.

Foxconn revenue nears US$95B in first four months, AI server racks fuel 2Q26 outlook

Levi Li — Wed, 6 May 2026 00:01:10 GMT

Driven by sustained growth in AI server demand, Foxconn reported consolidated revenue of NT$832.1 billion (US$26 billion) for April 2026, marking a record high for the month.

AMD lifts outlook as AI demand fuels data center growth

DIGITIMES — Wed, 6 May 2026 00:00:55 GMT

On May 5, AMD reported first-quarter 2026 results that exceeded expectations, supported by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, according to company data and media reports. Revenue reached US$10.25 billion, while net profit rose to US$1.38 billion, reflecting robust year-on-year growth across key metrics.

Southeast Asia's fab deficit threatens a chip boom shutout

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 23:15:30 GMT

Global semiconductor sales are projected to reach US$1 trillion this year and could double to US$2 trillion by 2035, driven by rapid growth in AI data centers. But the boom is also shining new light on Southeast Asia's limited front-end manufacturing base, as SEMI urges the region to add more fabs to reduce chip supply-chain concentration in China and Taiwan.

Samsung board chairman warns strike could disrupt chip output

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 23:15:20 GMT

Samsung Electronics' labor dispute is widening beyond a fight over bonuses, after board chairman Shin Je-yoon made a rare appeal for management and unionized workers to resolve the standoff through dialogue as a planned strike threatens to disrupt chip production, customer trust, and South Korea's broader economy.

How Plug and Play is bridging Taiwan's deep tech startups with Silicon Valley capital

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 23:15:04 GMT

For much of the past decade, Taiwan watched from the sidelines as global venture capital poured into software. The island's world-class manufacturers, semiconductor giants, and precision hardware suppliers were celebrated — but they weren't what investors were chasing. That window has now closed. Plug and Play, one of the world's largest startup accelerators, has decided the time is ripe for it to make a move into Taiwan.

E Ink to launch major e-paper zone at COMPUTEX with 40 partners

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 08:57:25 GMT

E Ink Holdings is making its COMPUTEX debut in 2026 with a 1,170 square-meter showcase featuring 40 ecosystem partners. The e-paper industry zone will demonstrate color e-paper and smart surface technology to global manufacturers and retailers.

Tesla AI5 dual sourcing may not mean equal weight for Samsung

Lily Hess — Tue, 5 May 2026 08:47:47 GMT

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the company's in-house AI5 chip has completed design tape-out and entered a critical pre-production validation stage. The move has drawn renewed attention from supply chains in Taiwan and South Korea as Tesla builds a scalable computing infrastructure for vehicles, AI training systems, and humanoid robots.

SEMICON SEA 2026: Delta showcases AI-enabled smart manufacturing

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 07:00:02 GMT

Delta Electronics presented its latest AI-enabled smart manufacturing solutions at SEMICON Southeast Asia 2026, underscoring its efforts to advance efficiency, precision, and scalability in semiconductor packaging production amid intensifying industry demands.

South Korea eyes memory-led AI order against Nvidia

Lily Hess — Tue, 5 May 2026 06:58:41 GMT

As AI shifts from training to inference and from single-task use to multi-agent collaboration, South Korea's semiconductor industry is seeking to recast the market around memory rather than GPUs. South Korean academia and industry figures say the AI era will be defined by memory architectures, with the country aiming to build its own framework and challenge an order long dominated by Nvidia.

Ardentec's Longtan plant to start AI ASIC testing in 3Q26

Sherri Wang — Tue, 5 May 2026 06:53:11 GMT

Ardentec's Longtan plant is set to begin taking AI ASIC wafer-probing orders in the third quarter of 2026, as the semiconductor testing provider moves to capture spillover demand from foundry strategic partners.

European delegation meets Taiwan industry to bolster counter-drone cooperation

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 5 May 2026 06:52:40 GMT

A European delegation's closed-door talks with Taiwanese industry on counter-drone systems highlight accelerating global security implications as drone warfare evolves rapidly, informed by combat lessons from Ukraine and the Middle East; increased drone proliferation is driving urgent demand for multinational cooperation in technology, strategy, and logistics globally.

Google's TPU push hits Nvidia's neocloud grip

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 06:41:00 GMT

Google's effort to expand its tensor processing units (TPU) beyond its own cloud is meeting resistance from some of the AI infrastructure companies best positioned to distribute alternative chips, with executives from Nebius, Lambda, and CoreWeave saying they do not plan to adopt TPUs anytime soon, according to The Information.

AI and chips propel US back to top of Taiwan's trade chart

Kevin Wang — Tue, 5 May 2026 04:50:32 GMT

Trade between Taiwan and the US reached US$78.25 billion in the first quarter of 2026, driven primarily by advanced node chips and AI servers. This marks the first time in 25 years that the US has surpassed China and Hong Kong to retake its place as Taiwan's largest trading partner. Moreover, Minister of Economic Affairs Ming-hsin Kung has forecast 7% GDP growth for 2026, following 8.68% growth in 2025.

AMI capacity sold out through 2028 as CCL makers race for high-end tools

Sherri Wang — Tue, 5 May 2026 04:48:44 GMT

The PCB industry is entering a new phase of transformation in the AI era, as rising demand for high-frequency and high-speed applications accelerates upgrades in upstream copper-clad laminate (CCL) materials. Among the beneficiaries is impregnation equipment maker Asia Metal Industries (AMI).

TCL reportedly in talks to sell majority stake in India display plant

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 04:48:25 GMT

China's TCL Electronics is reportedly in advanced discussions to sell a majority stake in its Indian display manufacturing business. The move underscores accelerating localization pressure on foreign electronics firms in India and the ongoing restructuring of Chinese supply chain presence in the country.

Another Qualcomm exec joins Intel to lead PC and physical AI unit

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 04:45:46 GMT

Intel has announced that it has appointed Alex Katouzian as head of its Client Computing and Physical AI Division. With this hire, Intel seeks to align its consumer PC business with physical AI applications spanning robotics and AI -enabled devices.

As Nvidia goes to zero in China, Beijing races to fill the void

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 04:33:25 GMT

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company's share of China's data-center computing market has dropped to zero. The admission underscores how US export controls are reshaping the country's AI chip sector — and how urgently Beijing is moving to localize its semiconductor supply chain, from processors to silicon wafers.

Memory crunch widens Apple-Android AP divide; agentic AI eyed as next catalyst

Levi Li — Tue, 5 May 2026 04:27:57 GMT

DIGITIMES Research has released its latest forecast for smartphone application processor (AP) shipments, revealing a divergence between Apple and the Android ecosystem as the market enters a seasonal slowdown. While weaker demand is typically expected across the board, recent data suggests a clear split in performance between the two camps.

SEMICON SEA 2026: the trillion-dollar chip era is already here

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 5 May 2026 04:24:34 GMT

The global semiconductor industry is entering a "multi-trillion-dollar" growth cycle sooner than expected, SEMI President and CEO Ajit Manocha said, urging Southeast Asian countries to strengthen cooperation to address talent, energy, and geopolitical challenges. Manocha predicted rapid revenue expansion driven by AI, IoT, and quantum demand.

Apple reportedly explores Intel and Samsung chip production to reshape advanced manufacturing strategy

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 04:21:22 GMT

Apple is exploring a significant shift in its semiconductor supply chain, holding early discussions with Intel and Samsung Electronics to produce the main processors used in its devices, according to Bloomberg. The move would mark a potential diversification away from its long-standing reliance on TSMC, Apple's exclusive partner for more than a decade.

OpenAI, Anthropic race to lock in enterprise AI deals with Wall Street capital

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 04:20:58 GMT

OpenAI and Anthropic are moving in parallel to build new enterprise AI distribution engines, teaming up with some of the world's largest asset managers to accelerate adoption of their models and unlock commercial returns ahead of potential IPOs.

Trump tariff forces Euro carmakers into a two-front squeeze

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 5 May 2026 03:59:53 GMT

US President Donald Trump ended the transatlantic tariff truce on May 1 by raising import tariffs on EU-made vehicles and auto parts from 15% back to 25%, with the new rate taking effect on May 4. The abrupt reversal is widening pressure on European automakers already losing ground in China, leaving them squeezed on two fronts.

Taiwan networking vendors lose sync with global rebound, raising competitive and supply risks

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 5 May 2026 03:58:24 GMT

The global broadband customer premises equipment market entered a bottoming-and-rebound phase in 2026 after a prolonged inventory correction. Still, Taiwan networking vendors are losing ground as their shipments move out of step with broader market trends, according to a DIGITIMES Research report. The divergence carries implications for market share, pricing power, and supply-chain exposure.

Delta Electronics' security tie-up positions it to push into integrated smart buildings

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 5 May 2026 03:37:51 GMT

Delta Electronics has moved to consolidate its security brands, aiming to align AI video analytics and cloud services with its building automation strategy. This shift could accelerate its push into the growing smart building market. The integration brings together VIVOTEK and March Networks to jointly target retail, financial services, transportation, factories, and smart cities.

Taiwan's TCC plots European listing as green revenues overtake home market

Rodney Chan — Tue, 5 May 2026 03:10:44 GMT

Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC) Group Holdings is evaluating a listing in Europe as it expands its low-carbon cement and green energy businesses across the region. Europe already accounted for 44% of the company's 2025 sales, surpassing Taiwan and other parts of Asia. TCC chairman Nelson An-ping Chang said the company is assessing the move but did not disclose a timetable or details.

Tron Future Tech's T.MicroSat-2 completes downlink verification

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 03:01:06 GMT

Tron Future Tech's successful Ka-band downlink verification for T.MicroSat-1 and T.MicroSat-2 signals progress toward global low-earth-orbit (LEO) communication services, validating Taiwan-made ground terminals and hosted payloads and underscoring potential improvements in satellite rapid-redeployment and space computing reliability for international partners and operators.

Analysis: Big Tech's AI tab tops US$700 billion with Google Cloud pulling ahead — but investors are picking sides

DIGITIMES — Tue, 5 May 2026 02:56:42 GMT

The AI spending arms race just got more expensive — and more consequential.

Nanya Technology's April revenue soars, driven by strong ASP outlook and accelerated expansion efforts

Eifeh Strom — Tue, 5 May 2026 02:53:13 GMT

Nanya Technology reported consolidated revenue of NT$25.49 billion (approx. US$805.3 million) for April 2026, surging 717.33% from NT$3.12 billion a year earlier and 40.29% from March, setting a record high as memory contract prices continue to rise.

Commentary: US auto market faces a three-way vacuum as tariffs deepen imbalances

Jingyue Hsiao — Tue, 5 May 2026 02:51:11 GMT

US President Donald Trump's decision to raise tariffs on European automobiles and parts to 25% is compounding the US car market in the first quarter of 2026, where the absence of subsidies and purchase discounts, and weak purchasing power, are deepening market imbalance. The key variable remains American consumers' real buying power.