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Thursday 21 May 2026
GigaDevice sees niche DRAM and NAND prices rising through 2026
GigaDevice said tight supply and rising prices across DRAM, NOR Flash, and SLC NAND Flash continued to fuel strong first-quarter 2026 earnings growth, supported by recovering demand from AI, server, and industrial applications.
Thursday 21 May 2026
SK Hynix reportedly shifts Cheongju mask fab toward HBM yield push
SK Hynix is reportedly moving to reshape part of its Cheongju campus around wafer testing, a shift that underscores how high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, is putting new pressure on the back end of the chipmaking process.
Thursday 21 May 2026
Tech Forum 2026: How much longer can semiconductors sustain Taiwan?
During a keynote discussion session at Tech Forum 2026, DIGITIMES senior reporter Monica Chen and semiconductor analyst Andrew Lu shared their views on current AI server technology transformations, concerns over capital expenditure bubbles among global cloud giants, changes in application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and chip architectures, and TSMC's global expansion strategy.
Thursday 21 May 2026
Commentary: China builds its memory twin engines; IPO push for YMTC, CXMT intensifies

China's memory chip industry is entering a critical capital markets phase, with YMTC formally launching IPO counselling and CXMT resuming its STAR Market listing review after updating its prospectus. The parallel moves mark an accelerated push by China's two leading memory chipmakers to secure long-term funding and expand their role in the global semiconductor industry.

Thursday 21 May 2026
Samsung labor dispute adds pressure to memory chip market
Surging demand for AI data center infrastructure has already pushed the memory market into a structural shortage. Now, Samsung Electronics' labor dispute is adding another layer of uncertainty for DRAM and NAND Flash prices.
Thursday 21 May 2026
OSE targets AI server SMT growth as memory demand lifts outlook
Orient Semiconductor Electronics (OSE) said that strong memory market demand is lifting its outlook and expanding its role in the memory supply chain, while also strengthening its importance in surface-mount technology (SMT) for AI server boards with major US clients.
Thursday 21 May 2026
China memory supplier Biwin's AI photonics funding raises questions about strategy and risk
China's AI infrastructure race is entering a new phase, with industry focus shifting from raw computing power toward data transmission efficiency.
Thursday 21 May 2026
Samsung averts strike with last-minute labor deal, but deeper divisions remain
With less than an hour remaining before a planned strike was set to begin, Samsung Electronics and its labor union reached a tentative agreement late on May 20, narrowly avoiding what industry observers estimated could have triggered supply-chain disruptions worth more than KRW100 trillion (approx. US$66.8 billion).
Wednesday 20 May 2026
China's top NAND flash chipmaker YMTC begins IPO tutoring with Chinese banks
China's leading memory chipmakers are accelerating their push into public capital markets, with YMTC Group formally entering IPO guidance on May 19, shortly after domestic DRAM leader CXMT updated its own prospectus filings.
Wednesday 20 May 2026
Xiaomi halts ultra-thin smartphone production as memory costs squeeze prices
Xiaomi warns memory costs could push flagship phone prices past CNY10,000 (approx. US$1,468) in 2026, a development that would affect global consumers as higher-capacity models become more expensive and manufacturers adjust portfolios. The company also withheld an ultra-thin, Apple Air-style device after concluding trade-offs would harm battery life and camera performance.
Wednesday 20 May 2026
Former Samsung semiconductor head warns that memory prices and demand could fall sharply after 2028
The global semiconductor industry has been focused on a memory supercycle, with some forecasts suggesting the upturn could last until 2030. However, Kye-hyun Kyung, former head of Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) division and currently a standing advisor to Samsung, has cautioned against overly optimistic sentiment in the memory market.
Wednesday 20 May 2026
Samsung braces for major strike after bonus talks collapse

Samsung Electronics faces a major labor disruption after its union said about 48,000 workers would walk off the job on May 21, beginning an 18-day strike after last-ditch government-mediated talks over performance-based bonuses collapsed, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Wednesday 20 May 2026
Apple's memory bargaining power weakens amid AI-driven supply squeeze, Korean media says
South Korean media commentary has highlighted a structural shift in Apple's influence over memory chip pricing, arguing that its long-standing bargaining power over suppliers is weakening as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes global semiconductor priorities.
Wednesday 20 May 2026
CXMT profit surge shows limits of China's DRAM push
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is approaching its planned STAR Market IPO with sharply stronger earnings, as a global memory upcycle helps China's leading DRAM maker move closer to offsetting years of accumulated losses.
Tuesday 19 May 2026
Rising memory costs hit China's OLED suppliers harder than Korean rivals
Rising memory prices are squeezing the smartphone OLED panel market. Chinese suppliers are feeling it more than their Korean rivals, as handset makers scale back production plans.
Tuesday 19 May 2026
Analysis: CXMT's profit surge highlights tighter memory-logic ties in China
ChangXin Memory Technologies' latest IPO financial disclosures have sent a strong signal across China's semiconductor industry, revealing how quickly the country's top DRAM maker has moved from years of losses to sharply higher profitability.
Tuesday 19 May 2026
Nvidia Rubin platform to drive LPDDR demand past Apple and Samsung in 2027
A US research firm reported that Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin platform will consume more low-power DRAM (LPDDR) in 2027 than the combined global usage of Apple and Samsung, the two largest smartphone brands. According to a Citrini Research estimate cited by Wccftech, Rubin is expected to require more than 6 billion gigabytes of LPDDR in 2027, outstripping Apple's 2.966 billion gigabytes and Samsung's 2.724 billion gigabytes combined.
Tuesday 19 May 2026
SanDisk: AI data centers still lack a cost case to replace HDDs with SSDs
AI-driven memory demand has sent NAND prices soaring more than 20-fold, but flash memory and hard drive makers alike remain cautious about large-scale capacity expansion. SanDisk argues that the widening price gap between NAND and hard disk drives (HDDs) has further weakened the economic case for solid-state drives (SSDs) to replace HDDs in AI data centers.
Monday 18 May 2026
SK Hynix speeds Yongin fab buildout as memory crunch fuels capacity race

SK Hynix is accelerating construction at its Yongin Semiconductor Cluster, as a tightening memory market pushes South Korea's top chipmakers to move faster on long-term capacity plans.

Monday 18 May 2026
Samsung reportedly boosts 1b DRAM yields as Korean memory rivalry heats up
Samsung Electronics has significantly improved yields for its latest DRAM technologies used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), according to IT Chosun, underscoring the intensifying race among memory makers to secure leadership in AI-related semiconductors.
Monday 18 May 2026
Huawei, Apple, and Xiaomi battle for market share with deep discounts
Just after midnight on May 15, Apple quietly cut prices across its iPhone 17 lineup in China, lowering official retail prices for the iPhone 17 Pro series by CNY1000 (approx. US$146), the first formal price reduction since the devices were introduced.
Monday 18 May 2026
South Korean court bars factory occupations and orders safety work during planned Samsung strike
A South Korean court granted Samsung Electronics an injunction on May 18, 2026, limiting union dispute actions and ordering that safety protection systems and wafer anti-deterioration operations remain fully staffed and operational during any strike, according to Seoul Economic Daily. The Suwon District Court issued the decision three days before a planned general strike on May 21, 2026, and the ruling is expected to constrain the scale and methods of any walkout.
Monday 18 May 2026
Kioxia gets rare chance to challenge Samsung, SK Hynix in AI storage boom
Kioxia Holdings is moving to capture a larger share of AI-related storage demand, as the shift from AI training to inference raises interest in high-speed, high-capacity NAND flash and solid-state drives.
Monday 18 May 2026
Analysis: Memory crunch opens IPO window for China’s CXMT
China's top DRAM maker ChangXin Memory Technologies is entering its Shanghai IPO push with a much stronger story for investors, as a global memory shortage turns years of losses into sharply higher revenue and profit.
Monday 18 May 2026
Samsung and union enter new round of talks ahead of planned strike
Samsung Electronics and its labor union in South Korea began a new round of negotiations on May 18, days before a planned strike that could bring its chip plants to a halt. The talks are being mediated by the government, which has signaled concern about the labor action's impact on the South Korean economy, in which Samsung contributes more than 20% of its exports.