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Thursday 18 December 2025
China's AMD- and Nvidia-bred GPU rivals meet on the IPO stage
As global demand for AI computing power intensifies, China's domestic GPU sector has reached a milestone. Following Moore Threads' successful IPO earlier this month, MetaX, a GPU developer with deep AMD roots, listed on Shanghai's STAR Market on December 17.
Thursday 18 December 2025
AMD CEO pledges greater investment in China amid efforts to boost US-China chip cooperation
AMD CEO Lisa Su has announced plans to increase investment in China during a recent visit aimed at strengthening collaboration in the semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors between China and the US. Su met with Chinese officials and industry leaders to underline AMD's commitment to the Chinese market.
Thursday 18 December 2025
Rapidus launches AI design tools to support 2nm semiconductor development
On December 17, Rapidus announced a new suite of AI-based semiconductor design tools under its Rapidus AI-Assisted Design Solution (Raads), aimed at supporting the company's Rapid and Unified Manufacturing Service (RUMS) concept. The technology will be rebranded as Rapidus AI-Agentic Design Solution, with multiple tools scheduled for release starting in 2026. Customers will receive the tools alongside a process design kit (PDK) and reference flows.
Thursday 18 December 2025
Google reportedly launches TorchTPU project to boost TPU compatibility with PyTorch
Google has reportedly initiated the TorchTPU project to enhance support for the PyTorch machine learning framework on its tensor processing units (TPUs), aiming to challenge the software dominance of Nvidia's CUDA ecosystem. Reuters, citing insiders, said the effort focuses on lowering barriers for developers and increasing TPU adoption in cloud and enterprise settings.
Thursday 18 December 2025
imec and Japan's ASRA align on automotive chiplet standards
imec said it has launched a strategic alignment initiative with Japan's Advanced SoC Research for Automotive (ASRA) to coordinate efforts on standardizing chiplet architectures for automotive applications, as the industry seeks to improve interoperability and reduce fragmentation in emerging chiplet ecosystems.
Thursday 18 December 2025
Why OpenAI is courting AWS chips—and what it signals about cracks in its AI expansion
OpenAI is reportedly in negotiations with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to secure funding and collaborate on AWS's in-house developed application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). The move comes as OpenAI faces challenges scaling its existing AI partnerships into broader commercial deployments, prompting questions about the strategic significance of this potential alliance.
Thursday 18 December 2025
Taiwan targets four research priorities to maintain semiconductor leadership
Taiwan has long dominated advanced semiconductor manufacturing, with TSMC's global R&D headquarters in Hsinchu alone employing over 10,000 researchers. The government continues to foster collaboration between academia and industry to advance both technology and talent development. Against this backdrop, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is launching a new initiative in 2025 to sustain Taiwan's leading position in next-generation chip manufacturing over the next five to ten years.
Wednesday 17 December 2025
MetaX jumps in Shanghai IPO as China pushes homegrown GPUs
MetaX, a Chinese graphics processor startup founded by former Advanced Micro Devices engineers, soared in its trading debut on Shanghai's STAR Market on December 17, 2025. The rally highlights the premium investors are placing on Beijing's semiconductor self-sufficiency drive even as the company grapples with widening losses and intense geopolitical headwinds.
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Korea Lighting pivots from conventional LEDs to bio-opitcal chips, targeting high-value markets
Facing intensifying competition in the traditional LED lighting market, Incheon-based Korea Lighting is repositioning itself as a supplier of bio-optical semiconductor solutions, targeting high-value applications across healthcare, hygiene, beauty, and agriculture.
Wednesday 17 December 2025
China's AI chip war: Domestic GPUs challenge Nvidia H200 dominance

Nvidia's H200 GPU is set to reshape China's high-end AI computing market, driving a surge of activity among domestic chipmakers. Chinese GPU and computing firms are mobilizing across the board, accelerating product tape-outs, building software ecosystems, and securing capital. This aggressive, multi-pronged effort signals the rapid formation of a localized compute architecture designed to break international reliance and capture diverse market segments.

Wednesday 17 December 2025
Nvidia H200 volatility disrupts China's SOE compute strategy
China's AI computing sector is facing acute short-term planning turmoil, spurred by the potential re-entry of Nvidia's H200 GPU. This market volatility directly impacts numerous state-owned AI computing centers.
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Commentary: Intel's SambaNova move signals AI chip consolidation era
Intel is reportedly seeking to acquire SambaNova, a prominent AI inference chip specialist. The deal has a high probability of closing, primarily due to a significant governance alignment: Intel's current CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, also serves as SambaNova's Executive Chairman.
Tuesday 16 December 2025
China taps MetaX GPUs to advance brain-inspired AI beyond big models
For decades, artificial intelligence (AI) has pursued scale: more parameters, more data, more GPUs. That approach delivered rapid breakthroughs but also revealed hard limits in power consumption, cost, and accessibility. In China, a different path is taking shape, one that looks beyond silicon scaling laws to the human brain itself.
Tuesday 16 December 2025
Intel deepens policy alignment with executive reshuffle following US government investment
Intel has announced several key executive appointments, including Robin Colwell, former deputy director of the US National Economic Council under US President Donald Trump, as senior vice president of Government Affairs. This appointment follows the US government's August investment in acquiring a 10% stake in Intel, signaling a closer partnership to advance US semiconductor policy, according to Bloomberg, Reuters, and CRN Magazine.
Tuesday 16 December 2025
Dolphin Semiconductor shifts toward platform-led, mixed-signal IP in HCLTech collaboration
French semiconductor IP vendor Dolphin Semiconductor said its collaboration with HCLTech reflects growing demand for pre-optimized, platform-based system-on-chip development, as energy costs, time-to-market pressure, and design complexity rise.
Tuesday 16 December 2025
Baidu's Kunlunxin spinoff mirrors Google's TPU playbook
Baidu confirmed on December 7, 2025, that it is evaluating the spin-off and listing of its AI chip unit, Kunlunxin. This announcement came just one day before the US permitted H200 chip exports to China. Baidu cautioned that the plan is subject to regulatory approval and not guaranteed, tempering initial market enthusiasm.
Tuesday 16 December 2025
Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong meets with Lisa Su and Elon Musk to discuss potential collaboration
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong has returned to South Korea after a week-long business trip to the US. Lee reportedly met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in Austin, Texas, with senior executives of Samsung's foundry division also present. It is also rumored that Lee met with AMD CEO Lisa Su to discuss HBM supply and foundry orders using advanced 2-nanometer process technology. These efforts are considered tactics to help Samsung regain leadership in AI semiconductors.
Tuesday 16 December 2025
SenseTime's Seko 2.0 ties AI video breakthrough to Cambricon chips, signaling China's multimodal push

SenseTime has released Seko 2.0, which it describes as the industry's first multi-episode video generation agent, marking a step beyond short AI clips toward longer, more coherent video content.

Tuesday 16 December 2025
South Korea lures global chip capital at COMEUP 2025 as Middle East investors step in

South Korea is emerging as a focal point for global semiconductor investment as domestic AI chip startups attract growing interest from Middle Eastern sovereign funds, underscoring a shift in where capital and talent are converging in the next phase of the chip industry.

Monday 15 December 2025
Qualcomm sharpens RISC-V influence with Ventana acquisition
Qualcomm's acquisition of Ventana Micro Systems signals a clear push to deepen its commitment to RISC-V and accelerate the maturation of the surrounding ecosystem.
Monday 15 December 2025
TASC partners with Itochu Taiwan to deepen compound semiconductor and smart medical ventures
Taiwan-Asia Semiconductor Corporation (TASC) is advancing its layout in compound semiconductors and non-invasive blood glucose monitoring technology through the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Itochu Taiwan. The agreement seeks to facilitate collaboration in these two sectors through the pooling of resources and semiconductor supply chains.
Monday 15 December 2025
Nvidia reportedly considers expanding H200 AI chip production amid potential surge in Chinese demand
Following the Trump administration's recent easing of export restrictions on Nvidia's H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, several Chinese technology firms, such as Alibaba and ByteDance, have reportedly expressed significant interest in placing large-scale orders. Nvidia is now evaluating whether to increase production capacity of the H200 chips to meet this potential surge in demand, according to Reuters, citing unnamed sources.
Monday 15 December 2025
Weekly news roundup: TSMC pauses Japan fab plans, Tesla Powerwall demand rises in Taiwan, Huawei flags AI oversupply risks
These are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories in the week of December 8 to December 14, 2025.
Monday 15 December 2025
The H200 gambit: Why China may buy less than Washington expects
The US government is rethinking the impact of Washington's decision to clear Nvidia's H200 exports to China after a Financial Times report suggested Beijing is prioritizing domestically developed AI chips.
Monday 15 December 2025
Intel reportedly to buy AI chip startup SambaNova, reviving governance questions over CEO ties
Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, reported that Intel Corp. is in advanced discussions to acquire artificial intelligence chip startup SambaNova Systems Inc. for about US$1.6 billion including debt, a move that could significantly bolster Intel's AI product portfolio while reigniting scrutiny over governance and potential conflicts of interest linked to its chief executive.