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Friday 1 May 2026

Advantest beats on AI chip testing, cautious outlook dents shares

Japan's Advantest closed its fiscal year with strong results, highlighting how AI-driven chip demand is reshaping semiconductor testing economics, even as a cautious outlook weighed on sentiment.

Friday 1 May 2026

Mitsubishi Electric proposes three-way power chip JV with Rohm, Toshiba

Mitsubishi Electric president Kei Uruma said the company aims to establish a joint venture with Rohm and Toshiba to integrate their power semiconductor businesses, signaling continued progress in three-way consolidation talks.

Friday 1 May 2026

Macronix eyes steady growth from 1Q26 amid eMMC supply gap

Memory maker Macronix (MXIC) is emerging from an operational slump in the first quarter of 2026, driven by explosive revenue growth in embedded multi-media cards (eMMCs) as major global players exit the multi-level cell (MLC) NAND segment. The company reported a quarterly increase of 94% and an annual surge of 3,993% in eMMC sales.

Friday 1 May 2026

Samsung strike threat highlights rising labor risk to AI chip supply chain and corporate pay models

Samsung Electronics is facing its largest labor escalation in years after unions representing tens of thousands of workers voted to authorize strike action. The dispute centers on compensation structures, particularly performance-based bonuses linked to semiconductor profits, which workers argue have become increasingly opaque and insufficient relative to the company's record earnings in the AI-driven chip cycle.

Friday 1 May 2026

KLA 3Q26: AI chip demand drives process control, guidance fails to clear bar

KLA Corporation's fiscal 3Q26 results underscore a familiar pattern in the current semiconductor cycle: strong execution tied to AI infrastructure demand, but investor expectations are rising even faster.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Taiwan OSAT Powertech lifts capex to US$1.6bn, targets AI packaging growth

Memory packaging and testing provider Powertech Technology posted net profit of NT$1.84 billion (US$57 million) for the first quarter of 2026, its second-highest for the same period, and raised its full-year outlook. The company increased its planned 2026 capital expenditure from NT$40 billion to NT$50 billion and expects broad price increases for logic and memory products in the second quarter of 2026, supporting sequential revenue gains and high single-digit to low double-digit annual growth.

Thursday 30 April 2026

ASE Technology sees seasonality fade as AI demand drives steady 2026 growth

Global outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) leader ASE Technology Holding (ASEH) held an earnings call on April 29, reporting a robust first quarter of 2026 that broke from the traditional seasonal slowdown. Growth was driven primarily by sustained strong demand for leading-edge advanced packaging (LEAP) technologies, alongside a simultaneous rebound in wire bonding orders — together fueling an 87% year-on-year surge in quarterly net profit after tax, the second highest on record for the period.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Taiwan wafer maker Episil triples capex to scale silicon photonics for AI

Episil Precision will reallocate production toward larger-diameter silicon epitaxy and silicon photonics to improve profitability and meet AI supply chain demand, the company announced. The move includes cutting lower-margin small-wafer lines and expanding capex to scale capacity for 2027 and 2028.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Intel kills three projects in two months as Kechichian launches multi-year reset

Intel's reorganization under Kevork Kechichian, backed by CEO Lip‑Bu Tan, aims to reposition amid Nvidia's AI dominance and Arm's rise, signaling a shift to CPU-centric orchestration alongside GPUs and ASICs—an opportunity with major worldwide implications for data-center economics, AI deployment strategies, and competition in the next two to three years.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Chunghwa Precision Test raises capex as HPC probe card orders hit 30% of sales

Chunghwa Precision Test Tech reported that strong demand from high-performance computing chip customers drove first-quarter 2026 revenue to NT$1.357 billion (US$43 million) and operating profit to NT$342 million, with earnings per share reaching 10.43 despite seasonal headwinds. The firm said probe card sales tied to HPC workloads surged, lifting full probe card revenue to NT$405 million and accounting for nearly 30% of total sales in the quarter.

Thursday 30 April 2026

UMC stresses disciplined price hike, Intel deal, and memory foundry rumors draw attention

United Microelectronics (UMC) held its earnings call, where market focus centered on its recent price increases, progress in silicon photonics (SiPh) and advanced packaging, and speculation about entering memory foundry services.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Wingtech losses widen on Nexperia dispute, triggering delisting risk

China's Wingtech Technology is entering a critical phase marked by a sharp deterioration in financial performance, regulatory scrutiny, and operational disruption tied to its contested control of Nexperia. The convergence of these pressures is not merely a balance sheet issue — it reflects how geopolitical intervention and corporate restructuring are reshaping China-linked semiconductor groups with overseas operations.

Thursday 30 April 2026

ASE raises 2026 capex to record US$8.5 billion on strong advanced packaging demand

ASE Technology Holding Co. raised its 2026 capex plan to as much as US$8.5 billion as demand for advanced packaging and testing services exceeded expectations, the company said.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Samsung highlights stable 4nm tech as AI, automotive demand grow

Samsung Electronics is emphasizing the maturity and yield stability of its 4nm FinFET process as it seeks to secure more foundry customers, amid rising demand for larger and more complex artificial intelligence (AI) chips, according to Korean media reports and company disclosures.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Samsung Electronics' record chip profits signal strengthening AI memory supercycle

Samsung Electronics reported a sharp increase in first-quarter 2026 profitability, led by its semiconductor division, as AI-driven demand for memory chips continued to accelerate. The company's chip unit delivered an operating profit of approximately KRW53.7 trillion (US$360 billion), accounting for the vast majority of group earnings and marking a significant expansion from the prior year.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Google's TPU shortage lays bare a widening AI infrastructure edge

The AI infrastructure race is no longer just about who builds the best model — it's about who controls the silicon beneath it. Google has spent more than a decade quietly constructing that foundation, and the results are now showing.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Amkor advances data center CPU mass production amid manageable supply and cost risks

Amkor, the world's second-largest OSAT provider, recently held its earnings call where CEO Kevin Engel highlighted strong demand for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) chips driving robust orders for advanced packaging technologies like high-density fan-out (HDFO) and flip-chip. The company's HDFO packaging platform, which had already shipped two PC chip models, has now successfully integrated an AI data center CPU application set to enter mass production in the second quarter of 2026.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

UMC profit doubles, touts Intel-backed US manufacturing option

United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) reported first-quarter 2026 net profit of NT$16.17 billion (approximately $490 million), up 61% quarter on quarter and more than double the year-ago figure, as wafer shipments and utilization rates both recovered. Revenue came in at NT$61.04 billion, up 5.5% year on year, with gross margin at 29.2%.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

China OSAT leader JCET expands in advanced packaging, profit climbs

China's leading OSAT player, JCET, reported solid first-quarter 2026 results, supported by demand in high-performance computing and automotive electronics, even as the broader semiconductor industry continues its shift toward advanced packaging.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

TSMC exits Arm investment with US$231 million sale

TSMC has fully divested its stake in Arm Holdings, selling approximately 1.11 million shares at US$207.65 each for a total of US$231 million, the company disclosed on April 29, 2026. The transaction generated roughly US$174 million in retained earnings.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

Commentary: How TSMC anchors Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain from within

As competition in the semiconductor industry intensifies, TSMC maintains its lead while actively supporting the domestic supply chain. In recent years, driven by the need for cost reduction, breaking international monopolies, and the ability to respond rapidly to disruptions, TSMC has taken multiple actions to nurture local suppliers. Notably, TSMC has played a critical role as a "supply chain stabilizer," stepping in during key moments.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

Automotive and networking chips move directly to 2nm as AI demand tightens capacity

Demand for advanced chips at TSMC is tightening amid the AI boom, with its 3nm process becoming increasingly congested as major customers compete for limited capacity.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

US escalates chip war, targets Hua Hong's 7nm ambitions just ahead of Trump-Xi Summit

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has reportedly issued "is-informed" letters to several major wafer fab equipment (WFE) manufacturers, ordering an immediate halt to tool shipments destined for Hua Hong Semiconductor, China's second-largest foundry.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

Hsinchu water restrictions ease as reservoirs rebound

Taiwan's Water Resources Agency (WRA) disaster emergency response team held its third working meeting on April 27, deciding to downgrade the water status signal in Hsinchu from a "pressure-reducing" yellow light to a "conservation" green light. This change follows a rise in water levels at Baoshan Reservoir and Second Baoshan Reservoir to nearly 70%. The voluntary water-saving target for science parks and industrial parks was also lowered from 7% to 5%.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

AI token demand drives TSMC node expansion, buoying Taiwan's economy

A global surge in artificial intelligence computing is accelerating demand for advanced semiconductors and reinforcing Taiwan's near-term economic momentum, even as leading indicators soften.

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