TSMC is building an advanced packaging validation hub in southern Taiwan as rapid chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) expansion puts pressure on equipment and materials suppliers to qualify new technologies faster.
China's fast-rising AI models are running into a compute supply bottleneck as demand for advanced packaging substrates surges, with ByteDance reportedly preparing to spend CNY100 billion (US$14.9 billion) a year on large-scale chip substrate purchases by 2030. Supply chain sources say the scramble for packaging substrate capacity is intensifying across Huawei HiSilicon, Hygon Information Technology, ByteDance, and major outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) players, even as the industry races to expand output.
Major Taiwanese optical lens maker Largan Precision announced on September 17 that it acquired around 7,468.43 square meters of land and 12,215.54 square meters of building space in the Nantun District, Taiwan, for NT$1.17 billion (approx. US$36.82 million), to be used for future capacity expansion. The purchase marks the company's seventh land acquisition in 2026, with the acquisitions mainly involving ready-to-use factory buildings and land, in a move suggesting it is preparing for co-packaged optics (CPO).
South Korea's DB HiTek is gaining pricing power as tightening 8-inch foundry supply, high utilization, and stronger demand for power-management chips improve conditions across mature-node manufacturing.
Printed circuit board (PCB) wet-process equipment maker Ampoc Far-East said demand for its in-house high-end equipment has surged on AI servers and high-performance computing applications, driving brisk orders in the first half of 2026 and strong utilization rates. Capacity is now close to fully booked, and customers have also begun laying out long-term orders for the next one to two years.
ACM Research Shanghai is staking its growth case on two developments: planned tool installations at customers outside mainland China and orders for panel-level advanced packaging equipment, according to Star Market Daily, Securities Times, and East Money.
Advanced packaging remains one of the semiconductor industry's hottest technology areas in 2026. In Taiwan, terms such as co-packaged optics (CPO), chiplets, and glass substrates are increasingly common as packaging moves deeper into system-level design.
Taiwan's chipmakers are having their best year in a decade, and the headline number belongs to TSMC. The more interesting one does not.
AI is reshaping the global memory industry, tightening supply while creating an opening for China's domestic suppliers. With Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron prioritizing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and high-end server memory, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) are gaining ground in conventional DRAM, mobile memory, and NAND Flash.
Samsung Electronics is deepening its relationship with Dutch chip startup Euclyd after the company reportedly reached the test-chip stage at Samsung Foundry, adding a manufacturing dimension to Samsung's recent investment in the two-year-old company.
GlobalFoundries (GF) and Marvell Technology have expanded a multi-year agreement to increase production capacity for silicon germanium (SiGe) technology at GF's facility in Burlington, Vermont, as demand grows for optical connectivity used in AI and cloud data centers.
If the project under discussion goes ahead, it would be the first time Japan's US$550 billion tariff-linked investment pledge is directed toward chip manufacturing rather than the energy and industrial-materials projects announced so far — and the clearest sign yet that the two countries that once dominated chipmaking could rebuild some of that capacity jointly.
