Samsung Electronics is cutting over 800 jobs in the US from its smartphone, display, and consumer electronics business units. The division, part of Samsung Group, is facing a challenging market this year, in contrast to the soaring performance of its chip unit.

CXMT's STAR Market IPO marks a coming-of-age moment for China's DRAM industry, but the listing is only the beginning. Having proved China can manufacture DRAM, the memory chip maker must now compete directly with Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron in the global memory market.

Samsung Electronics' latest multi-billion-dollar equipment procurement reflects the company's accelerating investment in AI memory capacity while raising a broader question about what is driving one of the industry's most aggressive fab expansion strategies.

AI competition is widening from chips to connectivity, memory, talent, patents, and model access, with governments and suppliers tightening control across the stack. Below are the most-read DIGITIMES stories from the week of July 13-19, 2026.

The global wave of AI data center construction continues to accelerate, driving structural growth across the PCB and passive component industries. However, shortages of critical materials and insufficient capacity expansion have created new bottlenecks, sharply lengthening product lead times.

AI is redrawing the rules of semiconductor competition, pushing materials suppliers beyond simple chemical inputs and toward integrated technologies, equipment, services, and system solutions. Merck said that as chip manufacturing advances from 2nm toward 1.4nm, the industry is moving closer to atomic-scale production, where competition will hinge on the broader ecosystem spanning materials, process technology, advanced packaging, and co-packaged optics (CPO).