The global 8-inch wafer foundry market has entered a price upcycle. Foundries, including SMIC and Hua Hong Semiconductor, along with major Taiwanese and South Korean mature-node players, have notified customers that 8-inch foundry prices are set to rise by around 5 to 10% starting in the first quarter of 2026, covering specialty processes such as BCD and high-voltage (HV) platforms.
On the afternoon of December 26, 2025, Wingtech Technology convened its fifth extraordinary shareholders' meeting of 2025, sending a resolute signal: the company is prepared not only to regain full control of Nexperia but also to pursue as much as US$8 billion in international arbitration claims.
GPU prices are expected to rise in early 2026 as memory costs surge. AMD may implement hikes starting in January 2026, with Nvidia following in February 2026, according to industry sources. Pricing adjustments will likely continue for several months.
Nvidia has reportedly asked memory suppliers to prepare for the delivery of 16-high high-bandwidth memory by the second half of 2026, according to industry sources cited by South Korean media, including ET News and eNews Today. The request sets an aggressive timeline for a product that has yet to be commercialized.
The global semiconductor industry's transition into the "Foundry 2.0" era is now measurable in revenue, utilization, and competitive positioning. The expanded foundry ecosystem generated US$84.8 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2025, up 17% year over year. Growth was driven by a simultaneous surge in advanced-node wafer output and AI-led demand for advanced packaging, according to Counterpoint Research.
After briefly approaching a US$5 trillion market capitalisation, Nvidia spent 2025 deploying capital at an unprecedented pace, backing Groq, OpenAI, Nokia, Synopsys, and Intel through technology deals, equity stakes, and strategic partnerships. The objective is straightforward: convert AI-driven cash inflows into a durable, structural influence across the AI ecosystem.
As global AI compute demand pivots from large-scale model training toward application deployment, Zhonghao Xinying (Hangzhou) Technology founder and CEO Yang Gongyifan said in an interview with Chinastarmarket.cn that the company's second-generation self-developed chip has entered testing and is slated for market launch in 2026.
Nvidia has accelerated its expansion into artificial intelligence inference by signing a non-exclusive licensing agreement with startup Groq. The deal gives Nvidia access to specialized chip technology while recruiting several key engineers. It signals a strategic pivot by the world's leading chipmaker toward real-time AI model processing.
The global unmanned vehicle market is booming with explosive growth. This surge has revitalized existing sectors while boosting related supply chains that are now targeting a second growth curve. Key component suppliers, such as those from the communication technology and IC design sector,s are seizing new business opportunities.
Foxconn's operating structure is clearly shifting. Previously driven mainly by consumer electronics cycles, it is now gradually tilting toward AI servers, cloud, AI infrastructure, and high-performance computing (HPC). With continued investment and deployment in emerging businesses such as electric vehicles (EVs), results are expected to surface in 2026.
According to Nikkei, although electric vehicle (EV) demand has been below expectations, weighing heavily on Rohm Semiconductor's SiC power semiconductor equipment investments, the company has decided to expand applications into the AI server sector. Rohm's annual revenue from server-related fields is only around JPY10 billion (approx. US$64 million), but it has already started supplying new products in collaboration with Nvidia.
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