DIGITIMES: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

Apple sues OpenAI as its own suppliers Foxconn and Luxshare line up behind a rival device

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 23:01:50 GMT

Apple's decision to sue OpenAI for trade-secret theft does more than escalate a soured partnership between two of technology's most influential companies. It injects legal uncertainty into OpenAI's push to build its own consumer hardware — an effort a growing roster of Asian suppliers has already begun to serve, and it lands just as the AI developer approaches a closely watched initial public offering.

China's temporary helium export ban signals fears of a prolonged Middle East supply squeeze

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 15:04:52 GMT

China moved on July 10 to wall off its domestic supply of helium, a gas with no substitute in chipmaking and medical imaging, in a step that suggests Beijing does not expect Middle East supply risks to ease quickly — and one that could tighten an already strained global market.

China recovers Long March 10B booster in reusable rocket milestone

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 14:55:10 GMT

China marked a major step in rocket reusability on July 10, 2026, after successfully recovering the first-stage booster of its Long March 10B rocket following an orbital launch mission.

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang heads to Japan with RTX Spark as AI PC competition heats up

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 14:53:53 GMT

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will travel to Japan for an event celebrating the US chipmaker's three-decade relationship with Sega, revisiting a partnership that helped Nvidia survive its difficult early years as semiconductor competition expands from data centers to personal computers.

Largan samples CPO product in July 2026, eyes GC edge

Charlene Chen — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 09:20:07 GMT

Largan said on July 9, 2026, that it will formally begin sampling fiber array (FA) products for a mass-production customer in July, while chairman En-Ping Lin outlined the company's advantages in common packaging optics (CPO) amid market attention on Corning's Glass Bridge technology.

SK Hynix breaks Alibaba's US listing record — but HBM customers will wait until 2028 for the capacity it funds

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 09:12:22 GMT

SK Hynix has priced a US$26.5 billion Nasdaq offering, giving the world's leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory fresh capital to expand DRAM wafer production, advanced packaging and leading-edge manufacturing equipment at the same time.

ASE Holdings posts record 2Q26 revenue, bets US$40M on South Korea as AI packaging demand surges

Levi Li — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 09:00:42 GMT

ASE Holdings posted record second-quarter and first-half 2026 revenue, driven by strong demand for advanced semiconductor packaging and testing, conventional backend services and AI-related applications. June revenue reached its second-highest monthly level on record, while quarterly growth exceeded the company's previous guidance.

Nanya Technology posts record profit as gross margin nears 80%

Sherri Wang — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:56:28 GMT

Nanya Technology posted record quarterly profit after a more than 60% rise in average DRAM selling prices lifted its gross margin to 79.5%, with the Taiwanese memory chipmaker expecting prices and margins to improve further in the second half.

Sigurd posts record second quarter revenue as Hsinchu plant starts ramping up

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:52:48 GMT

Sigurd said its revenue hit a record in the second quarter of 2026 and for the first half of the year, driven by stronger demand from overseas customers. June sales stayed at a high level, while the share of overseas revenue continued to rise as a major foreign client expanded capacity.

Acer unit Highpoint posts record first-half revenue on Asia-Pacific growth

Sherri Wang — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:51:52 GMT

Highpoint Service Network (HSN), a subsidiary of Acer, posted record revenue for the second quarter and first half of 2026 as sales grew across its Asia-Pacific operations.

Wolfspeed challenges Navitas over GaN and SiC patent boundaries

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:40:04 GMT

Wolfspeed's patent lawsuit against Navitas Semiconductor has opened a new front in the wide-bandgap power chip race, extending the legal fight across both gallium nitride and silicon carbide just as AI data centers, EVs and energy infrastructure raise the value of power-device IP.

Samsung plans new PC chip in push beyond smartphones

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:37:57 GMT

Samsung Electronics is developing a new chip for personal computers (PCs) as its System LSI business seeks growth beyond smartphone processors, according to ET News and the Korea Economic Daily, citing industry sources.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max BOM could jump US$300 as memory costs soar

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:13:22 GMT

New figures from Counterpoint Research estimate that the bill of materials (BOM) for the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro Max could rise nearly US$300 compared with the iPhone 17 Pro Max released in September last year. Ballooning memory costs largely account for this increase, although Apple may be better placed than most other smartphone brands to weather such price hikes.

Smartphone financing set to cover 42% of India sales in 2026

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 07:30:00 GMT

India's smartphone buyers are increasingly turning to financing, a shift that could shape device sales patterns in other price-sensitive markets as well. Higher handset prices and easier installment options are making monthly payments more attractive than one-time purchases, especially beyond major cities, according to Counterpoint Research.

Insight: TSMC's 2nm lead widens, Intel 14A slips beyond 2030, Samsung 4nm fills on HBM4 demand

Levi Li — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 07:15:00 GMT

Samsung Electronics' preliminary earnings have shaken financial markets. Drawing on a report from a US brokerage, DIGITIMES Intelligence analyst Luke Lin examined the actual progress of advanced-node capacity expansion at TSMC, Intel, and Samsung, arguing that market expectations in several areas have run ahead of reality.

SK AI Summit postponed as SK eyes closer alignment with Nvidia GTC

Scarlett Yu — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 07:06:06 GMT

SK Group, which hosts the annual SK AI Summit as its flagship technology event to showcase its latest AI and semiconductor developments, is reportedly postponing the 2026 edition. Originally scheduled for the second half of 2026, the event is now expected to take place in the first half of 2027. Industry sources believe the move is intended to better align the summit with Nvidia GTC, which is held each March.

Asus June revenue tops NT$100 billion as AI servers drive growth outlook

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 07:02:34 GMT

Asus reported June 2026 group revenue of NT$106.72 billion (US$3.3 billion), crossing the NT$100 billion threshold for the first time, as strong demand for AI servers continued to lift results. The company said June and the second quarter both set record highs for group and brand revenue, underscoring how it has turned market volatility into growth.

Apple's US$30 billion Broadcom deal puts its server-chip plans back in focus

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 07:00:00 GMT

Apple and Broadcom have extended their custom-chip partnership through 2031 under agreements expected to exceed US$30 billion, reinforcing Broadcom's position as a critical Apple chip supplier.

Taiwan firms race ahead on AI agents, raising governance stakes

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 05:58:39 GMT

Taiwanese companies are adopting AI agents faster than expected, according to a new IDC survey that found 57% have already deployed them, well above the 36% Asia-Pacific average. For global readers, the pace signals how quickly agentic AI may reshape business operations, governance, and competition worldwide.

Google Cloud says Taiwan's AI shift to production could shape global enterprise use

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 05:44:08 GMT

Taiwan's move from AI trials to production systems signals a broader shift that could affect how companies worldwide adopt automation, data governance, and digital security. As more firms deploy AI agents at scale, the challenge is shifting from experimentation to control, reliability, and measurable returns.

TSMC CoWoS output reportedly to reach at least 200K wafers in 2027

Charlene Chen — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:59:19 GMT

TSMC is accelerating advanced packaging capacity expansion as supply remains tight, with market chatter indicating its CoWoS monthly output will reach at least 200,000 wafers in 2027. Equipment makers are still waiting for TSMC to finalize order allocation, a delay that is raising fears of price-cutting competition and delivery delays, as lead times run at least seven to nine months.

JCET sets US$1.4bn capex for AI packaging expansion as China orders stay strong

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:43:35 GMT

JCET plans to invest about CNY10 billion (approx. US$1.4 billion) in fixed assets in 2026, sharply increasing spending on AI-driven advanced packaging, automotive electronics and selected mainstream packaging capacity while its major Chinese plants run on strong orders.

Topco Scientific's June revenue hits record high on strong photoresist, quartz cloth demand

Eifeh Strom — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:29:43 GMT

Topco Scientific (TSC) posted June 2026 revenue of NT$7.51 billion (approx. US$233.49 million), an increase of NT$970 million from May and 32.9% from a year earlier, setting a new single-month record. Cumulative revenue for the first half of 2026 reached NT$39.32 billion, up 20.2% year-over-year and setting a record for the period.

Luxshare's weak HK debut highlights investor skepticism over AI transition

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:14:13 GMT

Luxshare Precision's highly anticipated Hong Kong debut got off to a shaky start despite securing the city's largest IPO of 2026, underscoring investor skepticism over the Apple supplier's long-term transformation strategy.

Meta bets on price to crack AI model market, testing whether frontier intelligence stays premium good

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:13:41 GMT

Meta Platforms' decision to start charging developers for its most advanced AI model is less a product launch than a wager on where the economics of artificial intelligence (AI) are heading — and it arrives at a time when investors are already questioning whether the industry has built more computing power than it can profitably use.

Analysis: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron's diverging approach to HBM4 base dies

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:13:20 GMT

Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology are taking different manufacturing paths for the logic base die in HBM4, opening a new front in the competition over advanced memory performance, yield and supply.

Apple drives 70% surge in edge AI smartwatch sales as health features gain traction

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:08:44 GMT

Shipments of smartwatches with edge AI features leaped 70% in the first quarter of 2026, with Apple overwhelmingly leading the charge, according to Counterpoint Research. This market is taking off as health-focused users gain access to deeper insights through AI advancements, and as brands lean on wearables to offset weak smartphone sales.

Huawei joins China Mobile, Baidu to build China's first NPO optical interconnect standard

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:01:34 GMT

Huawei has joined more than 20 Chinese technology companies and research bodies to launch OPEN NPO, the country's first multi-source agreement for near-packaged optics, in an effort to standardise high-speed optical interconnects for AI supernodes and large-scale computing clusters.

Micron's US$250 billion memory push sharpens three-way race with Korean and Chinese rivals

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 03:33:13 GMT

Micron Technology's decision to lift its planned US investment to more than US$ 250 billion through 2035, unveiled July 9 alongside the first concrete pour at its Clay, New York, site, is fundamentally a bet on where the AI era's most contested commodity, memory, will be manufactured.

GigaDevice's 1H26 profit surges 1,099% on memory chip shortage, higher prices

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 03:19:23 GMT

GigaDevice Semiconductor expects first-half 2026 net profit to reach about CNY6.9 billion (US$960 million), a 1,099% increase from a year earlier, after tight memory chip supply lifted both shipment volumes and prices.

Japan Display to close HK sales subsidiary as part of overseas operations restructuring

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 03:15:36 GMT

Japan Display Inc. (JDI) said it will close its wholly owned Hong Kong subsidiary, JDI Hong Kong Limited (JDIH), as part of a broader reorganization of its overseas sales operations aimed at improving operational efficiency.

Taiwan seeks a bigger role in the global LEO satellite race

Willis Ke — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 03:02:34 GMT

As the global low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite industry enters a new phase of rapid expansion, Taiwan faces a pivotal opportunity to move beyond its traditional role as a component supplier. By developing satellite terminals, strengthening systems integration and expanding service capabilities, the country could secure a larger share of one of the world's fastest-growing communications markets, according to Yi-Cheng Lin, associate vice president of the Network Technology Group at Chunghwa Telecom.

GlobalWafers-Micron deal pushes US semiconductor localization beyond chip fabs

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 02:58:57 GMT

GlobalWafers and Micron have signed a 10-year supply agreement, alongside US$500 million in strategic financial support, in a move that underscores how artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), data centers, and advanced memory demand are reshaping semiconductor sourcing. The deal extends US supply chain localization beyond wafer production and into upstream critical materials.

India scraps duties on electronics and battery components to boost local manufacturing

DIGITIMES — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 02:48:30 GMT

India has scrapped import duties on a targeted set of components and factory machinery used to build smartphones, displays, and lithium-ion cells, a move that deepens New Delhi's drive to pull more of the global electronics supply chain onto Indian soil and away from China and Vietnam.

CHPT chief: AI demand is set to strain capacity and reshape Taiwan's industrial priorities

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 02:46:44 GMT

Chunghwa Precision Test Tech president Scott Huang said on July 7 that the company's biggest challenge over the next five years will be capacity as artificial intelligence demand surges across the semiconductor supply chain. He also urged Taiwan to increase investment in quantum technology and nuclear fusion, saying both fields could shape the island's long-term industrial future.