Once completed, Globalfoundries' Fab 2 project is expected to create more than 6,400 direct and indirect jobs in the region.

Japan's core machinery orders, a closely watched indicator of the health of the economy, fell by 5.4% in April.

Compound Semiconductor Technologies (CST) Global, the Scottish foundry company, is to upgrade its manufacturing equipment thanks to new financing.

Germany-based concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) pioneer Concentrix Solar says that its plant in southern Spain is now consistently delivering the record power efficiency first achieved a year ago.

"We are in discussions with some local and foreign companies for possible cooperation. There might be some different business styles," ProMOS Vice-President Ben Tseng told Reuters.

Spansion and Samsung Electronics are set to resume their legal dispute after a bankruptcy judge rejected a $70 million patent settlement between the two companies.

Samsung may ask its key PC-related clients to pay more. Hynix was looking for a chance to raise its contract-based chip prices for the second straight month.