Following Intel's major global wafer fab plan cuts, including halting projects in Germany and Poland, GlobalFoundries (GF) and STMicroelectronics (ST) have faced fresh scrutiny over their joint 12-inch wafer fab project in Crolles, France. French media recently revealed GF has yet to fulfill its investment commitments, casting doubt on the collaboration's future amid both companies increasing investments in China while GF expands capacity in the US under the Trump administration's "Made in America" drive.
Wei Shaojun, vice president of the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) and a widely recognized pragmatic voice within China's semiconductor sector, has spoken out against the Dutch government's ongoing administrative restrictions on Nexperia, triggering broad industry attention.
Taiwan is stepping up efforts to anchor global investment at home, offering equal incentives to US and foreign firms even as cross-border commitments under the Taiwan–US Investment Cooperation MOU remain asymmetric.
Lam Research, a leading supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment dubbed the "US version of ASML," capped off fiscal 2025 with stellar performance, fueled by surging AI demand. The company reported full-year revenue of US$20.6 billion, a 27% year-over-year increase, alongside record gross margins of 49.9% and operating margins of 34.1%.
Realtek Semiconductor outlined its outlook for the first quarter and full year of 2026 during its January 27, 2026, earnings call, highlighting networking applications as the key growth driver amid ongoing challenges in the PC market. The company anticipates robust demand and specification upgrades in networking, particularly driven by AI developments and the adoption of Wi-Fi 7.
Japan's Advantest has announced an acceleration of its capacity expansion plans for system-on-chip (SoC) test equipment in response to surging demand driven by artificial intelligence (AI) hardware investments. The company also revised its fiscal year 2025 financial forecast multiple times to reflect robust market conditions.
Realtek is projecting a stronger financial performance in 2026, driven by its expanding automotive Ethernet products, AI applications, and established consumer electronics lines. The semiconductor company recently confirmed its SSD controller chips are part of Nvidia's silicon photonics switch supply chain, signaling deeper industry integration.
The competition among cloud service providers (CSPs) and AI companies for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) has entered a new phase with Microsoft officially launching its Maia 200 chip. Industry forecasts indicate that 2027 will be a breakout year when multiple major players ramp up ASIC production simultaneously.
Powertech Technology (PTI) and its subsidiary test and assembly firm Greatek jointly held an online investor conference to discuss future operations. Greatek president Yu-Chang Chi said that driven by sustained demand from AI and memory customers, flip chip and QFN packaging lines have reached full capacity. Bumping packaging capacity is also expected to be fully utilized in the coming quarters, leading to a positive outlook for first-half 2026 performance.
The global memory market is moving into a phase that looks increasingly different from past cyclical upswings, as demand tied to artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems continues to strain supply. With conventional DRAM prices firming and capacity expansion remaining cautious, major memory makers are reshaping production strategies to protect margins rather than pursue volume growth.
The epicenter of the AI supercycle converged on Taipei this Thursday as President Lai Ching-te welcomed Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra to the Presidential Office, just hours after NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang touched down on the island.
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