On February 9, 2026, Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics said that it will raise prices on certain device product categories by about 10% on average starting March 1, 2026, citing severe global metal price volatility and sustained increases in the cost of precious metals used in wafer processing.

Affected by the continued rise in tungsten carbide prices, PCB drill manufacturer Topoint Technology said that it plans to implement another price increase in the first quarter of 2026. The adjustment will extend from tungsten white drills to high-end coated products, passing on cost pressure to downstream customers.

TSMC's donation of 12-inch wafer fabrication equipment is being divided between two government research facilities, with the Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI) and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) each receiving separate allocations. While ITRI successfully held its groundbreaking ceremony on February 10, 2026, TSRI's expansion plans have stalled due to a land ownership dispute with National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), forcing officials to consider relocating the project to southern Taiwan.

Taiwan's Executive Yuan announced on February 10, 2026, that the government will fully embrace advanced new nuclear technologies worldwide, including small modular reactors (SMRs). This marks a significant shift in its longstanding non-nuclear policy amid rising challenges from climate change, energy security, and surging AI-driven electricity demand.

Surging demand for artificial intelligence servers and high-performance computing (HPC) has tightened capacity across the semiconductor supply chain. For many small South Korean communications IC designers relying on mature process technologies, the bottleneck has shifted from wafer fabrication to packaging and testing.

China's largest contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) reported a resilient fourth quarter and record full-year results for 2025, supported by accelerating domestic chip localization and sustained demand for mature-node capacity.

Taiwan has launched construction of a new 12-inch semiconductor pilot production platform at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), aiming to strengthen the island's advanced R&D capabilities while lowering development and verification barriers for startups and small-to-medium IC design firms.

Qun Ge, global senior vice president and chairman and president of Synopsys China, is set to depart. The move appears routine. But it points to deeper structural shifts in the global EDA industry's China market.

The expansion of computing power driven by generative AI has repositioned memory as a critical resource, with data centers and AI servers redefining its value and leaving industrial PC (IPC) manufacturers facing rising costs and worsening lead-time challenges as 2026 begins.

On February 10, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) reported record 2025 revenues, but quarterly gross margins fell to 19.2%. The decline, driven by heavy depreciation costs and shifting smartphone supply chain dynamics, underscores the financial pressure of aggressive capacity expansion despite sustained high utilization across manufacturing facilities.