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Tuesday 4 August 2026
PSMC sees stronger 2H, says strategy unchanged after chair's death

Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (PSMC) will maintain its existing strategy following the sudden death of Chairman Frank Huang and expects business to improve quarter by quarter in the second half of 2026, Acting Chairman Brian Shieh said on August 4th.

Tuesday 4 August 2026
Nvidia RTX 50 graphics card prices climb as TSMC and memory costs rise
Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series graphics card prices in South Korea were set to rise by as much as 30% starting in August 2026 as higher wafer costs at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and continued increases in GDDR7 memory prices pushed up supply-chain expenses. The increase was reported by Tom’s Hardware, citing South Korean media outlet ZDNet Korea and industry sources.
Tuesday 4 August 2026
Samsung Foundry nears full utilization, but 2nm yields remain a hurdle
Samsung Electronics' contract chipmaking business could approach full utilization in the second half of 2026, marking a potential turning point after prolonged underuse weighed on earnings.
Tuesday 4 August 2026
China's chip output jumps nearly 350% in a decade as semiconductor supply chain expands
China's industrial enterprises above the designated size produced 484.28 billion integrated circuits in 2025, up nearly 350% from 108.72 billion in 2015, as the country expanded manufacturing capacity across mature-node chips, memory, packaging, and semiconductor production equipment.
Tuesday 4 August 2026
China claims 8 in 10 robots worldwide are made at home

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said humanoid robots have become a key symbol of the country's emerging manufacturing sector, claiming that 8 of every 10 humanoid and quadruped robots sold globally are produced by Chinese companies. The remarks came at a July 31 press briefing and also highlighted progress in IC design, semiconductor equipment, wafer fabrication, and packaging and testing.

Tuesday 4 August 2026
China tightens chip layout design protection to strengthen domestic semiconductor innovation

China has revised its regulations on the protection of integrated circuit (IC) layout designs, introducing stricter registration requirements, stronger enforcement measures and clearer commercialization rules as Beijing steps up efforts to strengthen its domestic semiconductor industry amid ongoing US technology restrictions.

Tuesday 4 August 2026
Kumamoto semiconductor production recovers, TSMC's Japan subsidiary returns to normal operations

TSMC has announced that Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (JASM), its subsidiary in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture, has resumed normal operations following production disruptions caused by the recent Kumamoto earthquake.

Tuesday 4 August 2026
Taiwan specialty chemical firm expands Taiwan, China capacity on AI materials boom, eyes 20% revenue gain in 2026
Taiwan-based specialty chemicals supplier Johnson Fine Chemical expects robust growth in electronic materials demand driven by AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and advanced communications applications. The company is expanding production capacity in both Taiwan and China and plans to raise prices for selected products by 10-20% in the third quarter of 2026 to offset higher raw material costs. Management forecasts revenue growth of about 20% in 2026 from a year earlier, with profits also expected to increase, while 2027 is projected to deliver even stronger results.
Tuesday 4 August 2026
Taiwan-Japan semiconductor ties go beyond supply chain partnerships
Cooperation between Taiwan and Japan in semiconductors will go beyond supply-chain partnerships towards joint technological innovation and talent development, according to Taiwan's former Minister of Economic Affairs Jyh-huei Kuo.
Tuesday 4 August 2026
Key material shortages prompt suppliers to prioritize three customer groups
Taiwanese research institute Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) released Taiwan's manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) for July 2026 on August 3. The seasonally adjusted PMI rose 0.8pp to 61.5%, marking the tenth consecutive month of growth and the fastest pace of expansion since September 2021. The six-month outlook index also edged up 0.3pp to 64.5%, remaining above the 60.0% expansion threshold for a seventh consecutive month.
Tuesday 4 August 2026
Onsemi expects AI data-center revenue to more than double in 2026 as cyclical recovery takes hold
Onsemi's second-quarter results pointed to a broadening recovery in semiconductor demand, with AI data-center applications emerging as the company's fastest-growing business, while the automotive and industrial markets are showing signs of stabilization. The outlook suggests that improving utilization and product mix could support further margin expansion, though the absence of a major upside surprise in third-quarter guidance suggests a broader inventory-replenishment cycle has yet to begin.
Tuesday 4 August 2026
China’s in-house auto chip push could reshape costs, supply chains, and regulatory risks
As Chinese automakers accelerate in-house chip development, the strategy is increasingly about more than smart vehicles. It is also tied to supply chain self-reliance, overseas expansion, and the longer-term push into artificial intelligence robots, even as advanced chips still rely on external foundries.
Tuesday 4 August 2026
Interview: Rising material costs and FOUP shortages threaten semiconductor supply chains
AI-driven demand, new fab construction, and conflict-led raw material inflation are combining to squeeze semiconductor suppliers in 2026, according to Topco Scientific Co. senior CEO Dennis Chen. He said higher upstream costs are flowing through the industry, while shortages in wafer front-opening unified pods (FOUPs) are adding another layer of strain as manufacturers expand capacity and compete for inventory.
Tuesday 4 August 2026
CXMT listing fuels concerns over DRAM prices and global memory competition
China's CXMT drew fresh attention after its parent ChangXin Memory Technology (CXMT) went public, with market estimates of the firm's future valuation ranging from US$160 billion to US$1.1 trillion. The gap underscores uncertainty over how much the memory maker could disrupt the global DRAM market, including competition, pricing, and supply-chain dynamics.
Monday 3 August 2026
Asia Optical's 2Q26 operating profit hits record high on strong revenue and gross profit growth

Asia Optical reported record operating profit for the second quarter of 2026, as consolidated revenue, gross profit and operating profit all increased from a year earlier. The company said the result was supported by three growth drivers that it expects to sustain momentum into the third quarter.

Monday 3 August 2026
Inversion Semiconductor targets ASML with particle-accelerator X-ray lithography
Inversion Semiconductor is developing a particle-accelerator lithography platform that it says could deliver shorter wavelengths, higher throughput and denser chips than today's extreme ultraviolet systems, offering a new route beyond ASML's EUV architecture.
Monday 3 August 2026
Intel offers bonuses to speed up Ohio fab construction and reaches EMIB-T yields of 90%
Intel is awarding bonuses for overtime work as it seeks to complete the construction of its Ohio fab complex by 2031. Meanwhile, the company has made progress on the development of its next-generation packaging technology, embedded multi-die interconnect bridge-through-silicon via (EMIB-T), positioning it to compete with TSMC.
Monday 3 August 2026
MA-tek sells Shanghai unit, expands AI market push in Japan and the US

MA-tek announced on July 31, 2026, that it will sell 80% of its Shanghai subsidiary for about CNY1.9 billion (US$281.4 million), as global semiconductor supply chains are reshuffled and demand surges for AI, high-performance computing (HPC), advanced process nodes, advanced packaging, and silicon photonics (SiPh). The deal is expected to close and be recognized in revenue by the end of 2026.

Monday 3 August 2026
AI infrastructure orders extend PCB expansion race
Global demand for AI infrastructure is rising, and as order visibility improves, the PCB supply chain has launched a marathon of factory expansion. Upstream copper-clad laminate (CCL) materials are already in short supply, and land, plant space, and machinery are also becoming scarce resources.
Monday 3 August 2026
Renesas plans to phase out Takasaki factory production and expand R&D focus

Renesas Electronics plans to gradually end production at its Takasaki factory in Japan over the next two to three years while strengthening research and development there. The move reflects wider supply-chain strain in legacy semiconductor manufacturing and could affect customers, workers, and global users of analog and power chips.

Monday 3 August 2026
xLight bets on EUV light source, eyes ASML deal
The semiconductor industry is grappling with a supply-demand imbalance as AI-driven demand for advanced-node chips outpaces global capacity by several times, pushing up fab utilization stress and manufacturing costs. xLight says it aims to ease that pressure by reinventing light transmission and turning it from a single-machine function into a utility-scale service.
Monday 3 August 2026
TSMC Kumamoto fab faces first major quake test with chip-material supplies secured
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan's Kyushu region on July 28, drawing attention to the recovery of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's Kumamoto plant, Sony, and other local semiconductor facilities.
Monday 3 August 2026
MA-tek sells 80% stake in Shanghai subsidiary to accelerate global expansion
Semiconductor testing company Materials Analysis Technology (MA-tek) approved the sale of an 80% stake in its Chinese subsidiary MA-tek Technology Testing (Shanghai), as it moves to accelerate its global footprint in the US, Japan, Europe, and Southeast Asia. The transaction is expected to complete all procedures and close by the end of 2026.
Monday 3 August 2026
Apple says advanced-node capacity tightens amid 2nm race

Apple reported its best-ever third-quarter results for fiscal 2026, but its guidance for the fourth quarter showed much slower growth than in the prior quarter. CEO Tim Cook said the shortage of advanced-node capacity for mobile SoCs is the biggest limit on the company's expansion.

Monday 3 August 2026
Taiwan manufacturing business climate improves in June, headlined by electronics sector
Taiwan's manufacturing climate improved in June 2026, with the electronics sector once again showing the clearest visibility, according to the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER), which released its individual industry business climate indicators for June on July 31.