A South Korean lawmaker has introduced a bill that would allow a second-tier subsidiary of a general holding company to retain a stake of at least 50% in a jointly funded semiconductor venture, rather than the 100% currently required under the country's holding-company rules.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) held its second-quarter 2026 earnings conference on July 16, where chairman and CEO C.C. Wei discussed the latest developments in AI demand, saying the market continues to evolve at a rapid pace.
To address structural long-term growth in semiconductor demand, TSMC chairman C.C. Wei said the company works closely with customers — and its customers' customers — to jointly plan future capacity.
TSMC is projecting its strongest quarter ever, guiding third-quarter 2026 revenue to between US$44.6 billion and US$45.8 billion on the back of accelerating demand for leading-edge chips and the steep ramp-up of its 2-nanometer process technology.
TSMC expressed strong confidence during its July 16 earnings conference that demand for its advanced process technologies remains robust, with chairman C.C. Wei saying the company's 2nm process has entered volume production and is progressing smoothly through its production ramp.
TSMC reported record second-quarter 2026 results on July 16, with revenue, profit, and earnings per share all surpassing market expectations, underscoring sustained demand for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) chips.
Samsung Electronics is considering outsourcing some or all of the back-end design work for an input/output die in Google's reported 10th-generation tensor processing unit, as growing demand for Samsung's 2nm foundry process reportedly stretches its internal engineering resources.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung unveiled the country's Three Mega Projects for AI and Semiconductors in late June 2026, an ambitious national strategy designed to strengthen South Korea's global leadership in artificial intelligence and semiconductors. The initiative centers on three pillars—semiconductors, physical AI, and AI data centers—and aims to double the nation's DRAM output within five years while expanding capabilities in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), advanced packaging, AI processors, and next-generation memory technologies. It also seeks to extend South Korea's semiconductor footprint beyond the Seoul metropolitan region.
