Intel Warns CPU Prices Could Be the Next to Rise Due to AI Demand
Intel warned that CPU prices are set to climb as AI workloads shift toward inference, increasing server‑side demand. Since March 2026, server CPUs have risen about 20% and consumer chips 5‑10%, with another 8‑10% hike expected in the second half of the year. The AI inference phase now often requires one CPU per GPU, up from the historic one‑to‑four‑or‑eight ratio. Intel says this will become a sizable portion of the AI total addressable market, echoing broader supply‑chain strain seen in RAM and storage.
Himax to Showcase Industry-Leading High-Contrast Dual-Edge Front-Lit LCoS Microdisplay at SID Display Week 2026
Himax Technologies unveiled a next‑generation high‑contrast dual‑edge front‑lit LCoS microdisplay at SID Display Week 2026 in Los Angeles. The 0.09 c.c. device weighs just 0.2 g, delivers up to 350,000 nits brightness, 1 lumen at 200 mW, and features a 720×720 resolution. Proprietary material and...
WeRide Expands WRD 3.0 Across Multiple Chip Platforms
WeRide announced that its WRD 3.0 advanced driver assistance system is now compatible with multiple chip platforms, including NVIDIA DRIVE, Qualcomm Snapdragon and SiEngine’s StarLight AD1000. The expansion enables automakers to deploy L2++ ADAS across a range of computing power—from...
Samsung Wafer Output Drops 58%, Memory Down 18% Amid Labor Dispute
Samsung’s South Korean wafer foundry output plunged 58% and memory production slipped 18% on April 23 after workers at the Pyeongtaek complex missed overnight shifts in protest. The dispute centers on pay and bonus structures; Samsung has offered a 6.2% base‑salary...
Power Semiconductor Lead Times Hit 30 Weeks as AI Drives 800V Shift
Rapid AI server expansion is forcing data centers to adopt higher‑voltage power architectures, with 800 VDC solutions gaining traction. Lead times for power semiconductors have stretched to roughly 30 weeks as demand outpaces capacity at mature process nodes. Suppliers such as...
Montage Profit Reaches Record as AI Chip Shipments Surge
Montage Technology Co. posted a record first‑quarter profit, with net income soaring 61% to 847.4 million yuan (about $124 million). The result beat the consensus estimate of 706.3 million yuan and pushed the company’s gross margin to 69.8%. The earnings surge was driven...
GPU Prices Have Stopped Climbing, But the Market Is Still Broken
GPU prices have largely plateaued after a surge driven by AI demand, but the market remains distorted. Entry‑level RTX 5050 and RTX 5060 are roughly 5% above MSRP, while mid‑range RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB sits about 23% over MSRP and high‑end RTX 5090 commands $3.5‑$4k,...
“The CPU Is Reinserting Itself”, Will Reach Parity with GPUs for AI Workloads: Tan
Intel CEO Lip‑Bu Tan told analysts that CPUs are regaining prominence in AI, with the CPU‑to‑GPU inference ratio moving from 1:8 to 1:4 and heading toward parity. The chipmaker posted a $3.7 billion loss for Q1 2026 but beat revenue guidance,...
SweGaN Wins Commercial Orders Worth SEK25m From Global Customers
SweGaN AB announced commercial framework agreements worth roughly SEK 25 million ($2.8 million) from customers in Europe, Asia and the United States. The contracts, spanning data‑center power devices and defense‑grade RF components, will generate revenue over the next 6‑18 months. The company also appointed...
Musk Teams with Intel for Terafab Plans
Elon Musk announced a partnership with Intel to build a series of advanced semiconductor fabs, dubbed “Terafab,” aimed at delivering a terawatt of AI processing capacity per year within the next decade. The initial phase involves a $25 billion investment in...
The Hormuz Hit to Helium
The Iran‑UAE conflict has disrupted helium supplies, as Qatar halted production at its Ras Laffan LNG plant and the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. Spot helium prices have doubled after a 14% cut in Qatari exports, tightening a market already dependent on...
Denso Withdraws Rohm Bid as Three-Way Merger Takes Hold
Denso Corp is likely to withdraw its February bid to acquire Japanese chipmaker Rohm after Rohm’s board rejected the offer. Rohm instead favours a three‑way merger with Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric to combine their power‑semiconductor businesses. The proposed tie‑up would...
OpenAI Reportedly Developing Its Own Smartphone Chips with MediaTek and Qualcomm
Analyst Ming‑Chi Kuo says OpenAI is collaborating with MediaTek and Qualcomm to develop custom smartphone processors, with Luxshare as the exclusive system‑design and manufacturing partner. The chips are slated for mass production in 2028, with specifications expected to be locked...
When Semiconductor Materials Misbehave
The semiconductor industry’s shift to heterogeneous integration is exposing a widening gap between laboratory‑tested material specs and real‑world production performance. As advanced packaging stacks incorporate dozens of new dielectrics, metals, and polymers, cross‑domain interactions create failure modes that traditional simulation...
What Is Crucial for the Future of Chip Production
The semiconductor sector’s surge in AI‑driven chips is driving unprecedented water consumption, with a single fab using 20‑38 million litres daily and TSMC alone consuming 101 billion litres in 2023. Around 40% of existing and newly announced fabs sit in regions projected...
Credo to Unveil AI Interconnect Solutions at TSMC 2026 Symposium
Credo Technology Group will unveil its new AI interconnect solutions at the TSMC 2026 Technology Symposium, starting April 22 in Santa Clara. The highlight is OmniConnect Weaver, featuring 112 Gbps VSR SerDes and a lightweight AXI framer, promising up to 10×...
Rambus SOCAMM2 Server Module Chipset Enables Power-Efficient AI Platforms
Rambus has introduced the SOCAMM2 chipset, a controller for detachable LPDDR5X memory modules aimed at AI server platforms. The chipset delivers up to 9.6 Gb/s bandwidth and incorporates 12 A and 3 A voltage regulators to boost power efficiency. By replacing soldered DDR...
Iran War Disrupts the Circuit Board Supply Chain, Raises Costs for Tech Firms
The Iran‑Saudi conflict has crippled the Jubail petrochemical complex, cutting off roughly 70% of the world’s high‑purity polyphenylene ether (PPE) resin used for printed circuit board (PCB) laminates. As a result, PCB prices surged up to 40% in April, while...
T-Global to Strengthen Strengthening VC Vapor Chamber Mass Production and Expand Global Footprint with New Vietnam Facility in Q3
T-Global Technology is opening a new manufacturing plant in Hung Yen, Vietnam, slated for Q3 2026. The facility will initially mass‑produce vapor chambers and introduce high‑thermal‑conductivity silicone pads, expanding the company’s advanced thermal‑management portfolio. Leveraging Taiwan’s R&D expertise, the Vietnam hub...
ASE Recognizes Outstanding Suppliers of 2025
ASE Technology Holding hosted its annual Supplier Day, gathering over 100 partners under the "Innovation of Synergy" theme. The event highlighted the semiconductor sector’s surge, with AI and high‑performance computing pushing global revenue past $1 trillion by 2026. ASE recognized a...
MZT Joins JST’s Next-Gen Edge AI Semiconductor R&D Program
MZT has joined the Japan Science and Technology Agency’s Next‑Generation Edge AI Semiconductor R&D Program as the designated social implementation and commercialization partner for the "Accelerating Edge Intelligence for AI for Science" theme. The company will integrate AI breakthroughs from...
Success Stories: AI and Hardware Innovation
Artificial intelligence’s rapid growth is hitting a ceiling due to stagnant traditional chip advances and rising energy costs. Researchers at Arizona State University, led by Assistant Professor Aman Arora, are exploring reconfigurable computing with field‑programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to create...
Point2 Technology Secures Strategic Investment From Nvidia and Chip Firms
Point2 Technology announced a strategic investment from Nvidia’s venture arm NVentures, UMC Capital and Maverick Silicon on April 23. The funding marks the first known Nvidia investment in a Korean startup and underscores a shift toward AI infrastructure interconnects. Point2’s e‑Tube...
SiEngine Showcases Full-Stack Chip Matrix at Auto China 2026
SiEngine used the 19th Beijing International Automotive Exhibition to unveil its latest full‑stack chip matrix, including the Dragon Eagle cockpit series, Star intelligent‑driving chips, the industrial‑grade Dragon Eagle One, the Tiangong 100 AI accelerator and a new SerDes line. The company...
Pony.ai Unveils Next-Generation Autonomous Driving Domain Controller
Pony.ai introduced a next‑generation autonomous driving domain controller on April 25, built on NVIDIA’s DRIVE Hyperion platform and powered by the DRIVE AGX Thor with NVLink. The system delivers up to 4,000 FP4 TFLOPS of combined compute, supporting both single‑chip...
The US Wants to Cut Off China’s Chip Equipment. China Says the Supply Chain Will Break for Everyone.
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced the MATCH Act, compelling the Netherlands and Japan to align DUV lithography export restrictions with U.S. rules within 150 days, effectively cutting off ASML’s remaining sales and service to Chinese fabs. China’s Ministry...
The Next Xbox Could Be Waiting on the Memory Market
Microsoft’s next‑generation Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, is being delayed as its CEO Asha Sharma cites volatile DRAM and NAND flash markets as a key constraint. A surge in AI‑driven demand has pushed memory prices higher, affecting both the console’s bill...
DA Davidson Analyst Resets AMD Stock Price Target for 2026
DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria upgraded AMD to Buy, raising the price target to $375 from $220—a 70% increase—based on a 32× calendar‑year‑2027 EPS multiple. He also lifted the 2026 revenue estimate by $2 billion and gross profit by $1.5 billion, outpacing...
China Says US Export Bills Risk Disrupting Chip Supply Chains
China’s Ministry of Commerce warned that pending U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee bills targeting semiconductor exports could destabilize global chip supply chains. The legislation seeks to broaden national‑security justifications for export curbs, prompting Beijing to label the move a misuse...
Meta’s Compute Grab Continues with Agreement to Deploy Tens of Millions of AWS Graviton Cores
Meta announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services to add tens of millions of Graviton5 CPU cores—each chip packing 192 cores—to its AI compute portfolio, bolstering the Llama builder platform. The agreement expands Meta’s already diverse hardware ecosystem that includes...
Bosch Launches 3rd Generation SiC MOSFETs
Bosch unveiled its third‑generation silicon‑carbide (SiC) MOSFETs, featuring a dual‑channel trench architecture that cuts specific on‑resistance by 20%, thins the die by 40%, and raises short‑circuit withstand capability by roughly 10%. The redesign also supports 200 mm wafer production, boosting chips...
Aeluma Wins NASA Funding for QD Laser Project
US semiconductor firm Aeluma has been awarded NASA non‑dilutive funding to accelerate commercialization of its integrated quantum dot (QD) laser platform. The technology integrates QD lasers directly onto silicon, addressing the longstanding on‑chip optical gain limitation of silicon photonics while...
Samsung Electronics Produces First Working Die on Sub-10nm DRAM Node
Samsung Electronics announced the first working die on its sub‑10 nm DRAM process, dubbed the 10a node. The die uses a 4F² cell layout and a vertical channel transistor (VCT) structure, shrinking the cell footprint to roughly 9.5‑9.7 nm. Samsung aims to...
Report: Samsung Execs Worried Company Could Lose Money on Smartphones for the First Time
Samsung's mobile division warned it could post its first net loss on smartphones in 2026 despite strong Galaxy S26 sales. The loss is driven by soaring DRAM and NAND prices, which now account for a larger share of component costs,...
Why the Party for Intel and Other Chip Stocks Could Last a Long Time
Intel’s stock has surged 81% year‑to‑date and jumped another 25% after a surprise first‑quarter earnings beat that lifted gross‑margin and server‑chip revenue. The results pushed Intel’s forward price‑to‑sales ratio down to 7.1, making it cheaper than peers like Nvidia, Broadcom...
The System Architect’s Sketchbook: The Buildout Frenzy
Deepak Shankar, founder of Mirabilis Design, released a cartoon titled “The system architect’s sketchbook: The buildout frenzy” on EDN. The illustration spotlights the accelerating pressure on electronics design engineers to integrate ever‑more functions, components, and software into a single system....
NEO Semiconductor's Revolutionary 3D X-DRAM for AI Processors Has Passed Proof-of-Concept Validation — Company Secures Funding to Develop Next-Gen Memory...
NEO Semiconductor announced that its 3D X‑DRAM technology cleared a proof‑of‑concept stage, delivering sub‑10 ns latency, over‑1 second data retention at 85 °C, and endurance beyond 10¹⁴ cycles using existing 3D NAND fab lines. The company also secured a strategic investment led by Acer...
Electronics Firm MELSS Forms JV with US-Based Valtech for Specialty Chemicals Used in Semiconductor Making
Indian engineering firm MEL Systems and Services (MELSS) has entered a joint venture with U.S. specialty‑chemical maker Valtech Corporation to produce chemicals and plastic components for semiconductor and solar‑cell manufacturing. The new entity, MELSS Valtech Ltd, will build a plant in Chennai...
Nextorage Unveils Fresh New Gaming SSDs, but They only Come with a One-Year Warranty
Nextorage has launched a new line of QLC gaming SSDs, offering capacities from 1 TB to 8 TB with write endurance ranging from 400 TBW to 4,000 TBW. The 1 TB model is priced at ¥44,550 (about $280), positioning it as a premium‑priced option in...
CPU Requirements for AI Workloads Are Multiplying, Driving Intensifying Shortages and Price Hikes — Intel Already Shifting Production From Consumer...
Intel disclosed that AI workloads are driving a rapid shift from training to inference, tightening CPU‑to‑GPU ratios in data centers from roughly 1:8 to 1:4 and potentially to parity at 1:1. The surge in CPU demand has pushed server CPU...
Intel Shares Surge on AI Boom to Surpass Dotcom Bubble High
Intel’s stock jumped more than 12% in after‑hours trading, pushing the share price above $58 and eclipsing the peak it hit during the 2000 dot‑com bubble. The rally was sparked by strong earnings guidance and a surge in demand for...
Huawei, DeepSeek Strengthen China’s AI Self-Reliance with Collaboration on V4 Model
Huawei announced that its new Ascend 950PR and 950DT chips were ready for day‑zero inference on DeepSeek’s V4 model, with the entire Ascend SuperNode line fully adapted. The partnership was highlighted in a livestream where engineers detailed integration with Huawei’s...
Space Data-Center News: Roundup of Extraterrestrial AI Endeavors
In April 2026 a wave of space‑compute announcements pushed orbital data centers closer to commercial reality. Sophia Space teamed with Kepler Communications to run its software on a ten‑satellite cluster of Nvidia Orin processors, while Deloitte activated two additional cyber‑defense...
Aeluma Receives NASA Award for Integrated QD Lasers
Aeluma Inc., a Goleta‑based compound semiconductor firm, secured a NASA award to accelerate its integrated quantum‑dot (QD) laser platform for data‑communication and sensing. The company’s large‑diameter wafer heterogeneous integration leverages high‑throughput MOCVD to embed QD lasers directly on silicon, tackling...
Atomera Extends Collaboration with Synopsys to GaN Workflows
Atomera Inc. has broadened its long‑standing partnership with Synopsys Inc. to include gallium nitride (GaN) device modeling using Synopsys’ Sentaurus TCAD platform. The expanded effort will develop a GaN calibration methodology, produce marketing and calibrated simulation decks, and feed product...
AMD EXPO 1.2 Expands DDR5 Tuning Before Zen 6 Rollout
AMD unveiled EXPO 1.2, the latest iteration of its DDR5 overclocking profile standard. The update expands profile data, adds support for MRDIMM, CUDIMM and CSODIMM modules, and introduces new timing and voltage fields such as tREFI and VDDP. While early BIOS...
Intel Says Software Optimization Limits E-Core Gaming Performance Gains
Intel’s Vice President Robert Hallock says the gaming performance gap between Intel’s hybrid CPUs and AMD’s Ryzen X3D chips is largely a software issue, not a hardware flaw. Intel reports that toggling efficiency (E) cores changes game FPS by roughly one...
Intel Z970 Chipset Will Become Mainstream Segment for Nova Lake-S
Intel is set to launch the Z970 chipset alongside its Nova Lake‑S processors, positioning it as the core of the new 900‑series upper‑mainstream platform. The Z970 will inherit many Z‑series features—most notably CPU overclocking and richer I/O—traditionally reserved for enthusiast...
D-Mode GaN Bidirectional Switches Reshape Power Conversion Topologies
Renesas introduced the TP65B110HRU, a 650 V, 110 mΩ D‑mode GaN bidirectional switch that integrates two low‑voltage MOSFETs in a single TOLT package. The device conducts and blocks current in both directions, eliminating the need for back‑to‑back MOSFET or IGBT pairs. This...
Vishay Expands Power DFN Portfolio with Ultrafast Rectifiers
Vishay Intertechnology has added 16 new FRED Pt® ultrafast rectifiers to its Power DFN line, housed in the compact DFN6546A package and rated at 200 V with 6 A‑15 A currents. Both commercial‑grade and AEC‑Q101‑qualified automotive versions are available, offering a 10% lower...