STMicroelectronics NV said it plans to spend €5 billion ($5.4 billion) on a manufacturing plant for chips and packaging in Catania, Italy in a multi-year project that's being partly funded by the European Union's Chips Act.

South Korea's semiconductor inventories dwindled by the most since 2014, underscoring the pace at which demand is outstripping supply as customers rev up their purchases of devices needed to develop artificial intelligence technologies.

As the urgency of addressing climate change and sustainability issues grows, companies face increasing pressure to adopt comprehensive carbon strategies and embrace ESG principles.

Tesla is said to proceed with a plan to launch its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software in China. The EV company is on track to register the technology and aims to activate the service later this year.

If Taiwan does not have enough power supply, the semiconductor and Artificial Intelligence (AI) industries will not stay in Taiwan, commented Kuo Jyh-Huei, the new minister of economic affairs.

As Taiwan M&A and Private Equity Council (MAPECT) commemorates its 10-year anniversary with the release of the 2024 Taiwan M&A Whitepaper on May 29.

Despite a short-term correction in spot market prices for DRAM memory, contract prices will continue to rise in the second half of the year, according to memory module manufacturer Adata Technology.

The passive component giant Yageo held its shareholders' meeting on May 30. Founder and chairman Pierre Chen stated that current inventory adjustments have reached a healthy level. The capacity utilization rate for standard products has increased from 50% to 65%, and for niche products from 70% to 75%, with the expectation that inventory will be fully adjusted by the first half of 2024.

As previous subsidies of a total of JPY920 billion (nearly US$6 billion) may not be sufficient to help Rapidus achieve its goal of mass-producing 2nm chips, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) plans to propose legislation to provide loan guarantees for the chipmaker.

Skymizer, a prominent Taiwan-based AI system software provider known for its compiler optimization solutions, has announced the release of EdgeThought, its new software-hardware co-design AI ASIC IP.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed two months ago, at a dinner party for Taiwanese partners in Silicon Valley, that he considers himself Taiwan's ambassador. Taiwan is positioned as a key player in the AI revolution, and all Taiwanese businesses must be prepared to effectively tell the "Taiwan story" to the rest of the world.

NVIDIA's latest financial report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (February to April 2024) revealed record-breaking revenue for its data center division. Following a record-setting US$18.4 billion revenue in the previous quarter, the data center division in the first quarter of fiscal year 2024 set a new record again with US$22.6 billion in revenue.

Mitsubishi Electric, its subsidiary Mitsubishi Electric Mobility, and automotive components supplier Aisin recently announced they will establish a joint venture to make next-generation car parts. The move, which will accelerate R&D speed, is a response to the cost reduction trend driven by China's low-cost EVs.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions in Taiwan grew 12% year-on-year in 2023 to 131 cases and may continue hitting another new high in 2024. Simon Huang, chairman of WPG and chairman of Taiwan Industrial Holding Association, shared his insights on a 2024 Taiwan M&A and Private Equity Council Forum panel on May 29, saying that seeking common ground while respecting differences is the key to M&A success.

Supreme Electronics, which mostly sells memory chips, is optimistic about its operations in the second quarter of 2024, noting a seasonal increase in demand for handsets and PCs, as well as ongoing server demand strength.

Photomask company Taiwan Mask Corporation (TMC) has acquired four seats on optical component manufacturer TrueLight's board, during the latter company's board of directors election.

Due to the continuous expansion of production capacity in China, the polarizer industry is facing a problem of oversupply that exceeds even the demand for panel productions.

AUO is transforming its business structure, aiming to lower regular display panel sales to below 70% of overall company revenue in 2025, according to company chairman Paul Peng.

Yageo has been steadily evolving over the last 5-10 years, deliberately investing in new company groupings through M&A and private equity investments.

Charles Shen, Chairperson of Zhen Ding, the major PCB company, stated that the first half of 2024, as in previous years, is the off-season for operations. However, compared to the lower point in the same period of 2023, there will still be annual growth. Shen emphasized that 2024 is a year of operational recovery for Zhen Ding, and the company will continue to implement its strategy of "aiming global, aiming high."

Server system supplier InWin is capitalizing on the surging demand for AI servers, driven by the increasing need for efficient GPU cooling.

In the past fiscal year, India experienced a decline in FDI inflows due to external factors and domestic investment saturation.

Industry leaders continue to voice their optimism for AI PCs, with Acer chairman Jason Chen drawing a comparison with the explosion of the internet in the late 1990s, and Wistron president Jeff Lin saying that AI PCs will gradually take off.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and OpenAI have officially partnered, making PwC OpenAI's largest customer to date. Meanwhile, to mitigate copyright concerns related to training data, OpenAI has partnered with more news organizations, including the Germany-based World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

The Chinese semiconductor industry, including the CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) segment, is finding more room for development in the domestic market with the sudden rise of the Chinese smartphone and Electric Vehicle (EV) industries.

MediaTek has confirmed it will use Arm's all-new 3nm flagship Cortex-X925 CPU and Immortalis G925 GPU on its new Dimensity 9400 platform in the second half of 2024.

Taiwanese IC design houses may face talent poaching pressure from international tech firms that are expanding their R&D teams in Taiwan.

The new head of Samsung Electronics Co.'s semiconductor division urged employees to work their way past challenges in the business, making his first remarks to staff after the surprise departure of his predecessor last week.

Google committed to making $2 billion in investments in Malaysia, including developing its first data center and a cloud facility.

Groundhog Technologies, an AI software firm specializing in the telecommunications sector, predicts that the primary growth drivers for 2024-2025 will emerge from high-population regions like Southeast Asia, as 5G adoption accelerates in Europe, the US, and various Asian markets.

AI compilers service provider, Skymizer has announced a strategic pivot by launching the ET2 LPU chip hardware IP and the Skymizer LLM System platform, entering the chip IP solutions market.

Samsung Electronics has recently expanded its workforce deployment at its new packaging R&D base in Yokohama, Japan, to expedite construction and support the development of next-generation semiconductor packaging technologies.

Sony's semiconductor business division, primarily focused on CMOS Image Sensors (CIS), plans to reduce its equipment investment amount in the next three fiscal years from 2024 to 2026 (April 2024 to March 2027) by about 30% compared to the previous three-year mid-term plan.

As China's automotive market plunges into intense internal price competition, Brightek Optoelectronic Co. focuses on automotive LED products as the main driver of its operational growth.

Himax Technologies has made a strategic investment in Obsidian Sensors, a thermal imaging sensor maker based in San Diego, according to the Taiwan-based IC design house.