Skytech and TSMC have opened an Advanced Process Laboratory focused on next-generation semiconductor manufacturing, highlighting TSMC's continued efforts to support Taiwan's domestic semiconductor equipment supply chain.

Japanese semiconductor materials suppliers Ajinomoto and Daikin Industries are expanding their presence in Taiwan as the AI boom fuels demand for advanced chip materials and encourages closer cooperation between suppliers and manufacturers.

Imec CEO Patrick Vandenameele said during a media briefing at SEMICON Taiwan 2026 that the Belgian research center is broadening its collaboration base in the AI era, extending beyond IC design firms to include model developers and cloud service providers as AI reshapes how computing systems are built and connected. Vandenameele said Imec is well positioned because what is happening in AI aligns with the organization's core mission, but its role has also changed significantly.

AI's early-stage growth is creating a short-term squeeze on land, talent, capital, and power in Taiwan, but there is no such thing as a world that cannot do without Taiwan, ASE Technology CEO and SEMI Global Board Executive Committee Chair Tien Wu said. He made the remarks at a pre-show conference on August 31 ahead of SEMICON Taiwan 2026, which runs from September 2 to 4.

Speaking at the Silicon Photonics Global Summit ahead of Semicon Taiwan 2026, Marvell Technology CTO Radha Nagarajan highlighted that the core focus for upgrading connectivity in the AI data center era has shifted firmly to power consumption. He noted that the acceleration of co-packaged optics (CPO) adoption is primarily driven by two critical bottlenecks: power and unit density.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics disclosed on September 1 that it has concluded a single sales and supply contract worth KRW1.072 trillion (about US$778.9 million) for MLCCs, equal to 9.5% of the company's most recent annual revenue.

As AI packages grow larger, the next substrate battleground is rapidly extending from traditional organic materials to glass. Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) will make its first appearance at Semicon Taiwan 2026, with advanced packaging and glass substrate expert Gang Duan traveling to Taiwan to unveil the company's roadmap for next-generation advanced packaging substrates aimed at AI infrastructure.

ASML told a SEMICON Taiwan audience that its High NA EUV platform has been used for a high-volume logic product for the first time, a threshold the company frames as the point at which 0.55 NA lithography moves from qualification into production service.

Applied Optoelectronics (AOI) has placed a multi-year purchase order with Dutch equipment maker Trymax Semiconductor Equipment for plasma ashers and UV curing systems destined for its Sugar Land, Texas wafer fab, in a deal Trymax describes as worth several million US dollars.

SEMI has raised its forecast for global wafer fab equipment (WFE) sales in 2028 to US$220 billion, up from about US$200 billion projected in July, as stronger investment in advanced logic and memory pushes the semiconductor capital spending cycle higher.

A Chinese court has ordered the freezing of more than CNY2.14 billion (approx. US$318 million) in domestic assets belonging to Dutch semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia and its equipment division. The decision marks the latest escalation in an ongoing legal and geopolitical debate between the Netherlands-based chipmaker and its Chinese parent company, Wingtech Technology.