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Aug 6
DRAM price surge lifts Samsung and Micron as SK Hynix loses share
Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology are benefiting more strongly from rising conventional DRAM and NAND prices than SK Hynix, whose focus on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) has slowed the expansion of its traditional DRAM business despite its leadership in HBM.

Zhen Ding Tech (ZDT) said July revenue reached its highest level so far in 2026, supported by strong momentum across mobile communications, servers, optical modules and IC substrates. Its mobile communications business maintained double-digit year-on-year growth, while combined revenue from servers, optical modules and IC substrates sustained triple-digit growth, accelerated from the previous month and reached another monthly record. The gains were mainly driven by customers moving high-end AI products into adoption and mass production as planned, lifting ZDT's related shipments.

US President Donald Trump's new import rules on polysilicon, ingots, wafers, and solar products could ripple through global clean energy and semiconductor markets, affecting pricing, sourcing, and investment decisions far beyond the US. South Korean producers welcomed the measure, while analysts said it targets low-cost Chinese supply and could reshape competition.

Memory IC designer AP Memory posted higher revenue and profit in the second quarter and expects to enter a new growth cycle beginning in 2026, driven by continued expansion in IoTRAM demand and a rapid ramp-up of its Stack Silicon Capacitor (S-SiCap) product line for AI advanced packaging.

Samsung sounds out Novatek for Galaxy S28 Ultra DDI
Aug 7, 13:56

Samsung Electronics is considering opening its flagship Galaxy S display driver IC (DDI) supply chain to an outside supplier, a move that could break System LSI's long-standing exclusive hold on the business.

Solidigm, SK Hynix's US NAND and enterprise storage unit, is weighing a pre-IPO funding round of KRW5 trillion to KRW10 trillion, roughly US$3.5 billion to US$7 billion, ahead of a potential Nasdaq listing, a move that could establish a standalone valuation for the business as enterprise storage demand strengthens.

AI chip demand is sustaining a global rise in semiconductor packaging and testing prices, with STATS ChipPAC preparing a broad round of price increases for the second half of 2026. Some customers have recently received notices of varying adjustments from the Singapore-based subsidiary of China's JCET.

Nvidia Senior Vice President of Networking Gilad Shainer said the company is building the key network architecture and optical interconnect technologies needed for AI factory deployments at scale, in a DIGITIMES interview ahead of the OCP APAC Summit on August 11-12, 2026. He said the biggest shift in AI factories is that the computing unit is no longer a single server but the entire data center, while Nvidia's announcement that co-packaged optics (CPO) switch has entered mass production signals a new round of upgrades for the optical communications industry and the AI networking market.

LG Electronics plans to develop premium, midrange and entry-level on-device AI chips for products ranging from refrigerators and washing machines to smart-home hubs and service robots, according to ETNews.

SpaceX's earnings call — the first since its IPO disclosure — beat expectations on Aug 4, but the line that moved markets wasn't a revenue figure.

Elon Musk's ambitions across AI, robotics and space infrastructure are moving into a new phase following the unveiling of Terafab, an ambitious semiconductor manufacturing complex designed to secure the compute capacity required by Tesla, SpaceX and xAI.

AI-driven demand for advanced packaging is giving old-generation panel fabs and equipment new value. As Taiwan's panel makers accelerate the phaseout of LCD capacity at the 5.5 generation and below, they are splitting into two tracks: selling factories to foundries and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers, or keeping lines in-house to develop fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP), through-glass via (TGV), redistribution layer (RDL), and glass core technologies.