The US House Foreign Affairs Committee has advanced legislation that would grant Congress the authority to review and block advanced chip sales to adversarial nations, mirroring the oversight typically reserved for arms deals. This move, alongside the proposed Chip Security Act, has sparked a sharp divide between national security hawks in Washington and semiconductor industry leaders regarding the future of American technological leadership and export control strategies.

Rohm and Suchi Semicon have announced a strategic manufacturing partnership intended to strengthen semiconductor production capacity in India and support both domestic and international markets. The collaboration pairs Rohm's expertise in device technology and its global semiconductor presence with Suchi Semicon's back-end manufacturing capabilities and operational experience to create a reliable, scalable manufacturing framework responsive to changing industry requirements.

As artificial intelligence (AI) server applications consume large amounts of tantalum polymer capacitors, the supply-demand gap in the market continues to widen. Kemet, a subsidiary of passive component giant Yageo, has issued another price increase notice, with the new pricing set to take effect on April 1.

As much of the global semiconductor industry remains fixated on AI training accelerators and hyperscale GPUs, US-based AI processor company Blaize is making a different wager in India: large-scale inference embedded in sovereign public infrastructure.

Rapidus will co-develop 2nm image-processing semiconductors with Canon for cameras and surveillance devices, Nikkei reported, and will trial-produce chips at Rapidus's Chitose, Hokkaido, facility with Synopsys also participating.

After the US and Israel launched joint air strikes on Iran, Middle East tensions escalated sharply. South Korea activated an emergency response system, with Prime Minister Kim Min-seok chairing daily reviews of energy, financial, and supply chain conditions. The Ministry of Economy and Finance formed three cross-ministerial task forces to monitor risks around the Strait of Hormuz and track global oil price and exchange rate volatility amid rising crude prices.

Taiwan President Ching-te Lai stated on March 2 that one of the government's core policy goals for 2026 is to boost the economy by fully promoting the country's AI major infrastructure projects. Silicon photonics (SiPh) is reportedly a key focus within this plan. Cheng-Wen Wu, chairman of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), confirmed that the government has decided to actively invest in localizing SiPh equipment and materials. TSMC has pledged to assist Taiwan's traditional industries in developing related equipment and materials, opening new opportunities for these sectors.

MediaTek has announced that its holding company, Digimoc Holdings, will acquire 1,722,759 preferred shares of US-based silicon photonics (SiPh) startup Ayar Labs at US$52.24 per share, totaling approximately US$90 million. This investment represents about a 2.4% stake in Ayar Labs. Industry observers see this move not only as a foundation for deeper collaboration between MediaTek and Ayar Labs in the SiPh field but also as a strategic step for MediaTek to gain greater influence in the cloud AI ecosystem going forward.

AI-driven data centre expansion has pushed the memory market beyond traditional supply-demand cycles, creating a structural shortage that continues to deepen. Industry sources say the gap between spot and contract prices has widened to 40–50%, pressuring memory suppliers to raise contract prices in successive rounds to close the spread.

Nvidia has announced a strategic partnership with Lumentum Holdings, accompanied by a US$2 billion investment aimed at boosting US-based manufacturing and R&D for advanced optics technologies. The deal includes multiyear purchase commitments and access rights to next-generation laser components, with a focus on accelerating development for AI data centers.