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Friday 8 May 2026
Taiwan firms' US investment tops forecasts; government lines up US$50 billion financing
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) announced on May 6 that, excluding TSMC, about 20 Taiwan companies plan to invest US$35 billion in the US. The statement comes after US President Donald Trump issued reciprocal tariffs in April 2025, which unexpectedly helped speed up long-stalled progress on a Taiwan-US economic and trade agreement.
Friday 8 May 2026
Commentary: Trump-Xi Summit puts Taiwan's chip industry at center of global politics

US President Donald Trump is expected to visit Beijing on May 14-15 for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. If the trip proceeds as planned, it would mark Trump's first visit to Beijing since returning to the White House and the most consequential meeting between the two leaders since the escalation of the US-China technology war reshaped the global economy.

Friday 8 May 2026
M31 weathers project delays as royalties and advanced-node demand signal recovery
M31 Technology reported a first-quarter 2026 revenue decline as contract timing disruptions pushed some North American advanced-process projects into the next quarter, but the company said royalties and resumed project activity should underpin a rebound in the second quarter and beyond.
Friday 8 May 2026
Samsung reportedly testing 1.4nm Exynos 2800 with 96MB cache

Samsung is reportedly testing a next-generation Exynos processor that could push the company's chip ambitions beyond smartphones, with early specifications pointing to a 1.4nm-class design, a 10-core CPU, a large 96MB system-level cache, and a possible PC variant aimed at Google's Chromebook ecosystem.

Friday 8 May 2026
Anpec plans midyear 15% price hike to protect PMIC margins
Taiwan power management IC (PMIC) maker Anpec Electronics recently said its 2026 growth momentum will mainly rely on demand in non-PC applications to offset declines in PC-related business, while more meaningful expansion is not expected until 2027. The company also said rising wafer packaging and testing costs will drive a price increase of its products by up to 15% in June-July to preserve gross margins.
Friday 8 May 2026
AI boom reshapes global EMS supply chain as Taiwanese firms extend lead

As 2026 entered its second quarter, market research firm DIGITIMES released its ranking of the world's top 20 electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and original design manufacturers (ODM) for the first quarter of the year. The results underscored a sector increasingly being redrawn by the rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), which continues to drive both growth and competitive realignment across the electronics supply chain.

Thursday 7 May 2026
Taiwan freezes trading in MediaTek as AI chip rally pushes valuation past US$165 billion
Taiwan's stock exchange placed MediaTek — the chip designer behind silicon used in Samsung phones, Chromebooks, and a growing share of AI hardware — under trading restrictions from May 7 through May 20 after its market value surged past NT$5 trillion (approx. US$165 billion) on strong demand for its custom AI chips. The Financial Supervisory Commission said it would review the rules that triggered the move.
Thursday 7 May 2026
MediaTek opens AI R&D data center in Taiwan with Nvidia DGX SuperPOD
MediaTek announced the opening of a new research and development data center at the Tongluo Science Park in Miaoli, Taiwan, aimed at supporting growing demand for edge AI and cloud AI development.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Nuvoton BMC demand grows as per-rack chip count rises to 120
Nuvoton is seeing stronger demand for baseboard management controller (BMC) chips as AI servers drive higher requirements for remote server control and system monitoring. The company said the number of BMCs needed in a single rack has increased from 80 to 120, reflecting the growing complexity of AI server systems.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Transcom sees overseas defense orders drive revenue and production into 2026
Transcom Technology reported that April 2026 revenue rose 45.94% year on year to NT$90.82 million (US$2.9 million) as delayed defense project shipments from March were booked in April, and said defense-related products moving into mass production would support steady second-quarter shipments. The power amplifier maker disclosed first-quarter 2026 revenue of NT$178 million, a gross margin of 54%, net profit after tax of NT$20.2 million and earnings per share of NT$0.22, and stated that current order fulfillment progress pointed to an operational recovery in the second quarter.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Arm shifts focus to high-value silicon to bypass mobile growth plateau
The strategic significance of Arm's current transformation lies in its transition from a volume-dependent mobile component provider to a value-driven infrastructure architect. As the global smartphone market faces structural saturation, the organization is pivoting toward Agentic and Physical AI to redefine its commercial relevance. The core of this strategy is to increase the average selling price per chip by packing higher complexity—measured in core density and orchestration capabilities—into each unit, thereby ensuring revenue growth even as hardware shipment volumes stabilize.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Arm's $2 billion AGI CPU backlog signals strong hyperscaler demand
During the earnings call on May 6, Arm announced a significant expansion of its product strategy, centering on the emergence of "Agentic AI" and "Physical AI" as primary growth drivers for the next decade. The company defines agentic workloads as a shift from human-based queries to continuous, autonomous tasks where CPUs must coordinate data movement, manage memory, and orchestrate work across accelerators. To address this, Arm recently launched the Arm AGI CPU, a product purpose-built for these specific AI requirements.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Nvidia, Corning partner to boost US optical manufacturing capacity 10x
Nvidia and Corning announced a multiyear partnership to expand U.S.-based production of optical connectivity solutions for AI data centers. Corning will increase its U.S. optical connectivity manufacturing capacity by 10-fold and expand fiber production capacity by more than 50%.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Arm's licensing surge masks smartphone market slowdown
Arm reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of US$1.49 billion, up 20% year over year and nearly 20% higher sequentially, according to company financial data. Net profit rose 49% from a year earlier to US$313 million, while operating income climbed to US$438 million.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Raydium Semiconductor sees mixed display demand as AI-driven IT cycle reshapes inventory trends
Raydium Semiconductor reported first-quarter 2026 revenue and profit figures, signaling demand trends in large displays, automotive, and industrial markets that could affect global display and consumer electronics supply dynamics. International manufacturers and investors may reassess inventory and production plans amid cautious smartphone AMOLED demand and continued large-display stocking by some clients.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Memory hikes slow telecom orders, but network chipmakers stay upbeat
Network infrastructure demand in 2026 remains broadly positive as telecom operators in Europe and the US prepare for future AI use cases. Chipmakers say the growth is not just about spec upgrades, but a full-scale overhaul of network infrastructure.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Snapdragon tops India's chipset trust rankings: Counterpoint Research
A Counterpoint Research survey finds Snapdragon is India's most trusted chipset brand across smartphones, audio, XR devices, and passenger vehicles, signaling that chipset performance now shapes purchase decisions—a finding relevant to global readers tracking device performance trends, platform ecosystems, and the expanding role of chipsets in connected-device experiences.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Intel targets entry-level advanced packaging, draws interest from Google and Amazon
Over the past decade, market assessments of Intel have largely been confined to a single lens: execution in advanced process technology. By that metric, Intel has struggled, with delays in 10nm and setbacks at the 7nm node, leading to the loss of Apple's chip orders. This view assumes that semiconductor manufacturing advantage is determined primarily by transistor density, particularly in the system-on-chip era.
Wednesday 6 May 2026
Nvidia, AMD expand in Taiwan as US touts strategic ties at SelectUSA Summit
Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said its A+ Industrial Innovation R&D Program has helped attract Nvidia to invest in Taiwan and set up an overseas headquarters in Taipei, while AMD has also received major ministry support to establish a research and development center in the southern city of Tainan.
Wednesday 6 May 2026
AEM CEO says AI upends semiconductor testing
Singapore semiconductor equipment and testing company AEM is facing a dual challenge of "physics and cost" as the AI era rewrites the limits and supply-chain logic of chip testing, CEO Samer Kabbani said. AI is also driving up to US$7 trillion in global infrastructure investment, he said, while forcing the industry to adapt to faster product cycles and far larger, more power-hungry packages.
Wednesday 6 May 2026
GlobalWafers reports weaker quarter as expansion weighs on margins

GlobalWafers said on May 4 that its first-quarter performance reflected a transitional period, as short-term cost pressures and capacity expansion weighed on margins even as demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing began to strengthen.

Wednesday 6 May 2026
VIS sees stronger growth in the AI boom and pricing power
Buoyed by robust demand for artificial intelligence and the early success of price increases, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation (VIS) is projecting a stronger performance for the second quarter of 2026, with wafer shipments expected to rise by more than 10% from the previous quarter. Average selling prices are forecast to increase by 2% to 4%, while gross margins are likely to recover to above 30%.
Wednesday 6 May 2026
GlobalWafers outlines 2026 recovery path, highlights tightening 12-inch wafer supply
GlobalWafers expects the current semiconductor cycle to bottom in the first quarter of 2026, with both the speed and breadth of recovery exceeding prior expectations, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand continues to drive growth across the industry.
Wednesday 6 May 2026
AMD earnings call: AI is turning CPUs back into the main event

AMD's fiscal first-quarter 2026 earnings call was not just a victory lap for another data center beat. It was a strategic argument from management: AI infrastructure is no longer only an accelerator story. It is becoming a full compute-platform story, where CPUs, GPUs, memory, software, and rack-scale systems all have to move together.

Wednesday 6 May 2026
MediaTek unit Airoha targets AI networking surge with triple optical growth
MediaTek subsidiary Airoha Technology said its first-quarter 2026 performance met expectations, driven by continued improvement in product mix and accelerating demand across its optical communications, Ethernet, and fixed broadband businesses tied to AI infrastructure expansion.