Samsung Ventures and Applied Ventures, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, have invested in US-based Flexcompute, backing simulation technology designed to predict semiconductor packaging deformation before manufacturing. The source does not state the investment amount or funding round. The investment comes as increasingly complex AI chips create new challenges in managing thermal stress, warpage, and manufacturing yields. The event is the completed investment; it involves no capacity or price change.
The source states that rising complexity in AI chip manufacturing is creating new opportunities for semiconductor equipment suppliers. Applied Materials says rising transistor counts, denser interconnects, and more advanced memory architectures are expanding demand across logic, DRAM, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) manufacturing. No specific figures, dates, or price movements are given; this is background industry information.
logicDRAMhigh-bandwidth memory (HBM)Applied MaterialsDigiTimes Asia
Applied Materials projects more than US$5 billion in advanced packaging revenue in the coming years, viewing advanced packaging as a key growth lever as AI chips move to multi-die designs, and notes that hybrid bonding, metrology, and services are becoming central to competition in semiconductor equipment.
Chemical and solvent distributor Yuan Jen Enterprises is actively expanding its electronic materials business. Company chairman Yuan-Jen Hsu stated that Yuan Jen established a dedicated Electronic Materials Division in September 2025 to focus on semiconductor peripheral materials. Alongside its existing portfolio of electronic-grade hydrogen peroxide, electronic-grade isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and acetone, the company is actively seeking opportunities in next-generation semiconductor materials, prioritizing advanced packaging and specialty wiring materials as its main growth vectors. The source states no implemented capacity or investment details; this expansion remains a stated company plan/goal.
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) urged the Trump administration to reduce tariffs on imported semiconductor materials and equipment, warning that higher costs could undermine US fab investments. In a report and accompanying briefing, the group also called for stronger supply-chain cooperation with allied countries, because domestic production currently supplies only 21% of the materials and equipment used by the US semiconductor industry. The report's title states that SIA warned each 1% tariff hike could add US$3.5B to US fab costs. This is an industry association's urging and warning, not an implemented policy change.
Applied Materials tracked more than 100 wafer fabrication projects worldwide over the past two quarters, as strong artificial intelligence demand continued to meet constraints in cleanroom construction and supply chain capacity. The company added more than 10 projects in each quarter, indicating that global fab development and future cleanroom availability were still expanding. The source cites cleanroom construction and supply chain capacity constraints as the limiting factor.
Applied Materials says it is increasing investments in research and development, manufacturing and its global supply chain as it targets greater market share and profitability through 2030. The company expects advanced logic, DRAM and advanced packaging to generate about 75% of wafer fab equipment (WFE) market growth from 2025 to 2030. By 2030, it is targeting more than 2pp of additional WFE market share, along with non-GAAP gross and operating margins of approximately 54% and 40%, respectively. These are stated targets and expectations, not achieved results.
Fujifilm is expanding semiconductor materials production in Arizona (US); the source states the cause is rising global chip demand, especially for artificial intelligence, advanced logic, and memory. The move aims to strengthen supply for makers in the US and beyond, while supporting new packaging technologies and faster commercialization worldwide. The source gives no specific scale, investment amount, or timeline, and the expansion remains a planned capacity increase.
Star Asia Vision (SAVC), a display and systems integrator under Taiwan-Asia Semiconductor, is focusing on growth in the digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising market by expanding software-hardware integration and high-end customization, while deepening its strategic partnership with global LED materials leader Nichia. The company is optimistic about growth momentum across its three main product lines and expects project expansions in 2027 to drive operating growth. The partnership deepening and expansion plans are planned/expected in nature; no realized capacity or financial figures are reported.
LEDStar Asia Vision, Taiwan-Asia Semiconductor and 3 totalDigiTimes AsiaPartnership/M&A
Related manufacturers
Star Asia Vision, Taiwan-Asia Semiconductor, Nichia
According to Reuters, citing sources, SK hynix is reportedly seeking U.S. approval to expand chip production in China via its U.S. subsidiary Solidigm, which aims to install additional equipment in unused space at the NAND flash facility in Dalian, China — specifically Mod B, a fabrication space completed in 2023 whose equipment installation was left unfinished due to the memory market downturn — as a condition for investing in a U.S. facility, with the expanded operations helping fund a new NAND manufacturing plant in the U.S.; Solidigm is also reportedly considering an initial public offering as early as next year to raise additional capital. However, SK hynix told Reuters that equipment installation at Dalian's Mod B facility is proceeding in consultation with and under authorization from the U.S. government, and that it is not seeking to expand capacity at Mod B; Solidigm declined to comment. As background: in September 2025, the U.S. Commerce Department revoked special authorizations that had allowed SK hynix and Samsung to receive U.S. chipmaking equipment at their Chinese facilities without individual export licenses, saying it would continue allowing shipments needed to maintain existing operations but did not intend to approve exports for capacity expansion or technology upgrades; in December 2025, Washington granted annual approval for U.S. chipmaking equipment shipments to Samsung and SK hynix's Chinese facilities for 2026, per Yonhap News, though Reuters reports the authorization for the Dalian plant limits equipment quantities and approval for additional U.S.-made equipment and technology in 2027 has yet to be issued. Per The Bell, access to advanced etching equipment is particularly important as NAND makers increase stacked layers, and using older tools can require additional processing steps, reducing productivity and raising manufacturing costs; per Reuters, the Dalian NAND facility uses equipment from major U.S. suppliers including Lam Research, Applied Materials, and KLA.
NAND flashSK hynix, Solidigm and 3 totalTrendForcePolicy/Regulation
ASM International shows that building increasingly complex 3D devices requires advances in materials and processes, meaning 3D scaling puts new demands on materials. This is background technical information with no specific product, capacity, price, date or event status given; the source does not state the cause, and no supply or pricing data is provided.
RECOM Power, an Austrian designer and manufacturer of power conversion solutions, and CELUS, a cloud-based electronics design automation company, announced a partnership that brings a first set of RECOM power designs to the CELUS Design Platform. The partnership covers 37 RECOM CUBOs (reusable circuit modules on the platform, also known as Digital Datasheets): 29 are built around RECOM power ICs for isolated and switching DC/DC conversion, corresponding to RVP001 (4 CUBOs), RVP003 (9), RVP003S (1), RVP010 (6), RVP6501 (1), RVPW011 (1), RVPW012 (1), RVPW014 (4), RVPW015 (1) and RVPW016 (1) reference designs; the remaining 8 cover RECOM's R-78 switching regulators (6 CUBOs) and RAC AC/DC converter modules (2 CUBOs). The partnership arrives alongside the platform's new Power Nets capability, in which engineers define supply nets with voltage and direction and the Design Assistant proposes only solutions whose power specifications match those nets; designs continue through the platform's integrations with Altium Designer, KiCad, Siemens EDA and Autodesk Fusion. The CELUS Design Platform is used by more than 30,000 engineers in over 100 countries, with a library of more than 560,000 components. This is an announced partnership; the source does not state any price or supply impact.
power conversion solutionsisolated and switching DC/DC conversionR-78 switching regulatorsRECOM Power, CELUSEE JournalPartnership/M&A
STMicroelectronics revealed the LPS27DEWO, a two-in-one MEMS sensor combining altitude and underwater-depth monitoring over 50 meters in a single device that saves space, simplifies circuitry, and trims bill-of-materials costs in wearables and outdoor equipment. With two selectable full scales in one compact package, it suits sports cameras, smart rings, smartwatches, and other outdoor and underwater equipment. Its extended underwater pressure range of 6060hPa provides accurate information for recreational and enthusiast divers when ascending from below 40 meters – the critical depth for decompression – and the sensor remains robust at water-pressure depths of up to 110 meters. It features a 2.7mm x 2.7mm 10-lead LGA footprint in a 1.7mm-high cylindrical metal lid package, ±0.5% accuracy at full-scale, and a new black potting gel that eliminates light-induced error; it supports 1.2V I2C, SPI, and I3C digital interfaces with very low operating current of just 1.7µA at 3.8Pa.
MEMS altitude and underwater depth sensorSTMicroelectronicsEE Journal
Intel and Micron Technology urged Taiwanese semiconductor materials, components and equipment suppliers to establish operations in the United States, speaking at the SEMICON West 2026 Taiwan Supply Chain Forum in San Francisco on Oct. 12. Ben Fulmer, vice president of construction and sourcing at Intel Foundry, encouraged Taiwanese companies to invest locally so they are ready when selected as a supplier. Shane Smith, senior director of front-end materials strategic sourcing and supply assurance at Micron, said cooperation with Taiwanese suppliers had enabled the company to relocate a significant portion of its DRAM business to the US, noted that transporting all the equipment and materials is a challenge, and emphasized that investment in the US was necessary to develop the ecosystem. Both companies are expanding US manufacturing: Intel is investing more than $100 billion across Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Ohio, while Micron plans to invest more than $250 billion by 2035. The forum was organized to connect Taiwanese suppliers with US manufacturers, academic institutions and government agencies; Intel and Micron delivered keynote addresses. Participating Taiwanese companies included Topco Scientific, Challentech International, Gallant Micro Machining, United Integrated Services and Yesiang Enterprise. The urging is an appeal, not a confirmed investment commitment.
At SEMICON West 2026 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on Oct. 13, SEMI president and CEO Ajit Manocha said the semiconductor market could reach $2 trillion to $3 trillion by 2035. At the same event, SEMI Americas president Joe Stockunas proposed a toast at the opening ceremony marking the first time cumulative global semiconductor market revenue surpassed $1 trillion in the first eight months of a year. Manocha noted he predicted when he took office in 2017 that the market would reach $1 trillion by 2030, and the market crossed that threshold this year about four years ahead of his forecast, reaching the milestone in eight months rather than a full year; he added that actual growth has been much faster than market expectations. SEMI expects annual semiconductor market revenue to reach $1.5 trillion in 2026. Manocha cited investment in new semiconductor fabrication plants (fabs) and data center expansion as key drivers of market growth: a total of 102 fabs are targeted to begin operations by 2029, with 82 already under construction; there are currently 479 operating data centers, with another 77 planned. Fab expansion is expected to increase demand not only for equipment but also for materials and packaging. Beyond Manocha's remark that anything could happen over the next five years, the source does not state any quantified risks to the 2035 forecast.
Applied Materials opened the EPIC Center in California with up to $5 billion investment, partnering with TSMC, Intel, Samsung, Micron, and SK hynix to accelerate the commercialization of advanced semiconductor technologies, particularly for AI leadership.
Applied Materials, TSMC and 6 totalThe ElecPartnership/M&A
Related manufacturers
Applied Materials, TSMC, Intel, Samsung Electronics, Micron, SK hynix
TOK Inc. completed a new facility at its Koriyama plant to expand photoresist production capacity, driven by rising AI chip demand. This expansion aims to strengthen the company's global market position. The move signals increased supply to meet high demand, which could mitigate current shortages.
Qualcomm said it is pushing to cut edge AI's energy cost as phones, cars, and other devices face tighter power and cooling limits than data centers. At the opening of Applied Materials' EPIC Center, the company said its memory-and-logic stacking work could sharply reduce energy use, although thermal, materials, and manufacturing challenges remain globally. The source does not state a timeline for commercialization of this technology.
In an SK hynix Newsroom article series [Inside the Research] Part 2 dated October 14, 2026, the company detailed its research paper "Co-Optimizing Cell, Non-Cell, and Page Schemes for Energy Efficient Analog Computing in 3D FeNAND," published in the 2025 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), authored by Won-Tae Koo and Jihun Kim of SK hynix's Global RTC. The research proposes a 3D FeNAND-based analog compute-in-memory (A-CiM) architecture that merges storage and computation, and by co-optimizing cell, non-cell (interconnect/word line), and page schemes, achieves approximately 10 to 20 times higher throughput and around 4,000 to 5,000 times greater energy efficiency than conventional 3D arrays under the same chip-area constraints; the article notes these figures reflect 3D FeNAND's high-density advantage over conventional 2D nonvolatile memory arrays widely studied as A-CiM candidates. Reported optimization results include: using a low-resistance word line metal improved throughput by up to 16% and energy efficiency by up to 3%; air gaps reduced word-line parasitic capacitance by approximately 60%, improving throughput by 1.2 times and energy efficiency by two times; jointly optimizing word line resistance and capacitance improved throughput by up to 1.4 times and energy efficiency by up to 2.2 times; in-page pipelining (IPP) doubled energy efficiency and improved throughput by nine times versus the baseline; and splitting a conventional 16KB page into four 4KB subpages improved energy efficiency by 1.2 times and throughput by 1.7 times. The team also demonstrated four-level-per-cell operation in the low-current region with stable data retention at the 300mm wafer scale. The article states the research shows NAND's potential to expand beyond a storage medium into a computing medium; the source contains no price, shipment, capacity, or market-condition information.
SEMI expects Americas 300mm fab equipment spending to more than double from US$18.1 billion in 2026 to US$40.6 billion in 2029, driven by U.S. investment and expansions by TSMC, Intel, Micron, and Samsung.
300mm fab equipmentTSMC, Intel and 5 totalTrendForceCapacity Change