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Tuesday 9 December 2025

Google and Microsoft prioritize speed over cost as CSPs scramble for memory

A major memory shortage is hitting the industry as the supply-demand gap widens. Some upstream memory manufacturers are prioritizing server shipments, while other companies have been aggressively stockpiling due to shortages. Among US-based CSPs, Google and Microsoft have moved the fastest and come out on top. The four major US CSPs have recently begun product validation with Nanya Technology, intending to diversify DDR4 DIMM module supply beyond Korean memory suppliers.

Tuesday 9 December 2025

YMTC sues US govt to overturn Chinese military-company designation

YMTC filed a lawsuit on December 5, 2025, in the US District Court in Washington, challenging the US Department of Defense's decision to label it as linked to the Chinese military, asking the court to block enforcement of the listing and overturn the designation.

Tuesday 9 December 2025

Samsung moves up Pyeongtaek Phase 4 timeline in aggressive HBM4 push

Samsung Electronics, fresh off completing sixth-generation HBM4 development, is reportedly accelerating DRAM capacity expansion in a renewed effort to reclaim leadership in AI memory.

Tuesday 9 December 2025

SK Hynix pivots to general-purpose DRAM with tenfold 1c capacity surge

Rumors have risen that SK Hynix is accelerating the expansion of its 10nm-class sixth-generation 1c DRAM capacity. Previously, to concentrate on producing high-bandwidth memory (HBM), SK Hynix had successively notified major customers that it would reduce general-purpose DRAM supply. However, now that general-purpose DRAM prices have risen sharply, the company's strategy also appears to be undergoing adjustments.

Tuesday 9 December 2025

Commentary: Are East Asia tensions a threat to supply chains?

The Indo-Pacific region has become the world's most critical theater for both technology manufacturing and geopolitical competition. As military tensions escalate across East Asia, executives are increasingly questioning whether their supply chains can withstand potential disruptions.

Tuesday 9 December 2025

Samsung's HBM4 edge fuels foundry recovery

Samsung Electronics, with its sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM4), uses base dies produced by Samsung Foundry. As Samsung's HBM4 competitiveness rises, the market expects the performance of Samsung Foundry to improve in tandem. Increased HBM4 sales not only boost the memory business but also drive foundry revenue, demonstrating Samsung's advantage as an integrated device manufacturer (IDM).

Tuesday 9 December 2025

SK Hynix adopts hybrid bonding for 300-layer NAND to challenge Samsung

South Korean memory giant SK Hynix is fast-tracking the development of its next-generation 300-layer V10 NAND flash memory, according to reports in Korean media outlets Hankyung and Nate. The company plans to implement hybrid bonding technology for the first time to compete more effectively with rivals such as Samsung Electronics, China's YMTC, and Japan's Kioxia. Industry sources cited by Hankyung indicate that the company aims to complete development of a pilot line in 2026, before commencing mass production in early 2027.

Tuesday 9 December 2025

SK Hynix secures 39 patents in China to strengthen memory and neuromorphic chip design

SK Hynix and battery subsidiaries within SK Group received approval for 68 core patents in China in November 2025. Many of these patents relate to highly integrated memory designs and solid-state battery stability technologies, which are expected to accelerate the development of next-generation AI chips and electric vehicle batteries, enhancing competitiveness in the Chinese market.

Tuesday 9 December 2025

Catcher eyes cautious 1H26 amid memory and chip supply tightness

Chassis maker Catcher Technology stated that as the calendar moves into the year-end shopping season of 2025, promotional campaigns and a rebound in end-market demand are expected to support its business momentum.

Monday 8 December 2025

SK Hynix restructures global operations amid reported HBM4 production delay

SK Hynix announced a comprehensive organizational restructuring to expand its global research network and reinforce its leadership in the high-bandwidth memory sector. The strategic shift comes as a ZDNet Korea report indicates the South Korean chipmaker may postpone mass production of its next-generation HBM4 chips due to timeline changes for Nvidia's Rubin AI accelerators.

Monday 8 December 2025

Samsung reportedly gains momentum in foundry and memory with improved 4nm yields

Samsung Electronics is reportedly gaining momentum across its foundry and memory operations as higher yields on its 4nm process and a broad recovery in DRAM demand position the company for a strong finish to 2025. South Korean analysts expect operating profit to reach as much as KRW19 trillion (US$13 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2025, significantly above market expectations.

Monday 8 December 2025

SK Hynix reportedly delays HBM4 mass production amid Nvidia Rubin AI accelerator launch plans

SK Hynix has reportedly postponed the mass production timeline for its sixth-generation high bandwidth memory (HBM4) from the end of the second quarter of 2026 to the third quarter of 2026, coinciding with Nvidia Corporation's planned 2026 launch of its "Rubin" AI accelerator that will use HBM4. The delay appears to be a strategic adjustment influenced by ongoing market demand and supply negotiations.

Monday 8 December 2025

Weekly news roundup: TSMC veteran's Intel move sparks debate, Samsung reportedly secures TPU HBM4 nod

These are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories in the week of December 1 to December 7, 2025.

Monday 8 December 2025

Samsung shifts focus from HBM to DDR5 modules for higher profits

Samsung Electronics has shifted its internal strategy in response to intensified HBM market competition**,** reallocating capacity toward DDR5 RDIMM modules and freeing up around 80,000 DRAM wafers monthly to yield stronger profits.

Monday 8 December 2025

Huawei's Peter Zhou says China's storage stack is stressed yet still primed for global standing

China's storage industry is at a critical juncture. Surging AI workloads have fuelled a global shortage of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and pushed storage to the forefront of the semiconductor market. Yet while overseas suppliers have filled HBM capacity through 2027, many Chinese vendors remain trapped in margin-draining price competition that limits innovation.

Sunday 7 December 2025

Taiwan's ESMT sees memory upturn accelerating as pricing gains roll into 4Q25

Tight memory supply has lifted prices across product lines, allowing Elite Semiconductor Microelectronics Technology (ESMT) to break a two-quarter losing streak in the third quarter of 2025. With wafer cycles running four to six months and contract pricing lagging by a quarter, the real pricing uplift is expected to appear from the fourth quarter of 2025. ESMT is on track to return to core profitability, with gross margin set to rise materially from third-quarter levels.

Friday 5 December 2025

Broadcom CEO visits South Korea as Samsung HBM4 reportedly obtains Google TPU certification

Update: Samsung has since reached out to DIGITIMES and denied this report. The company also declined to provide more details.

Friday 5 December 2025

Micron exits consumer market with Crucial phase-out amid shift to AI-driven memory demand

Micron announced it will phase out its Crucial brand's consumer memory and SSD products by February 2026, marking its exit from the nearly 30-year-old consumer market. This move reflects the industry's pivot toward high-margin DDR5 and HBM for AI applications, driven by surging GPU and AI chip demands.

Friday 5 December 2025

Samsung to command the AI inference market with GDDR7

Samsung Electronics' latest-generation GDDR7 has received the 2025 Korea Technology Awards Presidential Award, and its importance is growing as Nvidia adopts the memory for AI inference GPUs.

Friday 5 December 2025

Lingsen rides AI-driven memory test surge, expanding capacity and adjusting prices

Taiwan's dedicated chip backend house Lingsen Precision Industries is stepping up capacity expansion and price adjustments as AI-fueled demand for memory chip testing accelerates. President Tse-sung Tsai noted that unresolved global tariff policies could present risks into 2026, but said long-term growth momentum for memory testing remains strong as AI adoption widens.

Thursday 4 December 2025

Samsung reportedly wins majority of Nvidia's 2026 SOCAMM2 supply

Samsung Electronics is reportedly on track to supply more than half of Nvidia's next-generation System on CAMM (SOCAMM2) memory modules in 2026, becoming the largest contributor to the AI-server CPU ecosystem. SOCAMM — touted by Nvidia as a new high-performance DRAM standard and often described as a "second HBM" — is set to redefine how CPU-side memory is deployed inside advanced AI servers, Hankyung and ICsmart reported.

Thursday 4 December 2025

Samsung and SK Hynix align 2026 DRAM strategies

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix reportedly both plan to raise their DRAM production growth targets for 2026. Samsung is focusing on standard DRAM such as DDR5, LPDDR5X, and GDDR7, while SK Hynix intends to maintain its focus on HBM but is also looking to boost the profitability of its standard DRAM offerings.

Thursday 4 December 2025

Commentary: Micron exits consumer memory market as structural chip shortage hits

Micron has announced it will exit its Crucial consumer product business, including SSDs and memory modules, with all shipments ending by February 2026. This move amid escalating memory supply shortages signals that the chip scarcity is no longer a temporary issue but a structural challenge reshaping the entire industry.

Thursday 4 December 2025

IT panel makers lock prices as memory prices surge

IT demand has entered the fourth quarter off-season, but panel makers are coping by balancing supply and demand. AI demand has driven up prices for upstream materials such as memory, putting pressure on panel makers to hold the line on IT panel prices. This is especially true for mainstream monitor panels, whose quoted prices are already near total cost, making price locking a top priority.

Thursday 4 December 2025

Tech Forum 2026: Quanta warns power shortages may stall next server growth wave

Quanta Computer vice chairman and president C. C. Leung said on December 3 that electricity supply has become the most serious constraint for AI server manufacturing, overtaking concerns about memory shortages. Speaking at the DIGITIMES Tech Forum 2026 in Taipei, he said reliable power will remain a major hurdle for the industry through 2026 and likely beyond, even as demand for AI servers stays strong.

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