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Friday 2 October 2026

Nvidia weighs PTFE and HC for glass-free PCBs in Rubin Ultra

Nvidia is testing glass-free PCB material systems for its next-generation AI server platforms, evaluating polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and hydrocarbon (HC) resin formulations for possible use in the Rubin Ultra NVL576 Switch Tray, which is scheduled for mass production in the second half of 2027.

Friday 2 October 2026

China turns to 3D packaging to push AI performance beyond front-end scaling limits

Chip-performance gains have long been driven by an industry-wide focus on shrinking transistor nodes and tightening integration. While major economies including the US and Taiwan have historically sat at the summit of semiconductor manufacturing excellence, China has spent years building its own capabilities amid increasingly restricted access to some leading-edge technologies.

Friday 2 October 2026

ASE stake, expansion open doors for Machvision

AI servers and advanced packaging continue to drive demand for semiconductor manufacturing, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT), and equipment. Machvision said Advanced Semiconductor Engineering's (ASE's) expansion is helping make semiconductors and substrates its fastest-growing product lines.

Friday 2 October 2026

JSR completes South Korean EUV facility as Japanese suppliers localize next-gen resists

JSR Micro Korea, the local subsidiary of Japan-based JSR, officially completed construction of a new semiconductor materials plant on September 30 in the Ochang Foreign Investment Zone in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. The facility is dedicated to the production of metal oxide resist (MOR), an advanced, metal-based photoresist for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, marking JSR's first global manufacturing hub for EUV MOR, according to The Elec.

Thursday 1 October 2026

Shinko Electric acquires JDI's Mobara Fab to expand AI packaging capacity

Shinko Electric Industries announced on September 30 it has signed a purchase agreement to acquire the Mobara Fab from Japan Display (JDI) in Mobara City, Chiba Prefecture. The transaction is intended to establish a new core production hub dedicated to high-end semiconductor packaging, addressing surging global demand for AI accelerators and data center applications.

Thursday 1 October 2026

Four glass makers converge on 510x515mm substrate, hinting at TSMC's next move

As AI chip sizes scale up, global glass leaders Corning, AGC, Nippon Electric Glass (NEG), and Schott have all centered their next-generation core substrate and through-glass via (TGV) roadmaps on a unified 510×515mm format. The tight alignment strongly suggests that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is eyeing this exact specification for its post-2030 glass substrate platform.

Thursday 1 October 2026

BOE eyes closer ties with Samsung, LG as it pushes into chip packaging

China's BOE Technology is seeking closer ties with Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics as the display maker expands beyond panels into semiconductor glass substrates and advanced packaging.

Thursday 1 October 2026

Unimicron expands ABF substrate capacity with NT$10B Hukou land deal

Unimicron has moved again to ease tight ABF substrate supply, buying a Hukou site from Bridgestone Taiwan for more than NT$10 billion (US$313.65 million). The deal highlights how AI chip demand is reshaping capacity plans, as customers worldwide race to secure advanced substrate supply for the next several years.

Thursday 1 October 2026

Qualcomm says PC chip shortages are manageable; price swings hit harder

Qualcomm's senior vice president and general manager of the compute and gaming business, Kedar Kondap, said the biggest challenge facing the PC industry is not component shortages, but the unusually large price swings in memory and other parts. Speaking to the media during Snapdragon Summit 2026, he said that volatility is affecting the PC market.

Thursday 1 October 2026

ASIC shipments top GPUs in 2027 as ABF substrate bottlenecks shift

The high-end cloud AI accelerator market will see a structural shift in 2027, with total ASIC shipments surpassing GPU shipments for the first time, driven by rising output from Google, Amazon, and Huawei. The market will move into a landscape of "dual competition between Nvidia and Google, with multiple players racing to catch up."

Wednesday 30 September 2026

Gold Circuit turns Amazon into a shareholder for Trainium servers

Gold Circuit Electronics (GCE) plans to bring in Amazon as a strategic investor through a private placement expected to raise NT$1.59 billion (US$49.88 million), lifting the two companies from a simple supply-chain relationship to a strategic partnership backed by equity. The deal would also turn a GCE customer into a shareholder of the printed circuit board (PCB) maker, while Amazon invests again in Taiwan's server supply chain after joining Alchip Technologies' private placement in 2024.

Wednesday 30 September 2026

AI boom draws display makers into semiconductors with glass core substrates and Micro LED

AI is driving the semiconductor industry into a new growth cycle while creating opportunities for display companies traditionally centered on panels to move into semiconductors. These companies are extending their reach into emerging areas such as advanced packaging and optical communications, seeking to leverage core technologies such as glass substrates and Micro LED.

Wednesday 30 September 2026

Murata begins mass production of world's smallest three-terminal MLCCs

Murata Manufacturing has started mass production of its LLD series, a new class of ultra-compact capacitors that could help device makers worldwide fit more power management into smaller electronics. The move underscores how component miniaturization is shaping smartphones, wearables, and other connected devices used by consumers across global markets.

Wednesday 30 September 2026

NSIG chair exit brings leadership succession into focus

National Silicon Industry Group (NSIG) chairman Haitao Jiang has resigned from all positions at the company, prompting the Shanghai-listed semiconductor materials supplier to begin a leadership transition.

Wednesday 30 September 2026

Samsung Electro-Mechanics' disclosed 2026 supply agreements total US$2.6 billion as server demand surges

Samsung Electro-Mechanics has signed another long-term supply agreement for server components, bringing the value of its disclosed supply agreements this year to about US$2.6 billion as demand for high-performance passive components continues to rise.

Wednesday 30 September 2026

TDK and Taiyo Yuden to explore alliance on AI-grade capacitors and inductors

TDK and Taiyo Yuden have signed a memorandum of understanding to begin discussions on a business alliance to develop electronic components, including MLCCs and inductors jointly, the two Japanese companies announced on September 29, 2026. The talks will also cover cooperation in manufacturing and procurement, and the companies will consider a future capital alliance.

Wednesday 30 September 2026

Broadcom-Toppan venture opens Singapore's first high-end FC-BGA substrate plant

Advanced Substrate Technologies (AST), a joint venture between Japan's Toppan Holdings and Broadcom, officially opened a manufacturing facility in Singapore on September 29, 2026, the first in the country capable of producing high-end flip chip ball grid array (FC-BGA) substrates. The approximately 95,000-square-meter plant in the Jurong Lake District is the Toppan Group's first such facility outside Japan and is targeting the start of high-value manufacturing by late 2026, the companies said.

Wednesday 30 September 2026

GlobalFoundries Singapore capacity utilization tops 90% as silicon photonics expansion hits equipment lead-time bottleneck

GlobalFoundries (GF) is expanding its Singapore footprint following its acquisition of local silicon photonics foundry Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF), integrating 200mm and 300mm silicon photonics technologies while transferring its existing US 300mm capabilities to Singapore.

Wednesday 30 September 2026

AI boom strains PCB supply chain as materials, equipment shortages persist into 2027

Rapid growth in AI server and high-speed networking demand since the second half of 2025 has tightened supply across printed circuit boards (PCBs), integrated circuit (IC) substrates, and critical materials.

Tuesday 29 September 2026

AI boom sends China and Taiwan's PCB makers racing to HK for capital

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.

Tuesday 29 September 2026

Samsung Electro-Mechanics to invest US$5 billion in ABF substrate expansion

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.

Tuesday 29 September 2026

Advanced packaging shifts toward system integration as AI renews semiconductor talent appeal

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.

Tuesday 29 September 2026

Beyond 16 layers: HBM stacks test advanced packaging equipment makers

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.

Tuesday 29 September 2026

Trump-Xi state dinner puts tech titans at the head table, spotlighting Taiwan's quiet supply chain clout

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, arrived at the White House on the evening of September 24 US time to attend a state dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.

Tuesday 29 September 2026

AI server MLCC prices rise as Chinese suppliers gain ground in generic parts

Multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) prices for AI servers have continued to climb, while prices for general-purpose components used in consumer appliances have dropped sharply. The split in the market has opened more room for Chinese suppliers in midrange and general-purpose categories as major manufacturers shift capacity toward higher-value products.

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