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Jun 23, 12:48
Intel deepens ties with Taiwan's chip supply chain as October talks expand
Intel is deepening cooperation with Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain and plans to broaden its engagement again in mid-October after completing exchanges in the US with several Taiwanese suppliers in the first quarter of 2026.

Industrial gas manufacturer Nippon Sanso Holdings announced it will raise prices for all helium products in the Japanese market starting in July 2026, with an average price increase of more than 30%. Affected products include helium used in key applications such as semiconductor front-end process wafer cooling and medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment. The move is mainly driven by geopolitical instability in the Middle East.

Fulltech, a glass fiber yarn and cloth maker, said at its 2026 annual general meeting that demand for next-generation AI servers and high-speed switches is lifting specifications and demand for upstream PCB materials. Chairman Yuan-Pin Chang said the share of low DK2 shipments will keep rising in the second half of 2026, helping optimize the product mix and boost revenue and profitability.
Market sentiment toward the smartphone industry remains subdued. On the demand side, global smartphone sales have declined for several consecutive weeks during the second quarter of 2026, with only Apple and Huawei showing relative resilience thanks to their strong brand appeal. On the supply side, chip shortages continue to intensify, expanding beyond memory products to include both advanced-node and mature-node semiconductors.
The Indian government plans to disburse INR71 billion in semiconductor incentives in fiscal year 2027 to expand its local chip supply chain, according to anonymous government officials cited by Mint.

Infineon and InnoScience are escalating their global GaN patent dispute across the US, Germany, and China, with each side scoring wins in infringement suits that are already affecting real-world sales. Sources familiar with the matter say the latest rulings are effectively pushing the two companies into separate market territories.

Dutch semiconductor metrology specialist Nearfield Instruments has secured US$380 million in Series D funding, marking the largest fundraising round ever completed by a deep-tech company in the Netherlands.

Thailand's newly established National Semiconductor and Advanced Electronics Policy Committee has approved the framework for a national semiconductor strategy and a workforce development plan to strengthen the country's position in the global chip supply chain.

SK Hynix's semiconductor production base in Cheongju, South Korea, has seen a string of accidents since 2026, prompting questions over whether its safety management system has gaps. The incidents have drawn scrutiny because many occurred after the M15X fab began operation, as the company ramped up production to meet surging high-bandwidth memory (HBM) demand.

Taiwanese IC design leader MediaTek has sent a price hike letter to customers, signaling that the current wave of chip price increases is sweeping across the semiconductor market and that the era of chip inflation has arrived.

Japan is preparing a sweeping public-private investment strategy totaling more than JPY370 trillion (US$2.3 trillion) by fiscal 2040, spanning 17 strategic sectors including AI, semiconductors, aerospace, and energy-related industries.

Google released a 30,000-word AI roadmap on June 14 that, for the first time, clearly defines AI having the capability of 100 million humans as a key milestone on the path to artificial superintelligence (ASI). The plan outlines a three-stage evolution from today's large models to artificial general intelligence (AGI) and then ASI, reinforcing expectations that AI capabilities will keep expanding at an exponential pace.