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Saturday 31 January 2026

Samsung, SK Hynix target surging growth in automotive memory market for autonomous driving systems

Automobiles are rapidly transforming into servers/smartphones-on-wheels with the advancement of autonomous driving technologies, which has led to a surge in demand for automotive memory. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are viewing the automotive sector as the next major battleground after AI, with both South Korean memory giants taking proactive measures to gain a foothold in this emerging market.

Thursday 29 January 2026

South Korea's industry minister heads to Washington after tariff rollback warning

US President Donald Trump has threatened to restore 25% tariffs on South Korean goods, escalating trade tensions by citing delays in Seoul's passage of legislation linked to a bilateral trade agreement reached last year.

Thursday 29 January 2026

A year of transformation: Tesla pivots to Robotaxis and domestic chip production

Tesla is entering what executives describe as a "turning point" year. As the company pushes forward with robotaxi deployment and Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, it must also navigate potential bottlenecks in global semiconductor supply that could define its medium-term growth.

Thursday 29 January 2026

AI boom threatens global chip supply, automakers warned

The Covid-19 pandemic once sparked a wave of upgrades for personal computers and smartphones, fueling strong demand for semiconductors. However, it also exposed vulnerabilities in supply chains, leaving companies like TSMC entangled in the global automotive chip crunch and prompting the US and Europe to invite TSMC to build factories on their soil.

Wednesday 28 January 2026

Tesla restarts Dojo development with new focus on space AI

In a recent post on social media, Elon Musk unveiled Tesla's latest roadmap for artificial intelligence chips, declaring that development of the company's AI5 chip was progressing well and that work on Dojo 3 would resume. The brief statement masked a significant strategic pivot. Encouraging news around AI5—described by Musk as existential to Tesla—came alongside the revival of the Dojo project, which had been suspended in August 2025. After a five-month hiatus, Tesla's in-house chip strategy appears to be changing course once again.

Wednesday 28 January 2026

Why the Nexperia crisis is still accelerating 'non-red' automotive supply chains

By the end of 2025, a political dispute between the Netherlands and China had rippled through the global automotive industry. Nexperia, the Dutch semiconductor manufacturer owned by China's Wingtech Technology, was forced to temporarily halt shipments, triggering fears of supply-chain disruptions across the automotive sector.

Wednesday 28 January 2026

TI outlook points to tentative recovery as cash flow strength offsets profit pressure

Texas Instruments' (TI) latest results and guidance suggest a cautious rebound in demand, particularly in industrial and automotive markets, even as profits remain under pressure. Analysts say resilient cash flow and constructive capital allocation help steady investor sentiment amid an uneven recovery.

Wednesday 28 January 2026

As China races to localize auto chips, Taiwan locks onto upmarket

In recent years, Chinese companies have significantly increased their investment in automotive semiconductors, aiming to accelerate the development of a domestic supply chain. Yet in key technologies—particularly power semiconductors used in electric vehicle (EV) drivetrains—expertise remains firmly in the hands of European and American integrated device manufacturers (IDMs). These technologies are unlikely to be displaced in the near term.

Wednesday 28 January 2026

TI sees uneven recovery: Industrial rebuilds and data center booms, but consumer electronics fade

Texas Instruments' latest commentary during its Q4 2025 earnings call on January 27, 2026, shows a company increasingly shaped by industrial, automotive, and data center demand, even as consumer-facing segments remain uneven. Management framed fourth-quarter results as broadly in line with expectations, while emphasizing that the mix of end markets—not pricing—is driving both near-term performance and longer-term strategy.

Wednesday 28 January 2026

TI accelerates capacity push, shrugs off memory shortages

Texas Instruments (TI) signaled urgency around capacity planning, stressing that today's capital spending choices will determine its ability to serve demand years ahead, while downplaying fears that rising memory prices are constraining near-term demand across its core markets.

Tuesday 27 January 2026

Semco reports record revenue for 2025, driven by AI and automotive sectors

Samsung Electro-Mechanics (Semco) achieved a record annual revenue of approximately KRW11.31 trillion (approx. US$7.79 billion) in 2025, marking a 10% increase from the previous year, propelled by strong demand for AI and server multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), according to reports from Money Today and ZDNet Korea. Operating profit climbed 24% to KRW913.3 billion, while quarterly results also showed significant growth.

Tuesday 27 January 2026

Nexperia supply crisis eases as Honda and GAC restart three China plants

Honda announced on January 26, 2026, that its previously halted Chinese auto factories had gradually resumed production since January 19. The shutdowns were primarily caused by a temporary suspension of shipments from automotive chip supplier Nexperia, which led to critical component shortages, forcing multiple Honda plants to halt operations.

Tuesday 27 January 2026

GlobalFoundries' MIPS takes aim at Arm's hold on automotive AI

Following GlobalFoundries' acquisition of Synopsys' ARC Processor IP business, MIPS CEO Sameer Wasson is not just integrating a portfolio; he is orchestrating a pivot.

Sunday 25 January 2026

Fan motor demand drives growth for Taiwan analog chip makers

As 2026 begins, demand for fan motors remains strong. On top of continued cooling needs driven by cloud servers, new fan upgrade and increased usage requirements are emerging across the edge computing segment. AI PCs are driving more dual-fan designs, while automotive and industrial control sectors are also expanding their fan usage. The motor driver IC opportunities behind these trends are expected to become a major development focus for many Taiwanese analog chip makers in 2026. Weltrend Semiconductor, Global Mixed-mode Technology (GMT), and Anpec Electronics are all expected to see stable support for their operations this year.

Friday 23 January 2026

15% relief without reassurance: Taiwan's auto industry after the tariff talks

As the initial results of trade negotiations between Taiwan and the US emerged in early 2026, a long-standing cloud over Taiwan's industrial sector appeared, at least briefly, to lift. The two sides agreed to set reciprocal tariffs at 15%, without stacking them on top of existing most-favored-nation rates, and Taiwan secured a key exemption under Section 232 of US trade law, which covers national security-related tariffs.

Thursday 22 January 2026

GlobalWafers chair sees Taiwan's semiconductor edge, says AI is irreversible

On January 21, 2026, GlobalWafers chairwoman Doris Hsu spoke to the media about the recent US-Taiwan tariff agreement, which lowers Taiwan's reciprocal tariffs to 15% without stacking most-favored-nation (MFN) rates. This makes Taiwan the first country to secure tariff relief under Section 232. Both sides also plan to expand supply chain investment cooperation. Hsu called this a very positive outcome for Taiwan's overall industry and said it has eased market concerns.

Thursday 22 January 2026

US-Canada trade tensions rattle Detroit's Big Three

A century-old automotive trading relationship between the US and Canada is approaching a breaking point, accelerated by repeated statements from President Trump that have cast doubt on the future of cross-border integration.

Thursday 22 January 2026

Global robotaxi industry may take off in 2026

The global market for robotaxis is set to move decisively from long-held promise to commercial reality in 2026, as autonomous driving shifts from experimental pilots to an increasingly competitive business.

Wednesday 21 January 2026

Seeking new growth, Huawei pushes deeper into China's auto industry with ADS expansion

Huawei plans a sweeping expansion of its presence in China's smart car industry in 2026, betting that advanced driver-assistance software, in-car operating systems, and digital chassis technologies can become a new pillar of growth as US sanctions continue to constrain its core telecommunications business.

Wednesday 21 January 2026

Research Insights: Nvidia unveils Alpamayo platform for L4 self-driving

Nvidia unveiled its Alpamayo family at CES 2026, introducing a suite that includes the open-source AI model Alpamayo 1, the AlpaSim simulation framework, and Physical AI Open Datasets. Alpamayo 1 centers on chain-of-thought reasoning and vision-language-action (VLA) inference models designed for autonomous driving applications.

Tuesday 20 January 2026

Nvidia Alpamayo sparks VLA computing power race as South Korea preps for autonomous ecosystem

At CES 2026 in the US, Nvidia unveiled its open-source vision-language-action (VLA) model series, Alpamayo, signaling a new phase in the development of autonomous driving technologies. The launch has intensified competition among global automakers, which are now ramping up investment and racing to secure computing power centered on VLA architectures.

Monday 19 January 2026

Research Insight: The rising chip cost inside every car is forcing a rethink in China

As electric vehicles and autonomous driving technologies spread rapidly, and as automotive electrical and electronic (E/E) architectures grow more centralized, the value of semiconductors embedded in each vehicle is rising sharply. According to an analysis by DIGITIMES, the average semiconductor content per car is expected to increase from about US$759 in 2024 to US$1,332 by 2030.

Monday 19 January 2026

Tesla accelerates AI chip development even with safety and software challenges

Tesla aims to shorten its in-house AI chip design cycle to one generation every nine months, targeting rivals Nvidia and AMD. However, industry analysts highlight automotive safety verification and software stability as the biggest bottlenecks.

Monday 19 January 2026

Ardentec utilization rate rises through 2025 on chip testing demand from networking, automotive, and storage sectors

Semiconductor testing company Ardentec reported steady utilization growth through 2025, driven by strong chip-testing orders from the networking, automotive, and storage markets. The firm's fourth-quarter revenue reached an annual high, slightly exceeding its own guidance provided in the previous quarter.

Sunday 18 January 2026

Taiwan's HCMF Group and Kinpo Electronics team up to navigate an AI-driven auto industry

The automotive electronics industry is undergoing a structural transformation unlike any it has seen before. As artificial intelligence moves from the margins to the core of vehicle design, two of Taiwan's lesser-known industrial champions—HCMF Group and Kinpo Electronics—are deepening a cross-industry partnership aimed at navigating the upheaval. Their strategy rests on two pillars: system integration and a "global-local" manufacturing footprint, designed to withstand volatility in an increasingly fragmented market.

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