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The US Department of Commerce recently revoked restrictions imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in late December 2025 that banned imports of new drones and components from Chinese manufacturers, including DJI and Autel Robotics, due to national security concerns. This reversal complicates earlier assumptions that Taiwanese suppliers would gain significantly from displaced orders. However, industry experts suggest the impact on Taiwan's industrial PC (IPC) sector may be limited....

The large-scale deployment of artificial intelligence servers has driven a sharp increase in demand for mass storage, with market sources saying NAND flash contract prices for the first quarter of 2026 are rising far more steeply than previously expected....

Tight memory supply has driven market prices sharply higher, prompting industry expectations that 2026 PC and smartphone end-demand will face downward pressure. However, TSMC stated that fluctuations in component costs like memory have a limited impact and remains optimistic about product lines such as high-end smartphones and PCs....

Amkor Technology, the US-based semiconductor packaging and testing company, said it will close its Hakodate plant in northern Japan by December 2027, citing weak demand stemming from a slowdown in the global electric vehicle (EV) market. The factory, located in the town of Nanae in Hokkaido, specializes in packaging chips used in automobiles....

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun, since his appointment in May 2024, has spearheaded significant changes at the company's Device Solutions (DS) division, reversing the company's decline in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) technology. Samsung's semiconductor business, once trailing behind Korean rival SK Hynix, has regained competitiveness amid rising AI demand, according to reports from JoongAng Daily and The Korea Times....

Taiwan-based passive component maker Yageo said Japan's Shibaura Electronics was officially delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on January 13. Following the completion of the share consolidation, Yageo now holds 100% of the voting rights in Shibaura Electronics as of January 15....

Radiant, a key supplier of Apple's backlight modules, is positioning itself to benefit from both legacy and emerging display technologies. While Apple continues to push toward OLED products as a long-term strategy, LCD devices remain in demand through 2026, giving Radiant room to expand into new business lines....

At its January 15, 2026, earnings call, TSMC chairman C.C. Wei addressed questions on the authenticity of AI demand, capital expenditure plans, and US capacity expansion. Wei stated that AI demand is real and sustainable, underpinning TSMC's aggressive investment strategy....

Canon said on January 13 that it has developed a new wafer planarization technology designed to uniformly smooth surface irregularities during semiconductor manufacturing. The process applies resin materials using inkjet printing and then presses a glass plate onto the surface, using a stamping-like method to achieve planarization....

During TSMC's first earnings call of 2026, CEO C.C. Wei said that key metrics at its Arizona fabs are approaching the level of advanced manufacturing in Taiwan. Rising demand from US-based AI customers supports TSMC's capacity expansion in the US, prompting back-end packaging and testing supply chain partners to consider expanding their US presence....

In the inaugural episode of a new leadership podcast, Jensen Huang offers a strikingly unvarnished account of how Nvidia became one of the world's most valuable technology firms....

As the race to embed artificial intelligence into consumer devices heats up, Apple has formally confirmed a strategic partnership with Google to integrate the Gemini model into the next generation of Siri and Apple Intelligence. The tie-up between the two tech heavyweights is expected to sharpen Siri's capabilities and could also lift demand for Apple's future hardware....

Samsung Electronics is expected to increase DRAM production by about 5% this year, but the expansion is unlikely to ease the global supply shortage as demand continues to outpace available output, according to South Korean media reports....

China's domestic memory module maker Biwin Storage Technology has released the A-share market's first major 2025 profit outlook, signalling a sharp earnings rebound as memory prices recover and AI-driven demand reshapes the sector's supply dynamics....

Qualcomm is in talks with Samsung Electronics over contract manufacturing of 2nm chips, a move that could reportedly support Samsung's loss-making foundry business as customers reassess reliance on TSMC, according to Reuters and Korean media reports....

After months of high-stakes negotiations, Taiwan has secured a reciprocal tariff rate of 15% with the United States. Officials in Taipei are presenting the result as both a diplomatic breakthrough and a strategic recalibration of Taiwan's place in the global supply chain....

MediaTek has launched the Dimensity 9500s and Dimensity 8500 mobile processors, both carrying over key technologies from the company's flagship Dimensity platform. The new chips deliver upgrades in performance, power efficiency, AI processing, imaging, gaming, and connectivity, targeting the premium smartphone market....

Xiaomi's second-generation in-house mobile processor, the Xring O2, will skip TSMC's 2nm process and instead use the company's 3nm N3P node, underscoring a trade-off between performance, cost, and supply availability. The choice also suggests the chip may not power Xiaomi's most premium flagship smartphones....

US LiDAR company Aeva Technologies has been selected as a partner for Nvidia's next-generation autonomous driving platform, Drive AGX Hyperion, drawing attention to its integration with Mercedes-Benz. Rumors also highlight South Korean firm LG Innotek's crucial role in equity investment, supply, and R&D collaboration with Aeva....

As demand for artificial intelligence computing surges globally, US AI data centers (AIDCs) are increasingly hindered by prolonged delays in securing power grid connections. The average wait has extended to approximately five years, significantly outpacing the typical 18 to 24 months required for data center construction, creating "completed but idle" facilities and prompting urgent calls for regulatory overhaul....