A little over a year ago, PIF and Silver Lake were announced as two parts of EA's new ownership trifecta, following a $55 billion buyout agreement, and it has now been revealed in a new Reuters report that PIF and Silver Lake have met with Unity Software to initiate talks to buy the game engine developer. Similarly to the EA buyout, insiders claim that the Unity buyout would also be a leveraged buyout agreement, although there have been no claims about a potential buyout amount.

As was the case leading up to the EA buyout, Silver Lake has already invested in Unity, with an 8% share in the company. Following the recent EA buyout, the gaming giant's new owners have made several changes at the company, including a restructuring that led to significant layoffs and the closure of BioWare, one of the most recognizable game studios in gaming history. Earlier in the year, EA also reportedly accelerated its investment in and use of AI in order to cut costs. Unity itself has announced a similar increased adoption of AI with its new Unity Spark AI systems.

GlobalFoundries announced that it has been selected to provide the technology and to operate two planned semiconductor fabs at its Malta, New York, site. This is not a direct investment from GF but rather came as a new U.S.-Japan initiative involving up to $21 billion in funding. The first 300 mm fab will be funded with an initial investment of around $10 billion. GF expects to break ground later this year, with production planned to begin in 2029. In a second phase, another fab is planned with another $10 billion investment at a later date. When fully operational, each fab will produce around 900,000 wafers annually. GF expects to reach baseline capacity around 2031-2032 for the first fab, and projects 2033 for the second one. The expansion comes as the company seeks new opportunities in advanced packaging and semiconductor manufacturing. In April, AMD announced plans to work with GF on co-packaged optics (CPO) for its next-generation Instinct MI500 AI accelerators, scheduled for 2027. The company is also preparing to bring its 7 nm-class FDX Fusion technology into mass production at its Dresden, Germany, facility in 2028.

Separately, GF has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce to amend its CHIPS and Science Act award, reallocating $955 million to accelerate investments in silicon photonics, silicon-germanium (SiGe), and advanced packaging at its facilities in Malta, New York, and Burlington, Vermont. Under a separate agreement, the U.S. government will receive an approximately 4% equity stake. In 2025, GlobalFoundries ranked fifth among the world's top ten foundries, behind TSMC, Samsung, SMIC, and UMC.

Global 300 mm front-end fab equipment spending is projected to reach $149 billion in 2026, up 31% year-over-year, SEMI reported today in its latest 300 mm Fab Outlook. Investment is expected to continue growing at double-digit rates through 2029, reaching $227 billion. The stronger investment trajectory is accompanied by a sustained pipeline of new 300 mm fabs and production lines moving through construction and into operation. Excluding pure R&D fabs, SEMI projects 20 new 300 mm fabs or lines to begin construction worldwide in 2026 and 18 in 2027. In the United States, three are projected to begin construction in 2026 and four in 2027.

Ajit Manocha, SEMI President and CEO"Semiconductor demand is increasingly translating into physical manufacturing expansion across the global industry," "The latest outlook points to both stronger equipment investment and a substantial pipeline of fabs moving toward operation. This expansion will provide the manufacturing foundation needed to support AI, high-performance computing and a broad range of next-generation semiconductor applications."

SK hynix Inc. (or "the company", www.skhynix.com) is opening a new future for AI cooperation between the United States and South Korea by establishing a first next-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) production hub in the US. SK hynix announced today that it held a groundbreaking ceremony for an advanced packaging production facility for AI memory on the 27th (local time) at the Holloway Gymnasium, Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana.

The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by prominent US government and political figures, including Indiana Governor Mike Braun, US Senator Todd Young, Purdue University President Mitch Daniels, and Chairman of the Korea-US Alliance Foundation Robert Abrams. Kang Kyung-wha, Ambassador of South Korea to the United States, was also present at the event. From the SK Group, Vice Chairman Yu Jeong-Joon, Vice Chairman Lee Hyung-hee, CEO of SK hynix Kwak Noh-Jung attended.

Kioxia Corporation, a subsidiary of Kioxia Holdings Corporation (TOKYO: 285A) and Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today announced anticipated significant investments in Japan, totaling over $31 billion (approximately 5 trillion yen) contingent upon government support. The investments through 2032 will continue to strengthen the Kioxia and Sandisk partnership, one of the most successful joint ventures across any industry. The partnership has helped drive decades of NAND flash memory innovation and invested over $50 billion (approximately 9 trillion yen) in Japan over the past 25 years. Kioxia and Sandisk will continue to deliver leading technology to support the growing demands of an AI and a data-driven world.

Aligned with market trends, these investments will support the ongoing buildout of infrastructure at the Yokkaichi Plant and the Kitakami Plant, along with related infrastructure, technology. Kioxia and Sandisk each has committed to drive meaningful, multi-year bit growth and ensuring stable supply to address the strong demand for their innovative flash memory technology. In line with these commitments, the announced investments are intended to fuel the joint venture's long-term success and ability to deliver leading-edge flash memory innovations at scale and with stability.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, announced today that it has commenced site preparation and other related work for the construction of Fab3, a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at the Kitakami Plant in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, to expand production capacity for advanced three-dimensional flash memory BiCS FLASH. Fab3 will be constructed on land south of Fab2, targeting operations to commence in fiscal 2029.

The flash memory market is expected to continue to expand significantly in the medium to long term, driven by agentic AI, physical AI, and on-device AI. Through the construction of Fab3, Kioxia aims to meet rising market demand by expanding production and ensuring stable supply of cutting-edge flash memory products.

Nanya Technology Board of Directors announced on August 5 that the company has launched its largest investment program, committing up to NT$346.6 billion (around $10.7 billion) to its Fab5A facility through 2026-2029. The project covers 10 nm-class processes from 1b through 1e nodes and introduces EUV lithography. Nanya has also increased its 2026 capital expenditures budget by 34% to NT$69.7 billion (around $2.16 billion). The extra NT$17.7 billion is going toward advance payments for equipment to keep Fab5A on schedule. The production roadmap has wafer starts being produced in the second half of 2027, reaching 30,000 wafers per month in 2028 and 35,900 in 2029. The maximum planned capacity is around 45,000 wafers monthly. The 1c pilot production has already begun, while the 1d node is under development and expected to enter pilot production soon. Nanya Fab5A investment, when completed, is estimated at roughly $16 billion, deployed in phases based on market demand.

Commercially, Nanya is having a strong run. July revenue hit NT$43.87 billion (around $1.3 billion), up 49.3% month over month and 719.6% year over year, driven by continued DRAM price increases, particularly sharp gains in DDR4 contract prices. Remember that just a year ago DDR4 module prices overtook DDR5 for the first time, with Nanya among the biggest beneficiaries. Its customers include giants like NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, with the future looking great for the Taiwanese company. Its long-term agreements reportedly now cover about 50% of production capacity, with short-term contracts gradually converted into long-term agreements.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) today announced it is accelerating its planned U.S. fab and technology investments and increasing its expected spend to more than $250 billion through 2035, driven by surging demand for memory in the AI era. Micron anticipates that the increase in investments will support its long-term goal of producing 40% of its DRAM in the U.S. while creating additional good-paying direct and indirect jobs. The expanded investment reflects Micron's confidence in its technology leadership and continued demand for its leading-edge memory products.

The announcement comes as Micron celebrates the first concrete pour milestone at its Clay, New York site, which occurs more than one quarter ahead of the original plan and marks the transition from site preparation to vertical construction. As announced earlier today, Micron also plans to invest up to $3 billion to develop the domestic semiconductor supply chain ecosystem in support of its U.S. manufacturing footprint.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) today announced a strategic agreement with Anthropic that spans memory and storage AI architecture design, supply and demand, enterprise adoption of Claude across Micron and a strategic investment in Anthropic's Series H funding round. The agreement directly links the demands of frontier AI models to how infrastructure is designed, supplied, and deployed at scale.

"The AI revolution has permanently elevated the role of memory and storage solutions from the data center to the edge," said Sumit Sadana, executive vice president and chief business officer, Micron. "Micron's strategic collaboration with Anthropic brings together the industry-leading capabilities of both companies to innovate and scale next-generation AI infrastructure."

Sony Semiconductor Solutions and TSMC have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture focused on next-generation image sensor development and manufacturing. Sony will be the majority and controlling shareholder in the joint venture, which plans to set up development and production lines at Sony's newly built fab in Koshi City, Kumamoto Prefecture. The partnership brings together Sony's image sensor design expertise and TSMC's process technology and manufacturing scale. Beyond conventional imaging, the two companies are also looking at opportunities in physical AI applications, automotive and robotics specifically, where high-performance sensing is becoming increasingly important. Investment plans for the joint venture are still being worked out, and Sony is also considering additional capital investment in its existing Nagasaki plant. Both are being planned in phases based on market demand and are contingent on Japanese government support. Earlier reporting from Reuters indicated Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has confirmed subsidies of up to ¥60 billion (around $380 million) for Sony's Kumamoto image sensor facility.

The timing makes sense for both sides. TSMC is already involved in Kumamoto through its first fab there, which entered mass production in late 2024 supplying Sony Semiconductor Solutions and DENSO on 22/28 nm and 12/16 nm nodes. The new joint venture would push that relationship into more advanced territory. For Sony, the move comes as competitive pressure in the image sensor market is building as Samsung has been gaining ground in supplying sensors for Apple, squeezing Sony's position in a segment it has long dominated. However, the joint venture still needs a definitive legally binding agreement before it's official.

CCP Games, the developer of EVE Online, just announced that it has been bought out by its board of directors, meaning it will no longer operate as a subsidiary of Pearl Abyss. As the announcement highlights, the studio is "returning to a model similar to how the company operated before 2018, and one designed to support strategic decision-making for persistent live games and long-running virtual worlds." The company was sold by Pearl Abyss for $120 million, and the transaction was executed using both cash and non-cash assets. Following the sale, CCP Games will also rebrand to Fenris Creations, and it has also forged a new partnership with Google DeepMind, who owns a minority stake in the company.

Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of Fenris Creations, says that "EVE Online exists today because of pioneering thinking, patience, and trust between developers and players," and that the DeepMind partnership will "enable us to carry that legacy forward—continuously evolving a living universe and actively exploring what it can become, with forever in mind." The collaboration with DeepMind will also see Google's AI project develop an offline version of EVE Online running in a local server in order to "test and evaluate models in a controlled setting" and "explore new gameplay experiences enabled by these technologies." It remains to be seen how the studio and EVE Online will change with the new strategy and alongside the DeepMind partnership, but there don't seem to be any real structural changes at the time of writing.

Worldwide 300 mm fab equipment spending is expected to increase 18% to $133 billion in 2026 and 14% to $151 billion in 2027, SEMI reported today in its latest 300 mm Fab Outlook. This strong growth reflects surging AI chip demand for data centers and edge devices, as well as the growing commitment to semiconductor self-sufficiency across key regions through localized industrial ecosystems and supply chain restructuring. Looking further out, the report projects investment will continue to increase 3% to $155 billion in 2028 and another 11% to $172 billion in 2029, respectively.

"AI is resetting the scale of semiconductor manufacturing investment," said Ajit Manocha, President and CEO of SEMI. "With global 300 mm fab equipment spending projected to exceed $150 billion in 2027 for the first time, the industry is making historic, sustained commitments to the advanced capacity and resilient supply chains needed to power the AI era."

NVIDIA and Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVL) today announced a strategic partnership to connect Marvell to the NVIDIA AI factory and AI-RAN ecosystem through NVIDIA NVLink Fusion offering customers building on NVIDIA architectures greater choice and flexibility in developing next-generation infrastructure. The companies will also collaborate on silicon photonics technology.

In addition, NVIDIA has invested $2 billion in Marvell.

Sony Corporation ("Sony") and TCL Electronics Holdings Limited (together with its subsidiaries, "TCL") today announced that Sony and TCL have entered into legally binding definitive agreements for a strategic partnership in the home entertainment field. This follows the memorandum of understanding announced on January 20, 2026, pursuant to which both parties have been conducting discussions.

Under this partnership, Sony will establish a wholly owned subsidiary (the "Preparatory Company") to assume its home entertainment business, and TCL will subscribe to a portion of the Preparatory Company's shares, forming a joint venture (the "New Company") with TCL holding 51% and Sony holding 49% of the shares. The New Company will succeed to Sony's home entertainment business, which includes product development and design, manufacturing, sales and logistics, and customer service for products such as Consumer TVs (BRAVIA), B2B Flat Panel Displays (B2B BRAVIA), B2B LED Displays, projectors, and home audio equipment such as home theater systems and audio components. The New Company is expected to operate this integrated business globally.

In Yongin, South Korea, the towering frame of a semiconductor fab has emerged, reaching the height of a 50-story apartment building to form the massive Yongin Semiconductor Cluster. With construction gaining momentum, SK hynix announced Feb. 25 that it has decided to invest approximately 21.6 trillion KRW (15 billion USD) in the new facility for the first fab by the end of December 2030. This brings the total investment for the construction of the first fab to approximately 31 trillion KRW (approx. 21.5 billion USD), which includes the approximately 9.4 trillion KRW (approx. 6.5 billion USD) facility investment previously announced in July 2024.

This investment comes from a strategic decision to proactively address rapidly growing global customer demand and further strengthen supply system stability. With the expansion of advanced industries such as AI, data centers, and high-performance computing (HPC), the demand for high-performance and high-density semiconductors is also experiencing structural growth. To keep pace with these changes, SK hynix aims to expand production capacity ahead of schedule and establish a foundation to ensure a stable supply of products for customers when they require it.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) in Taiwan has approved NVIDIA's application for its planned local headquarters in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park. The investment of NT$3.3 billion—or just over US$105 million—was approved a day ahead of Jensen Huang arriving in Taiwan to celebrate the Lunar New Year at a traditional weiya banquet alongside NVIDIA staff. According to CNA, the local subsidiary will be named NVIDIA Iconic Taiwan Co. Various NVIDIA partners are expected to attend the weiya as well, although the Taiwan media hasn't reported on any specific companies as yet.

The plot where the new headquarters will be built was originally meant to house a local insurance company, but as the insurance company had left the plot—which it won in a public tender—empty since 2021, the Taipei City Government negotiated a termination of the contract and NVIDIA will now be taking over the plot. The contract with NVIDIA is expected to be signed ahead of the Lunar New Year which starts on the week of the 16th of February. NVIDIA has revised its investment multiple times and only a couple of months ago, it was reported that the company was going to invest NT$1 billion, or US$32 million. It's unclear why the investment has trebled since then.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) committed to further support development of domestic chip manufacturing entities. The latest beneficiary is xLight, a "venture-backed" startup that specializes in EUV Free Electron Lasers (FELs) technologies. The young company gained extra attention earlier this year, when ex-Intel boss Pat Gelsinger joined as Executive Chairman of the board. Under the CHIPS and Science Act, a set of federal incentives have received preliminary approval. A non-binding tentative letter of intent was signed, paving the way for (up to) $150 million of government funding. The nation's DOC did not declare the size of their stake in xLight. Nicholas Kelez, xLight's CEO/CTO commented on the situation: "with the support from the DOC, our investors, and development partners, xLight is building its first free-electron laser system at the Albany Nanotech Complex, where the world's best lithography capabilities will enable the research and development that will define the future of chip manufacturing."

The startup seems to be positioning itself as an innovative player in the lithography world, where ASML remains dominant. According to official blurb, xLight outlines alternative methodologies: "there are two critical means of enhancing performance, productivity, and overall chip yield: power and polarization. (Our) EUV Free Electron Lasers (FELs) directly addresses both. Our EUV FEL light source produces 4X more power than LPP. By delivering up to 4X higher EUV power, fabs can optimize patterning improvements, productivity, and yield, unlocking billions in additional annual revenue per scanner and ~50% per wafer cost reduction. Additionally, a single xLight system can support up to 20 ASML systems with a 30-year operating lifetime, reducing capital and operating expenditures by more than 3X."

Acer Inc., Esquarre Vision Limited, and OPTOELECTRONICS CO., LTD., a Japanese AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Capture) solution provider known as Opticon, jointly announced plans for Acer and Esquarre to invest approximately 38% and 20%, respectively, in Opticon for JPY 1,589,419,104 and JPY 819,000,000. The transaction is expected to be completed in early 2026, supporting Opticon's growth and global expansion.

For Acer, the move expands its portfolio, adding identification and machine vision solutions that will create synergy with its subsidiaries AOPEN (TWSE: 3046) and Posiflex (TWSE: 8114). AOPEN is a company which focuses on industrial computers for display engines and edge computing, while Posiflex Group is a global leader in Commercial AIoT, delivering smart online-to-offline (O2O) integrated solutions and scenario-defined embedded edge computing platforms.

Foxconn's Wisconsin manufacturing hub has received a thumbs up from local government officials; after considering a proposed $569 million investment. Major additional funding will be directed into the expansion of the Taiwanese's giant's Racine County operation. According to a fresh Reuters news article, company officials cited a growing demand for AI server equipment—the facility's upcoming upgrades are deemed necessary to strengthen supply chains in the USA. Foxconn's relationship with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) seems to be in a better place nowadays; the two organizations have reportedly tussled over tax credits in the recent past. Within that time frame, the multinational electronics manufacturer has claimed that it has spent roughly $2 billion on upkeep of its Mount Pleasant-based site.

Jerry Hsiao, Foxconn's chief product officer, stated to Reuters (today): "as the demand for more data infrastructure continues to rise, Foxconn will keep responding to our customers' needs with flexibility and at scale in the United States." In addition, the boss estimates that the Wisconsin facility's team accounts for about a fourth of the company's total North American workforce. Looking to the future, he believes that the latest cash injection will spur on the creation of 1300+ new roles—by 2030. Original plans for the mega factory—going back to the mid-2010s—focused on the production of LCD panels, but present day market trends have caused a pivot to the pumping out of AI-oriented datacenter gear.

GlobalFoundries (GF) today announced plans to invest €1.1 billion to expand its manufacturing capabilities at its Dresden, Germany site. The investment will enable a production capacity increase to more than one million wafers per year by the end of 2028, making it the largest site of its kind in Europe.

The expansion, known as project SPRINT, is expected to be supported by the German federal government and the State of Saxony under the framework of the European Chips Act, with EU approval for the full program expected later this year. This investment underscores Saxony's role as a critical hub for semiconductor manufacturing and innovation and reinforces Europe's strategic goal of supply chain resilience.

Elon Musk's AI startup xAI is raising more money than first planned, bringing in backers including NVIDIA to lift its ongoing funding round to $20 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports. The financing includes equity and debt in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will buy NVIDIA processors and rent them to xAI for use in its Colossus 2 project, the people said. That's the name of its largest data center site, located in Memphis. NVIDIA is putting in as much as $2 billion in the equity portion of the deal, a strategy by the chipmaker that helps speed up its customers' AI investments. However, NVIDIA representatives declined to comment while an xAI spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg. Musk posted on X in September that the company was "not raising any capital right now."

Musk's xAI financing would split between about $7.5 billion of equity and as much as $12.5 billion of debt in the SPV, the people said. The vehicle will be used to buy NVIDIA processors, and Musk's AI startup would then rent the chips out for five years, letting Wall Street financiers get their money back. The unique deal structure, backed by the GPUs rather than the company, could give tech firms a way to cut debt exposure. Earlier this week, OpenAI announced a deal to use AMD chips over multiple years, in addition to the announcement from late September that it will install at least 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems for its next-generation AI infrastructure. Meta has signed several multibillion-dollar deals in recent months, including a $29 billion financing package for data centers while Oracle also raised a $38 billion debt package for its infrastructure.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) ("EA" or the "Company"), a global leader in interactive entertainment, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an investor consortium ("the Consortium") comprised of PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners in an all-cash transaction that values EA at an enterprise value of approximately $55 billion. The transaction positions EA to accelerate innovation and growth to build the future of entertainment.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Consortium will acquire 100% of EA, with PIF rolling over its existing 9.9% stake in the Company. EA stockholders will receive $210 per share in cash. The per share purchase price represents a 25% premium to EA's unaffected share price of $168.32 at market close on September 25, 2025, the last fully unaffected trading day, and a premium to EA's unaffected all-time high of $179.01 at market close on August 14, 2025.

At this point, it's secret that EA Games has been in a bit of a rough spot lately, with a recent chain of layoffs resulting in the loss of hundreds of staff and the closure of multiple studios over the last two years. Now, it seems as though EA might have found a lifeline, if a recent report by The Wall Street Journal is to be believed. According to the report, a group of private investors, including Silver Lake and the Saudi Public Investment Fund, may be looking to purchase EA with a $50 billion leveraged buyout. The Saudi PIF already owns 9.4% of EA's shares, so a buyout would not be surprising. The news of a potential buyout deal comes just days after EA launched Skate to a lukewarm reception from PC gamers.

The last time rumors about an EA acquisition were doing the rounds, the company's CEO, Andrew Wilson, was quick to dismiss them and play up EA's successful earnings. Of course, the deal is not yet signed, although an announcement is expected within the next week or two. Theoretically, privatization could help EA streamline company decision-making and remove investor pressure, potentially allowing for more agile moves and interesting game releases. As we discussed late last year, EA isn't the only major publicly traded game studio that is seeking a buyout, with rumors previously spreading about Tencent potentially buying out Ubisoft.

Intel has initiated early-stage discussions with Apple regarding potential investment and collaboration, Bloomberg reports citing industry sources. Team Blue has also approached other companies for similar partnership deals, though no agreements are guaranteed. The Business Korea article suggests that Apple will continue with its custom silicon rather than returning to Intel's processor lineup. The report highlights Apple's reliance on TSMC for chip fabrication and Foxconn for assembly operations in Taiwan, China, and India—things that could pose challenges if U.S. tariffs are reintroduced and if domestic manufacturing demands intensify. MarketWatch analysts suggest Apple's interest focuses primarily on Intel's foundry services as an alternative production source. Given Apple's substantial U.S. manufacturing commitments, supporting Intel could improve the company's relationship with Washington policymakers, the outlet indicates.

Apple recently expanded its domestic investment pledge to $600 billion over four years, up from the previous $500 billion commitment announced at a White House event in August, according to Bloomberg. Intel's investment quest has already attracted significant backing. The U.S. government has taken close to a 10% stake in Intel via $10 billion in CHIPS Act funding, while NVIDIA invested $5 billion for a 4% share. Japan's SoftBank contributed $2 billion through its Stargate partnership with OpenAI and Oracle, securing roughly 2%. According to Investopedia, any potential partnership with Apple, particularly one involving foundry investments would reinforce Intel's efforts to reinvigorate its business.

Altera Corporation, a leader in FPGA innovations, today announced that Silver Lake, a global leader in technology investing, has completed its acquisition of a 51% stake in the company from Intel Corporation, which will retain a 49% stake, underscoring shared confidence in Altera's growth. Completion of the transaction establishes Altera as the world's largest independent, pure-play FPGA solutions provider, empowering the company to accelerate innovation for customers and partners by providing software tools, development kits, IP and design service resources used to build complete FPGA solutions.

Altera delivers a comprehensive, full-stack FPGA portfolio featuring industry-leading fabric, efficient performance, and easy-to-use, scalable software for customers and developers. With the Agilex family of products, Altera's advanced FPGA solutions make AI more accessible by lowering entry costs while enhancing performance, reliability, and security. With flexible, resilient supply across leading nodes and foundry partners, Altera ensures customers can build with confidence anywhere in the world.