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Saturday 31 January 2026

Nvidia CEO tells TSMC to "work harder" as 2026 demand surges; reveals 10-year capacity doubling plan

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hosted a high-profile banquet in Taipei on January 31, 2026, for the leaders of Taiwan's semiconductor ecosystem.

Saturday 31 January 2026

Shenzhen Ingchips joins domestic chipmakers in raising prices as cost pressures mount

Shenzhen Ingchips Technology has joined Goke Microelectronics and Cmsemicon in announcing price increases, highlighting mounting cost pressures across China's semiconductor supply chain.

Saturday 31 January 2026

Taiwan's capital markets reach new highs, signaling broader global role

At a Lunar New Year press conference, the Financial Supervisory Commission said that combined revenues of Taiwan's listed companies surpassed NT$50 trillion (approx. US$1.59 trillion) in 2025, while total market capitalization reached NT$101 trillion. By market value, Taiwan now ranks as the world's seventh-largest securities market.

Saturday 31 January 2026

Morris Chang resurfaces as Jensen Huang returns to Taipei

TSMC founder Morris Chang made his first public appearance in more than a year on January 29, 2026, dining with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang just hours after Huang arrived in Taipei.

Friday 30 January 2026

Musk's TeraFab dream meets Nvidia reality check on chip manufacturing limits

Elon Musk's ambition to build a massive in-house semiconductor manufacturing complex has drawn fresh caution from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who stressed that advanced chip production ranks among the most technically demanding industrial undertakings globally—far beyond the reach of capital spending alone.

Friday 30 January 2026

KLA: AI-driven process control boom lifts 2026 semiconductor equipment demand

US semiconductor equipment maker KLA said growing AI infrastructure demand is accelerating investment in advanced logic chips, high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and advanced packaging, driving higher process control intensity, while supply constraints and cost pressures remain ongoing risks.

Friday 30 January 2026

ASML gains from rising EUV demand and US chip spending

After TSMC chairman C.C. Wei said on a recent earnings call that AI demand is real and that AI is becoming embedded in daily life as a long-term trend, expectations for ASML's performance and outlook have largely settled.

Friday 30 January 2026

Taiwan semiconductor test supply chain poised for growth amid rising AI chip complexity

Taiwan's semiconductor test supply chain is experiencing strong growth driven by increased demand for AI and HPC chips, industry sources report. Close collaborations with foundries and IC design houses have helped local firms meet advanced testing requirements, boosting the competitiveness of domestic chips.

Friday 30 January 2026

Analysis: Why ASML is cutting jobs in Europe and the US but sparing China

ASML Holding reported record financial results for 2025, marked by strong growth in both revenue and profitability. Full-year revenue reached EUR32.67 billion (US$38.96 billion), up 15.6% from the previous year, while net profit rose 26.9% to EUR9.61 billion—gross margin held at 52.8%.

Friday 30 January 2026

GlobalFoundries stalls France fab as US manufacturing push sidelines Europe's chip ambitions

Following Intel's major global wafer fab plan cuts, including halting projects in Germany and Poland, GlobalFoundries (GF) and STMicroelectronics (ST) have faced fresh scrutiny over their joint 12-inch wafer fab project in Crolles, France. French media recently revealed GF has yet to fulfill its investment commitments, casting doubt on the collaboration's future amid both companies increasing investments in China while GF expands capacity in the US under the Trump administration's "Made in America" drive.

Friday 30 January 2026

Dutch curbs on Nexperia risk breaking Europe's semiconductor supply chain, says CSIA

Wei Shaojun, vice president of the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) and a widely recognized pragmatic voice within China's semiconductor sector, has spoken out against the Dutch government's ongoing administrative restrictions on Nexperia, triggering broad industry attention.

Friday 30 January 2026

Lam Research hits US$20.6 billion revenue high, sees 2026 WFE spending at US$135 billion

Lam Research, a leading supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment dubbed the "US version of ASML," capped off fiscal 2025 with stellar performance, fueled by surging AI demand. The company reported full-year revenue of US$20.6 billion, a 27% year-over-year increase, alongside record gross margins of 49.9% and operating margins of 34.1%.

Friday 30 January 2026

Advantest to boost SoC test equipment capacity to 5,000 units by 2027

Japan's Advantest has announced an acceleration of its capacity expansion plans for system-on-chip (SoC) test equipment in response to surging demand driven by artificial intelligence (AI) hardware investments. The company also revised its fiscal year 2025 financial forecast multiple times to reflect robust market conditions.

Friday 30 January 2026

Memory, CPU shortages hit Wintel notebooks, benefiting Apple

Notebook makers are under growing pressure as memory shortages and price increases persist, while a widening shortage of CPUs adds a second constraint. What began as a supply gap at Intel has now extended to AMD, leaving notebook brands that had planned to pull forward orders with limited components available. The dual shortages are clouding the outlook for the notebook market in 2026. Industry observers say Apple is likely to benefit in the near term as Wintel suppliers absorb most of the disruption.

Friday 30 January 2026

MediaTek, Alchip, Marvell clash for ASIC runner-up spot

The competition among cloud service providers (CSPs) and AI companies for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) has entered a new phase with Microsoft officially launching its Maia 200 chip. Industry forecasts indicate that 2027 will be a breakout year when multiple major players ramp up ASIC production simultaneously.

Thursday 29 January 2026

Jensen Huang endorses Micron CEO "Sanjay" as Taiwan cement AI memory alliance

The epicenter of the AI supercycle converged on Taipei this Thursday as President Lai Ching-te welcomed Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra to the Presidential Office, just hours after NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang touched down on the island.

Thursday 29 January 2026

South Korea's industry minister heads to Washington after tariff rollback warning

US President Donald Trump has threatened to restore 25% tariffs on South Korean goods, escalating trade tensions by citing delays in Seoul's passage of legislation linked to a bilateral trade agreement reached last year.

Thursday 29 January 2026

Jensen Huang clarifies 40% Taiwan chip capacity is new, not moved to US

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang arrived in Taiwan on the afternoon of January 29, 2026, addressing reports that the US government plans to shift 40% of Taiwan's semiconductor capacity to the United States.

Thursday 29 January 2026

Taiwan, US expand AI, drone cooperation under Pax Silica framework

Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs, Ming-hsin Kung, joined senior US State Department officials on January 27, 2026, in the US to conclude the sixth US-Taiwan Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD). The two sides signed a joint statement on the Pax Silica Declaration and US-Taiwan Cooperation on Economic Security.

Thursday 29 January 2026

Samsung foundry hit by China pullbacks in 2025, eyes late-year stabilization

Chinese customers who had planned to use Samsung Electronics' foundry services abandoned a number of projects in 2025 as US regulatory pressure on China intensified and uncertainty peaked ahead of mass production, according to Korean industry sources. Market participants say conditions may look different in 2026.

Thursday 29 January 2026

Analysis: ASML earnings prove AI demand is hitting the factory floor

The artificial intelligence boom has moved from cloud infrastructure to the factory floor, and ASML Holding NV's latest earnings prove it.

Thursday 29 January 2026

A year of transformation: Tesla pivots to Robotaxis and domestic chip production

Tesla is entering what executives describe as a "turning point" year. As the company pushes forward with robotaxi deployment and Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, it must also navigate potential bottlenecks in global semiconductor supply that could define its medium-term growth.

Thursday 29 January 2026

Earnings call summary: Samsung 4Q25 profit jumps as AI memory crunch pressures phones and displays

Samsung Electronics reported record quarterly revenue and operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2025, as surging memory prices and tight supply, driven by the artificial intelligence boom, more than offset seasonal weakness in smartphones, televisions, and home appliances. The company also warned that an acute chip shortage is expected to persist, creating cost pressures for its mobile and display businesses.

Thursday 29 January 2026

Analysis: China's chip price spiral has begun; a grey rhino threatening the 2026 supply chain

China's semiconductor supply chain is sending a clear signal: a wave of "chip inflation" driven by mature-node manufacturing, memory, and packaging costs is no longer theoretical; it is becoming a structural reality. Following Cmsemicon's decision to raise prices on MCU and NOR Flash products by 15% to 50%, long-stable commodity chips have officially entered an inflation cycle.

Thursday 29 January 2026

Exclusive: TSMC reshapes advanced packaging expansion, shifting AP8, AP7, and US fab plans

The surge in generative AI (GenAI) and high-performance computing (HPC) demand has pushed advanced semiconductor packaging to become the most critical and constrained capacity bottleneck globally. According to supply chain sources, TSMC will add a P2 fab at its Southern Taiwan Science Park AP8 site, with both fabs focusing on CoWoS technology. Meanwhile, the Chiayi AP7 facility, originally planned for WMCM, SoIC, and CoPoS packaging, will switch from SoIC to CoWoS. This means that over the next two years, TSMC will significantly ramp up CoWoS capacity, prompting Taiwanese equipment and materials suppliers within the CoWoS ecosystem to accelerate expansions amid full order books, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

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