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

Japanese NAND flash memory maker Kioxia reported a sharp earnings rebound for fiscal 2024 (April 2024 to March 2025), recording a net profit of JPY272.3 billion (approx. USD 1.9 billion) after a net loss of JPY243.73 billion the year prior

While China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently announced updates on deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE) also disclosed its 2023 patent applications related to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology, along with the publication of patents filed in September 2024

At the 2025 Semiconductor IP Industry Seminar in Shanghai, Akrostar Technology, Biren Technology, and Enflame Technology unveiled fresh funding rounds, highlighting China's accelerating efforts to localize critical chip technologies amid the global AI boom, as reported by ICsmart and Sina