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Tuesday 20 October 2026
US firms eye Malaysia to diversify rare earth supply chains
More than a dozen US companies are exploring opportunities to develop Malaysia's rare earth industry, seeking alternatives to China-dominated supply chains as Washington pushes to secure supplies of critical minerals.
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Tuesday 20 October 2026
Global Tek's new Thailand plant enters trial production in 3Q26, targeting AI liquid cooling and aerospace opportunities
Global Tek Industrial held an opening ceremony on the 20th for its Super Smart Manufacturing Park in Chonburi, Thailand. Spanning 177,600 square meters, the facility is the group's largest single production base. Having entered trial production in the third quarter of 2026, the plant will expand beyond existing automotive orders to incorporate high-value-added products such as AI liquid cooling and aerospace components, fulfilling customer demand for non-China supply chains.
Tuesday 20 October 2026
Malaysia says data center investors must fund transmission upgrades
Malaysia wants data center investors to bear the cost of transmission upgrades required by their projects, tying investment decisions more closely to local grid readiness. New applications are already assessed against local grid capacity planning, according to the Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation, while Wood Mackenzie identifies transmission and distribution readiness as an increasingly important constraint on growth in Johor.
Tuesday 20 October 2026
TiMotion targets robot market as Vietnam plant is set to open by year-end
Transmission systems integrator TiMotion Technology plans to begin trading on Taiwan's Emerging Stock Board on October 21 as it marks its 20th anniversary, with the company targeting record revenue in 2026 on strong industrial demand and expansion into the robot market.
Monday 19 October 2026
Malaysia unveils six locally designed chips, but commercial adoption is the real test
Malaysia's push to move from assembling chips to owning the designs behind them has reached the point where it must find buyers. On October 16, the government unveiled six semiconductor innovations developed by local companies, putting their combined sales potential at MYR300 million (approximately US$73.5 million), while Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said winning customers and passing industry qualification were still ahead.
Friday 16 October 2026
FICG eyes 4x optical communications capacity by 2027
FICG is aggressively expanding optical communications production in Malaysia and China to meet surging AI-driven demand, which the company estimates is 3-4x current supply capacity. Chairman Leo Chien described the next three years as a "frenzied expansion period," with the company's Johor, Malaysia, facility set to increase capacity 4x by the end of 2027.
Friday 16 October 2026
DayOne doubles Johor data center financing to MYR30 billion as billings pass 1GW
Singapore-based data center developer DayOne has secured an additional MYR15 billion (US$3.67 billion) in financing from a consortium of seven banks to expand hyperscale data center capacity in Johor, Malaysia, Reuters reported on October 13, 2026. Together with MYR15 billion in multicurrency financing secured in 2025, the platform now stands at MYR30 billion, according to a joint statement from the lenders cited by The Business Times.
Thursday 15 October 2026
Vietnam's FPT courts Toyota Tsusho unit to sell its power chips in Southeast Asia, India
Vietnamese technology group FPT is lining up a second Japanese distribution channel for its in-house power chips, a move that would carry Vietnamese-designed semiconductors beyond Japan and into Southeast Asian and Indian markets through a Toyota Group trading network.
Thursday 15 October 2026
Auden expects stronger growth in 2027, sees satellite industry taking another 2–3 years to gain momentum
RF antenna and communications technology company Auden Techno recently inaugurated its global headquarters and R&D center in Bade, Taoyuan. Chairman Chang Yu-Pin said the company's growth in 2026 will continue to be driven primarily by antenna modules and testing instruments for NB and bioelectromagnetic applications.
Tuesday 13 October 2026
Samsung's US$9B chip expansion faces funding, supply hurdles
Samsung affiliates plan to invest a combined KRW12.26 trillion (approx. US$9.18 billion) in semiconductor operations across South Korea and Vietnam, but the projects face different financial and supply-chain challenges. Samsung Electronics plans to finance about 63% of its Vietnamese memory testing investment through future profits, while Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) faces potential equipment delivery delays and material supply constraints as it expands semiconductor substrate production.
Tuesday 13 October 2026
ATE Energy revenue jumps 132% on Philippines energy projects
ATE Energy International Co. Ltd. reported consolidated revenue of NT$6.667 billion (US$209.0 million) for the first three quarters of 2026, up 132.52% from a year earlier, driven by the continued progress of major energy engineering projects in the Philippines and steady recognition of engineering revenue.
Tuesday 13 October 2026
Malaysian states team up to back homegrown chip firms
The Selangor state government has committed MYR50 million (US$12.24 million) to the National Strategic Investment Fund, joining Khazanah Nasional Bhd and the Penang government in a MYR150 million vehicle to accelerate the growth of Malaysian semiconductor and advanced technology companies, Bernama reported on October 10, 2026.
Tuesday 13 October 2026
Foxconn's Vietnam unit Fukang Technology more than doubles registered capital to US$710.4 million
Fukang Technology, a northern Vietnam subsidiary of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn), has raised its registered capital by more than 109% to nearly VND17.47 trillion (US$710.4 million), according to business registration records reported by The Investor on October 12, 2026. The update, issued in late September, lifts the capital base from VND8.35 trillion and brings the registration in line with a capital injection Hon Hai disclosed in Taiwan in August.
Monday 12 October 2026
Chinese thermal materials maker SJ Electronics to build US$70 million plant in Penang
PEN SJ Electronics, a subsidiary of China's SJ Electronics, will invest more than US$70 million in an advanced packaging materials and thermal management facility at Batu Kawan Industrial Park 3 (BKIP3) in Penang, Malaysia, and plans to create more than 1,000 jobs. Penang Chief Minister Kon Yeow Chow announced the investment on October 7, 2026.
Saturday 10 October 2026
Advanced packaging leads Malaysia's push up the chip value chain as AI reshapes demand, says Yole analyst
Malaysia is moving from traditional semiconductor back-end manufacturing toward higher value-added work, with advanced packaging set to drive growth over the next two to three years, according to Nur Hilwani, Technology & Market Analyst, Semiconductor Equipment at France-based Yole Group. Talent, IP ownership and supply-chain gaps remain hurdles.
Thursday 8 October 2026
Malaysia's chip push: a new island and pressure from Washington and Beijing
Malaysia's plan to climb the semiconductor value chain is colliding with two constraints: a shortage of land in Penang, the heart of its chip industry, and mounting pressure to pick sides in the US-China technology contest. Off Penang's coast, developers are reclaiming a 2,300-acre Silicon Island from the sea to give the cluster room to expand, even as Washington presses Kuala Lumpur to police advanced chip flows and Chinese-linked firms are setting up in the state to reduce their exposure to scrutiny of China-origin goods.