As mature process foundry prices rise, Panjit COO Edgar Chen said the company will not implement across-the-board price hikes despite increasing copper raw material costs. Instead, the focus is on improving gross margins and optimizing product mix. Price increases of 10-20% are planned for low-margin products, mainly small-signal lines, with customer communications underway in the first quarter of 2026. The pricing impact is expected to show in the second quarter and be fully implemented by the third quarter.

Hanwha Semitech’s supply of thermal compression bonding (TCB) equipment for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to SK Hynix is drawing scrutiny after the South Korean equipment maker maintained a KRW100 billion (US$66.7 million) performance guarantee since early 2025, raising questions about whether its equipment has fully met the chipmaker’s requirements.

SK Hynix has brought forward the ramp-up of its M15X DRAM facility in Cheongju, opening a second cleanroom and beginning equipment move-in about two months ahead of schedule amid rising demand for memory tied to artificial intelligence (AI), according to East Asia Daily.