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Friday 30 January 2026
SanDisk sees sevenfold profit surge in 2QFY26, extends Kioxia JV
SanDisk delivered a strong fiscal second quarter in 2026, reflecting accelerating demand across data centers, industrial applications, and consumer electronics, driven by the ongoing AI infrastructure buildout. The US flash memory maker reported revenue of US$3.03 billion, up 61% year over year, while net profit surged 7.7-fold to US$803 million, according to its January 29, 2026, earnings release
Friday 30 January 2026
Samsung, LG hike laptop prices as memory 'chipflation' hits
Prices for laptops and consumer IT devices are climbing as a sustained rally in memory semiconductor costs ripples through the market. The trend, described by industry observers as "chipflation," is beginning to reach consumers as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics debut their latest notebooks with sharply higher price tags
Friday 30 January 2026
South Korea NAND flash gains strategic role in next-gen AI infrastructure

With artificial intelligence (AI) technology advancing at a breakneck pace—particularly as applications move from the training phase to inference—demand for high-capacity, high-performance storage in data centers and embedded devices is surging. Once considered a low-margin segment prone to market volatility, NAND flash has taken on a new strategic role in Nvidia's blueprint for next-generation AI infrastructure, becoming an indispensable component for AI inference workloads

Friday 30 January 2026
Analysis: Why ASML is cutting jobs in Europe and the US but sparing China
ASML Holding reported record financial results for 2025, marked by strong growth in both revenue and profitability. Full-year revenue reached EUR32.67 billion (US$38.96 billion), up 15.6% from the previous year, while net profit rose 26.9% to EUR9.61 billion—gross margin held at 52.8%
Friday 30 January 2026
Huawei scales cloud ecosystem in Asia-Pacific; Volcengine surges in AI cloud
Huawei is expanding its public cloud business across overseas markets, refining its partner strategy, and advancing its "platform plus ecosystem" model in Asia-Pacific. The company said that by the end of 2025, Huawei Cloud had more than 40 master distributors and over 50 cloud service provider partners outside China, serving over 4,000 customers globally. In the Asia-Pacific region, the company has become the region's fastest-growing public cloud provider, supported by service teams in more than 10 locations
Friday 30 January 2026
SK Hynix reportedly converts Icheon DRAM lines as supply crunch boosts margins
The global memory market is moving into a phase that looks increasingly different from past cyclical upswings, as demand tied to artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems continues to strain supply. With conventional DRAM prices firming and capacity expansion remaining cautious, major memory makers are reshaping production strategies to protect margins rather than pursue volume growth
Thursday 29 January 2026
South Korea's industry minister heads to Washington after tariff rollback warning

US President Donald Trump has threatened to restore 25% tariffs on South Korean goods, escalating trade tensions by citing delays in Seoul's passage of legislation linked to a bilateral trade agreement reached last year

Thursday 29 January 2026
Samsung foundry hit by China pullbacks in 2025, eyes late-year stabilization
Chinese customers who had planned to use Samsung Electronics' foundry services abandoned a number of projects in 2025 as US regulatory pressure on China intensified and uncertainty peaked ahead of mass production, according to Korean industry sources. Market participants say conditions may look different in 2026
Thursday 29 January 2026
In-depth: DeepSeek's one-year breakthrough shows how China builds AI without cutting-edge chips
In January 2025, while the global AI and semiconductor industries remained focused on advanced process nodes and high-performance GPUs, China's large-scale model DeepSeek-R1 emerged unexpectedly
Thursday 29 January 2026
Earnings call summary: Samsung 4Q25 profit jumps as AI memory crunch pressures phones and displays
Samsung Electronics reported record quarterly revenue and operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2025, as surging memory prices and tight supply, driven by the artificial intelligence boom, more than offset seasonal weakness in smartphones, televisions, and home appliances. The company also warned that an acute chip shortage is expected to persist, creating cost pressures for its mobile and display businesses
Thursday 29 January 2026
Alibaba's new AI chip challenges Nvidia from A800 to A100-class performance
Alibaba has unveiled its in-house high-end AI processor, Zhenwu 810E, advancing its strategy to vertically integrate AI chips, cloud infrastructure, and large language models. Developed by T-Head Semiconductor, the processor appeared on Alibaba's website on January 29, 2026, following an earlier mention on CCTV News, highlighting Alibaba's vertically integrated AI supercomputing framework that combines in-house chips, Alibaba Cloud's computing platform, and the open-source Qwen large language models from Tongyi Lab
Thursday 29 January 2026
China's MCU sector trends from price cutting to margin repair
China's microcontroller (MCU) vendors have started raising prices, led by Cmsemicon's increases across MCU and related products, marking the first upward move in a market that has been depressed for years
Thursday 29 January 2026
Analysis: how SK Hynix is binding customers to its AI memory
SK Hynix is moving to lock out competitors in the high-stakes battle for AI memory, deploying a "one-team" operational strategy that integrates the chipmaker directly into its customers' design processes just as it confirms the mass production of its next-generation HBM4
Thursday 29 January 2026
Earnings call summary: Samsung 4Q25 profit tops KRW20 trillion on memory boom
Samsung Electronics posted record quarterly revenue and operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2025, underscoring how AI-driven demand for advanced memory has become the company's main earnings engine, even as smartphones, TVs, and home appliances faced seasonal slowdowns and margin pressure
Thursday 29 January 2026
Sunny Optical restructures as China's lens makers face layoffs prompted by smartphone slump
China's optical industry is confronting significant challenges as several lens module manufacturers reportedly plan layoffs early in 2026, prompted by sluggish smartphone sales and intense price competition. Industry sources indicate that the sector's difficulties are unlikely to abate in the coming year due to persistent market and macroeconomic pressures