At SEMICON West 2026, TRUMPF unveiled an ultrashort‑pulse laser that can fabricate micro‑scale cooling structures directly into AI chip stacks, a first for industrial production. The laser’s high power and beam‑shaping precision allow rapid, five‑fold faster processing than traditional etching while maintaining surface quality, enabling integration of cooling channels in hard materials like silicon carbide and diamond. This capability addresses the heat‑dissipation bottleneck of next‑generation AI processors, supporting advanced packaging and high‑density computing. [...]

India’s push to become a semiconductor manufacturing hub is confronting a hidden hurdle: the sophisticated process‑critical infrastructure needed to keep advanced fabs operational. At SEMICON 2026, Eric Stuiver, Group Sector Director Electronics at Deerns, explained that beyond conventional HVAC and clean‑room design, facilities require specialised gas and chemical delivery, vibration control, ultra‑pure water systems, power‑quality management and integrated contamination controls. Deerns adopts a process‑led methodology, designing utilities by working backwards from the semiconductor process rather than applying generic [...]

EdgeCortix, a Japanese fabless semiconductor firm, announced RAIDEN, a scalable AI chiplet platform designed for “Physical AI” workloads that run at the edge rather than in data centers. The architecture can be configured as a single‑die (X1), two‑die (X2) or four‑die (X4) system, all sharing the company’s DNA‑X accelerator and MERA software stack. At full X4 scale, RAIDEN delivers up to 3.36 PFLOPS of FP4 compute, 256 GB of memory, 548 GB/s memory bandwidth, 1.54 TB/s die‑to‑die bandwidth and up to [...]

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH), the market’s largest chip fund with about $71 billion in assets, allocates 21.7 % of its portfolio to Nvidia, a weighting that has become a drag as the AI‑focused stock lagged broader sector gains. Over the past twelve months SMH’s return was 87.3 % versus Nvidia’s 26.6 % and a sector‑wide rally that favored memory, equipment and analog manufacturers. In contrast, the Invesco Semiconductors ETF (PSI) uses a modified equal‑weight approach across roughly 33 holdings, limiting [...]

Advanced Chip and Circuit Materials, Inc. announced a U.S. expansion of its Celeritas dielectric material production to support AI hardware. New laminate capacity of 20 million square feet per year will begin in January 2027, while prepreg and build‑up capacity will reach 87 million square feet per year by November 2026, with further increases planned in late 2027. The expansion covers four segments—ultra‑high‑speed skew‑free, low‑/negative‑expansion laminates, IC substrate/core materials, and build‑up materials—using halogen‑free, PFAS‑free components that bypass the conventional copper‑clad laminate [...]

Taiwan, long a semiconductor powerhouse, is rapidly reshaping Asia’s AI‑related trade network. Intra‑Asian exports of AI‑enabling chips, components and equipment have nearly doubled since pre‑COVID, reaching about US$2 trillion and representing one‑third of the continent’s total exports. Taiwan’s share of global intermediate AI‑hardware inputs has almost doubled in ten years, with roughly 80 % of its shipments now classified as AI‑related—the highest concentration in Asia. Trade with ASEAN surged 77 % to US$47.4 billion in Q1, making the bloc a quarter [...]

Xi Jinping’s Washington visit underscores China’s pivot to hard‑technology, with AI at the forefront of bilateral talks. Both sides have agreed to an “AI hotline” to prevent runaway systems. Beijing’s hard‑tech surge, accelerated by U.S. sanctions and supply‑chain restrictions, is evident in the success of ChangXin Memory Technologies and Unitree Robotics. The 15th Five‑Year Plan (2026‑2030) outlines a strategy for technological sovereignty, while Xi’s directives in Shanghai and Beijing emphasize early, long‑term investment in basic research and [...]