Industry sources stated that Samsung has signed equipment contracts and placed orders for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photomask pellicle-related equipment for its Taylor fab with South Korean equipment supplier Fine Semitech Corp. (FST).
Structural imbalances in the memory industry have emerged due to AI data center demand, sending server memory prices sky high and upstream manufacturers to go all out to increase profits. Severe shortages are expected to persist through 2027-2028. As pressure increases due to insufficient inventory, memory prices also continue to rise.
Intel's latest financials highlight a fragile turnaround: while AI-linked data center demand and early traction in advanced manufacturing offer strategic promise, weak margins, volatile profitability, and cautious guidance suggest near-term pressure remains, keeping investor focus squarely on execution and the pace of recovery, which Intel attributed to tight supply, likely for memory, across the industry.
Intel outlined an increasingly AI-centric roadmap across client PCs, data centers, and manufacturing. Still, executives cautioned that tight supply and early-stage foundry ramps continue to limit near-term revenue and profitability, keeping the company's turnaround highly dependent on execution through 2026.
Intel is sharpening its manufacturing strategy around yield improvement, selective capital spending, and differentiated advanced packaging, while keeping major 14A capacity investments on hold until customer demand is secured, a cautious approach that comes as memory shortages and early-node costs pressure near-term margins.
High-Bandwidth Flash (HBF) is likely to reach commercialization sooner than previously expected and could become a key technology supporting large-scale data training and real-time inference, said Joungho Kim, professor of electrical engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
As AI chip package sizes continue to grow, warpage issues in IC substrates have become more pronounced. Capacity constraints for low-CTE fiberglass cloth, a critical material used to address warpage, are forcing end customers, including Apple, Nvidia, Google, and AWS, into increasingly intense competition for supply, industry sources said.
Severe NAND flash shortages driven by AI servers have emerged, but have become a growth opportunity for Phison Electronics. Company CEO K.S. Pua said that the shortage is enabling the company to enter the US server supply chain and the enterprise storage market. According to Pua, large server customers have proactively approached Phison to help secure supply, while NAND flash prices continue to trend upward. Consumer and channel markets are unable to bear the cost pressure, pushing the storage industry into a phase of structurally strong long-term demand.
Facing intense price wars triggered by China's rapid expansion in the global silicon carbide (SiC) wafer industry, Sino-American Silicon Products (SAS) chairwoman Doris Hsu has decisively reshaped the company's resource allocation. She revealed that standard SiC wafer prices have plunged 60-70% within six months due to market turbulence. In response, SAS is withdrawing from the commoditized power segment for GlobalWafers' SiC wafers and prioritizing three niche markets focused on high-barrier applications.
GlobalWafers chairwoman Doris Hsu said in a January 21, 2026, media interview that with easing inflation pressures and some central bank policy adjustments, the global economy is experiencing moderate growth despite ongoing challenges from geopolitical tensions and trade uncertainties.
GlobalWafers chairman Doris Hsu told the media on January 21, 2026, that the company's global expansion plans are starting to pay off, with subsidiaries in Niigata and Utsunomiya, Japan, as well as Denmark, all hitting record revenues in 2025. Niche products like gallium nitride (GaN) stood out for their strong performance. Hsu also outlined GlobalWafers' 2026 strategy and shared her outlook on market conditions.
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