Semiconductor News 20260425

In today’s semiconductor news, we report on the intersection of tremendous corporate performance driven by AI demand and supply chain fragmentation and restructuring driven by geopolitical risks, with Intel’s stock price soaring 28 percent and SK Hynix’s sales tripling, as AI infrastructure investments bring enormous benefits to the market. Intel’s stock price has soared 28 percent and SK Hynix’s sales have tripled. At the same time, physical and cost constraints that could impede growth are becoming apparent, such as the uncertainty over the supply of photoresist in Japan due to the turmoil in the Middle East and the rising cost of advanced packaging. Furthermore, the conflict over U.S.-China technological hegemony and the blocking of the ecosystem are further accelerating, as the Trump administration is becoming more vigilant against China’s theft of AI technology and SMIC’s renewed challenge to advanced packaging.

Main News

1. Intel’s Q1 Sales Rise on AI Demand Boost; Stock Jumps Record 28 Percent
   Intel’s Q1 2026 sales rose 7 percent year over year to $13.6 billion, as AI demand boosted results. It also warned of rising prices and supply shortages as demand for CPUs grows. The company also announced that it will accelerate its yield target for its next-generation 18A process to mid-year, and the strong outlook sent its stock price soaring 28 percent to a record The expansion of AI reasoning is once again stimulating demand for CPUs.
2. SK H ynix Q1 Sales Triple, Strengthens Collaboration with TSMC on HBM4
   SK Hynix Korea’s SK Hynix Korea’s Q1 2026 sales tripled YoY to 52 trillion won and profits rose 5x to a record high, driven by explosive growth in demand for high bandwidth memory for AI. The company’s sales in the quarter tripled year-on-year to 52 trillion won. In addition, the Company aims to establish an overwhelming competitive advantage by deepening cooperation with Taiwan’s TSMC in the development of HBM4, the next-generation standard, and by promoting advanced integration of memory and logic.
3. Confusion in the Strait of Hormuz causes concern over photoresist shortages; supply chain in crisis
   Confusion in the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East is causing a serious crisis in the semiconductor supply chain. In particular, Japanese suppliers of photoresists rely on naphtha from the Middle East for more than 40 percent of their supply, and there are strong concerns about a shortage of photoresists due to uncertainty over the supply of raw materials. This situation threatens the stable procurement of materials essential for the manufacture of cutting-edge chips, and has emerged as a major physical risk for chipmakers worldwide.
4. Google Splits TPUs into Training and Inference, Moving to Specialized AI Infrastructure
   Google has indicated that it intends to split its AI chips into TPUs for training and inference, signaling a move to an AI infrastructure specialized for specific workloads. It is also introducing new TPU servers, and a Taiwanese supplier is gaining market share in this manufacturing. As giant technology companies seek to streamline and optimize AI computation, hardware fragmentation and supply chains are changing.
5. Samsung and Others Raise SSD Prices by More Than 10 Percent, Memory Surge Continues
   Samsung Electronics and Kingston have reportedly raised SSD prices by more than 10 percent. The possibility of further price increases in the coming weeks has been raised.The surge in memory prices, driven by the AI boom, is pushing up manufacturing costs for a wide range of electronics products, including changing the competitive structure of the global notebook computer market in 2026. Price transfers to consumer products have become inevitable.
6. Soaring Prices for Advanced Packaging and AI PCBs Squeeze Semiconductor Makers’ Profits
   Semiconductor manufacturers are facing intense cost pressure from soaring back-end packaging costs, which are outpacing foundry contract manufacturing cost increases. In addition, shortages in the supply of printed circuit boards for AI, combined with rising material and energy costs, are squeezing profit margins. the fields of mounting boards and packaging, which are essential for improving the performance of AI chips, are becoming bottlenecks and cost increases for the entire supply chain.
7. Denso Withdraws Takeover Proposal for ROHM, Industry Reorganization Becomes Uncertain
   It has become clear that Denso, a major automotive parts supplier, intends to withdraw its takeover proposal for ROHM, a major power semiconductor company. The main reason for the withdrawal is said to be the lack of support from ROHM. In the power semiconductor industry, which is becoming increasingly important toward a decarbonized society, a huge business integration and reorganization by Japanese companies had been expected, but no agreement was reached, and the future of the industry map is once again uncertain.
8. SoftBank Subsidiary and Intel Jointly Develop New ZAM Memory; Government Subsidy Also Available
   A SoftBank subsidiary is reportedly working with Intel to develop an innovative new ZAM memory, designed as a low-power, high-bandwidth memory for AI workloads, and this The project has received a grant from the Japanese government. The development of next-generation technologies is being accelerated through collaboration between Japanese and U.S. companies and state support to commercialize new memory solutions that will replace or complement existing broadband memory.
9. Trump Administration Wary of Chinese AI Technology Theft, Working with Businesses to Strengthen Countermeasures
   The Trump administration in the United States has expressed strong alarm over China’s theft of advanced U.S. artificial intelligence technology and is working with private companies to take countermeasures. As the conflict over technological hegemony between the U.S. and China continues, defense nets are being strengthened to prevent the outflow of cutting-edge AI algorithms and hardware designs from a security perspective. The move toward the separation of economic security and technology is becoming even more severe.
10. China’ s SMIC Res umes Tackling Advanced Packaging, Strengthens AI Chip Strategy
    SMIC, the largest semiconductor foundry in China, has reportedly resumed its efforts in the advanced packaging field and is expanding the size of its specialized team to strengthen its AI chip strategy. While U.S. export restrictions make it difficult to obtain state-of-the-art process miniaturization equipment, the company aims to improve chip performance by using advanced packaging technology in the back-end process. Moves toward building a unique semiconductor ecosystem within China are gaining momentum.

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