We track the companies and technologies behind the AI buildout. We explain what is changing, why it matters, and what to watch next. StatementDog operates Taiwan’s largest fundamental stock analysis platform and one of its leading investment media brands, with a widely followed podcast and newsletter. Our group also invests across public and private markets. Several startups in our venture portfolio are partners or suppliers to NVIDIA $NVDA and TSMC $TSM. These roles allow us to engage with companies through media interviews, investor meetings, and site visits, while also drawing on a network of equity researchers and industry experts. We combine these perspectives with public filings, earnings calls, and industry data to analyze semiconductors, AI hardware, capacity, pricing, and supply chains. Follow @statementdog for ongoing analysis.

CoWoS and package substrates get most of the attention, but the package still has to connect to a printed circuit board, Jett of @semivision_tw told us. Board-level problems can limit chip performance. Substrate makers, PCB suppliers and other partners have to coordinate their work, and the finished product must pass rigorous reliability tests. Integrating silicon photonics makes the job more complex. Jett sees advanced packaging and silicon photonics as two areas to watch over the next three to five years. He sees TSMC $TSM setting the direction at 2nm and beyond, while advanced packaging leaves room for a wider range of suppliers. Most work on 3D stacking is focused on memory, he says, because space inside the package is limited. Managing heat remains a challenge. Suppliers also have to develop next-generation technologies while keeping up with demand for their existing products.

Goldman Sachs expects the market for AI rack battery backup units (BBUs) to grow from $2.2 billion in 2025 to $50.2 billion in 2030, helped by wider adoption. In its base case, it sees average BBU adoption across Nvidia-based servers rising from 38% to 95% over that period. BBUs help smooth out swings in GPU power demand. Panasonic Holdings says it currently holds 70% to 80% of the BBU market. Its NCA batteries offer high energy density, an advantage when rack space is tight. But Goldman says power sidecars could ease those space constraints, making LFP batteries more attractive because of their lower cost and longer cycle life.

Yankey Engineering (6691 TT) has won more than NT$20 billion in work at Micron’s $MU Tainan site, its chairman said at a Sept. 24 investor briefing. The Tainan work is worth nearly as much as Yankey’s total revenue last year. Micron has not confirmed the award. Its backlog now exceeds NT$55.3 billion, a record. Management expects it to grow substantially over the next few months. Revenue rose 113% year over year to NT$28.16 billion in the first eight months of 2026. The cleanroom and plant-engineering contractor is moving toward general contracting this year. In Japan, Yankey has secured work on a semiconductor plant in Kumamoto and is in talks over Micron’s Hiroshima project. Micron is scheduled to report fiscal Q4 results on Sept. 30. money.udn.com/money/story/56…

Afraid of an AI bubble. More afraid of missing the rally.

A Munich court on Sept. 18 ordered Micron $MU to halt sales of certain 3D NAND products in Germany after finding that they infringed two utility models held by YMTC. The court granted injunctions in two of YMTC’s five cases and adjourned the other three. Micron has appealed the rulings, according to Tom’s Hardware. It can also ask the Munich Higher Regional Court to suspend enforcement of the injunctions. German utility models are registered without being examined for novelty. Their validity can still be challenged in separate cancellation proceedings. Micron reports fiscal Q4 earnings on Sept. 30. The reports do not quantify the potential revenue impact of the injunctions.

ITEQ (6213 TT), a maker of copper-clad laminates for AI server boards, reported August net profit of NT$924 million, up 853% from a year earlier. Earnings came to NT$2.54 a share. Revenue rose 98% year over year to NT$5.04 billion, while pretax profit climbed 762% to NT$1.30 billion. August pretax margin reached 25.8%, compared with 15.9% in Q2. Net margin was 18.3%, versus 11.1%. ITEQ released the figures on Sept. 23 at the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s request after its shares were flagged for unusual trading. The August results were compiled by the company and are unaudited.

Micron $MU is agreeing to price caps in return for binding, multiyear purchase commitments, says our analyst Ken. In older deals, customers shared demand forecasts, but only near-term orders were binding. Under the take-or-pay terms, customers have to pay for the agreed volumes even if they don’t take delivery. In June, Micron said its 16 strategic customer agreements covered about a third of its NAND volume over the life of the contracts. Its largest agreements generally include price ceilings and floors for existing products. Micron said it expected $22 billion in cash deposits and related financial commitments from those memory agreements.

Episil-Precision (3016 TT), which runs epitaxial wafer foundry lines in Taiwan, says its germanium-on-silicon epitaxy for photodiodes has passed qualification with a top-tier US cloud provider. The company left the customer unnamed. Photodiodes turn the optical signal back into an electrical one at the receiving end of a data center link. Episil-Precision says germanium-on-silicon carries a higher technical barrier, a longer customer qualification cycle and tighter yield requirements than its other epitaxy work. Its 8-inch silicon epitaxy lines are the nearer-term driver. They have been full since the third quarter began, supplying high-end power management chips, power MOSFETs and IGBTs as AI server power designs call for higher voltage tolerance and lower leakage. The compound semiconductor lines are recovering too. The 6-inch gallium nitride business swung to a quarterly profit as utilization picked up and now supplies AI server and aerospace power customers, while an 8-inch gallium nitride process has cleared customer qualification and is now in small-volume trial production. The company targets 2026 revenue growth above 35%. First-half revenue rose 28% to NT$2.37 billion, gross margin recovered to 21% and earnings came in at NT$1 per share. Episil-Precision expects photodiode epitaxy to account for only 3% to 5% of monthly revenue in the fourth quarter. The company gave these figures at its Sept. 22 earnings call. money.udn.com/money/story/56…

Taiwan’s stock market is taking a four-day break. My habit of checking it isn’t.

Some PC makers are opting for LCD screens over OLED to help offset rising memory and storage costs. Kedar Kondap, who heads Qualcomm’s computing and gaming business, told TechNews that customers are changing components to keep device prices in check. He also said memory prices have become more volatile than the industry is used to. technews.tw/2026/09/25/qualc…

The union at Micron’s Taoyuan fab in Taiwan will hold a strike vote from Oct. 1 to 6, Central News Agency reports. Members will be briefed on Sept. 29. The vote follows two rounds of mediation that failed to resolve a dispute over profit-sharing. A vote in favor would give the union the right to call a strike. It would not trigger an immediate walkout, and no strike date has been announced. money.udn.com/money/story/56…

Getting chip designers’ approval is a major hurdle for Taiwanese suppliers of “permanent” materials, Jett of @semivision_tw told us. These materials remain in the finished chip and must meet strict reliability requirements, especially in automotive and AI GPU applications. Qualification can take a long time. In the supply chains Jett described, foundries and packaging companies source materials based on specifications set by their customers, often US chip designers. A packaging company can’t simply switch to a cheaper material without the customer’s approval.

TPCA expects output from Taiwanese PCB makers to reach NT$1.14 trillion in 2026, up 24.2% year over year and 7.9% above its June forecast. The figure includes production in Taiwan and overseas. In Q2, output value rose 47.6% year over year for multilayer boards and 36.7% for IC substrates, while flexible boards grew just 1.3%. Demand for AI servers, high-speed networking and memory, along with higher PCB prices, helped drive these gains. money.udn.com/money/story/56…

Advantech expects its business with US semiconductor equipment makers to grow 120% in 2027, following a projected 70% increase in 2026, MoneyDJ reports. The industrial computer supplier says higher capital spending by chipmakers is driving the growth. Medical equipment remains its largest US market, but semiconductor equipment is catching up. Advantech’s overall US book-to-bill ratio stood at 2.15 at the end of August. Management expects it to be around 2 at year-end. moneydj.com/KMDJ/News/NewsVi…

AI and HPC chips are taking up a growing share of FC-BGA substrate capacity, leaving less for midrange products, The Elec reports. Simmtech is looking to fill that gap with BT-resin substrates for chips such as SSD controllers. Its “Slim FC-BGA” substrates can be made using its existing production equipment, reducing the need for additional capital spending. The company is already mass-producing versions with up to 10 layers. Larger, 14-layer versions are still at the sample stage. thelec.kr/news/articleView.h…

UBS raised its forecast for global CoWoS capacity at year-end 2027 to 270,000 wafers a month from 260,000, the Economic Daily News reports. That compares with its estimate of about 160,000 wafers a month at year-end 2026. The bank expects ASIC and CPU demand to drive the next round of expansion. It also sees a need for more CoWoS capacity in 2028. According to the report, UBS has Buy ratings on 11 Taiwanese stocks: TSMC (2330), Alchip (3661), ASPEED (5274), Global Unichip (3443), MediaTek (2454), ASE (3711), King Yuan Electronics (2449), All Ring Tech (6187), Grand Process Technology (3131), Chroma ATE (2360) and Hon Precision (7769).

Inventec plans to spend THB2.44 billion (about NT$2.32 billion) to expand AI server production at its Thailand plant. The investment covers equipment and factory upgrades, including additional power-testing and liquid-cooling equipment. The expansion could be ready by the end of Q1 2027, with production beginning after certification by a major US chipmaker, local media report. The plant already produces L6 server products. Inventec has not disclosed how much capacity the expansion will add. ec.ltn.com.tw/article/breaki…

Smarter AI agents worry some software investors. The success of AI agents has helped lift AI chip stocks, while raising concerns that some software companies could face tougher competition.