The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has completed the first flight test of its reusable small experimental rocket RV-X, marking an early step in Japan's effort to develop lower-cost launch technology for future satellite missions.
Apple supplier Lingyi iTech is seeking to expand further into AI infrastructure, announcing plans to invest up to CNY4 billion (US$589.9 million) to acquire control of the assets and operations of bankrupt optical fiber manufacturer Futong Group Communication Technology (Futong Jiashan) through a restructuring process.
AI computing demand continues to fuel growth in the global memory market, but the industry's attention is shifting beyond short-term price movements. Increasingly, the focus is on longer-term variables, including the pace of capacity expansion, the sustainability of AI-driven demand, and whether emerging AI applications can achieve commercial scale.
The US can no longer close its artificial-intelligence talent gap with China through visa curbs or export controls alone, a new Hoover Institution and Stanford study argues, because China is now producing frontier-model researchers who never trained, worked, or published abroad, even as it also reclaims talent that spent years in American institutions.
The US National Science Foundation will prohibit the researchers it funds from collaborating with organizations on Washington's restricted-party lists, a roster heavily populated by Chinese firms and institutions, under a Dear Colleague Letter dated July 8, 2026. The agency said it intends to implement the prohibition in fiscal 2027.
Shanghai AtomIC Technology has launched what it describes as the world's first 8-inch pilot line for two-dimensional semiconductors, marking a shift from laboratory research to engineering validation, small-batch tape-outs and early industrialisation.
Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display are jointly developing a next-generation glass interposer that could lower the cost of packaging high-performance chips, with prototypes potentially ready by the end of this year, The Elec reported, citing semiconductor industry sources.
China Life Insurance Company Limited plans to invest CNY4.999 billion (US$697 million) in a new CNY5 billion semiconductor private equity fund, extending Beijing's effort to direct long-term insurance capital into strategic chip technologies.
