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Jan 16
US-Taiwan reach agreement on tariff deal, but leave timelines and capacity rules unclear
The US Commerce Department said Taiwan and the US will sign a trade agreement involving up to US$500 billion in Taiwanese investment. However, the framework does not set annual allocations, phased targets, or completion deadlines, giving both sides broad flexibility.
The large-scale deployment of artificial intelligence servers has driven a sharp increase in demand for mass storage, with market sources saying NAND flash contract prices for the first quarter of 2026 are rising far more steeply than previously expected.
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun, since his appointment in May 2024, has spearheaded significant changes at the company's Device Solutions (DS) division, reversing the company's decline in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) technology. Samsung's semiconductor business, once trailing behind Korean rival SK Hynix, has regained competitiveness amid rising AI demand, according to reports from JoongAng Daily and The Korea Times.

Amkor Technology, the US-based semiconductor packaging and testing company, said it will close its Hakodate plant in northern Japan by December 2027, citing weak demand stemming from a slowdown in the global electric vehicle (EV) market. The factory, located in the town of Nanae in Hokkaido, specializes in packaging chips used in automobiles.

Tight memory supply has driven market prices sharply higher, prompting industry expectations that 2026 PC and smartphone end-demand will face downward pressure. However, TSMC stated that fluctuations in component costs like memory have a limited impact and remains optimistic about product lines such as high-end smartphones and PCs.

Canon said on January 13 that it has developed a new wafer planarization technology designed to uniformly smooth surface irregularities during semiconductor manufacturing. The process applies resin materials using inkjet printing and then presses a glass plate onto the surface, using a stamping-like method to achieve planarization.

Taiwan-based passive component maker Yageo said Japan's Shibaura Electronics was officially delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on January 13. Following the completion of the share consolidation, Yageo now holds 100% of the voting rights in Shibaura Electronics as of January 15.

At its January 15, 2026, earnings call, TSMC chairman C.C. Wei addressed questions on the authenticity of AI demand, capital expenditure plans, and US capacity expansion. Wei stated that AI demand is real and sustainable, underpinning TSMC's aggressive investment strategy.
During TSMC's first earnings call of 2026, CEO C.C. Wei said that key metrics at its Arizona fabs are approaching the level of advanced manufacturing in Taiwan. Rising demand from US-based AI customers supports TSMC's capacity expansion in the US, prompting back-end packaging and testing supply chain partners to consider expanding their US presence.

In the inaugural episode of a new leadership podcast, Jensen Huang offers a strikingly unvarnished account of how Nvidia became one of the world's most valuable technology firms.

After months of high-stakes negotiations, Taiwan has secured a reciprocal tariff rate of 15% with the United States. Officials in Taipei are presenting the result as both a diplomatic breakthrough and a strategic recalibration of Taiwan's place in the global supply chain.
China's domestic memory module maker Biwin Storage Technology has released the A-share market's first major 2025 profit outlook, signalling a sharp earnings rebound as memory prices recover and AI-driven demand reshapes the sector's supply dynamics.