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Aug 17
TSMC overseas fabs see profit flip in 1H26

Since 2020, when TSMC began its overseas manufacturing buildout, the company has tracked financial results at its foreign subsidiaries across the first half of 2025, full-year 2025, and the first half of 2026. The Arizona fab, long seen as difficult to make profitable, has expanded sharply, while Japan's JASM has turned from loss to profit, China operations have remained stable, and Germany's ESMC is still in the red as it remains under construction.

The cloud AI data center boom is not close to bursting, according to chip supply-chain players. They say that analog ICs, including power semiconductors, will stay tight for years. They also expect price hikes to continue, with more than one round likely ahead.

Samsung Electronics' semiconductor chief has told executives not to treat the company's HBM4 comeback as proof that its recovery is complete, according to Seoul Economic Daily. The caution comes as the memory industry shifts to a generation that will be harder to manufacture at scale.

Arm Holdings' expansion from asset-light IP licensing into finished data center processors is putting the company into direct competition for wafer and memory capacity just as demand for its new AGI CPU exceeds US$2 billion.

Niche printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer Eiso Enterprise has officially opened the second-phase expansion of its new plant in Guishan, Taiwan, which is expected to raise the company's overall monthly production capacity to 1.5 times the previous level.

Elon Musk has made SpaceX's AI hardware strategy unusually clear: future infrastructure will rely exclusively on Nvidia chips and technology. Yet AMD, Nvidia's largest rival in AI accelerators, still owns roughly 3.3 million SpaceX shares worth more than US$565 million.

Humanoid robots are moving from demonstrations toward mass production, changing the priorities of chip design. Instead of simply chasing higher AI compute and TOPS, or trillions of operations per second, the industry is increasingly focused on how efficiently perception, computing, decision-making, and control can work together within tight power, cost, and latency constraints.

A new joint venture between South Korean and Indian chemical firms is betting that semiconductor materials can be made without touching China at any stage, positioning itself as an alternative supply route just as the US-China conflict pushes chipmakers to rethink where their raw materials come from.
MediaTek widens ASIC services as market share surges
Aug 18, 07:53

MediaTek has reportedly landed major orders for Google TPU products in recent years, even appearing to challenge Broadcom's position. At a recent earnings call, MediaTek also raised its 2027 ASIC market share target to 15% to 20%, and industry watchers largely credit that goal to the breadth of MediaTek's ASIC services.

AI server demand pushes high-end MLCC lead times toward 40 weeks
Aug 18, 07:50
Multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) supply is increasingly diverging by product specification, with mainstream components remaining relatively stable while lead times for some high-capacitance, high-specification parts used in AI servers stretch toward 40 weeks.

SK keyfoundry has approved KRW90 billion (approx. US$64 million) in capital spending to expand its 8-inch foundry capacity, a rare move for a company that has long prioritized maintaining existing production lines.

Phison Electronics CEO Pua Khein-Seng said the company is seizing a once-in-a-lifetime chance to transform into a high-growth business as AI agents drive massive demand, keeping NAND Flash supply tight for many years. He said 2027 capacity constraints will be even more severe than in 2026, leaving room for further price gains, though the pace of increases will gradually narrow.