Aoi Electronics, Japan's top-ranked player in the outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) sector, is intensifying its push into advanced packaging with the ambition of cracking the global top 10 OSAT rankings. While the company leads the domestic market, it currently ranks only within the top 20 globally.

China's Wuxi Photonic Chip Joint Research Center—formally known as the Chip Hub for Integrated Photonics Xplore (CHIPX) and affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University—has commenced production of 6-inch lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) thin-film photonic chips. This marks a significant advance in China's efforts to overcome US-imposed tech restrictions and strengthen its semiconductor and quantum computing capabilities.

TSMC announced on June 11, 2025, that its second semiconductor fabrication plant in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture, is now scheduled to begin construction in the second half of 2025, with groundbreaking expected sometime after July.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and the University of Tokyo have inaugurated a new research center in Japan, marking a strategic expansion of their long-running partnership and signaling a deepening commitment to semiconductor innovation and workforce development in the country.

In mid-June, high-level China-US economic and trade talks held in London concluded with both sides reaching a preliminary agreement on a trade framework, according to Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Chenggang Li. He confirmed that the outcome would be reported to national leaders for further review, suggesting a tentative step toward renewed economic engagement.

Cyclic Materials, a startup backed by Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., announced plans to build a rare-earths recycling plant and research center in Canada.

While waves of layoffs continue to ripple through Google's global operations, the company is quietly embarking on an ambitious hiring drive in Taiwan. According to industry sources, Google's Taiwan office is rolling out employee referral incentives, offering staff points and cash bonuses for successfully recommending candidates for interviews or job offers, with rewards increasing for more senior-level hires.

Leading transmission system manufacturer TsangYow is optimistic about growth momentum in 2025, benefitting from soaring used car prices in the US and gains from its expansion into the semiconductor sector.

Since returning to the office, President Donald Trump has once again made unpredictability a cornerstone of US trade policy. His shifting stance on tariffs, particularly toward China, has sent tremors through global supply chains. And yet, amid the turbulence, Taiwan has managed not only to hold its ground but also to benefit unexpectedly from the chaos.

Honda Motor is preparing to invest in Japanese semiconductor startup Rapidus during the second half of fiscal year 2025 (October 2025 to March 2026), with a commitment expected to reach several billion Japanese yen—equivalent to tens of millions of US dollars. The move underscores Honda's strategic focus on securing next-generation semiconductor supply for future automotive technologies, particularly autonomous driving systems.

Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL), Japan's top semiconductor equipment manufacturer, held a groundbreaking ceremony on June 2, 2025, for its state-of-the-art production site in Taiwa, Miyagi Prefecture. Initially referred to as an expansion of its main plant, the facility has now been officially named the Miyagi Production Innovation Center. Scheduled for completion in the summer of 2027, the site is a cornerstone of TEL's strategy to address surging global demand for advanced chipmaking equipment.

Academia Sinica announced on June 10, 2025, the successful development of several advanced fabrication processes for superconducting qubits on an automated 8-inch platform, positioning Taiwan to expand its leadership from semiconductors into quantum chipmaking. While Taiwan dominates global semiconductor manufacturing, the institute underscored that quantum chips demand fundamentally different process technologies, with process stability and uniformity still posing major hurdles to scalable quantum computing.

Hota Industrial Manufacturing chairman David Shen is navigating a series of market variables, from tariffs to exchange rates. While Hota has been largely unaffected by tariffs, the sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan Dollar has presented challenges. Shen is seeking a resolution by late June 2025 to bring stability.

Taiwan's Executive Yuan announced a NT$300 billion (approx. US$9.3 billion) semiconductor subsidy program running through 2033, the island's largest-ever government investment in its chip industry. The American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan expressed interest in participating in the initiative for the first time.

PCB wet process equipment and semiconductor materials agent Ampoc recently announced a strategic technical partnership with South Korean semiconductor materials leader DCT Material. The collaboration aims to expand their presence in the Asian market and capture opportunities in the global advanced semiconductor process high-end materials sector, potentially breaking the long-standing monopoly held by certain major players.

India-based RIR Power Electronics has begun shipping 1200V silicon carbide (SiC) diodes from Taiwan, marking a key step in its global expansion strategy. The milestone follows a partnership with Pro Asia Semiconductor Corporation (PASC) and builds on IP acquired from US-based Sicamore Semi to support future production in Odisha.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan has elevated energy supply to its top policy priority, warning that power shortages could undermine the island's position as a global technology hub amid surging demand from AI and semiconductor industries.

Japan has made meaningful strides in reclaiming its semiconductor competitiveness with the establishment of the Leading-edge Semiconductor Technology Center (LSTC) and Rapidus, aiming to build a domestic ecosystem for advanced logic IC development and mass production. However, the Semiconductor Division of the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) says the country's efforts remain too narrowly focused.

In a sign of China's accelerating ambitions in the semiconductor race, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), the country's leading DRAM manufacturer, is rapidly advancing development of next-generation memory technologies. Departing from its original plan to commercialize DDR5 using a 17-nanometer process, CXMT is now opting for a more advanced 16-nanometer node. A 15-nanometer process is also under development, with mass production targeted for late 2026.

Samsung Electronics' foundry division is targeting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip market with a new collaboration alongside Groq, aiming to bring their jointly developed chip into mass production. Groq CEO Jonathan Ross recently stated that together with Samsung Foundry, they have created a truly outstanding chip on a global scale.

Samsung Electronics has reportedly accelerated construction at its US$37 billion wafer fab in Taylor, Texas, reaffirming its target to begin production by the end of 2026. After earlier delays linked to uncertainty over securing customers for its 2-nanometer process, momentum at the site has picked up, according to South Korean outlet Deal Site.

In the summer of 2024, Debbie Marr, after a three-decades career at Intel, and several longtime colleagues from Intel quietly launched AheadComputing, a new semiconductor company with a singular ambition: to build the world's most powerful CPU — not using Intel's proprietary x86 architecture, or even the energy-efficient Arm standard, but the open-source RISC-V instruction set, once relegated to academia and embedded systems.

Qualcomm Inc., the top maker of smartphone processors, is making a bigger push into smart glasses with low-power components that can run artificial intelligence software.

The US and China de-escalated trade tensions, agreeing to a preliminary deal on how to implement the consensus the two sides reached in Geneva, negotiators for both sides said.

As nations worldwide race to attract semiconductor manufacturing, most have rolled out sweeping tax incentives targeting the industry. According to a 2025 policy proposal from the Semiconductor Division of the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA), tax breaks are proving even more effective than direct subsidies in spurring investment. Countries like the US and South Korea have introduced exceptionally generous tax regimes for chipmakers, giving them a competitive edge.