Amazon Web Services (AWS) made a significant investment in Taiwan by announcing the establishment of a new AWS region infrastructure in June, aimed at connecting local startups and enterprises to international markets.

Fifteen Japanese companies plan to invest approximately JPY100 billion (US$680 million) in research, development, and equipment across Southeast Asia, focusing on the electric vehicle, semiconductor, and energy sectors. The Japanese government is reportedly set to subsidize around one-third of this investment.

Following a 37% surge in sales during the off-season second quarter, PCB giant Zhen Ding reported robust performance in July. The company anticipates strong demand momentum across its four key business areas for the second half of the year.

Benefiting from the ongoing growth driven by the AI server industry, Foxconn Industrial Internet (FII) reported its highest half-year revenue and net profit since going public in its earnings update.

Largan Precision reported a surge in revenue for July as the company entered the peak season. It anticipates that most of its facilities will operate at full capacity in the second half of the year.

Foxconn has reported record-breaking July sales, propelled by AI-driven growth in its cloud and networking business, as well as a product ramp in its smart consumer electronics division. The company anticipates its third-quarter revenue to grow both sequentially and annually.

After eight years on the market, Nintendo's sales have dropped significantly, primarily due to the absence of major blockbuster games to boost demand.

Advantest has significantly raised its profit forecast for the current fiscal year.

Huawei reportedly mimics Apple by designing a chip with shared memory to improve its chip performance amid US sanctions and develop its in-house chip infrastructure ecosystem.

Apple reported weaker-than-expected revenue in China, facing increasing competition from Chinese rivals. The company's only recourse is to leverage Apple Intelligence to counter these challenges, which remains a significant hurdle.

Transcend Information reported consolidated revenue of NT$2.33 billion (US$71.05 million) for the second quarter of 2024, a 14.7% decrease from the previous quarter and a 5.6% decrease year-on-year. The company also posted a net profit of NT$716 million, down 11.3% from the first quarter.

At a recent earnings conference, Ping Zheng, CEO of Delta Electronics, announced that the company's AI server liquid cooling products will start shipping in the third quarter.

E Ink Holdings (E Ink) and Himax Technologies (Himax) have jointly unveiled the next-generation color e-paper timing controller, an ASIC T-Con named T2000.

Although silicon photonics has become one of the most anticipated developments in the semiconductor industry, Taiwan-based IC design houses admittedly need more time to catch up with US-based companies, which currently dominate the field.

Despite plateauing smartphone demands, OmniVision expects rising demands for CMOS Image Sensors (CIS) in AI PCs, automotive, and machine vision applications, says OmniVision.

Thanks to TSMC's investments in Kumamoto and its commitment to local sourcing, semiconductor material suppliers, including Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK), Organo, and Sumco, are clustering in the Japanese prefecture.

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.

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).

Zhen Ding expects robust growth in AI server-related products and a 3-4x increase in ABF substrate revenue in 2024.

Meta regained market focus with the widespread popularity of its open Llama. Nevertheless, as its AI investments are still in the early stages, it will take years to see returns.

Japan-based photoresist leader JSR announced that the Take Over Bid (TOB) for its shares, led by the Japanese government and the state-backed Japan Investment Corp (JIC), had been completed. JSR will lead in consolidating the semiconductor material industry in Japan and ramping up investments in advanced semiconductor materials.

According to SE Daily and Hankyung reports on April 17, starting as early as this week, subsidiaries of Samsung Group are reportedly implementing a one-day weekend policy for their senior executives to address challenges like declining performance, fluctuating exchange rates, and oil price changes.

Following TSMC's fab in Kumamoto, Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (PSMC) expanded its global footprint in Japan and India, where it will partner with India-based Tata Electronics on a fab.

The government of Vietnam decided to ramp up support for the semiconductor industry and announced plans to roll out a series of tax incentives and set up investment funds by mid-2024 to bolster the industry.