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Sep 8
Taiwan and Saxony start building the talent pipeline behind TSMC's German fab
TSMC's investment in a fab in Germany's Free State of Saxony has drawn close attention from across Europe. Eva Ins Obergfell, Rector of Leipzig University, one of Germany's leading universities, recently visited Taiwan and toured National Taiwan University and National Tsing Hua University, among others, to explore ideas for research cooperation. Experts said Taiwan and Germany had opportunities to build long-term partnerships in quantum sensing technology, semiconductor materials processes and cross-border biomedical research.
Chinese AI chip developer Cambricon said on September 8 that it has formally joined the PyTorch Foundation as a platinum member, the organisation's highest membership tier, securing a seat on its governing board.

Samsung Electronics has opened an advanced packaging research center in Yokohama, bringing development work closer to Japanese suppliers that provide critical materials and equipment for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) as the company works to narrow its market-share gap with SK Hynix.

Ample Electronic Technology said strong demand for passive components and artificial intelligence (AI) server-related products is boosting business momentum, as multi-layer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) customers ramp up copper paste purchases.

Kioxia has ruled out deeper manufacturing ties with SK Hynix while resisting another round of aggressive NAND price increases, leaning instead on longer customer contracts and disciplined capacity expansion as data-center demand keeps memory supply tight.

Washington has converted the largest federal bet yet on quantum computing from a promise into a contract, and it is taking ownership in return. On Sept. 8, the US Department of Commerce announced the signing of final awards with five companies under the CHIPS and Science Act: up to US$375 million for GlobalFoundries and up to US$100 million each for Rigetti, D-Wave, PsiQuantum, and Quantinuum, according to five separate announcements posted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Together, the five deals commit US$775 million, and each carries a minority, non-controlling government equity stake as a condition of the money.
Amkor Technology's latest Arizona expansion underscores how advanced packaging capacity is becoming a strategic issue for the US semiconductor supply chain. The larger campus aims to meet rising demand for advanced packaging, strengthen domestic production, and support next-generation devices worldwide.
China has imposed provisional anti-dumping measures on Japanese dichlorosilane (DCS), a semiconductor material used in thin-film deposition, potentially accelerating Chinese wafer fabs' shift toward domestic suppliers.

China's rapid advance in DRAM is intensifying debate in South Korea over whether rigid working-hour rules could make it harder to preserve one of the country's remaining technology advantages over China.

Asia Vital said August 2026 revenue rose to NT$512 million, up 29.10% year over year, as shipments of ASIC servers to a US cloud service provider customer continued to increase. The Taiwan-based supplier said revenue stayed above NT$500 million for a third straight month, while demand for the customer's next-generation products remained strong.
Axcelis Technologies plans to invest US$35 million in a new semiconductor equipment manufacturing facility in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, a move that could help strengthen global chip supply chains. The project underscores how leading suppliers are expanding production capacity to meet rising demand from manufacturers worldwide.
Huawei is emerging as a central organiser of China's effort to build a domestic semiconductor equipment supply chain, backing critical lithography suppliers and helping connect them with major chipmakers including SMIC.