Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of June 1-7, 2026:
MediaTek highlights supply chain advantage, says focus with Nvidia is product cooperation
MediaTek said Taiwan's concentrated semiconductor ecosystem gives it a supply chain advantage amid ongoing chip shortages, reinforcing its reliance on TSMC while exploring selective collaboration with Intel on EMIB packaging. Executives emphasized that cooperation with Nvidia remains product-focused rather than financial, as the company prioritizes AI-driven growth opportunities and stable capacity access.
Exclusive: TSMC SoIC deepens AI chipmaker lock-in while Huawei hits process wall
The global semiconductor industry is diverging into two paths: leaders advancing both transistor scaling and 3D stacking, and constrained players forced into stacking alone due to US export controls and restricted EUV access. China's Huawei is increasingly relying on "logic folding," signaling limits in front-end process technology under current constraints.
Meanwhile, TSMC is strengthening its dominance through SoIC 3D packaging, which integrates compute and memory for AI workloads and is expected to be widely adopted by Nvidia, AMD, and others. Analysts say this approach deepens ecosystem dependence, as customers are effectively locked into TSMC's one-stop advanced packaging platform.
Nvidia built its empire on gamers. Jensen Huang just reminded the world why that still matters
Jensen Huang's Seoul visit began unexpectedly at T1 Base Camp, where he met League of Legends star Faker and co-signed an RTX 5090, signaling Nvidia's cultural positioning beyond traditional semiconductor supply chains. The meeting highlighted gaming communities as early adopters of AI agents and next-generation computing ecosystems.
Faker, a six-time world champion and South Korea's most iconic esports figure, represents a global audience of hundreds of millions, giving the encounter broader commercial and symbolic weight. Analysts view the visit as part of Nvidia's effort to reinforce its roots in gaming while expanding into AI-driven consumer platforms and engagement.
Interview: Andhra Pradesh moves to become India's semiconductor packaging hub
Andhra Pradesh is accelerating its semiconductor strategy by prioritizing packaging and testing as its immediate entry point into the chip value chain, while wafer fabrication remains a long-term goal. Officials said multiple PCB manufacturers are already operating, with new OSAT and ATMP facilities beginning construction to build domestic supply-chain capabilities.
The state is also courting Taiwanese firms and expanding electronics manufacturing clusters, aiming to integrate design, packaging, and production within a single ecosystem. Alongside chip ambitions, it plans large-scale AI data center capacity powered by renewable energy, though the rapid expansion has raised sustainability concerns over power and water demand.
Intel Foundry makes progress in advanced processes, CEO Tan calls TSMC a key partner
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said Intel Foundry is making steady progress in advanced process nodes, with 18A already in high-volume production and 14A development advancing, underscoring its roadmap toward future competitiveness. He noted that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) remains a key partner rather than a rival, with ongoing collaboration across multiple products.
Tan emphasized that Intel continues to rely on TSMC for certain manufacturing needs while also working closely with Nvidia and other ecosystem players, reflecting a shift toward more open, cross-company cooperation in the AI era. He added that Taiwan's broader semiconductor ecosystem is becoming increasingly central to system-level competition spanning chips, software, and full-stack AI infrastructure.
Exclusive: China tightens its grip on Silicon Carbide as the industry shifts to 8-inch wafers
Silicon carbide has become a critical enabler of 800V HVDC power systems in AI data centers, but the market is facing a paradox of surging demand alongside collapsing six-inch wafer prices. Chinese producers dominate pricing, pushing global benchmarks down even as adoption in EVs and AI infrastructure accelerates rapidly.
Taiwanese suppliers are squeezed between cost disadvantages and price competition, with many struggling to match Chinese levels without eroding margins, while customers increasingly compare offers against low-cost supply and anticipate a longer-term shift toward eight-inch wafers. The industry is transitioning from past scarcity and high pricing to oversupply and structural margin pressure.
Marvell CEO says copper wall is moving inside the rack, and co-packaged optics is the only way through
Marvell CEO Matt Murphy said AI infrastructure is approaching a critical shift where connectivity, not compute or memory, becomes the main bottleneck, driven by limits in copper-based interconnects. Speaking at Computex 2026, he argued that optical and co-packaged optics technologies are now essential for scaling AI data center bandwidth.
Murphy highlighted Marvell's new 102.4-terabit Teralynx switch and argued that rising data rates are pushing copper links toward physical limits, forcing rapid adoption of optical interconnects. He added that Taiwan's semiconductor and advanced packaging ecosystem will be central to enabling this transition toward disaggregated, high-bandwidth AI system architectures.
Article edited by Jack Wu
