Humanoid robots are moving from demonstrations toward mass production, changing the priorities of chip design. Instead of simply chasing higher AI compute and TOPS, or trillions of operations per second, the industry is increasingly focused on how efficiently perception, computing, decision-making, and control can work together within tight power, cost, and latency constraints.

MediaTek has reportedly landed major orders for Google TPU products in recent years, even appearing to challenge Broadcom's position. At a recent earnings call, MediaTek also raised its 2027 ASIC market share target to 15% to 20%, and industry watchers largely credit that goal to the breadth of MediaTek's ASIC services.

SK keyfoundry has approved KRW90 billion (approx. US$64 million) in capital spending to expand its 8-inch foundry capacity, a rare move for a company that has long prioritized maintaining existing production lines.

Less than a week after LG Group and Nvidia signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU), Madison Huang, Nvidia's senior director of product marketing for Omniverse and robotics, is reportedly preparing to visit South Korea and head directly to one of LG's key robotics R&D sites.

Samsung Electronics is reportedly considering repurposing the second line at its next-generation semiconductor R&D complex in Giheung into a foundry send-fab, a shift that would add advanced-node capacity as demand for AI memory strains leading-edge capacity.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) and LG Innotek pushed their semiconductor package substrate operations close to full capacity in the first half of 2026 as shipments of high-value substrates for AI accelerators, server CPUs, memory and data center networking climbed, company filings and earnings materials show.