China is accelerating its push into fourth-generation semiconductors, with the country's first fully integrated industrial project for ultra-wide-bandgap semiconductor materials set to be built in Zhengzhou. The project aims to strengthen domestic capabilities in diamond-based semiconductor materials for AI chips, advanced communications and electric vehicles, while expanding China's presence beyond silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN).
South Korea is pushing to establish a second national semiconductor production base in Gwangju and South Jeolla in the country's southwest, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix planning to build two memory fabs each as part of a KRW800 trillion (approx. US$517.87 billion) national chip ecosystem project, Yonhap reported.
DRAM and NAND Flash supplies are tightening as global AI data centers continue to expand. Apple is actively lobbying the Trump administration to allow it to buy DRAM from Chinese memory maker CXMT, underscoring the cost, supply, and geopolitical pressures bearing down on the global technology supply chain.
Chinese 3D vision sensor maker Orbbec is expanding its global manufacturing network with a new production base in Vietnam, as robotics suppliers increase overseas capacity to strengthen supply chain resilience and serve international customers.
China has imposed new export control measures on 40 Japanese entities, placing 20 organizations on its export control list and another 20 on a separate watchlist, citing national security concerns and the need to strengthen oversight of exports of dual-use items.
Generative AI is driving a sharp rise in electricity demand from data centers and AI computing infrastructure, prompting China to release its 15th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of a New Energy System (2026–2030). The plan incorporates AI power demand into China's national energy strategy for the first time, calling for closer coordination between electricity supply and computing capacity to support AI, advanced manufacturing, and other strategic industries.
Chinese artificial intelligence developer Zhipu AI, also known as Z.ai, is narrowing the performance gap with leading US AI companies in cybersecurity-focused models, underscoring intensifying technological competition as Washington tightens oversight of advanced AI systems.
Samsung Electronics is slowing its investment schedule for 1d DRAM, the seventh-generation 10nm-class DRAM node, as a sharp surge in memory prices makes it more profitable to squeeze output from existing production lines than to rush costly next-generation processes to market, The Bell reported on June 23.
