SEMICON Korea 2026, held in Seoul from February 11–13, brought senior executives from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to outline their AI-era memory R&D strategies. Samsung focused on cross-domain semiconductor integration to address bandwidth and energy-efficiency limits, while SK Hynix detailed a platform-based and AI-driven approach to compress development cycles.
Amazon Web Services' (AWS) Trainium 3 servers, slated for mass production in the second quarter of 2026, have sharply reduced their planned use of liquid cooling, supply chain sources say, reversing an earlier 50:50 air‑to‑liquid split to roughly 90% air‑cooled and 10% liquid or less as production nears. This change could slow broader adoption of liquid cooling in AI server fleets.
Minister of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Cheng-wen Wu has recently sparked a firestorm across Taiwan's academic community. His blunt critique of long-standing structural problems—punctuated by provocative phrases such as "very shameful" and "despised"—quickly ignited debate over whether Taiwan's research system has become overly dependent on metrics, entrenched in factionalism, and driven by incentives that prioritize quantity over meaningful impact.
On February 12, Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) announced fiscal first-quarter 2026 financial results that exceeded the midpoint of its previous guidance, driven by a significant surge in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investments. For the quarter ended January 25, 2026, the company reported revenue of $7.01 billion, a 2% year-over-year decline but a 3% sequential increase. Non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) reached $2.38, remaining flat compared to the previous year.
Applied Materials used its fiscal first quarter 2026 earnings call to underscore that AI-related semiconductor demand is running ahead of earlier forecasts, with industry revenues potentially reaching US$1 trillion in 2026 and momentum extending into 2027 despite near-term cleanroom constraints.
Samsung Electronics is said to be expanding its 8nm foundry customer base into Europe following earlier contract wins in the US and Japan.
US Ambassador Jamieson Greer oversaw the signing of a comprehensive Agreement on Reciprocal Trade between the US and Taiwan on February 12, 2026. The agreement, reached under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US (TECRO), is designed to eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers while enhancing the resilience of high-technology supply chains.
The global AI data center boom is straining not only high-end computing chips but also adjacent industries such as memory and upstream glass fiber cloth, where significant capacity squeezes are rippling through to downstream customers' production layouts worldwide.
Winbond Electronics is entering a powerful demand cycle, with tight supply conditions across DRAM, NOR flash, and SLC NAND extending beyond the near term and reshaping customer behaviour across the memory supply chain.
Driven by expanding memory demand from AI servers and rising average selling prices, Japan-based NAND flash and SSD maker Kioxia expects solid growth in fiscal year 2025 (April 2025-March 2026), supported by momentum in the final quarter (January-March 2026).
Samsung Electronics has officially commenced the mass production and commercial shipment of its HBM4 memory, marking a pivotal moment in the global semiconductor landscape.
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