DIGITIMES: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

Goertek reports higher revenue and profit in 1H26

DIGITIMES — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:37:30 GMT

Chinese electronics manufacturer Goertek reported higher revenue and profit for the first half of 2026, supported by growth in its smart acoustic products and continued investment in R&D.

FOPLP's race to scale: Taiwan leads while three technical hurdles test mass production

Levi Li — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:33:15 GMT

Rising demand for AI computing power is increasing chip package sizes, bringing fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) into sharper focus as a next-generation packaging technology that converts traditional round wafer formats into rectangular panels, offering potential gains in both production efficiency and cost.

Anthropic venture acquires Casper Studios to expand enterprise AI services

DIGITIMES — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:21:08 GMT

Ode with Anthropic, an Anthropic venture arm, said it has acquired Casper Studios, a move that expands its enterprise artificial intelligence services as companies worldwide look for practical ways to deploy AI inside existing workflows. The deal underscores growing demand for partners that can turn experimentation into measurable business gains across global operations.

China's new solid-state battery standards could reshape the industry

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:14:13 GMT

China has introduced the world's first national standards for automotive solid-state batteries, setting off market speculation that most of the country's more than 320 players may ultimately fail to meet the new bar. The rules tighten definitions, safety testing, and mass-production expectations, shifting competition from concept claims to engineering proof and industrial readiness.

Analyst: CPO gains momentum as AI interconnect demands outpace chip gains

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:01:47 GMT

The AI industry is watching the rise of co-packaged optics (CPO) as faster AI systems now depend on more efficient links between chips and data centers. At DIGITIMES Tech Forum 2026 in Taipei, analyst Jerry Zheng said the technology is moving toward mainstream adoption as bandwidth demand outpaces computing gains.

800VDC adoption in AI data centers is set to reshape power chip demand

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:56:55 GMT

A shift to 800VDC power architectures in next-generation AI data centers is gathering pace, with implications for GPU planning, power semiconductor demand, and rack design. Many vendors are preparing related products for 2026, as rising AI workloads push power systems toward a new scale. The trend may accelerate adoption across gallium nitride (GaN), silicon carbide (SiC), and Vertical Power Delivery (VPD) technologies.

TIER IV and Renesas team up on open AI-native computing platform for autonomous vehicles

DIGITIMES — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:46:46 GMT

A new collaboration between TIER IV and Renesas could shape how self-driving and software-defined vehicles are built worldwide, as automakers seek more flexible platforms for AI-driven features. The effort aims to combine open-source software, advanced chips, and scalable tools that may accelerate safer mobility across markets from Asia to Europe to North America.

Taiwan export orders near US$98 billion in July, with US as top buyer

Eifeh Strom — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:45:00 GMT

Taiwan's export orders climbed by US$207.3 billion, or 52.5%, in the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, according to data released on August 20 by the Department of Statistics (DOS) under Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). From January to July 2026, orders placed by the US reached US$235.7 billion, accounting for 39.1% of the total US$602 billion in orders, rising more than 70% year over year and making the US Taiwan's largest buyer.

Stripe weighs US$7 billion OpenRouter deal to expand AI model routing

DIGITIMES — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:43:23 GMT

Stripe is in acquisition talks to buy AI startup OpenRouter for more than US$7 billion, according to reporting by Bloomberg and Axios. The price would be more than five times the US$1.3 billion valuation OpenRouter reached in a funding round in May 2026.

Alibaba’s 45% AI cloud jump masked by 75% capex surge and margin squeeze

DIGITIMES — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:40:25 GMT

Alibaba Group's June quarter is the clearest statement yet that the company now runs as an AI infrastructure business with an e-commerce cash engine attached, rather than the other way around. Revenue rose 9% year-over-year to CNY268.95 billion (US$39.64 billion), but the composition of that growth, and the cost of buying it, matter more than the headline.

SK hynix outlines CPO roadmap as AI computing shifts from chips to systems

DIGITIMES — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:31:42 GMT

SK hynix has published a technical roadmap for co-packaged optics (CPO) in the journal Nature Electronics, positioning the world's largest supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to compete not just on individual chip performance but on how memory, processors, and networking are designed together as AI computing systems scale.

Unitree chief says humanoid robots are not yet ready for mass real-world work

Jingyue Hsiao — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:30:00 GMT

Unitree Technology's soaring debut underscored investor enthusiasm for humanoid robots, but the company's founder said the industry still faces key limits before machines can perform everyday work in homes and factories.

Alibaba guides AI cloud revenue toward US$10 billion run-rate next quarter

DIGITIMES — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:24:05 GMT

Alibaba is signaling that its most capital-intensive bet yet — a three-year, CNY380 billion (US$56.33 billion) buildout of AI compute — is starting to compound into a self-reinforcing growth cycle, even as the near-term cost of that buildout shows up in a sharp swing in capital spending and a steep drop in group profitability.

Micron launches long-horizon research hub to push memory and AI development

DIGITIMES — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:15:50 GMT

Micron's new US research hub could influence how future AI systems are built, stored, and scaled, with implications that extend well beyond America. The planned US$10 billion effort targets breakthroughs in memory, advanced packaging, and new compute architectures that may shape global technology supply chains, energy use, and access to smarter devices.

Charts: TSMC's share of Taiwan chip manufacturing revenue falls to 81.8% as memory makers scale up

DIGITIMES — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:17:33 GMT

Foundry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) grew 37% year to date — and still lost four percentage points of the sub-sector's revenue share, because the other 26 manufacturers grew more than twice as fast.

US ban on robot dogs clears the way for Taiwan's Swancor

Charlene Chen — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:17:13 GMT

To safeguard national security and the development of the AI supply chain, the US has banned imports of advanced humanoid robots. Against that backdrop, Taiwan-based Swancor unveiled its first "Taiwan AI robot ecosystem" at Automation Taipei 2026, joining with more than 10 Taiwanese industry, technology, and academic partners to showcase applications ranging from smart inspection and public safety to smart construction, AI education platforms, commercial interaction, and long-term care companionship.

JCET hits 1.5μm TSV milestone for denser HBM and 2.5D/3D packaging

DIGITIMES — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:16:36 GMT

JCET Group has completed trial production of a 1.5μm-diameter, 17μm-deep through-silicon via (TSV) with an aspect ratio of 11.3:1, extending its advanced packaging capabilities towards denser 2.5D and 3D integration.

Charts: AI test demand drives broadest growth among Taiwan's chip equipment suppliers

DIGITIMES — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:16:01 GMT

Thirty-eight of 43 companies grew year to date at a median rate of 28.7% — the highest of any semiconductor sub-sector — with test handlers, sockets and probe cards recurring across company filings.

Elice to build South Korea's first warm-water-cooled AI data center, unveils coding agent

Sherri Wang — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:15:40 GMT

South Korean AI infrastructure provider Elice Group is expanding on two fronts, adding enterprise AI transformation (AX) solutions while building what it says will be the country's first AI data center to use warm-water cooling above 40°C.

Korean display makers step up OLED patent push as China narrows technology gap

DIGITIMES — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:15:08 GMT

Korean display makers are stepping up patent licensing and cross-border enforcement as Chinese rivals have sharply narrowed the technology and market-share gap in OLED since 2020, just as competition expands into higher-value panels for notebooks and monitors.

Nitto Denko to expand HDD baseboard capacity for AI data center demand

DIGITIMES — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:14:36 GMT

Nitto Denko said it will invest JPY28 billion (US$176.68 million) through fiscal 2028 to expand production of thin-film metal base boards for hard disk drives, raising capacity by 40% from fiscal 2025 levels. The move is aimed at meeting demand driven by AI-related data center growth.

China silicon wafer maker NSIG nears 1.2 million monthly 300mm capacity after 90% shipment jump

DIGITIMES — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:14:21 GMT

National Silicon Industry Group (NSIG) reported a 36.51% rise in first-half 2026 revenue as shipments of 300mm semiconductor silicon wafers increased more than 90%, though continued R&D spending, currency movements and inventory impairments widened its net loss.

Samsung holds off on High-NA EUV until 1nm production

DIGITIMES — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:13:56 GMT

Samsung Electronics does not expect to move High-NA EUV lithography into volume production until its 1nm-class generation, a timeline that points to around 2030, after it had earlier hoped to introduce the technology at the 2nm and 1.4nm nodes.

China's humanoid robot shipments hit 40,000 in the first half of 2026

DIGITIMES — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:12:49 GMT

China shipped more than 40,000 humanoid robots in the first half of 2026, lifting its share of global shipments to 97%, according to a development report released on August 20 at the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing. The figure marked the highest share ever recorded in the report's historical data and underscored China's growing role in the global humanoid robot supply chain.

TXC pivots to AI infrastructure as 1.6T optical modules surge

Charlene Chen — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:12:24 GMT

Quartz component leader TXC is targeting AI and automotive applications as demand grows for faster data transmission, with 1.6T optical modules expected to see explosive growth in the second half of 2026. The company aims to lift AI revenue to 20% by the end of 2026, with roughly 20-30% of that coming from optical module applications.

DIGITIMES's Colley Hwang warns Taiwan AI data center capacity lags South Korea

Lily Hess — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:10:38 GMT

The inference economy has arrived, and Taiwan's tech industry must transition from the "knowledge economy" to the "inference economy," DIGITIMES chairman Colley Hwang said on August 20 at a forum exploring future trends in the semiconductor industry. He also warned that Taiwan's AI data center capacity is about one-sixth of South Korea's.

Longcheer and Luxshare move into robot ODM

Charlene Chen — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:10:16 GMT

China consumer electronics ODMs are extending their R&D, supply chain integration and mass production capabilities into the embodied AI robot market. Longcheer announced on August 19 that it had signed an agreement with the Nanchang High-tech Zone in Jiangxi, officially establishing an embodied AI robot R&D and manufacturing base. The company said it will build end-to-end capabilities from product definition and R&D design to engineering delivery, offering ODM solutions for embodied AI products.

How credit allocation is becoming part of the AI supply chain

Yunnie Cheng — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:09:50 GMT

As artificial intelligence (AI) evolves, shifting bottlenecks reflect the maturity of the AI boom. Initial constraints emerged at the semiconductor level with GPUs, high bandwidth memory (HBM), and advanced packaging. Next came system-level challenges around networking, power, and thermal management. More recently, infrastructure limits, including transformers, grid connections, and overall power capacity, took center stage.

Column: Is 800V really 'high voltage'? —AI data centers revive an old power debate

Scarlett Yu — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:09:26 GMT

High-voltage direct current (HVDC) is currently one of the hottest areas of technology and product development for AI data centers. It is not only the first layer of what Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has described as the industry's "five-layer cake," but also a concrete manifestation of the idea that computing power ultimately depends on electrical power.

Kenmec surges on AI, advanced packaging to record orders, revenue

Yunnie Cheng — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:09:03 GMT

Fueled by robust global demand for artificial intelligence and the rapid expansion of semiconductor advanced packaging capacity, Kenmec Mechanical Engineering, a subsidiary of Kenmec Group, has seen its order backlog surge to nearly NT$6.661 billion (approx. US$209.1 million). Driven by this momentum, both the subsidiary and the group overall are on track to hit historic highs in revenue and order intake in 2026.

Charts: Foxconn is losing share of Taiwan's EMS revenue as Quanta and Wistron near double

DIGITIMES — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:08:13 GMT

The sub-sector's dominant supplier grew 37.9% year to date and still ranks only seventh of 20, while the other 19 companies grew 56.9% between them.

Global server market, 2Q 2026: Supply constraints curb shipment momentum, global server shipments up 2.8% in 3Q26

DIGITIMES — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:21:53 GMT

In the second quarter of 2026, global server shipments were below prior expectations, growing 3.8% quarter-over-quarter. The main reason was tight supply of key components such as memory, CPU, and IC substrate, which curbed overall system shipment momentu

Why Chinese automakers are racing into humanoid robots

Scarlett Yu — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:18:06 GMT

As subsidies for China's new energy vehicle market gradually wind down and automaker margins continue to narrow, Beijing is shifting policy support toward embodied AI and humanoid robotics. That change is encouraging Chinese automakers to redeploy technologies originally developed for smart EVs and accelerate their push into humanoid robots.

Aurotek targets humanoid robot rollout gap with Physical AI push

Yunnie Cheng — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:35:00 GMT

Aurotek Corporation is accelerating its push into the robotics market, unveiling its first lights-out factory solution integrating multi-brand, multi-form-factor robots at Automation Taipei.

Samsung and Hyundai expand alliance from EV batteries into software-defined vehicles

DIGITIMES — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:10:01 GMT

Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor Group have widened their partnership across electric vehicle batteries, software-defined vehicles, and robotics. Genesis' upcoming GV90 is expected to use Samsung SDI's square batteries. According to News1, the large electric SUV is scheduled to launch in September, extending Samsung SDI's role in Hyundai Motor Group's supply chain beyond the Hyundai IONIQ 3 and Kia EV2.