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Monday 6 July 2026
UMC posts record first-half revenue and plans selective price hikes in second half
United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) reported its strongest quarterly run in years as mature-process demand and factory utilization improved. June consolidated revenue reached NT$23.12 billion, up 0.8% from May and 22.85% year-on-year — a 44-month high. Second-quarter revenue climbed to NT$68.73 billion, up 12.61% sequentially and 16.98% year-on-year, the highest level in 15 quarters.
Monday 6 July 2026
Samsung Foundry comeback builds as Meta, Anthropic weigh chip deals
Samsung Electronics is trying to turn its foundry business into a bigger supplier of custom chips, with Meta Platforms and Anthropic reportedly considering Samsung for processors after its Tesla win, according to Seoul Economic Daily. The potential orders could push Samsung Foundry toward profitability sooner than expected, with industry sources estimating its medium- to long-term order backlog could approach KRW50 trillion (approx. US$32.64 billion).
Monday 6 July 2026
Jim Keller startup Fab2 targets small-fab mass production

Atomic Semi, the semiconductor equipment startup founded by chip architect Jim Keller, has rebranded as Fab2 and moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas, with a vision of mass-producing small fabs. According to Tom's Hardware, Fab2's core idea is a "fab fab": it designs and builds all of its own equipment, from pumps, valves, and gas lines to lithography tools and vacuum chambers, then assembles the components into machines and the machines into a complete fab.

Monday 6 July 2026
LG Chem begins first mass supply of semiconductor strippers to Amkor

LG Chem has begun supplying semiconductor strippers to Amkor Technology, a major US-based packaging and testing provider, in its first commercial move into the market. The deal highlights rising demand for advanced chip-making chemicals as artificial intelligence, high-bandwidth memory, and smaller device designs reshape global semiconductor manufacturing.

Monday 6 July 2026
South Korea's chip hub push, led by Samsung, SK, draws KRW896 trillion — and a market selloff

SK Group, Samsung Electronics, and Amkor will invest a combined KRW896 trillion (US$585.2 billion) to build South Korea's second major semiconductor production base in the country's southwest, the industry ministry said.

Monday 6 July 2026
South Korea weighs longer hours for chip R&D in new tech zones

South Korea is considering exempting research and development personnel from the country's 52-hour workweek limit inside proposed Mega Special Zones. These would include a planned second semiconductor cluster in the southwestern Honam region.

Monday 6 July 2026
China advanced packaging maker SJ Semiconductor starts US$1.5bn 3DIC project for AI chips

SJ Semiconductor has started construction of a CNY10 billion (approx. US$1.47 billion) 3DIC manufacturing project in Shanghai's Lingang New Area, expanding advanced packaging capacity for high-performance computing, AI and data center chips.

Monday 6 July 2026
Greatek Electronics advances Taiwan+1 plan with acquisition of Onsemi Philippines packaging plant
Greatek Electronics, a subsidiary of memory packaging and testing provider Powertech Technology (PTI), has approved the acquisition of On Semiconductor SSMP Philippines, a packaging and testing services company under the On Semiconductor (Onsemi) group, using internal funds. The acquisition aims to strengthen the group's overseas operational footprint and improve its global customer service capabilities and supply chain resilience.
Monday 6 July 2026
China's chip equipment makers ramp up expansion as AI and memory boom fuel domestic demand

China's leading semiconductor equipment manufacturers are accelerating expansion through acquisitions and fundraising, as surging AI investment, memory chip capacity growth, and import substitution combine to create one of the industry's strongest growth cycles in years.

Monday 6 July 2026
Exclusive Interview: Dutch startup Nearfield bets on process control to rival EUV in AI chip manufacturing

As Moore's Law approaches its physical limits, simply shrinking semiconductor process nodes is no longer the sole path to improving chip performance.

Monday 6 July 2026
India's chip mission enters harder phase: deciding where to compete
India's plan to sharply expand public funding for semiconductors marks a new phase in its chip ambitions. The harder question is whether New Delhi can now decide where it wants to win first.
Monday 6 July 2026
Europe's defense boom has a semiconductor problem
Europe's defense industry is running into a structural bottleneck: the semiconductors needed for modern missiles, drones, radar, communications, and electronic warfare cannot be produced domestically at scale. Even as defense budgets rise across the EU, the industrial base needed to turn spending into capability remains constrained by dependence on foreign microelectronics.
Monday 6 July 2026
NXP chief says robots need autonomous computing to move beyond remote control

As physical AI and robotics spread globally, NXP CEO Rafael Sotomayor said robots will only reach commercial scale if they can think and act independently. For international industries, that shift could determine whether factory automation, humanoids, and smart machines become practical tools or remain costly demonstrations.

Monday 6 July 2026
Exclusive Interview: Dutch startup Nearfield targets AI chip process control expansion after US$380 million funding round
Dutch semiconductor equipment startup Nearfield Instruments has completed a US$380 million Series D funding round, the largest-ever fundraising for a Dutch deep-tech company. The company is now targeting an initial public offering (IPO) in 2028.
Monday 6 July 2026
Huawei chip chief proposes Tau Law V2 centered on time-based scaling
Huawei's semiconductor chief is promoting a post-Moore roadmap that shifts industry focus from shrinking transistors to reducing time across the computing stack, a framework backed by internal production claims for Kirin chips and Ascend accelerators. Despite that, he also drew caution because the work remains a preprint, not a peer-reviewed study.
Monday 6 July 2026
Meta's AI cloud idea underscores a search for returns, not an AI retreat
Meta is reportedly exploring a new AI cloud infrastructure business that would let enterprises use its AI models and some unused GPU capacity, a move that could lift hardware utilization and create a new revenue stream from its heavy artificial intelligence spending. The proposal has revived talk of an AI bubble, but key industry barometers Nvidia and TSMC still show no sign of a broad demand slowdown.
Monday 6 July 2026
India launches third semiconductor plant as CG Semi begins commercial production in Gujarat
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated CG Semi's Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility in Sanand, Gujarat, marking the start of commercial production at what the government described as the country's third semiconductor plant to become operational in 2026. The project forms part of New Delhi's broader effort to build a domestic semiconductor ecosystem under its India Semiconductor Mission and "Make in India" initiative.
Monday 6 July 2026
Asahi Kasei to expand Taiwan photoresist film capacity for AI chip packaging
Asahi Kasei, one of the notable suppliers of Sunfort dry film photoresist in Japan, has initiated a fab expansion project in Taiwan. The newly established plant is expected to further elevate capacity performance in cutting and processing semiconductor packaging substrates.
Monday 6 July 2026
India roundup: India accelerates semiconductor ambitions through policy and global partnerships
India accelerated its semiconductor ambitions through deeper Japan cooperation, policy advances, new manufacturing partnerships, and local technology investments, reinforcing efforts to strengthen resilient supply chains and expand domestic electronics production despite infrastructure challenges and rising component costs amid intensifying global competition.
Monday 6 July 2026
Analysis: Taiwan's semiconductor sector enters 2026 helium crunch, with nearly 90% dependent on Qatar
Taiwan's chipmakers walked into the 2026 helium supply shock more exposed to Qatar than any other major buyer, sourcing nearly 88% of their rare-gas imports from the Gulf state in 2025, up from 46% four years earlier. With war disrupting the Strait of Hormuz, that concentration leaves fabs vulnerable and the outlook uncertain.
Sunday 5 July 2026
Applied Materials unveils integrated tools for HBM, chiplet, and 3D packaging scale-up
Applied Materials announced a new equipment platform aimed at addressing the memory bandwidth and energy-efficiency bottleneck confronting AI computing, unveiling tools across DRAM, advanced packaging, and process control to help chipmakers boost yields and accelerate mass production. The company said the platform combines materials engineering with process integration to support high-bandwidth memory (HBM), chiplet architectures, and multi-layer 3D stacking on advanced production lines.
Sunday 5 July 2026
AI, HPC test interface demand drives CHPT June revenue to new monthly high

Test interface supplier Chunghwa Precision Test Tech. Co., Ltd. (CHPT) reported its June 2026 revenue, marking its sixth consecutive monthly revenue record as demand from the market remained strong. The company also posted record quarterly revenue in both the first and second quarters of 2026, underscoring its sustained growth momentum.

Sunday 5 July 2026
Advantest and OpenLight join forces on silicon photonics test platform for mass production
Advantest said it has partnered with OpenLight to develop a scalable silicon photonics (SiPh) test solution for mass production environments. The announcement comes as artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing workloads increase demand for silicon photonics and co-packaged optics in data centers.
Saturday 4 July 2026
Infineon wins fourth German patent ruling against Innoscience, as GaN fight flares in Shanghai
Germany's District Court Munich I ruled on July 3 that Innoscience infringed Infineon Technologies' gallium nitride (GaN) patents, barring the Chinese chipmaker from importing, selling, or marketing the affected products in Germany and ordering it to pay damages.
Saturday 4 July 2026
Machvision's June revenue hits another record due to AI demand
Machvision posted another record monthly revenue in June 2026, as surging demand for AI servers, high-performance computing (HPC), and advanced packaging continued to lift orders for the semiconductor and PCB inspection equipment maker. The company said the biggest challenge has now shifted from winning orders to managing supply chains and expanding capacity.
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