Semiconductor News 20260318

Today’s semiconductor news highlights the simultaneous situation of record market growth due to special AI demand and a wave of severe material shortages and rising costs: with global semiconductor sales for January 2026 topping $80 billion in a single month for the first time, GTC 2026 will see NVIDIA and memory giants’ $1 trillion The battle for supremacy in next-generation products with an eye on the scale of the inference market is heating up. Meanwhile, the chairman of SK Group warned of a prolonged wafer shortage until 2030, and inflationary pressures are spreading to end products, as Murata Manufacturing and other companies are raising component prices and soaring memory prices are causing MSI to raise product prices. In addition, industry reorganization, exemplified by Denso’s proposed acquisition of ROHM, is rapidly accelerating, forcing companies to dramatically change their strategies between growth and supply constraints.

Main News

1. Battle for AI Memory Dominance Intensifies at GTC 2026 ; NVIDIA Predicts $1 Trillion Inference Market
   At GTC 2026, hosted by NVIDIA, the three memory giants SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Micron are engaged in a fierce competition for dominance of HBM4, the next generation AI memory. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang predicted that the AI inference market will reach the $1 trillion mark and announced plans to outsource the manufacturing of inference-specific LPU chips to Samsung. The competition among companies to develop products for next-generation architectures is heating up even more.
2. Global Semiconductor Sales Surpass $80 Billion for First Single Month in January 2026
   Global semiconductor sales surpassed the $80 billion mark for the first time in a single month in January 2026, driven by a surge in global demand, particularly AI-related demand. Data confirms that demand for data center hardware is strongly driving the market, which has completely exited the trough of previous cycles and is now on a new growth trajectory. The industry as a whole is accelerating its expansion of production capacity in order to further increase the size of the market.
3. SK Group Chairman Warns of Wafer Shortage for Memory to Continue until 2030
   The SK Group Chairman has warned that the supply shortage of silicon wafers, essential for semiconductor memory manufacturing, may continue until 2030 due to the explosive growth in demand for AI infrastructure. The Chairman emphasized that a strong cooperative relationship with Taiwanese and other companies to stabilize the supply chain will be the foundation of the ecosystem. The company is quickly raising funds and building partnerships to meet long-term demand growth, including consideration of an ADR listing in the United States.
4. Denso’s Takeover Proposal Sparks Battle for ROHM; Power Semiconductor Realignment Int ensifies
   A massive takeover bid for ROHM by Denso, a member of the Toyota Motor Corporation group, has triggered a major realignment drama in the Japanese power semiconductor industry. The ROHM-TOSHIBA-MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC alliance is also being discussed, and the battle for position among companies to secure stable procurement of power semiconductors, which are essential for electric vehicles and automated driving technology, is intensifying. This mega deal, which transcends the boundaries of affiliations, has the potential to fundamentally rewrite the structure of the domestic supply chain.
5. Meta Signs Huge $27 Billion Deal with Nebius to Expand AI Infrastructure
   Meta, a U.S. company, has signed a massive $27 billion deal with Nebius to expand its AI infrastructure capabilities to meet the enormous AI compute demand in its data centers. As the battle for AI supremacy among giant IT companies rages on, astronomical amounts of money are being invested in securing computational resources to support the development and operation of proprietary generative AI models. This move symbolizes that the scale of infrastructure investment is entering an unprecedented dimension.
6. Murata and Other Major Component Makers Confirm Price Hikes Effective April 1
   Murata Manufacturing, the world’s largest manufacturer of multilayer ceramic capacitors and other components, and other major electronic component manufacturers have reportedly confirmed price increases for key components effective April 1. Yet another price hike is also planned by another semiconductor giant. Against the backdrop of strong demand and soaring raw material and logistics costs, a wave of cost increases is spreading across the entire components market, and is being warned as a factor that will significantly push up manufacturing costs for the electronics industry as a whole.
7. Soaring memory costs force MSI to raise prices of gaming products by up to 30%, spreading to smartphones
   Soaring prices of semiconductor memory are seriously hurting the prices of end products, and MSI is unable to absorb the cost increase and has decided to raise prices of its gaming products by up to 30%. In addition, Samsung Electronics has reportedly halted development of folding smartphones due to cost increases. The Chinese market has also begun to pass on prices to smartphones and consumer electronics products, and component inflation is having a significant impact on consumer product sales strategies.
8. Collaboration between Device and Equipment Makers Advances; AMAT Asks Japan for Cooperation in Power Saving
   Strategic collaboration between device and manufacturing equipment makers is accelerating, especially in the United States, for the development of next-generation semiconductor processes. Applied Materials, a leading semiconductor equipment manufacturer, has invited Japanese companies to participate in its EPIC project, which has the ambitious goal of reducing transistor power consumption by a factor of 10,000. To break through the limits of physical miniaturization, an international R&D ecosystem is being built and materials innovation is underway.
9. NVIDIA deploys clever competitive absorption strategy, streamlining system design with Cadence
   NVIDIA is skillfully collaborating with and absorbing companies that compensate for its weaknesses in order to defend its one-powerhouse position in AI semiconductors. As part of this effort, the company has teamed up with Cadence, a leading electronic design automation company, to announce an accelerated engineering solution focused on agent-based AI chip and system design. We are not only providing hardware, but are also further strengthening our strong ecosystem surrounding design infrastructure and software.
10. Hong Kong’s First Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing Base Project Launched in Yuan-Lang to Strengthen Supply Chain
    Hong Kong’s first project to build a manufacturing base for semiconductor manufacturing equipment has officially launched in the Yuan-Lang area. This is an important move aimed at ensuring a stable supply of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment within Greater China amid concerns about geopolitical risks and supply chain fragmentation due to the U.S.-China conflict. It is highly anticipated that the project will directly support the semiconductor industry in mainland China and serve as a strategic investment platform for mid- to long-term technological independence and ecosystem enhancement.

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