Altera, the programmable-chip maker backed by Silver Lake and Intel, has confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US, positioning the company to tap renewed investor demand for semiconductor and AI-related businesses.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) chairman C.C. Wei and co-chief operating officer Y.J. Mii participated in the "Cross-Generational Dialogue: Questions and Answers for the AI Era" forum on September 15. Students asked how TSMC determines whether a technology is worth long-term investment when information is incomplete and the technological direction remains unclear, as well as how people can develop the ability to judge whether answers generated by artificial intelligence (AI) are true or false in the AI era.
The logic die at the bottom of a high-bandwidth memory (HBM) stack has become the semiconductor industry's newest contested territory. Within weeks, SK Hynix has been reported to be weighing Intel alongside TSMC, Samsung Electronics has been reported to be pairing its own foundry with TSMC, and Micron has confirmed that TSMC will manufacture its next-generation base die. What began as a single-vendor arrangement is turning into a multi-front sourcing contest — and the assumption that a second source automatically means a cheaper one is already being challenged.
Taiwan's AI server supply chain continued to show strong year-over-year growth in August, although performance varied significantly across baseboard management controller (BMC), cable/connector, and server-case suppliers.
Unigroup Guoxin Microelectronics plans to acquire WeEn Semiconductors for CNY1.9 billion (≈ US$283 million), giving the Chinese specialty IC supplier in-house wafer manufacturing and a faster route into power semiconductors.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are preparing to move DRAM below the 10nm threshold in 2028, with the two memory makers pursuing different cell structures as conventional scaling becomes increasingly difficult.
At this year's China International Optoelectronic Expo (CIOE), Sivers Semiconductor brought two products to its booth that trace the trajectory of the optical networking industry: a 1.6T pluggable optical transceiver currently ramping toward mainstream adoption, and a prototype module built for external light source (ELS) architectures, a technology that could define the next generation of data center interconnects.
In 2026, major smartphone system-on-chip (SoC) vendors began moving selected flagship processors to 2nm technology, seeking not only to secure sufficient capacity but also to deliver meaningful upgrades in technical specifications.
IC substrate manufacturer Phoenix Pioneer Technology (PPt) turned profitable in the first half of 2026, driven by strong momentum in its advanced AI power substrate business. Production lines are running at full capacity, with order visibility clearly extending into the first quarter of 2027. Notably, end-system customers are bypassing OSAT providers to negotiate long-term agreements (LTAs) directly with the company.
Nvidia and MediaTek have recently drawn market attention after Nvidia invested US$3.5 billion in MediaTek convertible bonds, expanding cooperation into custom AI chips, AI PCs, automotive, and data centers. But their overlap began more than 20 years ago, during competition in the PC chipset market, when MediaTek, ALi, ULi, and Nvidia were already connected.
After months of tight supply and sharp price increases in 2026, the global memory market is expected to see its supply-demand gap narrow significantly in 2027 as DRAM capacity expands and demand patterns shift, according to Beijing-based Sigmaintell Consulting. The consultancy expects the memory and broader semiconductor markets to continue growing through 2028, but forecasts a potential pullback in 2029 as evolving AI applications reshape demand.
