DIGITIMES Asia: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

OpenAI reworks Stargate data center strategy as site plans change

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:43:22 GMT

OpenAI is reworking its US$500 billion Stargate initiative, shifting from a fixed data center joint venture toward a more flexible strategy for securing computing capacity as demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure accelerates.

NSTC forms task force to lead Taiwan's multimodal AI foundation model development

Rodney Chan — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:42:53 GMT

Amid the flourishing commercial generative AI landscape dominated by large-parameter language models, Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has reversed earlier doubts about its Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) project. NSTC minister Cheng-Wen Wu has instructed the formation of a TAIDE task force led by Mark Liao, director of Academia Sinica's Institute of Information Science, to develop a multimodal foundational AI model supporting diverse industries across Taiwan.

After buying Ansys, Synopsys starts merging the two stacks

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:41:25 GMT

Hardware design is entering a system-level reset, with Synopsys moving simulation to the core of product development. With Ansys 2026 R1, simulation and analysis (S&A) shifts from post-design verification to a front-end decision engine, shaping architecture from system to silicon.

Yageo AI revenue reaches 15% as chair says sector remains early in cycle

Sherri Wang — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:41:09 GMT

Yageo chairman Pierre Chen said the company has undergone a major transformation over the past eight years, driven in part by the rise of AI applications.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics tops US$2 billion quarterly sales, flags ABF substrate shortage

Levi Li — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:40:50 GMT

Samsung Electro-Mechanics (Semco) reported its first-ever quarterly revenue exceeding KRW3 trillion (approx. US$2.2 billion), driven by expanding AI infrastructure investment and rising demand for automotive electronics, marking a new scale milestone for the company.

Qualcomm says Samsung chip share remains above 70% despite Exynos push

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:38:16 GMT

Qualcomm said its relationship with Samsung Electronics remains stable and that its share of Samsung smartphone silicon has risen to more than 70%, even as Samsung expands the use of its in-house Exynos application processors in selected premium models.

Lite-On profit rises on surge in AI-driven cloud demand

Elaine Chen — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:37:55 GMT

Lite-On Technology reported first-quarter revenue of NT$43.4 billion (approx. US$1.35 billion), up 19% from a year earlier, as surging demand for AI infrastructure fueled rapid growth in its cloud-related business.

Foxconn Industrial Internet posts 102% net profit growth in 1Q26 on AI GPU, ASIC demand

Eifeh Strom — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:37:44 GMT

Benefiting from the continued expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) computing power demand, Foxconn Industrial Internet (FII), a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn), reported first-quarter 2026 revenue that far exceeded market expectations. Revenue reached CNY251.08 billion (approx. US$36.74 billion), up 56.52% year over year, while net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reached CNY10.60 billion, soaring 102.55%, with profit growth significantly outpacing revenue.

Onsemi expands collaboration with NIO to support 900V EV platforms

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:37:34 GMT

Onsemi's expanded collaboration with NIO to support the automaker's move to 900V electric vehicle platforms could accelerate global EV adoption by improving range, charging speed, and drivetrain efficiency, influencing vehicle performance and manufacturing scalability for new models introduced worldwide, including those scheduled to debut at the 2026 Beijing Auto Show.

MediaTek lifts 2026 ASIC target to $2 billion despite smartphone market deterioration

Eifeh Strom — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:37:21 GMT

MediaTek held its earnings call on April 30, expressing a cautious outlook for the 2026 smartphone market. Despite this, growth in other applications is expected to effectively offset the decline.

Goertek boosts Vietnam camera output with US$20 million Bac Ninh expansion

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:35:23 GMT

China-based electronics manufacturer Goertek is deepening its manufacturing push in Vietnam, committing an additional US$20 million to expand its Bac Ninh operations, reinforcing the country's role as a key production base for global consumer electronics supply chains.

China's memory makers post blockbuster gains as AI tightens supply and resets prices

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 23:35:10 GMT

China's memory sector is showing clear signs of recovery, with leading players including Shenzhen Longsys Electronics and Montage Technology reporting strong first-quarter gains, underpinned by a structural demand shift driven by artificial intelligence.

TeraFab is already changing the semiconductor landscape — before a single chip is made

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 08:59:29 GMT

Elon Musk has a habit of building what he cannot buy.

AI chip boom sends Korea exports to record highs, supply crunch deepens

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 07:53:16 GMT

South Korea's export surge is entering a new phase, with artificial intelligence-driven semiconductor demand powering record shipments even as geopolitical risks and cost pressures mount.

OpenAI demand doubts cast shadow over AI server supply chain

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 06:53:41 GMT

OpenAI's aggressive push to secure AI computing capacity is facing growing scrutiny, with signs that its multibillion-dollar data center procurement plans may be reassessed, reportedly raising questions for a supply chain led by Quanta Computer, Wistron and Foxconn.

China's $1M Nvidia AI servers expose global chip squeeze

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 05:30:08 GMT

Prices for high-end AI servers in China are diverging sharply from global benchmarks, with systems built around Nvidia's B300 chips now fetching scarcity-driven premiums that reflect tightening export controls and surging domestic demand.

Advantest beats on AI chip testing, cautious outlook dents shares

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 03:45:28 GMT

Japan's Advantest closed its fiscal year with strong results, highlighting how AI-driven chip demand is reshaping semiconductor testing economics, even as a cautious outlook weighed on sentiment.

China unveils CPU-only exascale supercomputer plan, targets 2 ExaFLOPS without GPUs

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 03:02:33 GMT

China's National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen has launched the LineShine supercomputer project, aiming to break into the exascale tier with a CPU-only architecture that excludes both GPU accelerators and foreign components, challenging the current global trajectory of supercomputing design.

Mitsubishi Electric proposes three-way power chip JV with Rohm, Toshiba

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 03:02:17 GMT

Mitsubishi Electric president Kei Uruma said the company aims to establish a joint venture with Rohm and Toshiba to integrate their power semiconductor businesses, signaling continued progress in three-way consolidation talks.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics weighs MLCC price hike of 5–10% as supply tightens

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 03:02:04 GMT

Samsung Electro-Mechanics is considering raising prices for multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) by about 5% to 10% as demand from artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure tightens supply, according to Korean media reports and industry sources.

Column: Designing safety for VLA robots in commercial deployment

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 1 May 2026 03:01:17 GMT

The deployment density of service and mobile robots in commercial environments has surged over the past three years. What began as narrowly defined automation—inspection units in factories or delivery bots in controlled settings—has expanded into restaurants, retail stores, hospitals, warehouses, and even outdoor logistics. Yet despite this rapid proliferation, most of these machines still operate on rigid rules and pre-programmed workflows, closer to moving appliances than adaptive systems.

Hardware bottlenecks emerge as humanoid robotics race intensifies

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 1 May 2026 03:01:01 GMT

Competition in humanoid robotics has intensified in recent years, with advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning often cited as the main drivers of progress. However, attention is increasingly turning to hardware limitations—particularly actuators used in robotic hands and arms—which some industry participants argue remain the key barrier to achieving human-level dexterity and commercial viability.

Macronix eyes steady growth from 1Q26 amid eMMC supply gap

Lily Hess — Fri, 1 May 2026 03:00:47 GMT

Memory maker Macronix (MXIC) is emerging from an operational slump in the first quarter of 2026, driven by explosive revenue growth in embedded multi-media cards (eMMCs) as major global players exit the multi-level cell (MLC) NAND segment. The company reported a quarterly increase of 94% and an annual surge of 3,993% in eMMC sales.

Samsung strike threat highlights rising labor risk to AI chip supply chain and corporate pay models

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 03:00:28 GMT

Samsung Electronics is facing its largest labor escalation in years after unions representing tens of thousands of workers voted to authorize strike action. The dispute centers on compensation structures, particularly performance-based bonuses linked to semiconductor profits, which workers argue have become increasingly opaque and insufficient relative to the company's record earnings in the AI-driven chip cycle.

KLA 3Q26: AI chip demand drives process control, guidance fails to clear bar

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 02:30:58 GMT

KLA Corporation's fiscal 3Q26 results underscore a familiar pattern in the current semiconductor cycle: strong execution tied to AI infrastructure demand, but investor expectations are rising even faster.

SanDisk 3Q26: AI demand lifts NAND, long-term deals reshape profit model

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 01:05:56 GMT

SanDisk's fiscal 3Q26 results point to a decisive shift in the NAND industry, with AI-driven data center demand lifting both performance and pricing, while new long-term supply agreements begin to reshape the sector's historically cyclical model.

Apple earnings call signals a supply-constrained handoff to the Ternus era

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 00:35:19 GMT

Apple's fiscal second-quarter earnings call was less about the beat and more about positioning the next phase of leadership. The message was controlled and deliberate: demand is strong, constraints are external, and incoming CEO John Ternus represents continuity with sharper hardware and AI execution.

Apple's fiscal 2Q in numbers: iPhone surge, China rebound, margins hold

DIGITIMES — Fri, 1 May 2026 00:00:27 GMT

Apple Inc. beat Wall Street expectations in its fiscal second quarter, with strong iPhone demand, resilient Services growth and a rebound in China driving a broad-based earnings outperformance.

Commentary: Honor's robot win highlights thermal edge in robotics

Levi Li — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 16:05:00 GMT

The Beijing Humanoid Robot Half Marathon has concluded, but its outcome has ignited a wider industry debate. Rather than a leading robotics specialist, smartphone maker Honor emerged as the unexpected winner — raising questions over whether the company's success reflects genuine technological strength or exposes lower-than-expected barriers in the humanoid robotics sector.

AGI, Inc. advances on-device agentic AI strategy as it targets cross-platform automation

DIGITIMES — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 10:03:50 GMT

AGI, Inc., also known as The AGI Company, is a San Francisco–based applied AI startup developing what it describes as "on-device superintelligence" for smartphones, computers and browsers. In the emerging agentic AI era, the company focuses on systems that go beyond generating responses and instead execute real-world tasks on behalf of users.

Hengs Technology secures NT$7.6B in orders, expands solar EPC into energy storage and EV charging

Emily Kuo — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 10:03:32 GMT

As Taiwan's energy transition enters a critical phase, the stability of power supply and the quality of renewable energy infrastructure have become key industry concerns. While numerous solar engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) providers operate in the market, only a handful offer fully integrated capabilities. Hengs Technology stands out for its comprehensive approach, extending beyond solar EPC to include AI-driven data management, as well as expansion into energy storage EPC and EV charging infrastructure. Chairman Heng-Hao Chou stated that Hengs currently holds more than NT$7.6 billion (US$239.6 million) in orders, which are expected to be gradually recognized as revenue over the next two to three years. The company has set clear targets for 2026, aiming to deploy more than 100MW of solar capacity during the year.

Google's split TPU chips signal shift from universal to specialized AI accelerators

Lily Hess — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 10:03:20 GMT

Google has unveiled its eighth-generation Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) by splitting them into two distinct chips: the training-focused TPU 8t and the inference-optimized TPU 8i. This move goes beyond simply designing two chips; it reflects Google's capability to break down bottlenecks across different stages of the model lifecycle, restructuring chip design, interconnects, memory, scheduling, and software stacks.

Taiwan OSAT Powertech lifts capex to US$1.6bn, targets AI packaging growth

Levi Li — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 08:32:41 GMT

Memory packaging and testing provider Powertech Technology posted net profit of NT$1.84 billion (US$57 million) for the first quarter of 2026, its second-highest for the same period, and raised its full-year outlook. The company increased its planned 2026 capital expenditure from NT$40 billion to NT$50 billion and expects broad price increases for logic and memory products in the second quarter of 2026, supporting sequential revenue gains and high single-digit to low double-digit annual growth.

SpaceX's IPO gives Musk unchecked control via 'Texas fortress' strategy

DIGITIMES — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 08:30:14 GMT

As SpaceX prepares for a public debut at a valuation targeting US$1.75 trillion, new regulatory filings have revealed a corporate governance structure that positions Elon Musk as an unassailable leader. According to Reuters, the company's IPO filing includes a provision stating that Musk cannot be removed from his roles as CEO and chairman of the board without his own consent.

ASE Technology sees seasonality fade as AI demand drives steady 2026 growth

Eifeh Strom — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 08:24:57 GMT

Global outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) leader ASE Technology Holding (ASEH) held an earnings call on April 29, reporting a robust first quarter of 2026 that broke from the traditional seasonal slowdown. Growth was driven primarily by sustained strong demand for leading-edge advanced packaging (LEAP) technologies, alongside a simultaneous rebound in wire bonding orders — together fueling an 87% year-on-year surge in quarterly net profit after tax, the second highest on record for the period.