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Friday 3 July 2026
Exclusive: Chinese automakers pursue overseas production to shape future vehicle standards
China's automakers are pushing more aggressively into overseas manufacturing as electric vehicle (EV) growth meets weaker margins, tougher competition, and rising trade barriers. The shift could reshape where vehicles are built, who sets standards, and how quickly China's auto industry gains influence beyond its home market.
LATEST STORIES
Monday 6 July 2026
Samsung Foundry comeback builds as Meta, Anthropic weigh chip deals
Samsung Electronics is trying to turn its foundry business into a bigger supplier of custom chips, with Meta Platforms and Anthropic reportedly considering Samsung for processors after its Tesla win, according to Seoul Economic Daily. The potential orders could push Samsung Foundry toward profitability sooner than expected, with industry sources estimating its medium- to long-term order backlog could approach KRW50 trillion (approx. US$32.64 billion).
Monday 6 July 2026
Longsys forecasts sharp 1H26 profit growth on stronger memory market, AI demand
Longsys Electronics expects a sharp rise in first-half profit as global memory supply stays tight and demand from artificial intelligence-related devices strengthens. The outlook points to firmer conditions across the semiconductor market, with implications for storage prices, component availability, and technology costs worldwide.
Monday 6 July 2026
Apple price hikes spur brisk used-device trading

Apple's recent price increases for Mac and iPad products are rapidly spilling into the used-device market, as consumers turn to refurbished and secondhand channels to fight inflation. Data from Chinese secondhand trading platforms show that some MacBook models have risen by nearly CNY1,000 (US$147.29) within just 10 days, signaling a new round of price swings in the end-user market.

Monday 6 July 2026
Foreign automakers turn China plants into export hubs as Toyota takes slower path
Foreign automakers are rapidly reshaping their China operations into export platforms as local electric-vehicle (EV) makers continue to erode demand for gasoline cars. For global consumers and suppliers, the shift could affect vehicle prices, parts flows, and where future models are designed, built, and sold across major markets.
Monday 6 July 2026
China's IC design boom nears CNY1 trillion, but Nvidia CUDA gap exposes limits

China's IC design industry is nearing CNY1 trillion (approx. US$150 billion) ahead of schedule, but AI is exposing deeper gaps in computing architecture, high-end talent, and ecosystem control.

Monday 6 July 2026
South Korea lines up US$204 billion Yeongnam manufacturing push

South Korean conglomerates will invest a combined KRW312 trillion (approx. US$203.6 billion) in the Yeongnam region, as the government moves to turn the country's southeast into a hub for advanced manufacturing, AI infrastructure, semiconductors, aerospace, defense, and energy.

Monday 6 July 2026
China advanced packaging maker SJ Semiconductor starts US$1.5bn 3DIC project for AI chips

SJ Semiconductor has started construction of a CNY10 billion (approx. US$1.47 billion) 3DIC manufacturing project in Shanghai's Lingang New Area, expanding advanced packaging capacity for high-performance computing, AI and data center chips.

Monday 6 July 2026
Huawei HarmonyOS misses China government OS shortlist despite top security rating

Huawei's HarmonyOS missed one of China's largest annual government desktop operating system (OS) procurement shortlists, showing that top security certification alone is not enough for public-sector software tenders.

Monday 6 July 2026
China's chip equipment makers ramp up expansion as AI and memory boom fuel domestic demand

China's leading semiconductor equipment manufacturers are accelerating expansion through acquisitions and fundraising, as surging AI investment, memory chip capacity growth, and import substitution combine to create one of the industry's strongest growth cycles in years.

Monday 6 July 2026
Samsung said to seek up to 20% DRAM price hike as AI demand tightens supply

Samsung Electronics is negotiating with customers to raise average selling prices for commodity DRAM by as much as 20% in the third quarter of 2026 from the prior quarter, according to ZDNet Korea, which cited industry sources.

Monday 6 July 2026
India's chip mission enters harder phase: deciding where to compete
India's plan to sharply expand public funding for semiconductors marks a new phase in its chip ambitions. The harder question is whether New Delhi can now decide where it wants to win first.
Monday 6 July 2026
Huawei chip chief proposes Tau Law V2 centered on time-based scaling
Huawei's semiconductor chief is promoting a post-Moore roadmap that shifts industry focus from shrinking transistors to reducing time across the computing stack, a framework backed by internal production claims for Kirin chips and Ascend accelerators. Despite that, he also drew caution because the work remains a preprint, not a peer-reviewed study.
Monday 6 July 2026
Micron breaks ground on Hiroshima expansion to boost AI memory chip production
Micron Technology has begun construction on an expansion of its existing semiconductor plant in Higashi-Hiroshima, western Japan, as part of a JPY1.5 trillion (approx. US$9.3 billion) investment aimed at increasing production of advanced memory chips, particularly high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) processors.
Monday 6 July 2026
Alibaba reportedly bans Claude Code for employees, citing security concerns as China shifts toward domestic AI coding tools
Alibaba has instructed employees to stop using Anthropic's Claude Code for work and remove Claude models from company computers, according to respective sources cited by Yicai, The Information, and Reuters. The move comes after concerns emerged over features in Claude Code that developers said could identify whether users were located in China or affiliated with Chinese research labs.
Monday 6 July 2026
India launches third semiconductor plant as CG Semi begins commercial production in Gujarat
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated CG Semi's Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility in Sanand, Gujarat, marking the start of commercial production at what the government described as the country's third semiconductor plant to become operational in 2026. The project forms part of New Delhi's broader effort to build a domestic semiconductor ecosystem under its India Semiconductor Mission and "Make in India" initiative.