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Taiwan's smartphone market is expected to face another challenging year in 2026, as rising device prices, extended replacement cycles, and persistent memory supply constraints limit shipment growth, even as higher average selling prices support revenue expansion....

A disclosure on China's government procurement platform shows that Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE) has won a contract to supply a step-and-scan lithography system valued at CNY109 million (US$15.5 million). The buyer, identified only by a coded designation under China's Ministry of Science and Technology, has reignited industry scrutiny of Beijing's push to localize semiconductor manufacturing equipment....

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently received US President Donald Trump's approval for the H200 to return to the China market. Shipments to Chinese customers were reportedly fast-tracked for around February 2026....

Huawei is clarifying how it intends to compete in global AI computing despite being cut off from leading-edge foundries and US-origin GPUs. Instead of chasing rivals on single-chip performance, the company is leaning into scale, systems engineering, and vertical integration—a strategy it is now preparing to test outside China, beginning with South Korea....

Japan is preparing a major expansion of state support for advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence, with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) set to nearly quadruple related funding from fiscal year 2026, starting in April 2026....

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, having cleared major legal overhangs, is accelerating the group's strategic reset. Months after completing its acquisition of Germany's FläktGroup, Samsung announced another landmark deal: the purchase of ZF Friedrichshafen's advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) business for EUR1.5 billion (US$1.8 billion)....

Memory maker Winbond Electronics has recently continued to expand capital expenditures by increasing capacity for 16nm and DDR4 DRAM. As inventories of legacy DDR3 products decrease, DDR4 will officially become Winbond's main product in the first half of 2026. The company's new 8Gb DDR4 products manufactured on its in-house 16nm process have recently passed customer qualification smoothly and are expected to enter mass production and shipment in the first to second quarters of 2026....

Egis Technology Group recently held an investor briefing to present its operational outlook for 2026, focusing on a dual approach to cloud AI and edge AI development. The group aims to deliver tangible outcomes by 2026 and 2027 through leveraging the strengths of its subsidiaries in various AI-related technologies....

Taiwan's economy saw outstanding growth in 2025, emerging as an outlier not just in Asia but also worldwide. In its recently released forecast for 2026, the Institute of Economics at Academia Sinica sharply revised its estimate for GDP growth to 7.41% for 2025, up 4.48pp from its previous estimate of 2.93%. Although growth in 2026 is likely to slow down due to the high baseline in 2025, AI-related industries will continue to prop up external demand and investments in Taiwan....

MediaTek and DENSO said they have entered into a joint development effort to create a custom automotive system-on-chip (SoC) for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and in-vehicle cockpit applications, reflecting growing demand for higher-performance and safety-compliant computing platforms in next-generation vehicles....

The US government has decided not to impose additional semiconductor tariffs on China for the next 18 months, despite concluding that Beijing's state-led chip industry policies involve unfair subsidies and market distortion. DIGITIMES analyst Luke Lin stressed in a recent podcast that this should not be misinterpreted as a softening stance toward China....

Samsung Electronics is prioritizing artificial intelligence adoption, local manufacturing, and consumer financing in India, foregoing an initial public offering for its local business. The company aims to strengthen its footprint in one of its most important growth markets through internal expansion and strategic investments....

ChenFull Precision president CM Lai stated during an earnings call on December 24 that looking ahead to 2026, strong growth momentum in both the semiconductor and defense sectors is expected. For ChenFull, semiconductor business revenue is projected to rise by 20% to 30%, while the defense business is also showing robust potential with opportunities to deliver double-digit growth. Overall gross margin is anticipated to return to around 30%....

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are pushing forward their production schedules for sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory to February 2026. Industry sources and South Korean media reports confirm the accelerated timeline. The two companies aim to begin volume manufacturing of HBM4 months earlier than previously anticipated. The goal is to meet surging demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure. By accelerating their timelines, the South Korean chipmakers seek to solidify their dominance in the AI memory market before global competitors can scale similar technologies....

SK Hynix is scheduled to deliver final samples of its next-generation high-bandwidth memory to Nvidia in early January 2025. This comes as the South Korean chipmaker nears a February target for mass production of HBM4. The delivery follows a revised wafer run intended to resolve technical issues identified during earlier integration testing, according to DealSite. It marks a critical step in supporting Nvidia's next wave of artificial intelligence accelerators....

On December 19, 2025, Foxtron Vehicle Technologies, the electric-vehicle venture backed by Hon Hai (Foxconn) and Yulon Motor, announced its acquisition of the Luxgen sales network and related assets. Less than a week later, on December 25, 2025, the company moved swiftly to define its new identity, hosting its first online brand and vehicle launch event—and formally introducing BRIA, its inaugural electric vehicle....

As demand for artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors continues to surge, the market for glass substrates, which are widely regarded as a critical material for next-generation advanced packaging, is gaining momentum. South Korean companies such as Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) and LG Innotek are gearing up to compete for leadership in this emerging segment....

Huawei Technologies has lifted the share of Chinese-made components in its latest premium smartphones to nearly 60% by value, underscoring how years of US export controls have accelerated domestic capabilities across key technologies. Recent teardowns show that localization has moved well beyond low-cost or peripheral parts. Huawei is now sourcing processors, memory, and displays domestically — components that were once firmly dominated by suppliers from the US, Japan, and South Korea....

SoftBank and Japanese partners are advancing a government-backed project to develop next-generation memory technology aimed at enhancing AI and supercomputer performance. The initiative, involving RIKEN, Intel, the University of Tokyo, and Taiwan's Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS), targets prototype completion by fiscal 2027 and mass production by fiscal 2029, Nikkei Asia reports....

The semiconductor industry is increasingly central to national strategies as the US and China intensify state-led investments amid growing tech geopolitical tensions. The US CHIPS and Science Act and China's multibillion-yuan semiconductor funding illustrate a resurgence of state capitalism in high-tech sectors, reshaping global supply chains and industrial competition....