On March 27, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) launched an investigation into memory chip imports by SK Hynix Inc. and KIOXIA Holdings Corporation following a patent complaint filed by MonolithIC 3D Inc., according to a notice published by the agency.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced in mid-March that he would launch the Terafab megafab project within seven days, and on March 21 confirmed that the facility will be built in Austin, Texas. While many remain skeptical, industry forum SemiWiki offers an alternative perspective. Fifteen years ago, Musk acquired the Fremont production line in California from General Motors and Toyota, transforming it from a struggling facility into a cornerstone of Tesla's electric vehicle production.
OmniVision Group said on March 20 it will invest CNY1 billion (US$145 million) in Rong Semiconductor (Ningbo) Co. (RongSemi) via a capital increase, taking a 5.88% stake based on a CNY4 billion funding round. The move targets tighter upstream integration, aiming to secure wafer capacity and improve supply chain resilience.
Holy Stone Enterprise plans to invest another NT$3 billion (US$94 million) to add a production line at its Hokkaido R&D center and expand capacity at its Yilan Lize plant in Taiwan as it targets growing demand from AI high-power power supplies.
Arm has officially launched its self-developed chip platform, the Arm AGI CPU, targeting data center applications. This move confirms earlier reports that Arm is stepping beyond its traditional role as an IP supplier to develop and directly offer chip products to customers.
Samsung Electronics is aggressively pushing its semiconductor "super-gap" core strategy centered on a turnkey solution model. However, the success of this approach hinges on restoring and rebuilding competitiveness in its non-memory businesses.
SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung is expected to meet Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Cloud and AI at Microsoft, in Seoul this week to discuss memory supply, according to Maeil Business Newspaper, citing industry sources.
Intel has confirmed it has begun raising CPU prices for OEM customers in response to ongoing supply constraints and rising raw material costs. According to Nikkei Asia, both Intel and AMD have notified clients of planned price increases in March and April 2026. The report notes that AI-driven global memory shortages are pushing hardware costs higher and extending delivery times, placing unprecedented margin pressure on channel partners.
The 2026 Taiwan International Machine Tool Show (TMTS), an annual machine tool industry exhibition, has returned to Taichung this year, a move seen as particularly significant given the city's role as a central hub for the machine tool industry cluster. Raymond Greene, director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), attended the opening ceremony to show support.
The surge in AI applications driving PCB material upgrades is exacerbating upstream raw material supply shortages. Notably, besides ongoing price hikes, some IC substrate makers report that limited production capacity for glass fiber cloth and copper foil has tightened supply of copper-clad laminates (CCL) for months. This shortage has extended product lead times to as long as 6 months, forcing related companies to implement a "quota system."
At a series of year-end gatherings in Hsinchu and Taipei this week, Star Fusion and its affiliated companies outlined their business outlook for 2026, pointing to a shift toward higher-value chip design as a key growth driver.
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