Intel has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a waiver to the US ban on advanced foreign robots, citing worries that its machines will not receive equipment updates, which could hinder its ability to produce semiconductors in the US. The request comes after the US banned imports of foreign-made robots in July.

More than a dozen US companies are exploring opportunities to develop Malaysia's rare earth industry, seeking alternatives to China-dominated supply chains as Washington pushes to secure supplies of critical minerals.

SEMICON West 2026 wrapped up in San Francisco last week, with US officials, industry executives, equipment and materials suppliers, and workforce-development partners repeatedly highlighting Taiwan as a critical partner in rebuilding US semiconductor manufacturing. Taiwan's role spans investment, process technology, supply-chain expertise, and talent development.

AI servers are driving demand for power components, transient voltage suppressors (TVS), and electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection devices. Yea Shin Technology, a subsidiary of Eris Technology, will begin trading on Taiwan's emerging stock market on October 23 and plans to raise the share of 6-inch wafers in its capacity from 35% to more than 50%, as its TVS products enter the international AI server supply chain.

South Korean substrate maker Daeduck Electronics is accelerating development of ceramic core substrates (CCS) to address warpage and thermal-management challenges as AI semiconductor packages grow larger. The company is conducting performance and internal reliability assessments, plans to advance samples and customer evaluations in 2027 and 2028, and is targeting mass production in 2029, with ceramic cores serving as a material alternative to glass cores for next-generation large-area packages.

DeepSeek is reportedly working closely with Huawei to influence the design of its future AI chips, a link reportedly closer than typical supplier-customer relationships. The collaboration shows the growing ties between two of China's largest technology firms to sidestep Nvidia.

Intel is pitching its foundry as the industry's supplier of light sources for AI data center optics, claiming at the 2026 Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit that it is the only high-volume fab that can deliver 12-inch indium phosphide (InP) silicon photonics (SiPh) at scale to the industry.

Amkor Technology is tripling its planned investment in Gwangju to expand advanced packaging capacity for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, bringing a semiconductor project under South Korea's southwestern development strategy into construction.

TPK Holding has completed a pilot production line for glass-substrate through-glass via (TGV) technology at its Zhongli plant and started joint development and validation of early-stage samples with semiconductor packaging companies. Under its stated plan, it targets core technology validation by the end of 2027 and mass production in 2028.

Samsung Electronics' 2nm mass-production capability at its Taylor, Texas fab has become critical to its efforts to close the gap with TSMC, as Tesla's AI5 chip delivery schedule and Broadcom's potential 2nm orders hang in the balance. The company's ability to achieve competitive yields and stable output at the US facility will determine whether it can turn major customer orders into a broader foundry comeback.

Nvidia is actively recruiting for a director of government affairs in Taiwan, as it deepens its presence on the island. The role is responsible for developing and executing government relations strategies for Taiwan and reports directly to the company's head of global policy, highlighting its focus on government relations, policy assessment, and geopolitical analysis in Taiwan.

Market reports have recently suggested that MediaTek's tensor processing unit (TPU) v9 project with Google could face delays in volume production as Google reportedly revises the chip's design. Industry observers expect MediaTek may address some of these concerns during its earnings conference in late October.

Generative AI is pushing chip power consumption and heat flux to unprecedented levels, driving AI packaging thermal management requirements from several hundred watts to the kilowatt (kW) scale. Heat sink specialist Jentech Precision points out that package lids are evolving beyond conventional solid-state heat conduction toward phase-change heat spreading and microchannel liquid cooling, with TIM-less architectures representing the next horizon.

Taiwanese electronics makers are deepening their presence in Mexico's Chihuahua state, drawn by surging US demand for AI servers, officials and business leaders told a seminar in Taipei on October 19. The pace of foreign investment is driven by the state's access to the US market, even as Chihuahua seeks to transition from a manufacturing base into a research and design hub.

The economics of the foundry business have always carried a particular contradiction: semiconductor manufacturing demands enormous upfront capital and years of sustained investment, yet the companies making those investments are expected to preserve enough strategic independence to respond quickly to technology cycles and customers.

Microsoft's early adoption of TSMC's 2nm process, a US$2 billion manufacturing partnership between TSMC and GlobalFoundries, and delays to Google's next-gen TPU highlight diverging strategies in AI chip development and advanced packaging.

Chenming Hu co-invented the FinFET transistor with colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1990s and became TSMC's first chief technology officer in 2001. Decades earlier, as a graduate student, he was invited by Intel co-founder Andy Grove to join Intel, and turned him down.

ACM Research is expanding beyond China as its panel-level packaging equipment advances through customer evaluations in Taiwan, while the US semiconductor equipment maker invests in South Korea and Oregon. The company expects overseas operations to grow faster than its China revenue, although technology adoption, packaging-size standards, and US-China tensions could affect its plans.

The foundations of TSMC's modern-day success can be traced back to a public call from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for innovative designs that could break through the 25nm physical limit. Among those who answered it was Chenming (Calvin) Hu, then a professor at UC Berkeley, who would go on to become TSMC's first chief technology officer in 2001.

Once a global LCD manufacturing powerhouse, Taiwan's display industry has weathered financial crises, antitrust penalties and fierce competition from state-backed Chinese rivals. Now, after three decades of boom-and-bust cycles, its leading manufacturers are seeking a new future beyond screens, leveraging their expertise in precision manufacturing to enter automotive electronics, advanced semiconductor packaging and AI-related technologies.

The global silicon carbide (SiC) market stands at a critical juncture of industrial scaling, driven by rising demand across the automotive, AI data center, and renewable energy sectors.

IBM and Siemens will collaborate on research to develop IBM's nanostack transistor architecture, aiming to move its design toward manufacturing. The work could influence chip performance, energy efficiency, and artificial-intelligence computing worldwide, as the companies seek to address design, simulation, lithography, and production challenges beyond the 7-angstrom node.

German equipment maker Von Ardenne is entering the semiconductor industry with coating technology aimed at panel-level packaging, a segment where the choice among competing panel dimensions remains unresolved. Its tray-based systems can handle different substrate sizes without a new platform, potentially reducing equipment risk as manufacturers and customers worldwide weigh standards for advanced packaging and glass-based processes.

Spanish semiconductor metrology startup Wooptix, whose technology originated in astronomical observation, is accelerating efforts to enter the supply chains of leading semiconductor foundries.