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Thursday 1 October 2026
Topco opens Fukuoka office to link Japan chip hubs
Topco Scientific said its Japanese subsidiary, Shunkawa, officially opened its Fukuoka office on October 1, making it the company’s third base in Japan alongside its Tokyo headquarters and Kumamoto office. The move is designed to leverage Fukuoka’s location and industrial clustering to strengthen real-time technical support and new business development in Kyushu’s semiconductor hub.
Thursday 1 October 2026
Infineon opens new backend chip plant in Thailand, eyes growth to up to five modules
Infineon Technologies officially inaugurated a new backend manufacturing site in Samut Prakan, south of Bangkok, on October 1, expanding the German chipmaker's production network in Southeast Asia starting with an initial investment of over EUR100 million (US$113.1 million).
Thursday 1 October 2026
ASE expands smart OSAT push with six university research partnerships
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) held its 11th Automation Industry-Academia Project Results Presentation on September 30, unveiling 12 technology projects developed with six Taiwanese universities as it works to advance smart outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) and digital manufacturing. The projects were designed to support semiconductor factory efficiency, quality control, resilience, and climate adaptation.
Thursday 1 October 2026
Shinko Electric acquires JDI's Mobara Fab to expand AI packaging capacity
Shinko Electric Industries announced on September 30 it has signed a purchase agreement to acquire the Mobara Fab from Japan Display (JDI) in Mobara City, Chiba Prefecture. The transaction is intended to establish a new core production hub dedicated to high-end semiconductor packaging, addressing surging global demand for AI accelerators and data center applications.
Thursday 1 October 2026
DB HiTek raises foundry prices by up to 30% as Chinese demand strains 200mm capacity
DB HiTek has raised foundry prices by as much as 30%, with Chinese customers facing the steepest increases as rising orders push the South Korean foundry's 8-inch capacity close to full utilization, according to The Elec.
Thursday 1 October 2026
China's chip-tool localization accelerates: ACM Research backlog jumps 88%
ACM Research (Shanghai)'s order backlog has surged alongside China's semiconductor equipment expansion, giving the Shanghai-listed chip-tool maker a larger base of future deliveries while AI-related capacity investment and localization continue to support demand.
Thursday 1 October 2026
China OSAT share in cloud AI accelerators to hit 13% in 2026 as local ASIC volume ramps up
As China accelerates its push for homegrown AI computing chips, custom ASIC accelerators from domestic tech giants—including Huawei, Cambricon, and Alibaba—are entering volume production. These chips are being routed to Chinese OSAT providers such as JCET Group, Tongfu Microelectronics, and SJ Semiconductor (SJSemi), driving a steady expansion in Chinese OSATs' share of the global cloud AI accelerator market.
Thursday 1 October 2026
MediaTek TPU orders rise as chip capacity war intensifies
MediaTek's Google Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) business is still moving steadily higher, but supply-chain sources say the real limit is capacity as chipmakers and cloud service providers (CSPs) battle for semiconductor output in Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park. MediaTek has also denied market rumors that its TPU orders have slipped.
Thursday 1 October 2026
Tata Electronics leans on INR612.8 billion in guarantees to fund iPhone, chip expansion
Tata Electronics, Apple's contract manufacturing partner, provided INR612.8 billion (US$6.38 billion) in corporate guarantees on behalf of its subsidiaries in fiscal 2026 as it expanded iPhone manufacturing and semiconductor projects, The Economic Times reported.
Thursday 1 October 2026
Applied Materials' EPIC Center adds Kioxia for AI memory, 3D stacking push
Applied Materials announced that Kioxia will join its Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization (EPIC) Center in Silicon Valley, California. The two companies will collaborate on developing advanced memory cells and structures, multi-chip stacking architectures, and new materials engineering technologies to improve the memory density and performance required in the artificial intelligence (AI) era.
Thursday 1 October 2026
DIGITIMES Insight: AI scaling is moving from chip shrinkage to system integration
TSMC said the next phase of AI performance growth will depend less on shrinking a single chip and more on combining multiple chips, memory, and advanced packaging inside larger systems. The shift could reshape semiconductor competition, as demand for compute, bandwidth, power delivery, and cooling rises in tandem. The company outlined the trend at its heterogeneous integration forum during SEMICON Taiwan 2026, saying AI computing transistors in a single CoWoS package are set to rise more than 48-fold by 2029 from 2024 levels, while total HBM bandwidth is expected to increase more than 34-fold.
Thursday 1 October 2026
AI chip packaging demand meets labor pushback: ASE's NT$5.6B Taiwan snack factory deal sparks strike vote
ASE Technology Holding (ASEH) announced on July 30 that it would spend roughly NT$5.67 billion (approx. US$177.97 million) to acquire land and factory buildings in the Zhongli Industrial Park from Taiwanese snack maker Kuai Kuai, a move meant to support future capacity expansion at its Zhongli plant. The deal, however, has unexpectedly become a flashpoint, with the Kuai Kuai union recently holding a strike vote and protesting outside ASE's Zhongli facility.
Thursday 1 October 2026
SG Semiconductor builds brand and talent for Singapore chip industry
Singapore has launched the SG Semiconductor brand to strengthen its semiconductor profile and attract talent, aiming to create a globally recognizable industry identity beyond its existing R&D system. Yee-Chia Yeo, A*STAR vice president for innovation and enterprise, said the initiative is not just a website or information platform, but a way to connect Singapore's wafer manufacturing, equipment, materials, research institutes, and universities into a more visible ecosystem.
Thursday 1 October 2026
Samsung Foundry gets boost from HBM4 as 2nm push continues
Samsung Electronics' HBM4 ramp is giving its foundry business a timely boost, as rising demand for the memory product translates into more work for the company's 4nm logic lines.
Thursday 1 October 2026
Jensen Huang wins Van Fleet Award as Nvidia, South Korea trio reunites
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attended the Korea Society's annual dinner in New York on September 28 local time and received the 2026 Van Fleet Award, with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on hand to congratulate him. The appearance underscored how Nvidia's ties with South Korea's semiconductor makers have expanded from memory supply into AI manufacturing, creating a two-way relationship in products and technology.
Thursday 1 October 2026
AI boom drives Southern Taiwan Science Park revenue past NT$1.7 trillion in 1H26
The Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) posted revenue of NT$1.77 trillion (approx. US$55.66 billion) in the first half of 2026, up 28.57% from the same period in 2025. Growth was mainly driven by the rapid development of the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom, coupled with Taiwan's leading role in the semiconductor industry, enabling the science park to maintain steady expansion momentum and further consolidate its position at the core of the global high-tech supply chain.
Thursday 1 October 2026
Lip-Bu Tan calls TSMC a partner rather than a rival
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan stated that Intel's relationship with TSMC is built on partnership rather than rivalry. He noted that a collaborative mindset guides key industry leaders, including TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, as they navigate the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) transformation.
Thursday 1 October 2026
How a TSMC veteran is steering Singapore's lab-to-fab chip strategy
Yee-Chia Yeo, vice president for innovation and enterprise at A*STAR, returned to Singapore in 2022 and has since turned years of industry experience into a strategy for advancing the city-state's semiconductor R&D and industry development. He is helping build a semiconductor model that differs from Taiwan's, with a focus on linking research more closely to manufacturing needs.
Thursday 1 October 2026
Trump-Xi talks leave chip policies unchanged; US guards AI advantage while China pursues self-reliance
Following the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, market observers broadly agreed that the talks yielded few surprises. The meeting produced limited substantive progress on economic, trade, or diplomatic fronts, making significant shifts in high-stakes technology policy even less likely.
Wednesday 30 September 2026
Gold Circuit turns Amazon into a shareholder for Trainium servers
Gold Circuit Electronics (GCE) plans to bring in Amazon as a strategic investor through a private placement expected to raise NT$1.59 billion (US$49.88 million), lifting the two companies from a simple supply-chain relationship to a strategic partnership backed by equity. The deal would also turn a GCE customer into a shareholder of the printed circuit board (PCB) maker, while Amazon invests again in Taiwan's server supply chain after joining Alchip Technologies' private placement in 2024.
Wednesday 30 September 2026
Apple A20 Pro ditches PoP memory packaging for WMCM
Apple's A20 Pro chip has dropped traditional package-on-package (PoP) packaging in favor of Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module (WMCM), with memory and processor dies laid out side by side to potentially improve packaging yield and thermal performance, according to a teardown analysis by TechInsights. The findings come as Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Apple's A20 Pro draw comparisons around 2-nanometer chip manufacturing and memory packaging.
Wednesday 30 September 2026
Taiwan backs TSMC's US push but insists core R&D stays home
Taiwan's semiconductor industry, which originated in the Hsinchu Science Park and later expanded to the Central and Southern Taiwan Science Parks, now encompasses manufacturing bases across three continents, Premier Jung-Tai Cho said in a policy report to Taiwan's legislature, the Legislative Yuan, as its 11th term convened for its sixth session. Beyond high-tech giants, hidden champions within Taiwan's traditional industries are also taking center stage internationally.
Wednesday 30 September 2026
ASE Technology buys Singapore factory for AI chip testing expansion
ASE Technology Holding's Singapore unit has approved the purchase of a factory in Yishun Industrial Park from Dutch LED maker Lumileds Singapore for about US$68.44 million, or about NT$2.152 billion. The site is intended to support future capacity expansion.
Wednesday 30 September 2026
AI boom draws display makers into semiconductors with glass core substrates and Micro LED
AI is driving the semiconductor industry into a new growth cycle while creating opportunities for display companies traditionally centered on panels to move into semiconductors. These companies are extending their reach into emerging areas such as advanced packaging and optical communications, seeking to leverage core technologies such as glass substrates and Micro LED.
Wednesday 30 September 2026
VSMC bets on value over cost as Singapore fab builds next-generation R&D and IP capabilities
VisionPower Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (VSMC), the joint venture between Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) and NXP Semiconductors, opened its 12-inch wafer fab in Tampines, Singapore, on September 28.