LG Innotek has deployed an AI component selection system across all divisions: it standardized data on 2 million parts and estimates prices with 96% accuracy. Quote calculation time for new products has been cut by more than 70%.
The US Department of Defense will divide an order for 60,000 drones among nine startups, including Eric Schmidt-founded Perennial. The competition requires no China-made parts.
KB Kookmin Card became the first and only Korean company in Mastercard's global Crypto Partner Program, which links the blockchain ecosystem with payment networks. The bank is studying integrating the Coinbase blockchain wallet with KB Pay, testing authorization, settlement, cancellation and refunds.
Pegatron has secured a Tesla order for AI servers, bringing it back into competition with Asus in the server market 18 years after their split. Both companies are trying to catch up with Quanta, Wistron, Foxconn, and Gigabyte, which already have a foothold in AI servers.
A Sapio Research survey of 1000 executives found that 40% of large companies had AI compliance or governance incidents in the past year, with processes at fault in 84% of cases. The average cost of AI projects that failed due to processes was $1.55 million per organization.
SoftBank plans to raise over $11 billion through a junk bond sale of $10 billion and €1 billion. The funds will finance investments in OpenAI. The deal could be one of the largest junk bond sales ever.
Elon Musk personally controls construction of the xAI data center in Memphis and has moved into an Airstream trailer next to the site to be more closely involved in the company's AI infrastructure development.
TiVo has exited the DVR manufacturing business after selling all inventory. The company will focus on licensing TiVo OS for Smart TVs and the DTS AutoStage service, citing cable operator DVRs and streaming growth.
FKI sent 41 deregulation proposals to authorities on September 21, 21 of which concern semiconductors. The Yongin cluster will start cleanroom operations for the first Y1 fab in February, but reconstruction of access road No. 57 will not be announced before October.
According to WSJ, in 2025 young people in China founded over 7 million one-person startups, up 42% from 2024. AI helps launch solo businesses amid a tough job market, but competition remains fierce.
China introduced a consumer tax on batteries this month. A CATL executive said domestic orders are slightly volatile, but the overall impact of the tax is limited.
Foreign tourists in China can now pay with their own cards and Apple Pay without a local account: contactless payment works at all 432 Shenzhen metro stations. From January to July, foreign spending rose 27.8% to 263.6 billion yuan, and the number of tourists claiming tax refunds more than tripled.
South Korea’s exports from September 1 to 20 rose 78.3% year-on-year to a record $71.4 billion, surpassing the previous high of $61.7 billion. The main driver was semiconductor shipments, which surged 259.4% to $34.12 billion (47.8% of total exports). The trade surplus was $23 billion.
LG Energy Solution opened a plant in Lansing, Michigan, completing a network of five energy storage system production sites in North America. The plant can produce over 35 GWh of cells annually, including LFP batteries for ESS and NCM for EVs.
Apple agreed to pay $250 million in a class action over delayed personalized Siri. The settlement website is live: claims accepted from September 21 to December 21, payment about $25 per device, max $95. Eligible are US citizens who bought iPhone 15 Pro or newer from June 10, 2024 to March 29, 2025.
Taiwanese optics maker Largan Precision announced on September 17 the purchase of a 7,468 sq m plot and a 12,216 sq m building in Nantun district for NT$1.17 billion. This is the company's seventh land and factory deal in 2026 as part of its bet on co-packaged optics.
Samsung Electronics has begun construction of an HVAC FläktGroup line at its Gwangju plant covering 21,800 sq m, with investment of about 240 billion won. The plant will become FläktGroup's 15th site and start operation in early 2028, producing CDU, FWU, CRAH and AHU for AI data centers and semiconductor manufacturing.
Hyundai Motor shares closed at 366,500 won on September 18, 53% below the intraday high of 783,000 won on June 1. Brokerages cut targets: Samsung Securities from 600,000 to 500,000 won, NH Investment from 760,000 to 620,000 won. Reasons include weak results, a Q3 strike, and a stronger won.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will complete a joint 35 trillion won share buyback by mid-October, about a month ahead of schedule. Samsung bought 39.8 million shares for 10.31 trillion won (74.69% of plan), SK hynix 14.15 million shares for 24.39 trillion won (58.79%).
According to Digitimes, Anthropic is preparing for an IPO while working on a new model and bringing in outside safety auditors. The company needs to prove Claude's competitiveness in the enterprise market to investors.
Samsung Electronics' largest union has restructured: membership is now limited to employees of the Device Solutions (semiconductor) division. The charter amendment was supported by 96.3% of 28,680 voters; DX (home appliances and mobile devices) employees are leaving the union. The cause is a conflict over bonus distribution between divisions.
Chunghwa Telecom announced on September 18 the completion of a nearly 300-kilometer subsea cable between Taiwan and the Matsu Islands. The cable has been laid, tested, and connected to the Taiwan-Matsu external communication network, enhancing regional connectivity resilience.
India's semiconductor program is shifting from policy to production: new government funding, supplier investments, and growing deals are expanding capacity for chip equipment, materials, and testing across the country.
Korean firm Hanmi Global has been appointed project manager for SK Hynix's advanced HBM packaging plant in West Lafayette, Indiana. The project, worth over $4 billion, started in March, with clean rooms expected to be ready by October 2028.
Tesla has upgraded Tuopu Group, Joyson Electronic, and Sanhua Intelligent Controls from temporary to certified component suppliers for its humanoid robot Optimus. Initial orders are around 5,000 units, with production targets of 1,000 robots per week by end of September and 2,000-2,500 by year-end.
Stellantis is evaluating shifting Ram 2500–5500 heavy pickup production from Saltillo, Mexico to Warren, Michigan, citing tariffs of up to 25% on Mexican imports, plus rising parts and UAW labor costs.
McKinsey, the SEMI Foundation and NSF project a shortage of up to 157,000 workers in the US semiconductor industry by 2030. AI labs compete for the same engineers, while only about 1,500 engineers enter chip manufacturing each year.
According to Indeed, hourly maintenance and installation workers in US data centers earn about 42% more than in similar roles at other businesses. The pay growth is linked to massive AI infrastructure construction.
At his first presentation, new Apple CEO John Ternus described the ideal AI device and said it is already the iPhone. Internally, an announcement of the J490 home hub was expected; it is being tested in employees' homes and may launch next month. Apple also cut some Fitness+ staff, mainly in audio.
Apple plans to launch Apple Pay in India by October 2026 and has requested regulatory approvals. The company is in talks with Axis Bank, HDFC and ICICI; the service uses NFC and card tokenization, bypassing the UPI interface.
