Driving measurable sustainability: CIDB Malaysia’s blueprint for carbon accountability

At Sustainability Environment Asia Conference 2026, Suhaimi Mansor, deputy chief executive of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia, delivered a clear mandate for the nation’s built environment: sustainability must transition from simple assessment to measurable, lifecycle-wide performance across buildings and infrastructure.

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Grand Pacific Petrochemical teams up with Japan’s AWI to enter Taiwan’s semiconductor specialty materials market

Taiwanese petrochemical maker Grand Pacific Petrochemical (GPPC) announced it has joined Japanese industrial gas manufacturer Air Water (AWI) in a capital increase for semiconductor specialty gas producer Hong-Kuang Hi-Tech (HK Hi-Tech). The move marks their entry into Taiwan’s semiconductor specialty materials market as part of a joint Taiwan-Japan effort to develop the local industry.

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Commentary: YMTC’s high-profile IPO masks three long-term hurdles

Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) has officially kicked off its STAR Market IPO process. In the first quarter of 2026, China’s largest 3D NAND Flash manufacturer delivered an impressive performance, generating CNY47.042 billion (approx. US$7 billion) in revenue and CNY33.379 billion (approx. US$5 billion) in net profit attributable to the parent company. Remarkably, its profit in a single quarter eclipsed its cumulative net earnings from prior years. This has turned YMTC’s CNY33 billion (approx. US$4.9 billion) fundraising plan into one of the most anticipated semiconductor IPO in China since ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT).

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Synopsys lifts 3QFY26 sales, raises full-year outlook

Synopsys, a leading electronic design automation (EDA) company, reported stronger-than-expected fiscal third-quarter results for the 2026 fiscal year (3QFY26) as the AI boom drove higher spending on chips and infrastructure. The company said revenue rose 42.4% year-over-year to US$2.48 billion, topping market expectations of US$2.44 billion, and it raised its full-year revenue and profit outlook.

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Ford adopts Apple Maps data for next-gen smart driving

Ford Motor Company has announced that it will be adopting Apple’s MapKit for Automotive software development kit (SDK) for its own universal EV platform, and feed Apple Maps data to its Latitude AI team, which is working on its next-gen BlueCruise advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). The move reflects a broader willingness among automakers to incorporate data and tools from big tech into their core vehicle systems, and marks a shift from the former hostility between automakers and tech companies into pragmatic collaboration, as the global auto industry seeks to speed up its smart transformation.

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