A rare gallium nitride (GaN) patent clash dominated the opening day of electronica Shanghai 2026, after China's Innoscience accused Infineon of displaying GaN power products covered by a Chinese court injunction.
Dutch semiconductor equipment startup Nearfield Instruments has completed a US$380 million Series D funding round, the largest-ever fundraising for a Dutch deep-tech company. The company is now targeting an initial public offering (IPO) in 2028.
The global semiconductor market is entering a historically significant growth phase. According to WSTS's latest June forecast, global semiconductor revenue is projected to grow by nearly 90% in 2026, reaching approximately US$1.5 trillion. Growth is expected to remain exceptionally strong in 2027, with year-on-year expansion of around 27%, pushing total market revenue close to US$1.9 trillion.
Taiwan's chipmakers walked into the 2026 helium supply shock more exposed to Qatar than any other major buyer, sourcing nearly 88% of their rare-gas imports from the Gulf state in 2025, up from 46% four years earlier. With war disrupting the Strait of Hormuz, that concentration leaves fabs vulnerable and the outlook uncertain.
Manhattan is where financial giants gather. By the weekend, the crowds become so dense that near Times Square, even moving through the streets can be difficult. At moments like this, a walk through Central Park becomes the best choice. With its forests, streams, and seemingly natural ecology, and with plane trees, pines, and olive trees arranged in irregular patterns, Central Park truly is the best place for New Yorkers to rest in the heart of the city.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix have announced the country's largest-ever semiconductor expansion plan, while soaring memory prices have opened a separate fight between Micron and Apple.
As Taiwan becomes the core of the global AI hardware supply chain, Qnity — the century-old company spun off from US chemicals giant DuPont and separately listed — is likewise expanding its production capacity investment in Taiwan. Asia-Pacific president Dennis Chen said in an interview with DIGITIMES that future investment will center closely on three main battlegrounds: advanced processes, advanced packaging, and thermal management.
Protecting patents around the world is a core value for any R&D-driven company. It is also a commitment to partnering with customers. In 2025, glass giant Corning filed nearly 400 patent applications and close to 1,000 international applications. Its active patent portfolio now totals around 11,400 patents worldwide.
For more than a decade, Apple built one of the industry's most profitable business models by using its purchasing power to drive down memory and component costs before turning hardware upgrades into high-margin revenue. The AI-driven boom in HBM and DRAM is now challenging that strategy.
As the electronics industry enters the second half of 2026, it is approaching what has traditionally been the peak season for demand. However, macroeconomic and geopolitical factors have disrupted normal business cycles across many applications, making seasonal patterns far less predictable. According to industry sources, this season is particularly uncertain. Rising component prices and supply shortages have made downstream procurement behavior and end-market consumption patterns more difficult to predict than in the past. Demand signals that the industry once relied upon have become distorted.
Apple's latest round of price increases for Macs, MacBooks, and iPads has unsettled investors and weighed on Asian technology markets, but the reaction may be disproportionate to the likely impact on demand. While higher prices will inevitably slow some purchases, Apple's premium positioning, loyal customer base, and selective pricing strategy suggest the broader implications for shipments and the supply chain are likely to remain manageable.
AI is turning memory from an inventory risk into a strategic resource. As memory becomes integral to platform and system design, customers are securing supply earlier, making availability increasingly critical to product launches, says Winbond Electronics president James Chen.
Jack Ma recently made a rare public appearance with senior executives from Alibaba and Ant Group at a rice-planting event outside Hangzhou. Although Alibaba chairman Joseph Tsai was absent, CEO Eddie Wu, chief scientist Jingren Zhou and Ant Group chairman Eric Jing were photographed planting rice seedlings alongside the company's founder.
