Google's push to expand its in-house Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) platform is drawing fresh attention across the semiconductor sector, and analysts say Samsung Electronics could emerge as one of the biggest beneficiaries. If Google succeeds in building a broader AI ecosystem anchored by TPUs, Samsung stands to gain in both memory shipments and contract chipmaking.
Huawei has launched the Mate 80 flagship series, with the Kirin 9030 once again capturing domestic and international attention. As the United States continues restricting China’s access to sub-14nm tools, industry debate now centres on how the Kirin 9030 reaches “near-7nm” performance and what this means for China’s broader push toward semiconductor self-reliance.
Intel's controversial hiring of former TSMC senior vice president Wei-Jen Lo has escalated into one of the semiconductor industry's most sensitive personnel disputes in years. The situation has become tangled in legal uncertainty, national security implications, and geopolitical imbalances in technology cooperation.
Google's release of its Gemini 3 large language model (LLM) in November—trained primarily on the company's in-house TPU chips and performing at or above the level of OpenAI's ChatGPT—has become a catalyst for a broader strategic push. According to overseas reports, Google is now using its newest advances in AI models to pitch major clients, including Meta, on deploying TPU-based systems inside Google-operated data centers.
Taiwan's national quantum program is entering the final year of its first phase, with Academia Sinica and other research groups achieving significant breakthroughs. These include optical Schrödinger cat state generators using heralded photon pairs and high-integration polarization-entangled Bell-state quantum light source chips.
MediaTek announced that numerous company research papers have been accepted at leading global academic conferences in semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), and communications in 2025. This includes two papers from MediaTek's Taiwan headquarters research and development team, which were selected for the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2026, often called the "Olympics of IC design." With these additions, the company has now had more than 100 papers accepted over 23 consecutive years.
Power management IC (PMIC) supplier Anpec Electronics held its investor conference on November 24, 2025, stating that multiple product lines for 2026 have already passed the design-in stage and are about to enter mass production. Although the 2025 comparison base is already relatively high, the company still hopes to achieve double-digit growth in 2026.
Rapidus has denied reports suggesting it has started building a new 1.4nm fab or established a mass-production timetable.
The surge in global AI infrastructure demand is driving major upgrades in PCB material specifications, but it has also exposed supply shortages of critical upstream materials such as high-end glass fiber, HVLP4 copper foil, and coated drill bits from Japanese suppliers. This is creating hidden bottlenecks in AI server shipments.
Buoyed by surging semiconductor exports at SK Hynix, the SK Group is on track to post a record-breaking KRW120 trillion (approx. US$81 billion) in exports in 2025, underscoring the company's growing dominance in South Korea's trade performance. SK Hynix alone now accounts for roughly 65% of the conglomerate's outbound shipments.
Tokyo Electron (TEL)—a long-time close partner of TSMC and a frequent awardee—did not appear on the chipmaker's 2025 Excellent Performance Awards list. The absence is likely related to an incident involving the alleged leak of TSMC's 2nm technology that surfaced in early July 2025.
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