Notebook shipment update, August 2025
Driven by seasonal stocking momentum and rush orders, the combined shipments of the top five notebook brands increased by over 13% month-on-month in August.
US generals warn China poses top space threat, say Beijing developing orbital 'kill chain'
p class="P1"Senior US Space Force generals warned that China has become the nation's top threat in space, rapidly expanding its orbital military capabilities to challenge American forces.
Qualcomm's 2025 Snapdragon Summit: solid upgrades but AI vision falls short
Qualcomm's annual Snapdragon Summit officially concluded last week and benchmark scores for the new products are now being released. Overall, Qualcomm has delivered significant upgrades in system-on-chips (SoCs) for both flagship smartphone...
Samsung advances Exynos 2600 production as 2nm yield rises to 50%
Samsung Electronics has begun mass production of its next-generation application processor (AP), the Exynos 2600, which is expected to power the standard models of the Galaxy S26 flagship smartphone series, set to launch in spring 2026. Acc...
DDR4 price surge pressures IPCs to transition to DDR5
The global market for key components has recently seen another wave of price fluctuations. Memory products are experiencing especially significant increases, impacting the industrial PC (IPC) industry. IPC vendors acknowledge that with memo...
Hotai Motor expects strong Q4 despite lingering market uncertainty
Despite ongoing uncertainty in Taiwan's auto market and a slower-than-expected recovery in showroom traffic, Hotai Motor Co. remains cautiously optimistic about achieving its full-year sales target, citing three key factors that could drive...
Cerebras raises US$1.1 billion in Series G funding, valuation hits US$8.1 billion
US AI chip startup Cerebras Systems has completed a US$1.1 billion Series G funding round, elevating its valuation to US$8.1 billion. The funding round saw participation from the venture capital fund 1789 Capital, co-founded by Donald Trump...
Taiwan rejects US proposal for 50-50 chip production split
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick recently proposed a 50-50 split in chip manufacturing between Taiwan and the US, claiming the US is nearing major tariff and semiconductor agreements with Taiwan.
OpenAI posts US$7.8b operating loss despite US$4.3b revenue in 1H25
OpenAI's revenue in the first half of 2025 reached US$4.3 billion, already surpassing its full-year 2024 revenue. However, due to persistently high R&D expenditures, the company posted an operating loss of US$7.8 billion.
China's Zhaoxin unveils KH-50000 server chip in direct shot at AMD
Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor has unveiled the Kaisheng KH-50000 server CPUs, aiming squarely at AMD's EPYC line. Debuting at Alibaba Cloud's Apsara Conference 2025, the chips were pitched not just as a technical breakthrough but also as a...
Trump, Xi talk 'tech truce' as Oracle takes over TikTok's US future
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a phone call on September 19, a conversation Trump later called "very productive" and " very good ." The call has sparked cautious optimism that the world's two largest economi...
CoreWeave inks US$14.2 billion AI cloud deal with Meta, signaling surge in AI infrastructure demand
CoreWeave, a cloud computing services provider, disclosed in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing on September 25 that it has entered into a new order form with Meta Platforms under their existing Master Services Agreement. The de...
Japan's Nichia taps Taiwanese executive for top post as part of semiconductor push
Japanese LED leader Nichia has promoted Taiwan-born executive Tsun-Chia Tai to senior managing director, a move effective October 1 that makes him the highest-ranking Taiwanese manager in the company's history.
Taiwan-US trade talks slow due to unresolved semiconductor tariff disputes
The ongoing negotiations between Taiwan and the US for a trade agreement have been hindered by unresolved differences over semiconductors, slowing progress despite several rounds of talks. Taiwan's export sector, heavily reliant on semicond...
Memory chip prices surge as suppliers hold back inventory; DRAM and NAND expected to rise post-China holiday
Memory chip prices surged across all categories in September after a weak August, with some products jumping more than 40% in a broad-based rally.
Tight Upstream Supply and Restocking Drive 2024 DRAM Module Revenue Growth of 7%, Says TrendForce
TrendForce reports that following the completion of inventory digestion in the downstream consumer market concluded at the end of Q4 2023, DRAM suppliers shifted focus towards HBM and server DDR5 products, leading to tighter supply for othe...
NAND Flash Prices to Rise 5–10% in 4Q25, Driven by Spillover Demand for QLC Products, Says TrendForce
TrendForce’s latest investigations have revealed that with consumer demand was concentrated in the first half of the year, leading to the traditional second-half peak season underperforming. The market had expected NAND Flash prices to stab...
DRAM Prices to Continue Rising in 4Q25, Server Demand Surges Ahead While Legacy Process Products See Steeper Increases, Says TrendForce
TrendForce’s latest investigations reveal that the three major DRAM suppliers continue to allocate advanced process capacity primarily to high-end server DRAM and HBM, crowding out capacity for PC, mobile, and consumer applications. Combine...
Inference AI Driving Structural Shifts in High-Capacity Storage, Nearline SSD Demand Surges, Says TrendForce
TrendForce’s latest findings indicate that over the next two years, AI infrastructure will mainly focus on high-performance inference services. As traditional high-capacity HDDs face significant shortages, CSPs are increasingly sourcing fro...
NVIDIA Seeks to Raise HBM4 Specs in Response to AMD Competition; SK hynix Expected to Remain Largest Supplier in 2026, Says TrendForce
TrendForce reports that NVIDIA has recently pressed key component suppliers of its Vera Rubin server racks to upgrade product specifications, specifically requesting that HBM4 speed per pin be raised to 10 Gbps, as AMD gets set to launch it...
Soaring Inference AI Demand Triggers Severe Nearline HDD Shortages; QLC SSD Shipments Poised for Breakout in 2026, Says TrendForce
TrendForce’s latest investigations reveal that the massive data volumes generated by AI are straining the global infrastructure of data center storage. Nearline HDDs, traditionally the backbone of large-scale data storage, are now facing se...
AI and General Server Demand Drive 2Q25 Enterprise SSD Revenue Up 12.7%, Says TrendForce
TrendForce’s latest investigations reveal that the ramp-up of NVIDIA’s Blackwell platform shipments in 2Q25, combined with continued expansion of general server deployments by North American CSPs, significantly boosted demand for enterprise...
2Q25 DRAM Revenue Jumps 17.1%, SK hynix Expands Market Share as Taiwanese Vendors Deliver Strong Growth, Says TrendForce
TrendForce’s latest investigations demonstrate that global DRAM industry revenue reached US$31.63 billion in the second quarter of 2025, up 17.1% QoQ. This growth was fueled by rising contract prices for conventional DRAM, robust shipments ...
2Q25 Foundry Revenue Surges 14.6% to Record High, TSMC’s Market Share Hits 70%, Says TrendForce
TrendForce’s latest investigations reveal that global foundry revenue in 2Q25 reached a record US$41.7 billion, up 14.6% QoQ, thanks to China’s consumer subsidy program spurring early stocking, along with upcoming demand for new smartphones...
NAND Flash Revenue Surged Over 20% in 2Q25, SK Group Market Share Jumped to 21%, Says TrendForce
TrendForce’s latest investigations reveal that the NAND Flash industry posted solid growth in 2Q25 despite slight declines in ASP. Production cuts by suppliers helped ease the supply-demand imbalance, while supportive policies in both China...