DIGITIMES Semiconductors news

May 4, 10:58

Commentary: Intel names TSMC as key partner; insider drives its comeback

One year into his tenure, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan struck a markedly different tone on the company's outlook. At the first-quarter 2026 earnings call, he said the debate a year ago centred on whether Intel could survive. Today, the focus has shifted to how quickly it can expand capacity and scale its supply chain to meet surging demand.

Huawei targets US$12 billion in AI chip sales as China firms seek Nvidia alternatives

May 4, 16:16

Samsung strike exposes AI-era pay divide, raises HBM supply risks

May 4, 15:29

TSMC’s 3nm crunch will keep Apple Mac supply constrained until 2nm ramps up

May 4, 10:32

SEMICON SEA 2026 highlights Malaysia's push to scale semiconductor assembly, testing and packaging

May 4, 08:51

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IC DESIGN, DISTRIBUTIONADT lands US AI chip deal using Samsung 4nm

May 4, 18:06

ADTechnology said it has signed a KRW40 billion (US$27.1 million) turnkey contract with a US-based AI fabless company to develop and supply HPC SoC chiplets for AI data-center applications using Samsung Foundry's 4nm process.

PASSIVE, PCB, OTHER IC COMPONENTSWin Semiconductors: GaAs and InP supply still meets production demand

May 4, 16:15

Rising raw material prices have pushed up gallium arsenide (GaAs) substrate costs, squeezing a key material used in power amplifiers (PA). Win Semiconductors said that its scale gives it stronger bargaining power, but the company will renegotiate prices with customers if input costs swing sharply.

IC MANUFACTURINGDIGITIMES Chair: South Korea's 260,000 GPU plan relies heavily on Taiwanese production, highlights need for collaboration in AI era

May 4, 15:09

As global demand for AI infrastructure accelerates, the collaboration between Taiwan and South Korea—the core pillars of the global semiconductor supply chain—is critical to winning the new tech race. Colley Hwang, chairman of DIGITIMES and IC Broadcasting, said South Korea's plan to deploy 260,000 Nvidia GPUs remains heavily reliant on Taiwan's manufacturing capabilities.

IC DESIGN, DISTRIBUTIONAnthropic reportedly in talks with Fractile to buy inference chips amid AI compute crunch

May 4, 12:34

Anthropic has been in talks with Fractile, a London-based startup, to purchase its inference chips for running its AI models more efficiently, as inferential AI tasks have pushed up compute demands, according to The Information. Although Fractile's AI chips are not expected to be available until next year at the earliest, the deal could give the maker of Claude more leverage with suppliers as it seeks to expand AI capacity to meet soaring demand.

PASSIVE, PCB, OTHER IC COMPONENTSAI's 1.6T shift turns InP into optical supply chain bottleneck

May 4, 12:22

The transition from 800G to 1.6T optical modules is no longer an upgrade cycle — it is a physics-driven inflection point.

PASSIVE, PCB, OTHER IC COMPONENTSYageo's Pierre Chen says AI hardware boom is lifting passive component demand

May 4, 12:02

Yageo chairman Pierre Chen said the rise of AI applications is driving stronger demand not only for advanced semiconductors and memory, but also for passive components, sensors, and power semiconductors.

IC MANUFACTURINGWeekly News Roundup: Terafab already affecting wafer fab landscape; Intel launches multi-year reset

May 4, 11:47

Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of April 27-May 4, 2026:

MEMORY CHIPSSamsung pulls ahead of SK Hynix as commodity DRAM prices surge

May 4, 11:22

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are both riding a historic memory upcycle, but a profit gap of about KRW15 trillion (approx. US$10 billion) has opened between the two Korean chipmakers, driven largely by commodity DRAM rather than high-bandwidth memory (HBM), according to Sedaily.

IC MANUFACTURINGSamsung foundry rebound gains steam as 4nm yield reportedly tops 80%

May 4, 11:18

Samsung Electronics' foundry business is drawing renewed attention as its 4nm process reportedly reaches higher utilization, supported by HBM4 base-die demand and orders from global technology companies.

IC MANUFACTURINGTaiwan moves to close the gap on semiconductor equipment self-sufficiency

May 4, 10:57

Taiwan's government is advancing its Five Trusted Industry Sectors program, which identifies semiconductors, AI, defense, security, and next-generation communications as the country's core growth drivers. The push for self-sufficiency in semiconductor materials and equipment has already generated NT$22 billion (US$696.92 million) in new output in 2025, with some of the machinery reportedly shipped to China.

IC DESIGN, DISTRIBUTIONRealtek sees PC revenue growth despite 2026 shipment decline

May 4, 10:48

Realtek's projection of a sharp fall in full-year 2026 PC shipments amid tight memory supply signals wider device-market shifts: global brands are prioritizing mid- and high-end models and premium components, boosting demand for higher-content semiconductors as unit volumes fall, with implications for laptop pricing, vendor strategies, and component suppliers worldwide.

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