SoftBank chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son raised the possibility of a strategic alliance between Arm and Samsung on September 22, according to several media outlets, as falling technology stocks worldwide complicate SoftBank’s ongoing plan to publicly list Arm in 2023. According to Nikkei Asia, Son announced plans to visit South Korea for talks with Samsung regarding the strategic alliance, in a bid to boost the chip design company’s valuation.

The aggressive interest rate hikes of the US Federal Reserve have pushed the dollar index above 111 to hit a 20-year high, triggering an 11.7% depreciation of the Taiwan dollar against the greenback since the beginning of 2022. However, Taiwan semiconductor companies are expected to benefit from a strong US dollar.

Samsung Electronics is trying to direct the mainstream of the handset market towards foldable phones, hoping to increase the unit price of sales, and to drive its own production of OLED panels. Samsung is expected to sell more than six million foldable phones in the third quarter of 2022, and will sell panels to other handset manufacturers – this is Samsung’s usual strategy.