Micron unveiled the Micron Ventures Paradigm Fund, a US$250 million venture vehicle, in mid-August 2026, as the memory maker pairs more than US$25 billion in fiscal 2026 capex with a pledge to invest more than US$250 billion in the US by 2035. The fund is designed to give Micron an early look at technology shifts, position it for next-generation AI architectures, and strengthen its strategy to reduce memory-cycle volatility.
South Korea's AI sector is facing a growing GPU shortage as research institutes and small companies struggle to secure enough compute for model training and deployment. As government support ends, research teams are finding it harder to continue training, while startups are being squeezed by rising rental costs and long-term contract demands from suppliers.
Global investment in AI infrastructure is expanding rapidly, driving specification upgrades across the supply chain, from AI servers to high-speed optical modules, and pushing printed circuit boards (PCBs) into a more critical role in compute upgrades. As technical complexity and product prices rise together, PCBs are quickly redefining their value in the electronics supply chain.
Samsung Electronics' foundry business has reportedly raised yield on its 2-nanometer (2nm) SF2 process to nearly 60% and is now shifting engineering work toward power efficiency and other maturity checks. The effort is part of a broader push to win larger customers for its advanced manufacturing business.
SK Hynix's US-based NAND flash and solid-state drive (SSD) subsidiary, Solidigm, is considering a US initial public offering as early as 2027, with reports indicating a potential valuation of up to US$150 billion and a fundraising target of about US$15 billion. The move comes as AI data centers drive stronger demand for high-capacity enterprise SSDs, putting AI storage businesses in focus for capital markets.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics said it will invest KRW6.78 trillion (about US$5 billion) in South Korea and Vietnam to expand ABF substrate production for AI servers and high-performance computing (HPC) markets. Part of the funding reportedly comes from advance payments by Nvidia and other global technology companies. With Samsung Electro-Mechanics having already entered Nvidia's NVSwitch and Groq 3 supply chains, the two companies' cooperation is expected to extend from an existing supply relationship to dedicated capacity.
The US and China are moving toward tariff reductions on about US$60 billion of bilateral trade following last week's Trump-Xi summit, but semiconductors and other strategically sensitive sectors remain outside the arrangement.
At Singapore's Innovate Together 2026 conference on September 25, executives and researchers from A*STAR's Institute of Microelectronics (IME), KLA, ASM International, the National University of Singapore (NUS), the SHINE Centre, and ASMPT discussed how advanced packaging is evolving beyond conventional chip integration, with optical interconnects, panel-level packaging, and talent development emerging as key challenges.
At Singapore's Innovate Together 2026 conference on September 25, equipment makers including ASM, ASMPT, and KLA said the challenges facing next-generation advanced packaging are expanding beyond the performance of individual tools to hybrid bonding, interface materials, defect metrology, process control, optical interconnects, and panel-level packaging.
Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions division is set to announce the calculation and payout rules for its special management performance bonus in late September, after a holiday break. The move comes as SK Hynix continues recruiting experienced talent, underscoring how pay systems and workplace conditions have become key to attracting and retaining workers at South Korea's semiconductor giants.
GlobalFoundries (GF) is preparing a major global capacity expansion as TSMC is set to gradually exit gallium nitride (GaN) foundry services in 2027. GF said it was the first foundry to proactively approach TSMC and secure a GaN technology license, positioning itself to give existing customers a "seamless migration" path to its own platform.
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