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Apr 30
Qualcomm to ship custom product with hyperscaler in 4Q26
In an earnings call on April 29, Qualcomm told investors it expects initial shipments of a custom silicon engagement with a leading hyperscaler in the December quarter, a milestone executives said will mark the start of a multi‑generation partnership
Anthropic has been in talks with Fractile, a London-based startup, to purchase its inference chips for running its AI models more efficiently, as inferential AI tasks have pushed up compute demands, according to The Information. Although Fractile's AI chips are not expected to be available until next year at the earliest, the deal could give the maker of Claude more leverage with suppliers as it seeks to expand AI capacity to meet soaring demand.
AI's 1.6T shift turns InP into optical supply chain bottleneck
May 4, 12:22

The transition from 800G to 1.6T optical modules is no longer an upgrade cycle — it is a physics-driven inflection point.

Yageo chairman Pierre Chen said the rise of AI applications is driving stronger demand not only for advanced semiconductors and memory, but also for passive components, sensors, and power semiconductors.

Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of April 27-May 4, 2026:

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are both riding a historic memory upcycle, but a profit gap of about KRW15 trillion (approx. US$10 billion) has opened between the two Korean chipmakers, driven largely by commodity DRAM rather than high-bandwidth memory (HBM), according to Sedaily.

Samsung Electronics' foundry business is drawing renewed attention as its 4nm process reportedly reaches higher utilization, supported by HBM4 base-die demand and orders from global technology companies.

One year into his tenure, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan struck a markedly different tone on the company's outlook. At the first-quarter 2026 earnings call, he said the debate a year ago centred on whether Intel could survive. Today, the focus has shifted to how quickly it can expand capacity and scale its supply chain to meet surging demand.

Taiwan's government is advancing its Five Trusted Industry Sectors program, which identifies semiconductors, AI, defense, security, and next-generation communications as the country's core growth drivers. The push for self-sufficiency in semiconductor materials and equipment has already generated NT$22 billion (US$696.92 million) in new output in 2025, with some of the machinery reportedly shipped to China.
Realtek's projection of a sharp fall in full-year 2026 PC shipments amid tight memory supply signals wider device-market shifts: global brands are prioritizing mid- and high-end models and premium components, boosting demand for higher-content semiconductors as unit volumes fall, with implications for laptop pricing, vendor strategies, and component suppliers worldwide.
Supply-chain participants said Apple's fiscal second-quarter 2026 performance should be read less as a demand story and more as a reflection of persistent constraints in advanced semiconductor capacity, particularly at leading-edge process nodes.
MediaTek has doubled its 2026 revenue target for its application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) business to US$2 billion, up from US$1 billion, as demand for custom chips continues to strengthen.