South Korea's government is in talks with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix over a potential new phase of large-scale semiconductor investments, as the two chipmakers review plans that could include front-end fabrication plants and packaging facilities across the country's Honam and Chungcheong regions. Both companies say no final decisions have been made.
Samsung Electronics' System LSI division is pressing its mobile business to expand adoption of the in-house Exynos 2700 processor beyond the standard Galaxy S27 and S27 Plus models and into the premium Galaxy S27 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 8, according to The Bell.
China's push to build a domestic semiconductor equipment industry is beginning to cut into revenue at major Japanese toolmakers, with five major Japanese suppliers posting a combined 12% drop in China sales for the fiscal year ended March 2026, Nikkei reported.
Samsung Electronics' foundry plant in Taylor, Texas, is showing signs of moving into equipment-level execution. Key engineers from ASML Korea, the Dutch lithography equipment giant's South Korean unit, have been dispatched to the Taylor facility and are expected to remain on site for roughly six to eight weeks, according to Korean industry publication DealSite.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Demand for high-end fiberglass cloth is surging on the AI boom, and orders from copper-clad laminate (CCL) customers are leaving the world's two largest suppliers, Nittobo and Taiwan Glass, short of capacity. In particular, low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and low Dk2 products remain the tightest, with supply-demand gaps now expected to last through 2027.
AI is no longer a localized software novelty. It is now aggressively wiping out traditional hardware infrastructure across Europe. According to new market intelligence reports from CONTEXT World, there has been an unprecedented displacement of legacy systems. Driven by complex professional workflows, massive public sector procurement, and a fundamental restructuring of telecommunications networks, AI-optimized hardware has transitioned from a progressive choice to an absolute operational necessity.
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.
