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Monday 13 July 2026
Samsung targets 2029 Yongin fab opening as infrastructure timetable tightens
Samsung Electronics plans to begin operations at its first Yongin fab in 2029, one to two years ahead of schedule, increasing pressure on South Korea to accelerate the power, water and site development needed for a major semiconductor expansion.
Monday 13 July 2026
Nanya lifts long-term capacity to 50%, eyes 4x capex in 2027
Memory chipmaker Nanya said its second-quarter 2026 operations hit a record high, with President Pei-Ing Lee saying signed long- and short-term agreements now account for 50% of total capacity. He said the memory market has entered a broad shortage, and that Nanya may add a fifth strategic partner, while 2027 capital expenditure could climb to as much as NT$200 billion (approx. US$6.2 billion), 4x the spending in 2026.
Monday 13 July 2026
Weekly news roundup: TSMC widens AI chip lead as HBM and CoWoS bottlenecks reshape supply chains

AI demand is still outrunning advanced semiconductor capacity, putting foundry output, HBM supply, packaging and server infrastructure at the centre of this week's tech agenda.

Monday 13 July 2026
SK Hynix hybrid bonding push signals next phase of HBM packaging race
SK Hynix is moving early to prepare hybrid bonding technology for next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM), as competition in AI memory shifts from stacking capacity toward packaging density, thermal control, and tighter integration with AI accelerators.
Monday 13 July 2026
Complex Micro Interconnection sees June sales rise as AI-led device demand lifts orders

Flexible circuit board maker Complex Micro Interconnection (CMI) said June 2026 revenue rebounded as consumer electronics shipments increased, even as shortages in automotive components and notebook memory continued to affect customers. The company also reported second-quarter revenue of NT$597 million (US$18.55 million), up 3.6% from the prior quarter.

Saturday 11 July 2026
Record chip profits mask a widening divide inside Samsung
Samsung Electronics' preliminary results for the second quarter of 2026 again underscore a striking split inside the company: surging semiconductor profits driven by AI server demand are lifting overall earnings, while TVs, home appliances, and other end-device businesses remain under pressure.
Saturday 11 July 2026
Samsung, SK Hynix margins seen near Micron's 80% level as memory prices surge

Global memory chipmakers are heading toward record revenue and profit in the second quarter of 2026, as AI infrastructure demand keeps memory prices high and pushes operating margins to levels rarely seen in the semiconductor industry.

Saturday 11 July 2026
Samsung's CXL 3.1 memory delay lays bare Intel, AMD server platform lag

Samsung Electronics has postponed mass production of its CXL 3.1 memory modules after delays to next-generation server processors from Intel and AMD pushed back the broader PCIe 6.0 ecosystem, highlighting how AI infrastructure adoption increasingly depends on platform readiness rather than individual components.

Friday 10 July 2026
SK Hynix breaks Alibaba's US listing record — but HBM customers will wait until 2028 for the capacity it funds
SK Hynix has priced a US$26.5 billion Nasdaq offering, giving the world's leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory fresh capital to expand DRAM wafer production, advanced packaging and leading-edge manufacturing equipment at the same time.
Friday 10 July 2026
Nanya Technology posts record profit as gross margin nears 80%
Nanya Technology posted record quarterly profit after a more than 60% rise in average DRAM selling prices lifted its gross margin to 79.5%, with the Taiwanese memory chipmaker expecting prices and margins to improve further in the second half.
Friday 10 July 2026
Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max BOM could jump US$300 as memory costs soar

New figures from Counterpoint Research estimate that the bill of materials (BOM) for the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro Max could rise nearly US$300 compared with the iPhone 17 Pro Max released in September last year. Ballooning memory costs largely account for this increase, although Apple may be better placed than most other smartphone brands to weather such price hikes.

Friday 10 July 2026
SK AI Summit postponed as SK eyes closer alignment with Nvidia GTC
SK Group, which hosts the annual SK AI Summit as its flagship technology event to showcase its latest AI and semiconductor developments, is reportedly postponing the 2026 edition. Originally scheduled for the second half of 2026, the event is now expected to take place in the first half of 2027. Industry sources believe the move is intended to better align the summit with Nvidia GTC, which is held each March.
Friday 10 July 2026
Analysis: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron's diverging approach to HBM4 base dies

Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology are taking different manufacturing paths for the logic base die in HBM4, opening a new front in the competition over advanced memory performance, yield and supply.

Friday 10 July 2026
Micron's US$250 billion memory push sharpens three-way race with Korean and Chinese rivals
Micron Technology's decision to lift its planned US investment to more than US$ 250 billion through 2035, unveiled July 9 alongside the first concrete pour at its Clay, New York, site, is fundamentally a bet on where the AI era's most contested commodity, memory, will be manufactured.
Friday 10 July 2026
GigaDevice's 1H26 profit surges 1,099% on memory chip shortage, higher prices

GigaDevice Semiconductor expects first-half 2026 net profit to reach about CNY6.9 billion (US$960 million), a 1,099% increase from a year earlier, after tight memory chip supply lifted both shipment volumes and prices.

Friday 10 July 2026
GlobalWafers-Micron deal pushes US semiconductor localization beyond chip fabs
GlobalWafers and Micron have signed a 10-year supply agreement, alongside US$500 million in strategic financial support, in a move that underscores how artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), data centers, and advanced memory demand are reshaping semiconductor sourcing. The deal extends US supply chain localization beyond wafer production and into upstream critical materials.
Friday 10 July 2026
HBM prices set to double in 2027 as AI demand and supply deals tighten the memory market

High-bandwidth memory (HBM) prices could more than double in 2027 as Nvidia's Rubin platform drives demand, HBM4 raises production costs, and long-term agreements lock up an increasing share of global DRAM capacity, according to memory industry sources.

Friday 10 July 2026
ADATA Technology to launch tender offer for Tittot in cultural industry push

ADATA Technology's board has approved a public tender offer for Tittot's common shares at NT$24 (US$0.75) per share in cash, a move that could reshape Taiwan's cultural sector and attract attention from global investors watching how technology companies broaden beyond their core hardware businesses. The deal underscores growing cross-industry convergence and could strengthen brand positioning across Asia and beyond.

Friday 10 July 2026
Kioxia, SanDisk ship BiCS10 samples as NAND comeback takes shape
Kioxia and SanDisk have begun shipping samples of 332-layer BiCS10 NAND, giving the Japanese memory maker a concrete technology milestone as CEO Hiroo Ota works to pull the company back toward the top of the NAND industry.
Thursday 9 July 2026
Micron to invest up to $3 billion in US semiconductor supply chain, anchored by GlobalWafers wafer deal
Micron Technology said July 9 it plans to invest up to $3 billion to strengthen the US semiconductor supply chain, with the bulk of the announcement centered on a new financing and supply arrangement with Taiwan's GlobalWafers.
Thursday 9 July 2026
Phison 1H26 revenue tops NT$100B as AI orders extend to 1H27
Phison Electronics, a NAND controller maker, said first-half consolidated revenue in 2026 surpassed NT$100 billion (US$3.1 billion) for the first time. CEO Khein-Seng Pua said June mobile controller shipments rose 47% from a year earlier even as global smartphone shipments are expected to decline, while PCIe SSD boot drive shipments jumped 5,600% year-over-year and some AI project orders now extend visibility into first half 2027.
Thursday 9 July 2026
CXMT seeks US$4.1bn in China's biggest 2026 IPO for DDR5, HBM

CXMT has launched a CNY29.5 billion (approx. US$4.1 billion) STAR Market IPO, giving China's top DRAM maker fresh capital to upgrade 17nm production, expand DDR5, and develop HBM for AI servers and high-performance computing.

Thursday 9 July 2026
CXMT IPO leaves HBM off the funding list, tempering China AI memory hype

CXMT's STAR Market IPO suggests China's largest DRAM maker is prioritizing commodity memory over an aggressive near-term push into high-bandwidth memory (HBM). This eases concerns that Chinese suppliers are about to challenge the dominance of Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron in AI memory.

Thursday 9 July 2026
Memory costs slash low-end phone output and pressure PA shipments

The 2026 smartphone market is facing a dark outlook as memory prices rise and shortages tighten supply, weighing on low- and mid-range handsets and hitting power amplifier (PA) shipments. Supply-chain companies said weaker gross margins are prompting brand owners to cut production and delay new model launches, while consumer caution is also dragging on demand.

Thursday 9 July 2026
SK Hynix targets AI infrastructure role with Nasdaq ADR listing

SK Group chairman Tae-Won Chey is reportedly set to travel to the US for SK Hynix's American depositary receipt (ADR) listing on Nasdaq, where he will personally attend the celebration in New York. The move is being seen as more than a capital market event, as it marks an important moment in SK Hynix's effort to reposition itself from a traditional memory maker into a core company in AI infrastructure.