Recent reports suggest that Google has once again made engineering changes to its Tensor Processing Unit, or TPU, pushing the chip's tape-out to around mid-2026. The product in question—known as the v8x and designed by MediaTek—has raised fresh concerns about whether MediaTek can scale its application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, business as planned this year.
The global electronics supply chain is facing a cost shock not seen in years. War in Iran, surging AI demand, and tight capacity are simultaneously driving up prices across raw materials, key components, and logistics.
Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of March 30-April 5, 2026:
Samsung Electronics reported a record-shattering eight-fold leap in quarterly profit, as insatiable demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips outweighed growing concerns over geopolitical instability in the Middle East.
Anthropic, Google, and Broadcom today announced a massive expansion of their strategic partnership, unveiling a multi-year roadmap that secures approximately 3.5 gigawatts (GW) of next-generation AI computing capacity for Anthropic.
In September 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a rare joint livestream appearance with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger to announce a US$5 billion equity investment in Intel. In March 2026, Nvidia followed up with a US$2 billion investment in Marvell Technology. Why Huang is investing in potential competitors so aggressively remains a question.
Impacted by the conflict in the Middle East, Taiwan has recently reported a shortage of plastic bags, raising questions about whether Formosa Plastics Group deliberately reduced production and stockpiled raw materials to drive up prices in the plastic pellet market.
Since artificial general intelligence (AGI) depends heavily on the CPU, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang aims to build the most efficient "AI factory" by tightly controlling CPU development. At GTC 2026, Nvidia aggressively promoted its next-generation self-developed Arm-based CPU designed specifically for agentic AI.
Driven by applications such as AI high-speed computing, electric vehicles (EVs), and 5G/6G communications, demand for high-frequency, high-speed PCB materials has surged. Copper-clad laminate (CCL) makers across Taiwan and China, including Elite Material (EMC), Taiwan Union Technology Corporation (TUC), ITEQ, and Guangdong Shengyi Technology (Sytech), have all launched a new wave of advanced capacity expansion.
Market sentiment toward the 2026 smartphone outlook has turned increasingly pessimistic. On the supply side, rising component costs have expanded beyond memory to include across-the-board chip price hikes, making it unclear whether the initial round of handset price increases seen in early 2026 will be the only one.
China's semiconductor equipment market is emerging as a critical growth engine for South Korean suppliers, driven by accelerating AI deployment and tighter restrictions on US vendors. Demand for advanced packaging tools is running ahead of expectations, with high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and 2.5D packaging advancing in tandem as central pillars of future growth. At the same time, Beijing's push for supply chain localization is reshaping competitive dynamics and limiting foreign access.
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