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Jun 18
Samsung, SK Hynix weigh first chip packaging plants in South Korea's Honam region

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are each reviewing locations in South Korea's Honam region for new semiconductor packaging plants, according to The Elec and Hankyung, citing industry sources, as the two companies look for ways to add back-end capacity beyond their existing manufacturing hubs.

The race to commercialize glass core substrates in advanced semiconductor packaging is heating up — but the technology is moving faster in headlines than in production lines. DIGITIMES has been tracking the latest developments in TSMC's CoPoS advanced packaging technology, with glass core substrates emerging as the most closely watched variable in that story.

Nvidia's planned US$20 billion strategic deal with Groq is built on a simple logic: as compute gets cheaper, demand keeps expanding. In a recent interview, Groq co-founder and CEO Jonathan Ross explained why Nvidia is expected to combine Groq's LPU with its latest Vera Rubin platform and how GPU and LPU can work as complementary engines in LLM inference.
AI data centers are driving growth in demand for power management and power semiconductor components. Hot swap products, in particular, require a wide safe operating area (SOA) to prevent excessive surge current when a redundant power supply is inserted and activated, interacting with the system's large capacitors.
TSMC is accelerating its CoPoS rollout, replacing traditional round wafers with larger rectangular glass panels to support packaging demand for AI GPUs and HPC chips over the next several years. Supply chain sources said the first wave of demo equipment has already been installed at VisEra, a TSMC subsidiary.

AI-driven memory price spikes are presenting a challenge for Samsung's smartphone business, with rising component prices eroding the affordability of its budget phones. At the same time, Samsung is seeking to use its new AI features to encourage new device purchases as memory prices dampen smartphone sales globally.

Japanese bathroom fixture maker Toto is deepening its commitment to the semiconductor industry, unveiling plans to invest JPY80 billion (approx. US$495.3 million) over the next five years to expand production of advanced ceramic materials used in chip manufacturing. According to a Nikkei Asia report, the company aims to support future-generation semiconductor processes in the 1nm range, extending a business that has become a major profit driver amid the AI boom.

China's memory makers are moving from technology catch-up to capital-market expansion, with ChangXin Memory Technologies' (CXMT) parent and Yangtze Memory Technology (YMTC) both preparing initial public offerings (IPOs) to fund future capacity growth and technology upgrades. South Korean industry players are paying particularly close attention to YMTC, which focuses on NAND Flash and is closing in on Korean suppliers across market share, 3D NAND layer stacking, output expansion, and building channels in consumer solid-state drives (SSD).

According to an exclusive report by VideoCardz, Intel's first x86 system-on-chip (SoC) integrating an Nvidia RTX GPU has been added to its internal product roadmap and is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2028, potentially making its public debut at CES 2028.

In a rare public admission during an internal briefing, Park Yong-In, president of the System LSI Business of the Device Solutions (DS) Division at Samsung Electronics, expressed concern over losses in the company's system-on-chip (SoC) business. As a result, the overall system LSI business is also expected to post a loss in 2026.
Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of June 15-21, 2026:

Taiwan's investment office, InvesTaiwan, under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, has approved expanded Taiwan investment plans from four companies, led by MSScorps, which will invest NT$1.5 billion (US$47.4 million) and is filing for the third time. The company plans to add production lines and adopt AI technology at its Hsinchu, Tai Yuen Hi-Tech Industrial Park, and Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) facilities.