China confirmed a GDP growth target of 4.5% to 5% for 2026 as leaders prepared for the annual National People’s Congress session in March, where the 15th Five-Year Plan covering 2026 to 2030 will be formally adopted. The target, slightly below the 2025 goal of “around 5%,” reflects acknowledgment that the economy faces persistent headwinds…
Samsung Electronics shares climbed 5.4% to a record 190,900 won on Thursday after South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported that the company is negotiating HBM4 chip prices at approximately $700 per unit, representing a 20% to 30% premium over the previous HBM3E generation. The pricing report landed after markets reopened from a three-day Lunar New…
Singapore’s Budget 2026, delivered by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on February 12, has established the city-state as the most fiscally aggressive jurisdiction in Asia for artificial intelligence adoption. The centerpiece is the enhancement of the Enterprise Innovation Scheme to include a 400% tax deduction on qualifying AI expenditures for Years of Assessment 2027 and 2028,…
Samsung Electronics shares surged past 180,000 won for the first time on Friday, closing at 181,200 won after the company confirmed it had begun the world’s first mass production and commercial shipment of sixth-generation HBM4 memory chips. The milestone, which Bloomberg reported sent shares up as much as 7.6% on the Nextrade exchange on Thursday,…
Samsung Electronics confirmed last week that it has shipped the first commercial HBM4 products to customers, making it the first memory producer to deliver sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory at scale. The shipments, originally planned for after Lunar New Year, were accelerated by approximately one week following discussions with key customers including Nvidia. The acceleration underscores the…
Samsung Electronics confirmed on Thursday that it had begun commercial shipments of its sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory chips, HBM4, to customers. The announcement, which Bloomberg reported sent Samsung shares up as much as 7.6% on the Nextrade exchange to an all-time high, marks the first verified delivery of HBM4 at production scale by any manufacturer, a…
Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong delivered the country’s 2026 Budget on Thursday, unveiling a comprehensive set of measures that position artificial intelligence as the primary engine of Singapore’s next phase of economic development. The Budget, which projects a fiscal surplus of SG$8.5 billion for the 2026 financial year, combines household cost-of-living relief with a structured…
Samsung Electronics confirmed this week that it has begun mass production of HBM4, becoming the first company to manufacture sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory at commercial scale. The milestone demonstrates a fully vertically integrated production flow combining DRAM fabrication, logic die manufacturing on a 4-nanometer node, advanced packaging through thermal compression bonding, and final testing, all within…
While Samsung’s HBM4 shipments and SK Hynix’s packaging investments have dominated headlines, the regulatory framework that supports Korea’s semiconductor investment has undergone a significant expansion that has received less attention from international investors. The K-Chips Act, which provides tax credits of up to 25% for large enterprises and 35% for SMEs on qualifying semiconductor facility…
Japan’s post-election equity rally extended into its second day on Tuesday, with the Nikkei 225 climbing 2.28% to a fresh closing high of 57,650.54 and the TOPIX advancing 1.9% to a record 3,855.28. The advance was broad-based, with technology, financial, and consumer discretionary sectors all contributing, but the session’s standout performer was SoftBank Group, which…
