China is planning tougher scrutiny on exports of technology to make battery materials, as Beijing looks to protect its grip on a crucial supply chain amid rising global trade tensions
Hanwha Qcells, a subsidiary of Hanwha Solutions, has secured a US$1.45 billion low-interest loan to accelerate the development of its integrated Solar Hub in Georgia, the US. The investment strengthens US energy independence, challenges China's renewable energy dominance, and aligns with global net-zero goals under the Paris Agreement
The global solar energy landscape enters 2025 with seismic shifts as the US tightens trade measures against Southeast Asia and China's dominance in N-type TOPCon technology sparks supply chain turmoil. Despite efforts to diversify, Chinese manufacturers still control over 85% of global solar demand, reinforcing their position amid geopolitical tensions
Unlike Europe's Dark Ages, Japan's semiconductor industry has maintained its strength throughout its history. Japan dominates the semiconductor materials industry and holds one-third of the semiconductor equipment market. The country continues to maintain a significant position in NAND Flash, power devices, automotive semiconductors, and CMOS image sensors
Sekisui Chemical is set to acquire Sharp's Sakai facility in Osaka to construct a new factory for next-generation perovskite solar cells. Sekisui plans to form a new solar cell company in partnership with the Development Bank of Japan, investing a total of JPY314.5 billion (US$2 billion) by 2030
The development of AI models in China has progressed at an impressive pace, with a proactive embrace of open-source strategies in recent years. These efforts have not only garnered significant attention from the global AI community on platforms like Hugging Face but have also led to the adoption of Chinese-developed open-source models by prominent research teams, including those from Meta and Stanford University
Following the widely reported departure of Lin Jing-cheng "Vic" (J. C. Lin) from Samsung Electronics in December 2024, industry analysts are now assessing the impact of his brief tenure. The former TSMC R&D Vice President's move to Samsung as VP for Advanced Packaging in January 2023 had initially sparked intense speculation about a potential shift in the industry's competitive landscape
Honor, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, announced on its official website that it has transitioned into a joint-stock company as of December 28, 2024, with its official name now Honor Terminal Company, Ltd. According to reports from ICSmart and HKET, the restructuring, launched in the fourth quarter of 2024, has been carried out seamlessly
DeepSeek, an emerging AI company, has launched DeepSeek-V3, the first version of its new open-source model series. According to official data, this model outperforms other leading open-source models such as Alibaba's Qwen2.5-72B and Meta's Llama-3.1-405B across multiple evaluations, approaching the capabilities of prominent closed-source models like GPT-4 and Claude-3.5-Sonnet in several domains
As the new year unfolds, the global economy and trade dynamics remain highly complex and unpredictable. Among these developments, significant policy changes in both China and the US are heavily impacting the television market
Taiwan has implemented comprehensive regulations to prevent the transfer of sensitive technologies, including advanced chips, to mainland China, reinforcing national security and economic interests
The third phase of China's National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (Big Fund) has launched with a substantial CNY160 billion (US$21.9 billion) investment, aligning with the final year of the "14th Five-Year Plan." Officially commencing on December 31, 2024, this funding initiative underscores China's commitment to drive critical semiconductor advancements and tackle key technological priorities
The US government is seeking public input on proposed rules to secure the ICTS supply chain for drones, potentially limiting Chinese drones, which dominate US markets
Horizon Robotics, a Chinese manufacturer of intelligent driving chips, has announced its goal of shipping over 10 million chips in 2025, positioning itself to become the first Chinese company to achieve this level of mass production
