DIGITIMES Asia news

Friday 11 July 2025

IBM's business in China remains strong and commits to continued growth for next 40 years

As the US-China trade war intensifies, American businesses in China become increasingly uncomfortable. IBM announced massive layoffs in China and closed its Beijing R&D center, a major indicator that American companies are withdrawing. Despite that, IBM Asia Pacific general manager Hans Dekkers recently stated in an interview with DIGITIMES that IBM's footprint in China has actually grown in both staffing and business. He firmly stated that IBM has been in China for forty years and will continue to be there for the next forty years to come

Samsung bets big on 2nm chips as foundry unit faces make-or-break moment

Friday 11 July 2025

US weighs new export controls on AI chips to Thailand and Malaysia

Friday 11 July 2025

China lifts rare earth concentrate prices by 14% for 3Q25, escalating supply chain tensions

Friday 11 July 2025

Vietnam accelerates export diversification as US tariffs take effect

Friday 11 July 2025

LATEST STORIES

Sunday 13 July 2025

China plots desert AI hub with 115,000 Nvidia chips, skirting US export bans

China plans to build at least 39 data centers in the desert regions of Xinjiang and Qinghai, outfitted with over 115,000 Nvidia H100 and H200 GPUs. These advanced chips have been under a US export ban since 2022, prompting concerns that they are being smuggled into the country, an issue now drawing heightened scrutiny from US officials

Saturday 12 July 2025

Japan's OSAT firms unite to cut costs and reclaim industry ground

Japan's outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) industry, long composed of small, regional firms with limited resources, is making a rare push for collective strength. In April 2025, about 30 companies joined forces to launch the Japan OSAT Federation (J-OSAT)—the country's first official industry group aimed at reviving its struggling backend chip manufacturing segment

Saturday 12 July 2025

Google brings Gemini AI to Wear OS, boosting Samsung's new smartwatch and foldables

Google is bringing its Gemini artificial intelligence model to smartwatches running Wear OS, marking a significant expansion beyond smartphones and tablets. Announced this week, the rollout will introduce a new generation of AI-powered features across wearables from major partners including Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, and OnePlus

Saturday 12 July 2025

Malaysia semiconductor sector squeezed as SuperSiC project highlights deepening China ties

Malaysia's role as a key node in the global semiconductor supply chain is drawing sharper scrutiny as it deepens industrial ties with China while facing mounting trade and export control pressures from the United States. The latest example is SuperSiC's new facility in Penang, launched by a subsidiary of China's JSG

Saturday 12 July 2025

Hyundai weighs 3rd EV factory in Europe to bypass tariffs, build local edge

Hyundai Motor is considering the construction of a third electric vehicle (EV) plant in Europe as part of its broader strategy to capitalize on the region's EV recovery and offset potential risks from rising US trade barriers. The automaker sees Europe as both a strategic growth market and a manufacturing base to navigate tariff-related headwinds through localized production

Friday 11 July 2025

Malaysia's Penang eyes semiconductor upgrade as AI demand reshapes industry

Malaysia's Penang state, home to about 13% of global semiconductor assembly and testing capacity, is positioning itself to capture more advanced chip manufacturing as artificial intelligence (AI) drives demand for sophisticated packaging technologies

Friday 11 July 2025

Korean carmakers prepare for Trump tariff-led price surge

Japanese and South Korean automakers are beginning to pass rising trade costs onto American consumers as hopes for a swift resolution to tariff negotiations with the US continue to fade

Friday 11 July 2025

China's embodied AI race just got real — Robot Era, DEEP Robotics raises CNY1 billion

China's embodied AI and humanoid robotics market is experiencing a funding surge, with leading startups Robot Era and DEEP Robotics jointly securing nearly CNY1 billion (approx. US$140 million) in fresh capital on the same day, underscoring sustained investor interest in physical AI technologies

Friday 11 July 2025

Nissan to cut component lines and suppliers in the deepening crisis

In a bid to pull itself out of a deepening business crisis, Nissan Motor has announced sweeping structural reforms that could drastically reshape its production network and leave thousands of Japanese suppliers in peril

Friday 11 July 2025

Nissan shifts production of its Kicks SUV to Japan, taps Foxconn to revive underused Oppama plant

Nissan will start producing its compact SUV, the Kicks, at the Oppama plant in Kanagawa Prefecture in the second half of fiscal 2025 (October 2025 to March 2026), according to Nikkei. The decision targets raising plant utilization, which has dropped to approximately 40%, far below the 80% breakeven point

Friday 11 July 2025

Taiwan's machinery exporters brace for US tariff verdict while handling FX pain

Taiwan's machinery exporters face growing uncertainty as the US confirms 25% reciprocal tariffs for Japan and South Korea, while Taiwan's status remains unresolved. With the US as Taiwan's top machinery export market, concerns are mounting, especially amid a sharp appreciation of the Taiwan dollar that's already compressing margins

Friday 11 July 2025

China's 'trade-in' subsidy policy aims to stabilize panel prices amid funding crunch concerns

The Chinese government has been vigorously promoting the "trade-in" subsidy policy since the second half of 2024, positioning it as a key tool to stimulate consumption and stabilize the economic situation. However, recent reports indicate that funds for China's trade-in subsidies have been overspent, with some regions even suspending subsidies temporarily, raising concerns among industry observers

Friday 11 July 2025

Subsidy hangover? China's June auto sales surge may be last hurrah

China's auto sales reached 2.08 million units in June, marking the highest monthly total since June 2022. Analysts believe the spike was likely driven by consumers accelerating purchases in anticipation of cuts or shifts to government subsidy programs

Friday 11 July 2025

Apple's foldable smartphone expected in 2026 as China's hinge and display suppliers gear up

Global foldable smartphone shipments rose only 9% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2025, a steep decline from the triple-digit growth seen in earlier years, according to Counterpoint Research. Now entering its sixth year of commercialization, the segment is losing steam, largely due to Apple's continued absence from the market

Friday 11 July 2025

NXP plots wafer shift to China as new CEO joins push for local supply chain

Kurt Sievers, the CEO of Dutch semiconductor giant NXP Semiconductors, who is set to officially step down at the end of October 2025, recently visited Shanghai and met with the mayor of Shanghai, Zheng Gong. Sievers stated that the Chinese market has become NXP's largest single global market. The company values its cooperation with Chinese enterprises and believes that success in China will translate into global success. Notably, Sievers' successor, Rafael Sotomayor, also accompanied him on this trip, underscoring NXP's strong emphasis on the Chinese market

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