Semiconductor · Full chronicle and history

On November 3, over 3,300 A-share stocks fell, with semiconductors and optical modules suffering heavy losses. The STAR 50 index has retreated about 49% from its July high.

Intel's stock plummeted by 28.58%, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped by 7.22%, spot gold fell 3.62% to a one-year low, and Nasdaq along with Bitcoin suffered heavy drops.

The latest Hurun Research Institute rich list shows that for the first time, no mainland Chinese real estate developers are in the top 100. Wealth among entrepreneurs in AI, semiconductors, and robotics has grown significantly, while sectors like consumer goods, real estate, and traditional manufacturing face pressure.

On October 21, Microsoft released a report stating that Storm-0940, a hacking group linked to the Chinese government, has been using the AI tool ARTEX since September to breach Microsoft 365 systems with credentials from the cloud backup application of U.S. IT service provider ConnectWise, attacking hundreds of government, military, semiconductor, and think tank organizations worldwide. In some attacks, high-level cloud privileges were obtained in under three hours. ConnectWise has acknowledged the security incident and is restoring services in phases.

According to Twitter user @__Inty__, South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix is seeking permission from the U.S. government to export U.S.-made chip manufacturing equipment to China in order to expand local production capacity. SK Hynix has linked the approval of this condition to its investment plan to build a plant on U.S. soil. This move touches the bottom line of U.S. semiconductor export controls, sparking concerns that if Washington approves the deal, it would create a gap in the semiconductor technology blockade against China.

On September 17, Japan's Asahi Kasei Corporation reported that former employee Shoichi Furukawa was arrested for allegedly violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act by leaking semiconductor packaging material manufacturing secrets to Shandong Shengquan New Materials Co., Ltd. Asahi Kasei plans to sue both parties and demand the destruction of the relevant materials. The compromised secrets involve manufacturing data for epoxy resin curing agents.

On September 20, China and the US held 8-hour economic and trade talks in New York. The two sides announced the establishment of an AI dialogue mechanism and a new bilateral trade mechanism, but the US side made it clear that export controls on advanced AI chips and semiconductor equipment are not on the negotiating agenda.

On September 10, the US Department of Energy convened a high-level meeting in which US and Japanese government officials and corporate representatives discussed supply bottlenecks for yttrium and permanent magnets; yttrium is used in heat-resistant coatings for aircraft engines, power generation equipment, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and other fields. The outcome of the meeting was not disclosed.

The Taipei International Semiconductor Exhibition has opened. Taiwan's economic authority said that companies have recently added $20 billion in new investment in the United States, with the related investments involving the semiconductor and artificial intelligence server industries.

The Taiwan Investigation Bureau stated that from July 13 to August 4, it simultaneously investigated cases involving 17 Chinese enterprises illegally poaching high-tech talent in Taiwan, covering fields such as semiconductors, chips, composite materials, and batteries.

On the same day Xi Jinping attended the opening of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets plummeted across the board, with nearly 200 stocks hitting the daily limit, erasing all gains since August 2025. Technology, semiconductor, and gaming sectors related to AI fell the most.

Chip stocks dragged down US equities, with the S&P 500 index falling 0.51%, the Nasdaq index falling 1.47%, and the semiconductor sector falling 4.3%.

On June 9, 2026, TSMC executives stated clearly in an interview with the BBC that, despite expanding capacity in the US, Europe, and Japan, the world's most advanced cutting-edge semiconductor chip manufacturing will be firmly maintained and retained in Taiwan for the long term.

On June 9, 2026, Taichung City and Görlitz District of Saxony, Germany, signed a memorandum of friendly exchange between the two places in Berlin. The two sides agreed to carry out cooperation in machinery manufacturing, the semiconductor integrated circuit supply chain, and the net-zero energy transition.

Taiwan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lin Chia-lung, recently visited Warsaw, Poland, and hosted the Taiwan Image Exhibition, promoting breakthroughs in cooperation between Poland and Taiwan in technology and semiconductor development.

In April 2026, a South Korean court found a former Samsung researcher guilty of leaking semiconductor technology to China's ChangXin Memory Technologies in violation of the Industrial Technology Protection Act, and sentenced him to seven years in prison.

The US House Foreign Affairs Committee has passed a bipartisan chip security bill aimed at curbing the smuggling of American semiconductors to foreign adversaries like China.

Since 2022, the United States has gradually implemented export restrictions on China covering advanced AI chips, semiconductor equipment and high-bandwidth memory.