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Sep 16
Advanced processes have no ready-made answers, says TSMC's COO

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) chairman C.C. Wei and co-chief operating officer Y.J. Mii participated in the "Cross-Generational Dialogue: Questions and Answers for the AI Era" forum on September 15. Students asked how TSMC determines whether a technology is worth long-term investment when information is incomplete and the technological direction remains unclear, as well as how people can develop the ability to judge whether answers generated by artificial intelligence (AI) are true or false in the AI era.

The memory industry remains in short supply, and major chipmakers are raising the share of capacity committed to long-term supply agreements (LTAs) while extending their duration from three to five years, with many in the industry expecting 2027 to be the tightest year yet. Supply chain sources said Kioxia has about 50% of its LTA capacity tied up, while South Korea's two major vendors reserve about 70% of capacity for LTAs. Micron also has around 60% of its capacity locked into such agreements.
The global optical communications module market continues to grow, and Taiwan's test and packaging companies are moving to capture demand in silicon photonics (SiPh) transimpedance amplifier (TIA) testing as AI data-center networks shift toward faster optical interconnects. Ardentec and Sigurd are among the firms benefiting as a major US customer rushes to reserve capacity.
Samsung expands SRAM, IP to speed chip development
Sep 17, 12:30

Memory shortages and pricing pressures are reshaping Samsung Electronics' foundry intellectual property (IP) development, as faster AI chip refresh cycles push customers to demand stronger process competitiveness, faster development, and better-prepared infrastructure including IP. Samsung is responding by expanding memory design options, IP, and development tools through its Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) program.

Fast-moving advances in chip production have spurred a semiconductor boom, markedly altering the manufacturing scope of the broader high-tech industry.

China is broadening its advanced packaging base as restrictions on leading-edge semiconductor equipment complicate further process-node scaling. The effort now extends beyond the country's largest outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) suppliers to specialist packaging houses and chiplet startups, increasingly targeting AI and high-performance computing (HPC).
SK Hynix is keeping its US memory options open as customers move earlier to secure 2027 supply, with tightening availability raising pressure on memory makers to consider additional capacity.

Samsung Electronics has reportedly begun trial production of Tesla's next-generation AI5 processor at its Taylor foundry in Texas, moving the US fab into 2nm wafer production and yield verification ahead of full-scale operations.

Japanese semiconductor materials leader Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) held a completion ceremony on September 15, 2026, for a new KRW101 billion (US$73.1 million) production plant in the Poseung District of Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

Google's Humufish TPU project, scheduled to enter mass production by the end of 2027, is set to adopt Intel's EMIB-T advanced packaging technology with support from ASIC partner MediaTek. MediaTek has also stated during an earnings call that EMIB-T yields have reached levels capable of supporting stable mass production, expressing confidence in the project's 2027 production plans.
China's advanced semiconductor research has reached another milestone. The Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has established a gate-all-around (GAA) device development path for advanced process nodes below 3nm that does not rely on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography as its core technology.

Foreign commitments timed around SEMICON India are moving deeper into the supply chain. In the three days before the 2026 edition opened on September 17, Lam Research, Applied Materials, and Fujifilm announced India plans worth a combined INR144 billion (US$1.50 billion), covering silicon components, chip equipment, and process chemicals rather than chip production itself.