The Semiconductor Industry Association announced that Apple Executive Chair Tim Cook will receive the 2026 Robert N. Noyce Award, the industry’s highest honor. The award recognizes Cook’s advocacy for U.S. semiconductor leadership and his role in driving growth and advanced manufacturing. Cook will accept the award at the SIA Awards Dinner on Nov. 19, 2026, in San Jose, California. The announcement highlights Cook’s influence on Apple’s semiconductor-enabled products and his broader impact on the global technology landscape. [...]

ASM announced the XP8® Vertos™ Flowable Carbon, the first plasma‑enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) flowable carbon film that merges gap fill and planarization into a single process. The technology promises reduced complexity, improved topography control, and supports 3D scaling for both logic and memory devices. Early deployment targets high‑volume manufacturing, positioning ASM to meet future patterning challenges as semiconductor architectures grow more complex. The material’s engineered flowability, thermal stability, and area‑selective properties distinguish it from conventional carbon [...]

Alibaba Group announced an ambitious AI roadmap at its Apsara Cloud conference in Hangzhou, targeting the development of models with 5‑10 trillion parameters. Chief executive Eddie Wu detailed the progression from the current Qwen 3.8 Max (2.4 trillion parameters) to the in‑training Qwen 4 and future Qwen 4.5 and Qwen 5 series, which aim to handle more complex, longer‑horizon tasks and move toward superintelligence. The company highlighted its proprietary M890 AI supernode, capable of inference for models exceeding 2 trillion parameters, a capability it claims [...]

Singapore‑based Nexstrom, a semiconductor startup developing wafer‑scale single‑crystal 2D materials, announced a $12 million seed round led by Xora Innovation, with Foothill Ventures and SEEDS participating, bringing total capital to $15 million. The financing will accelerate the company’s push toward the industry’s first 12‑inch 2D wafer growth on production‑ready tools and validate the platform within existing foundry workflows. Nexstrom’s full‑stack solution integrates proprietary chemical vapor deposition equipment, process technology and wafer‑scale growth to produce atomically thin semiconductors compatible with [...]

Enablence Technologies Inc. reported preliminary unaudited results for fiscal year ending June 30, 2026, forecasting revenue of $7.9‑$8.10 million, up from prior guidance. The company posted its first positive gross‑margin quarter and improved GAAP gross margins to a range of –12% to –18%, versus a 40% loss in 2025. CEO Todd Haugen attributed growth to the ramp‑up of the Fremont fabrication plant and increased output from the Vietnam assembly fab, which together boosted sales in communications, LiDAR, advanced‑vision and AI‑supported [...]

Alibaba announced the Zhenwu V900 AI processor at its Hangzhou flagship conference, claiming it delivers three times the performance of the previous Zhenwu M890. CEO Eddie Wu described the chip as China’s most powerful AI silicon, intended for both model training and inference in Alibaba’s cloud data centers. The company also revealed plans to develop an AI model with five to ten trillion parameters, moving beyond its current 2.4‑trillion‑parameter Qwen3.8‑Max and rivaling leading U.S. systems. To support [...]

Episil Precision, a Taiwan‑based semiconductor‑equipment maker, announced that rising demand for artificial‑intelligence applications is driving a structural shift in semiconductor epitaxy. President JS Wen and Chairman JH Shyu said the trend will reshape not only wafer‑growth processes but also the broader power‑device and optical‑component supply chains worldwide. The company highlighted that AI workloads require higher‑performance, low‑power chips, prompting manufacturers to adopt advanced epitaxial layers with tighter tolerances and greater uniformity. Episil expects the shift to be long‑term, influencing equipment [...]