Ryo Mukano / Nikkei Asia: Sources: Micron plans to invest $9.6B in Japan to build a production facility for next-gen HBM memory chips beginning in 2026, with shipments expected in 2028 — TOKYO — U.S. semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology will invest 1.5 trillion yen ($9.6 billion) to build a production facility …
Nikkei Asia: Industry executives say nearly all major memory chipmakers are running at or near full capacity, with 2026 production slots almost “sold out” due to AI demand — TAIPEI/TOKYO/SEOUL — Since October, SK Hynix's headquarters in Icheon, near Seoul, has seen a steady stream of visitors …
Soumyajit Saha / Nikkei Asia: Shares of Indian payment startup Pine Labs debuted at ~$2.73, up 9.5% from the ~$2.49 IPO price, after a $440M IPO earlier this week that was 2x oversubscribed — MUMBAI — Shares of financial tech company Pine Labs made their debut on India's main bourses on Friday, opening 9.5% above …
Lien Hoang / Nikkei Asia: In Vietnam, 65 countries sign a UN cybercrime treaty to share data and extradite suspects, despite tech companies' and activists' privacy and security concerns — HO CHI MINH CITY — Under a new United Nations treaty, 65 countries have agreed to fight cybercrime, including by sharing data …
Wataru Suzuki / Nikkei Asia: Chinese robovan startup Neolix raised $600M led by UAE-based Stone Venture without disclosing its valuation, ahead of a potential Hong Kong IPO as soon as 2026 — SHANGHAI — Chinese autonomous delivery startup Neolix on Thursday said it raised $600 million from investors led …
Nikkei Asia: Sources: Apple cuts iPhone Air orders nearly to “end of production” levels after a lukewarm reception in China, but keeps iPhone 17 lineup forecasts at 85M-90M — TAIPEI — Apple is drastically cutting iPhone Air production orders but boosting those for other iPhone 17 models …
Wataru Suzuki / Nikkei Asia: China is racing ahead of the rest of the world in the adoption of robovans, despite limitations like slow speeds; Neolix has deployed 10,000 robovans so far — SHENZHEN — When rush hour calms down around 8 p.m. at Shenzhen's Futian railway station, autonomous robovans get to work.
Nikkei Asia: SEMI: US chip fab investment to outpace China, Taiwan, and South Korea from 2027, driven by AI demand and US policies, rising from $21B in 2025 to $43B in 2028 — PHOENIX, Arizona — U.S. semiconductor investment is set to outpace that of major chip economies China, Taiwan and South Korea …
Pak Yiu / Nikkei Asia: PitchBook: VC investment in Asia slowed to $48.9B in the first nine months of 2025, just over half of 2024's total, amid uncertainty due to US tariff policies — NEW YORK — Asian venture capital dealmaking has slowed down so far this year, as the region faces liquidity shortages …
Dylan Loh / Nikkei Asia: Singapore dollar-pegged XSGD stablecoin debuts on Coinbase, giving the city-state a head start over Hong Kong in launching a local currency-linked stablecoin — SINGAPORE — Singapore is racing past Hong Kong to debut a cryptocurrency pegged to the city-state's dollar as the rival financial hubs compete …
Hajime Tsukada / Nikkei Asia: Japan says it will provide $3.63B to Micron for R&D and capital spending at its Hiroshima fab to mass produce advanced DRAM, aiming for shipments by August 2028 — TOKYO — Japan said Friday it will provide 536 billion yen ($3.63 billion) to U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology for research …
Nikkei Asia: Thailand, aiming to become the second-largest PCB production hub, is witnessing a tech manufacturing boom as the PCB supply chain shifts from China and Taiwan — BANGKOK — Some 60 kilometers north of Bangkok in the old capital of Ayutthaya, China's Victory Giant Technology is in the hectic final stages …
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: Sources: TSMC plans to stop using Chinese chipmaking equipment, like AMEC's etching tools, from its most advanced 2nm process to avoid potential US restrictions — TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is eliminating the use of Chinese chipmaking equipment in its most advanced chip plants …
Nikkei Asia: Jensen Huang says Nvidia is in talks with China over H20 security concerns, is hopeful for a resolution, and reiterates that the H20 has no “security backdoors” — TAIPEI — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the U.S. chipmaker is in discussions with the Chinese government …
Lauly Li / Nikkei Asia: Foxconn's AI server business surged 60%+ YoY in Q2, surpassing revenue from Apple-related products for the first time, and is projected to grow 170%+ YoY in Q3 — TAIPEI — Foxconn earned more from its AI server business than from Apple-related products for the first time ever in the second quarter …
Wataru Suzuki / Nikkei Asia: A steady stream of large conventions in China showcasing homegrown humanoid robots is stirring investor excitement, even though sales are far from taking off — BEIJING — China is holding a steady stream of large-scale conventions showcasing its homegrown humanoid robots …
Peggy Ye / Nikkei Asia: Apple supplier Lens Technology, one of the world's top device part makers, raised ~$608M in its Hong Kong IPO, as the Chinese company looks to expand overseas — HONG KONG — Apple supplier Lens Technology announced it has raised 4.77 billion Hong Kong dollars ($608 million) …
Nikkei Asia: Sources: Samsung is delaying completion of its Texas fab due to a lack of customers; the plant was meant to come online in 2024 before being pushed to 2026 — SEOUL/TAIPEI — Samsung Electronics is delaying completion of a semiconductor factory in the U.S. state of Texas …
Nikkei Asia: SoftBank and Intel form Saimemory, a company to develop a prototype within two years of stacked DRAM chips for AI that consume ~50% of the power of current HBM — TOKYO — SoftBank and Intel are developing a type of memory for artificial intelligence expected to consume much less electricity …
Sayan Chakraborty / Nikkei Asia: Venture Intelligence: Indian deep tech startups have raised $4.7B since 2014, accounting for just 3.2% of Indian startup funding, signaling a sector-wide crunch — BENGALURU — Arjun Rao wanted to go off the beaten track with his venture capital firm Speciale Invest, convinced …
Nikkei Asia: About 30% of South Korean schools have adopted AI-powered digital textbooks since the country's education ministry began a full-scale rollout in March 2025 — JEJU, South Korea/TOKYO — Digital textbooks that make use of artificial intelligence are being adopted throughout South Korea.
Nikkei Asia: Analysis: China imported a record $30.9B in chipmaking equipment in 2024, including $9.63B from Japan, $9.53B from the Netherlands, and $4.86B from Singapore — TAIPEI/SEOUL — China bought a record amount of foreign chipmaking equipment in 2024 as part of efforts to massively expand domestic chip production …
Kentaro Shiozaki / Nikkei Asia: Garment workshops are closing across the “Shein village” in Panyu, China, after the US ended the de minimis exemption; Shein urges suppliers to shift to Vietnam — GUANGZHOU — Garment workshops are shuttering across a Guangzhou district dubbed “Shein Village,” …
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: Sources: TSMC is close to finalizing specs for a new chip packaging method, known in the industry as “panel-level”, to meet rising demand for powerful AI chips — TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is close to finalizing the specifications for a radically new approach …
Nikkei Asia: Sources: Apple asked suppliers in India, Vietnam, and Thailand to ramp up production earlier in 2025; Indian factory utilization rates are already at the limit — TAIPEI — Apple is ramping up production of key products in India and Vietnam to take advantage of a 90-day grace period on U.S. tariffs …
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: UMC, Taiwan's second-largest chipmaker, opened a $5B plant in Singapore featuring 22nm and 28nm manufacturing technology; mass production won't start until 2026 — TAIPEI — Taiwan's second-largest chipmaker, United Microelectronics Corp., on Tuesday opened a $5 billion plant that it describes as the …
Nikkei Asia: Sources: after taking five years to build its first US plant, TSMC expects new factories to take two years; a 3nm plant is set for 2028 and 2nm before 2030 — TAIPEI — When TSMC Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei stood next to U.S. President Donald Trump early this month and announced …
Nikkei Asia: Power chip companies Renesas, Infineon, and others are cutting jobs and spending, as disappointing EV market growth leaves them saddled with excess capacity — TOKYO — Producers of power semiconductors, a key component in the electric-vehicle supply chain, are shrinking their workforces …
Norman Goh / Nikkei Asia: Investors see opportunities in Malaysian tech stocks amid a shift to cheaper AI models like DeepSeek, as the country's chip sector faces US export rules — KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia's semiconductor sector finds itself in the midst of significant upheaval, grappling with two challenges …
Nikkei Asia: SoftBank, OpenAI to run AI agents at former Sharp LCD plant — Investment in Japan facility, one of country's largest, could near $7bn — TOKYO/OSAKA — SoftBank Corp. plans to use a former Sharp LCD panel plant in Japan as a data center to operate artificial intelligence agents …
Nikkei Asia: Sakana CEO David Ha says its AI CUDA Engineer “cheated” to speed up training by 100x and “preliminary results” show it “will be closer to the 10% to 100% level” — TOKYO — Sakana AI's announcement that its recent artificial intelligence breakthrough …
Chihiro Ishikawa / Nikkei Asia: BeReal CEO Aymeric Roffe says Japan is now the photo sharing app's second-largest market with over 4.5M MAUs, 83% aged 14 to 27; BeReal has 40M users globally — TOKYO — BeReal is eager to expand in Japan's fast-growing and highly engaged market, said its CEO in an interview with Nikkei Asia.
Nikkei Asia: The demand for software engineers in Japan's car industry, facing a shortage of 33,000 software engineers in 2025, intensifies amid the EV and self-driving push — TOKYO — Japanese legacy carmakers, which have long been vaunted as kings of manufacturing that have no trouble recruiting mechanical engineers …
Nikkei Asia: China's aggressive expansion into mature chips, expected to account for 28% of the market in 2025, is driving prices down to previously unthinkable levels — TAIPEI — A “China shock” is coming for the chip industry as the country's aggressive expansion in older semiconductors …
Nikkei Asia: Tokyo-based Sakana AI details its AI CUDA Engineer, which it says can speed up AI training and inference by 10x to 100x by “breeding” efficient instructions — TOKYO — Tokyo-based startup Sakana AI says it has developed a system capable of accelerating artificial intelligence development …
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: TSMC says losses from January's earthquake would be ~$161.5M, dragging its Q1 revenue guidance to $25B to $25.8B, up 35.9% YoY but at the lower end of its range — TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said Monday that losses from the 6.4-magnitude earthquake in January would amount …
Hideaki Ryugen / Nikkei Asia: MediaTek reports sales up 22.4% YoY to ~$16.2B in 2024 and net profit up 38.2% YoY to ~$3.24B, posting its first sales and profit growth in two fiscal years — TAIPEI — Major Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek looks to apply its low-power design know-how to products geared toward artificial intelligence …
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: Sources: TSMC is informing Chinese customers using its 16nm or better tech that it cannot ship orders unless they use a US “white list” chip packaging supplier — TAIPEI — The latest U.S. export controls on China's chip sector are causing more disruption than the industry expected …
Nikkei Asia: Chinese chip firms blacklisted by the US are turning to universities, state-backed labs, and “pilot production lines” to keep their development efforts on track — TAIPEI — Chinese chip and chip equipment makers blacklisted by the U.S. are turning to universities and state-backed chip labs and …
Nami Matsuura / Nikkei Asia: Samsung and LG unveil new OLED tech, including stretchable and transparent screens, to counter Chinese rivals, which held a 33% market share in 2024, per DSCC — SEOUL — South Korea's Samsung and LG are putting out new OLED technologies like stretchable and transparent screens as they try to stave off rising Chinese competition.
Nikkei Asia: Apple Q4 revenue: down 0.3% YoY to $15B in China, up 7.6% to $5.93B in Japan, up 16.6% to $7.38B in the rest of Asia-Pacific, and up 11% to $24.92B in Europe — PALO ALTO, California — Apple reported a record revenue for the July-September quarter on Thursday, reflecting early signs of the AI-powered iPhone 16's strength.
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: Sources: TSMC has suspended shipments of 7nm chips to at least two chip developers over suspicions they were trying to circumvent US export controls on Huawei — TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has suspended shipments to at least two chip developers over suspicions …
Yuka Konishi / Nikkei Asia: Sources: Apple plans to use OLED displays in all iPhone models sold from 2025, switching its lower-priced iPhone SE models from LCDs to OLEDs made by BOE and LG — U.S. tech giant to switch iPhone SE's screen to OLEDs in 2025 — TOKYO — Apple will use organic light-emitting diode (OLED) …
Cissy Zhou / Nikkei Asia: Chinese e-commerce firms prioritize sustainable growth over ultra-low prices amid slow GMV growth and anti-unfair competition rules taking effect on September 1 — Key sector is prioritizing sustainable sales growth — HONG KONG — China's e-commerce sector is undergoing a major strategic shift …
Nikkei Asia: Huawei sues MediaTek in China over alleged infringement of its intellectual property patents; MediaTek says the lawsuit would have no significant impact — Licensing is increasingly important revenue source for Chinese company — TAIPEI — Huawei Technologies is suing Taiwanese mobile …
Nikkei Asia: Sources: Arm plans to set up an AI chip division, aiming to build a prototype by spring 2025, with mass production expected to start later in the year — CEO Son seeks to invest $64bn, including in data centers and robotics — TOKYO/LONDON — SoftBank Group subsidiary Arm will foray …
Riho Nagao / Nikkei Asia: Nvidia will provide the software for Japan's ABCI-Q, a hybrid supercomputer that offers quantum computing capability for drug research and other uses — U.S. chip designer to provide software for nation's quantum computing initiative — TOKYO — Japan's government-backed technology institute …
Naoki Watanabe / Nikkei Asia: Microsoft plans to invest $2.9B in data centers in Japan by 2025, its biggest investment in the country, and will add advanced AI chips at two existing sites — Move comes in response to push for ‘data sovereignty’ among governments — PALO ALTO, Calif. — Microsoft will invest $2.9 billion …
Nikkei Asia: An analysis shows that on a cost basis, 42% of Apple Vision Pro components are made by Japanese companies, including Sony's displays and Kioxia's memory chips — With the help of Tokyo-based research company Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, Nikkei disassembled a Vision Pro, which Apple released in the U.S. on Feb. 2.
Nikkei Asia: Apple reports Q4 revenue down 2.5% YoY to $15.1B in Greater China, down 3.4% YoY to $5.5B in Japan, and down 0.7% YoY to $6.3B in the rest of Asia-Pacific — iPhone sales remain robust in China and India, U.S. tech giant says — Apple's main revenue driver, the iPhone …