Sherman, a city north of Dallas, has emerged as a possible site for TSMC's next US chip plant, with Texas development documents describing a proposed US$45 billion investment in two semiconductor fabs by an unidentified manufacturer.

Apple is committing more money to research and securing supplies while reducing cash spending on fixed assets, a combination that shows how its AI ambitions and component shortages are reshaping investment. Its November 2 results reveal both a deliberate push into new capabilities and the growing financial burden of keeping devices and services available.

China's outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) companies entered the fourth quarter with rising sales, high utilization, and an industry-wide price upturn. Their third-quarter results also show how much reported profit growth rests on investment gains and lower taxes, and how heavily the sector is now spending to close an advanced packaging gap that AI demand has exposed.

Geopolitical tensions, volatile crude oil prices, and tightening sustainability requirements are reshaping the global chemical industry, creating new challenges and opportunities for Taiwan's specialty chemicals sector. Against this backdrop, the government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) forecasts that Taiwan's specialty chemicals output will reach NT$185.7 billion (US$5.7 billion) in 2026, up 10.9% from 2025, partly driven by higher oil prices pushing up specialty chemical prices.

South Korea plans to bring new semiconductor fabs into operation at least two years ahead of schedule by speeding up construction approvals and infrastructure development, as the government seeks to support KRW1,600 trillion (approx. US$1.2 trillion) in planned private investment, Yonhap reported on November 2.

Apple said the main supply constraint in its fiscal fourth quarter 2026, ended September 26, was the availability of leading-edge process capacity for its in-house chips. It said the constraint is easing as more of its products move to 2nm technology.

Samsung Electronics plans to shut down its remaining 8-inch foundry lines by the end of 2030, forcing South Korean chip designers to seek alternative manufacturing capacity as competing foundries operate near full capacity, The Elec reported.

The printed circuit board (PCB) shortage that Indian electronics makers expect to worsen in the coming months is part of a global squeeze. AI servers are absorbing high-end laminate, glass fiber cloth, and Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF) capacity; the war in West Asia has cut off a key resin; and equipment for new capacity can take up to 30 months to deliver. Supply chain estimates cited in Taiwan suggest the tightest materials will ease only gradually, from the second half of 2027 through 2028.

China's memory chip industry heads into the final quarter of 2026 riding a global supply shortage: its leading DRAM maker booked more than CNY54 billion (US$8.11 billion) in third-quarter profit, and its chip designers are still lifting sales on tight supply. The same third-quarter results also show where risks are accumulating — rapid capacity expansion, swelling inventories, and a US policy debate that could reach the equipment domestic fabs depend on.

Micron Technology and China's CXMT have taken sharply different approaches to next-generation DRAM scaling, exposing a divide over the commercial viability of 4F-squared memory-cell architecture. While CXMT is advancing 4F-squared towards commercial production to improve bit density, Micron argues that capacitor-scaling constraints undermine its cost advantages and is prioritising 6F-squared technology and a longer-term transition to 3D DRAM. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, meanwhile, are pursuing alternative development paths, highlighting the industry's competing approaches to extending DRAM density and manufacturing efficiency.

Nvidia will showcase its expanding partnerships with South Korean companies at AI Day Seoul, where Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will present semiconductor development cases using Nvidia AI technologies. LG Electronics and Doosan Robotics will demonstrate robotics technologies, while SK Telecom (SKT), Naver Cloud, and Coupang will discuss the development and operation of AI data centers and infrastructure.