MediaTek announced on September 30 that its flagship Dimensity 9500 chip powers Samsung's new Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S12+ tablets. The deal continues a long-running partnership between the two companies across Samsung's Galaxy Tab line.

ficonTEC, a maker of optoelectronic automation assembly and test equipment, has announced a strategic partnership with Hermes Testing Solutions Inc. (HTSI) to support Taiwan's rapidly expanding co-packaged optics (CPO) ecosystem. The collaboration will initially focus on the INS-2 test platform, advancing ficonTEC's double-sided wafer-level testing architecture — with electrical testing from above and optical testing from below — towards commercialisation and scaled deployment.

Rumors that TSMC is weighing a new semiconductor investment in Singapore have reignited concerns over its overseas expansion, while the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said on October 2, 2026, that the government will help the chipmaker expand investment in Taiwan.

Semiconductor startup Volantis has raised US$88 million in Series A funding to develop an AI inference architecture that uses photonic interconnect technology to address memory bottlenecks in AI chips. The round, announced on October 1, 2026, and reported by Reuters, is aimed at breaking through the memory wall that has limited performance in current systems.

Amazon is considering moving about US$8 billion worth of high-end Nvidia chips off its balance sheet through a sale-leaseback structure, according to the Financial Times and Reuters. The plan would shift thousands of Nvidia Grace Blackwell chips from data centers in Nevada and Virginia into an external special purpose vehicle, while Amazon would continue using the hardware under lease arrangements.

Nvidia is testing glass-free PCB material systems for its next-generation AI server platforms, evaluating polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and hydrocarbon (HC) resin formulations for possible use in the Rubin Ultra NVL576 Switch Tray, which is scheduled for mass production in the second half of 2027.

Chip-performance gains have long been driven by an industry-wide focus on shrinking transistor nodes and tightening integration. While major economies including the US and Taiwan have historically sat at the summit of semiconductor manufacturing excellence, China has spent years building its own capabilities amid increasingly restricted access to some leading-edge technologies.

AI servers and advanced packaging continue to drive demand for semiconductor manufacturing, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT), and equipment. Machvision said Advanced Semiconductor Engineering's (ASE's) expansion is helping make semiconductors and substrates its fastest-growing product lines.

Under Lisa Su's 12-year tenure at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the company has gradually moved beyond its role as Intel's challenger in the CPU market. But in the accelerator market for training and running AI models, old rival Nvidia still holds the upper hand.

Facing a prolonged memory supply crunch, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced steep cuts to the memory specifications of the company's AI5 and AI6 chips to secure enough memory for Optimus mass production. Musk said the downgrades will not affect the humanoid robot's performance.

Chenming Electronic Tech (UNEEC) president Charles Lo said the fourth quarter is a traditional peak season and that new models such as VR200 will enter mass production in the fourth quarter, helping revenue recover toward the company's former monthly level of more than NT$1 billion (US$31.3 million). For January-August 2026, revenue reached NT$7.9 billion, with L11 system integration accounting for 18%.