Semicon Briefing

Taiwan tightens export controls for AI chips to China as part of a trade agreement with the Trump administration – a signal that the Western coalition to contain China's chip capabilities is now formally integrating Taipei. This increases pressure on Chinese AI developers and closes a previously exploited workaround for Nvidia chips.

China announces restrictions or bans on the export of 40 technologies, including AI chips, certain memory technologies, and solar supply chains – justified by national security concerns. The move marks a new escalation level in the technology trade war: Beijing shifts from defensive protection to active countermeasure.

US lawmakers leverage reports of alleged ties between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Chinese investors to push stricter chip export controls into the National Defense Authorization Act. The debate shows how personnel connections in the semiconductor industry are increasingly becoming a lever in geopolitics.

The merger of Skyworks Solutions and Qorvo is finalized – the combined company targets over $500 million in synergies and gross margins of 50–55%. The merger creates a new RF chip champion with significantly greater market weight in mobile and IoT segments.

ASML and TSMC have launched a joint initiative to develop 12-inch photomasks for High-NA EUV lithography – targeting a pilot line by 2031 and production readiness for advanced nodes by 2033. This is a critical infrastructure building block for the next chip generation beyond 2nm.

TSMC expects record profit of NT$746.3 billion for Q3 2026 – driven by AI chip demand. In parallel, Intel and Qualcomm raise CPU prices by up to 20%, pointing to persistent capacity constraints and rising manufacturing costs across the supply chain.