DIGITIMES: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain

India's CG Power targets 70% utilization at larger semiconductor packaging plant

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:50:17 GMT

CG Power and Industrial Solutions is targeting 70% utilization at its larger semiconductor packaging facility within about four years, with the unit potentially generating around US$500 million in annual revenue once it reaches scale, according to CNBC.

Analysis: Smartwatch demand set to outpace broader hardware market in 2026

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:45:00 GMT

Smartwatch shipments are expected to continue rising faster than broader IT hardware in 2026, even as smartphones and notebook PCs see weaker growth due to higher memory costs. For global consumers, the shift signals that wearables are becoming a more essential, health-focused purchase, while top brands fight for share.

Uber expands ride-hailing reach across Taiwan as trips and local demand rise

Jingyue Hsiao — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:42:36 GMT

Uber and its partner fleets expanded ride-hailing coverage in July 2026 to 19 counties and cities across Taiwan proper, underscoring how mobility platforms are reaching farther beyond major urban centers. The move comes as global transport markets balance convenience, safety, and regulation, while demand grows for more flexible options in both cities and smaller communities.

Yttek's ground equipment supports FORMOSAT-8 first satellite

Lily Hess — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:41:59 GMT

Taiwan aerospace communications equipment maker Yttek said its HyperSDR satellite ground-station modem, developed at the request of the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), successfully received and decoded high-frequency telemetry signals downlinked from the first FORMOSAT-8 satellite, FORMOSAT-8A, on April 27 this year. The system helped TASA rapidly reconstruct high-resolution optical images of Alibag, India.

HTSI targets AI chip demand with SiPh, CPO, packaging push

Lily Hess — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:41:38 GMT

Hermes Testing Solutions (HTSI) said revenue for the first seven months of 2026 reached NT$2.7 billion (US$83.8 million), up 128.2% year-over-year and already exceeding its full-year 2025 scale, as AI and high-performance computing (HPC) applications continue to drive demand for high-end chip testing. The semiconductor wafer test solutions provider said it expects stronger operations in the second half of 2026 and sees growth momentum extending through 2027, 2028, and even 2029.

Anthropic prepares IPO pitch centered on a $30 trillion AI market

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:41:15 GMT

Anthropic is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) and plans to tell investors its total addressable market exceeds US$30 trillion, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is expected to present the figure as part of its case for a high valuation and continued heavy infrastructure spending.

Proton sales jump 39% as Malaysian automaker expands EV push

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:40:49 GMT

Proton said its vehicle sales rose 38.7% in the first seven months of 2026, as the Malaysian automaker highlighted new electrification and connected mobility technologies at GATE 2026. The company tied the growth to a broader push to strengthen its engineering and manufacturing capabilities while supporting Malaysia's automotive industry competitiveness.

Ablecom takes control of Jochu to expand AI server rack, liquid cooling business

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:40:37 GMT

Ablecom Technology said it had joined a private placement for Jochu Technology and become the listed company's largest shareholder, giving the Taiwan-based chassis and thermal solutions provider access to additional capacity for AI server racks and liquid cooling products. The move is designed to help Ablecom address rising demand from global data centers for high-density computing, while the two companies plan to work more closely on production and technology.

Commentary: Nvidia bets on open models to lift GPU usage

Lily Hess — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:40:11 GMT

Nvidia is aggressively expanding into open-source models and positioning itself as the world's largest open AI contributor, as CEO Jensen Huang reshapes the company from a supporter of the open AI ecosystem into a builder. The company recently spent US$6 billion to license Poolside's technology and hire about 100 of its engineers, adding momentum to the US open-model push.

Taiwan, Germany map AI-led net-zero push for 2026

Lily Hess — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:39:52 GMT

The 2026 Taiwan Sustainability Summit opened in Taipei on August 25, bringing together government representatives, industry leaders, and experts from Taiwan and Germany to focus on how digital twin and industrial AI can accelerate net-zero deployment in manufacturing, buildings, energy management, and rail transport. The summit closed with a five-point joint declaration, outlining Taiwan's next 10-year development blueprint.

Taiwan plans higher power growth to meet AI demand, officials say

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:39:43 GMT

Taiwan's government said it will raise electricity supply capacity as it responds to rising demand from AI and industry. The comments came on August 26 at the opening of the 2026 New Energy International Forum in Taipei, where officials also pointed to gaps in public understanding of the island's power mix.

AI data center boom lifts Weltrend fan-control chip sales 64%

Levi Li — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:39:18 GMT

Weltrend Semiconductor said first-half 2026 revenue rose 28% from a year earlier to a record for the period, with growth driven almost entirely by cooling demand tied to AI data center investment.

Xiaomi's Xring O3, O100 and D100 define a three-tier AI chip strategy beyond smartphones

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:38:57 GMT

Xiaomi is expanding Xring from a smartphone chip program into a broader AI computing platform spanning consumer devices, vehicles, and edge inference, with three processors assigned to distinct workloads.

Nvidia shifts HBM4 mix toward 8-high as memory supply stays tight

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:38:48 GMT

Nvidia has reportedly asked Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to increase the share of 8-high HBM4 supplied for its Vera Rubin accelerator platforms, as the chipmaker seeks greater flexibility in balancing thermal constraints, packaging yields and memory availability amid tight supply.

China's foundries have won the mature-node argument, not the self-sufficiency one

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:38:28 GMT

China's contract chipmakers spent the first half of 2026 proving something narrower than the headlines suggest. They demonstrated that domestic fabs can run at full capacity, raise prices, and earn money at mature nodes, largely on the strength of Chinese customers buying Chinese wafers. What the same results do not show is a country that has closed the gap where the gap actually binds — lithography, high-end metrology, and the leading edge.

Indian states begins to tighten screws on data centers even as the build-out accelerates

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:38:18 GMT

India's data center story has split in two. The pipeline forecasts keep getting bigger, but the money actually landing has thinned sharply since June — and the reason is no longer demand or capital availability. It is environmental clearance, temple land, water accounting, and grid load, questions that courts, local residents, and state governments are all now asking before the concrete is poured.

5G-A low-latency breakthrough paves way for Physical AI, XR

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:38:14 GMT

Advances in low-latency and zero-latency wireless communications are seen as a critical foundation for physical AI, remote control, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (XR), and the latest breakthrough has come through a joint effort by MediaTek, AT&T, and Ericsson.

Ligitek skips 800G, targets 1.6T silicon photonics

Sherri Wang — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:36:24 GMT

Ligitek Electronics, a Taiwan-based LED packaging maker, has expanded in recent years into semiconductor system-in-package (SiP) and silicon photonics. The company said AI-related products accounted for about 45% of its revenue in the first half of 2026. Ligitek is targeting a 200G-per-lane architecture, bypassing the mainstream 800G specification to move directly into 1.6T optical engine modules, with small-volume shipments expected as early as the fourth quarter. The company plans to push further into higher-end 3.2T module development.

Anthropic reportedly commits US$45 billion to Nscale for AI computing capacity

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:35:45 GMT

Anthropic has reportedly agreed to spend US$45 billion over six years to rent artificial intelligence computing capacity from Nscale's planned data center campus in West Virginia, underscoring the growing importance of securing large-scale infrastructure as AI companies scale their services.

Apple, Huawei foldables to collide in September, lifting ultra-thin glass, hinge and cooling demand

Levi Li — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:31:05 GMT

Huawei and Apple are set to intensify competition in foldable smartphones in September, accelerating demand across a supply chain spanning foldable OLED panels, ultra-thin glass, hinges, flexible printed circuits and thermal components.

Supply shortages, price hikes fail to slow new phone wave

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:28:58 GMT

Mobile phone sales are under pressure as shortages and price increases for multiple upstream components squeeze the market. But brand makers have stepped up new product launches, with Samsung Electronics, Honor, Oppo, and Google already rolling out devices, and Xiaomi, Sony, and Vivo set to follow.

Samsung Galaxy A1 DDI packaging shifts to Chipbond

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:23:15 GMT

Rising gold prices are squeezing Samsung Electronics' entry-level smartphone supply chain, with South Korean media reporting that back-end packaging and testing orders for display driver ICs (DDIs) used in the Galaxy A1 series OLED panels have moved from South Korea's LB Semicon to Taiwan's Chipbond Technology to ease manufacturing cost pressure.

Lambda eyes US$3B funding ahead of 2027 IPO

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:15:08 GMT

Lambda, the Nvidia-backed neocloud provider, is seeking to raise as much as US$3 billion before a planned 2027 listing, with its valuation potentially reaching US$12 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg reported that Lambda’s 2026 revenue is projected to exceed US$1.5 billion, and that the company has already received several investment term sheets, though the deal terms have not been finalized.

Goldman Sachs AI chief warns of cognitive decline

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:11:46 GMT

AI is already sweeping Wall Street, but Goldman Sachs partner Chris Churchman is warning that overuse of AI could lead to "cognitive decline." A CEPR-backed study cited by The Economist found that generative AI lifted homework scores among 26,811 Chinese secondary school students by 18% but cut closed-book monthly exam scores by 20% within six months.

China open-source AI usage hits record high as DeepSeek leads

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:03:20 GMT

China's open-weight AI models have surged in usage and have now overtaken proprietary models for the first time. South China Morning Post (SCMP), citing data from US web development platform Vercel, reported that on August 25, Chinese open-weight AI models accounted for 54% of total token usage across its own calls and the agent layer AI Gateway, surpassing proprietary models for the first time.

AWS, Nvidia expand AI partnership with plan for 2 million more GPUs

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:00:31 GMT

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Nvidia are expanding their collaboration to add millions of GPUs and new infrastructure for agentic and physical AI. The move signals rising global demand for advanced computing, with implications for cloud customers, governments, and robotics developers seeking faster, more secure access to AI tools worldwide.

Apple pressure on OLED prices squeezes South Korean panel profits

DIGITIMES — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:49:35 GMT

Apple is reportedly negotiating lower unit prices with South Korean OLED panel suppliers as surging prices for high-performance mobile DRAM, NAND flash, and other memory chips threaten its gross margin. The company is seeking to cut OLED procurement costs by offering larger orders in exchange for discounts.

Tesla doubles down on custom AI chips as Musk claims AI5 can beat NVIDIA on efficiency and cost

Scarlett Yu — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:25 GMT

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently said the company's upcoming AI5 inference chip could deliver two to three times the performance per watt of Nvidia products when deployed in autonomous vehicles and Optimus humanoid robots, potentially at just around 10% of the cost.

Research Insight: US humanoid supply chains pivot away from China as Taiwan moves from parts to actuator modules

Scarlett Yu — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:59:58 GMT

As the humanoid robot supply chain moves closer to mass-production readiness, Taiwan's precision manufacturing sector is gaining new opportunities to enter the US market, according to DIGITIMES observations.

SpaceX's $100 billion Louisiana Starbase turns orbital ambitions into launch-infrastructure race

DIGITIMES — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:59:09 GMT

The pinnacle of Elon Musk's far-reaching ambitions in orbital compute has come into better view following another major SpaceX announcement to turn the space giant's expanding plans for Starlink V3 and Starmind into a grand Starbase at the heart of Louisiana.

Beijing's AI4Chip plan puts AI to work on EDA, fabs, advanced packaging

DIGITIMES — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:58:35 GMT

Beijing is extending artificial intelligence deeper into semiconductor production, targeting chip design, wafer fabrication, packaging, testing, equipment, and materials under what local authorities describe as China's first dedicated "AI4Chip" policy.

AI glass substrate race shifts toward reliability and mass production

DIGITIMES — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:58:19 GMT

The competition to develop glass substrates for artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor packaging is intensifying, with Japanese and South Korean manufacturers pursuing different approaches to solve the reliability challenges created by increasingly large and complex packages.

Chinese GPUs head to space as MetaX payload begins in-orbit AI computing tests

Scarlett Yu — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:58:17 GMT

Chinese GPU vendors are beginning to extend their applications beyond terrestrial computing and into space. The recently launched Yunjian Muxi satellite (Jitianxing A-04) carries an intelligent computing payload powered by a domestically developed MetaX GPU, marking an effort to validate Chinese AI chips under real-world space conditions.

WRC 2026 signals a new humanoid robot race as competition shifts from bodies to embodied AI models

Scarlett Yu — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:57:55 GMT

The 2026 World Robot Conference (WRC 2026) has concluded in Beijing. While the commercial prospects of humanoid robots remain a subject of debate, they once again took center stage at the event. With China continuing to lead the world in humanoid robot shipments, more than 100 robotics-related companies showcased new technologies and unveiled their latest products, making the event not only a magnet for capital but also a window into where the industry is heading.

Nvidia's binding constraint moves from demand to cost, and it has now put a number on both

DIGITIMES — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:29:26 GMT

For the first time in this cycle, Nvidia has told investors where its gross margin will bottom out and how far short of demand its supply will fall - two admissions that shift the question from whether the AI buildout continues to who absorbs its rising input costs. Management guided gross margin down from 75.0% to a trough of 71-72% by the fourth quarter, directly blamed memory pricing, and capped fiscal 2028 revenue growth at about 70% against demand it put at nearer 100%. Neither disclosure is a demand warning. Both say the company is now managing a shortage rather than a market.

Nvidia's second quarter shows demand intact and the cash cycle stretching

DIGITIMES — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:28:53 GMT

Growth has stopped being the interesting question at Nvidia. Revenue for the quarter ended July 26, 2026 was US$96.2 billion, up 106% from a year earlier, and Data Center accounted for US$89.0 billion of it, up 117%. Gross margin held at 75.0% even as the Vera Rubin platform moved into volume—unusual, because a new rack-scale architecture normally costs a quarter or two of margin while yields settle. On the operating line, the quarter was close to flawless.

Nvidia says AI labs it is helping to finance will be about a quarter of next year's business

DIGITIMES — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:28:19 GMT

Nvidia has put a figure on its exposure to the AI labs it helps fund. On its second-quarter earnings call, chief financial officer Colette Kress said the company expects "demand from the AI labs for which we expect to leverage our balance sheet to contribute toward roughly a quarter of our business next year." That single sentence reframes the financing question. The issue is no longer whether Nvidia supports its customers' balance sheets, but that a quarter of forecast revenue now depends on structures the company itself has arranged.

Nvidia's answer to custom silicon is the half of the market that will never build any

DIGITIMES — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:27:56 GMT

The sharpest question on Nvidia's second-quarter call came a Bank of America analyst, who noted that OpenAI and Anthropic - both major beneficiaries of Nvidia's ecosystem investment - are designing their own chips, and that OpenAI had, days earlier, claimed its Jalapeno part outperforms Blackwell.

Nvidia caps its own growth at 70% because that is all the supply it can secure

DIGITIMES — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:27:14 GMT

Nvidia has guided a full year in advance for the first time, and the number it chose is not a demand forecast. Chief financial officer Colette Kress told the company's second-quarter earnings call that Nvidia expects to grow revenue by approximately 70% in fiscal 2028, then immediately qualified it: "This is a supply-constrained outlook." Customer forecasts, she said, "point to our growth doubling next year." The 30-point gap between what buyers want and what Nvidia has committed to ship is now the central fact about the company's next four quarters, and it is what the Vera Rubin, Groq, and Vera CPU ramps exist to close.

YMTC targets global NAND lead by 2027 as parent seeks US$5 billion IPO

DIGITIMES — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 09:53:01 GMT

Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) is aiming to become the world's largest NAND flash supplier by the end of 2027, setting an aggressive target as its parent prepares a nearly US$5 billion Shanghai listing to fund production upgrades and research.