Amkor Technology, the US-based semiconductor packaging and testing company, said it will close its Hakodate plant in northern Japan by December 2027, citing weak demand stemming from a slowdown in the global electric vehicle (EV) market. The factory, located in the town of Nanae in Hokkaido, specializes in packaging chips used in automobiles.
Canon said on January 13 that it has developed a new wafer planarization technology designed to uniformly smooth surface irregularities during semiconductor manufacturing. The process applies resin materials using inkjet printing and then presses a glass plate onto the surface, using a stamping-like method to achieve planarization.
South Korean industry and government officials are monitoring a new trade agreement between the US and Taiwan that links semiconductor investment to import duty exemptions, with officials in Seoul saying that any future US-South Korea talks should not leave Korea worse off than Taiwan. Officials view the terms as a potential benchmark for future US-South Korea trade negotiations.
The United States and Taiwan formalized a significant trade and investment agreement on January 15, 2026, establishing a new framework for bilateral economic relations.
TSMC used its earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2025 to deliver one of its most bullish outlooks in years, arguing that artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the semiconductor industry's growth trajectory rather than inflating a short-lived bubble.
