China's Ministry of Commerce has denounced new US restrictions targeting Huawei's artificial intelligence (AI) chips, arguing the move threatens the recently established trade consensus between the two nations in Geneva. The Ministry urged Washington to "immediately correct its wrongful actions" and cease what it called discriminatory measures against Chinese companies

Once a pillar of Japan's automotive might, Nissan now finds itself in financial peril, with talks of potential mergers or alliances repeatedly falling through. After a failed merger attempt with Honda, Japan's second-largest automaker, reports from Japanese media suggest that Toyota—Japan's largest and most influential carmaker—may be quietly extending a helping hand. However, neither Toyota nor Nissan has confirmed the rumors through official channels

Samsung Electronics' Visual Display (VD) Business has reportedly entered "emergency management" mode in response to falling global TV market share and rising LCD panel costs—two critical factors driving the company's internal shakeup. According to The Korea Economic Daily, Yonhap News Agency, and Korea Daily News, Yong Seok-woo, President and Head of the VD Business, recently told executives the division would adopt tighter operational policies as part of a broader crisis response strategy

South Korean chip giant SK Hynix has placed significant orders for thermal compression bonding (TCB) equipment with two domestic suppliers, Hanwha Semitech and Hanmi Semiconductor, signaling a strategic push to expand its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) manufacturing capabilities

Huawei, on May 19, 2025, launched its first personal computers powered by HarmonyOS, after five years of development involving more than 10,000 engineers. The MateBook Pro and MateBook Fold Ultimate Design are the first laptops to run HarmonyOS 5, marking a pivotal moment in China's drive for full-stack operating system autonomy in the PC sector

Years after launching the Pinecone Surge S1 in 2017, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun announced the company's return to in-house smartphone chip design. Its new self-developed SoC, the XRing O1, is set to debut on May 22. Lei disclosed that Xiaomi has poured over CNY13.5 billion (approx. US$1.87 billion) into developing the XRing, supported by a 2,500-strong engineering team. The company plans to invest an additional CNY6 billion in R&D in 2025

The year 2025 marks a significant moment for the Chinese-speaking semiconductor industry, presenting a striking contrast

As global telecom players across Europe, the US, Japan, and South Korea face mass layoffs and resource constraints, market contraction is accelerating. Meanwhile, Huawei is bucking the trend, expanding its R&D headcount and consolidating its lead in 5G and communications infrastructure, emerging as the sector's biggest wildcard. The growing split in the global telecom race is stark: Huawei gains strategic ground, while Western peers stall amid policy inertia and financial tightening

Since its viral breakout in February, DeepSeek has triggered a rush for all-in-one AI appliances across China's enterprise and government markets. But the boom has also unleashed a disorderly ecosystem, with over 100 DeepSeek-branded systems flooding the market, priced anywhere from tens of thousands to more than one million CNY

South Korean authorities arrested a former subcontractor employee at Incheon International Airport for allegedly attempting to smuggle SK Hynix's proprietary high-bandwidth memory (HBM) packaging technology to China. The suspect, identified as Mr. Kim, was apprehended moments before boarding his flight

Amid the renewed US-China trade tensions and fierce price competition from Chinese peers, the industry trend of "China Minus One" has resurfaced, spreading from outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers upstream to the IC substrate supply chain

China's outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) industry is gaining momentum, driven by surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and electric vehicles (EVs). As the country intensifies its technology upgrade initiatives, the back-end supply chain has become a strategic pillar, with major players ramping up both revenue and innovation

These are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of May 12 – May 18. From China's push in DUV lithography and Samsung's resurgence in foundry orders to TSMC's aggressive fab expansion and Europe's looming ban on Chinese inverters, the week highlighted shifting power dynamics across the global tech and semiconductor landscape

InPsytech, a leading provider of high-performance semiconductor intellectual property (IP) solutions under Egis, has been selected to join the Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) as an IP partner. This recognition stems from InPsytech's outstanding performance in open NAND flash interface (ONFI) high-performance IP solutions. InPsytech plans to continue expanding its IP portfolio within Samsung's ecosystem, particularly by strengthening applications for UCIe IP