The US export control and sanction systems are increasingly becoming the most impactful economic tools on the global supply chain, as the federal government leads a comprehensive effort to compete with and contain China. This is in addition to utilizing fiscal measures like the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to encourage the repatriation of supply chains to the United States
South Korea will begin awarding aid to chipmakers in July, kicking off a KRW 26 trillion (US$ 19 billion) package of financial support pledged toward boosting a critical industry
Honda, the Japanese automotive conglomerate, announced that it will launch a budget Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) in October 2024 in Japan, and consumers can get one for less than US$10,000
While Tesla Optimus is still adding fuel to the robotic market buzz, Chinese robotics company Unitree released its G1 humanoid robot in May, with the price starting at CNY99,000 (about US$13,631). The robot was sold in a third-party store on JD.com
Japan-based Sumitomo Chemical is refining its growth strategy by downsizing its LCD component business while expanding its semiconductor materials division
SK Hynix's performance outlook in the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market has garnered optimism from South Korea's securities industry, driven by major customer orders from NVIDIA, AMD, and others
Chinese DRAM manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) has received government approval to establish a new manufacturing site in Shanghai, according to industry sources
President Xi Jinping called on China to step up innovation because other countries dominate certain key technologies, comments that underscore his nation's escalating semiconductor confrontation with the US
Japanese motor manufacturer Nidec is shifting its growth strategy to focus on cooling devices for Generative AI (GenAI) servers, anticipating this business will grow to an annual scale of JPY 1 trillion (US$6.4 billion) in the future
Nissan Motor recently announced that Dongfeng Nissan, its joint venture in China, had shut down production at a facility in Changzhou last week. The act was part of Nissan's efforts to optimize its performance in the world's largest car market
To address the rising memory demand of the AI boom, Samsung is resuming the construction of its new Pyeongtaek plant 5 (P5), with construction beginning as early as the third quarter of 2024 and completion estimated by April 2027
