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August 19, 2025
 

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Debby Wu
SoftBank is scouting a number of potential data center sites to serve as a flagship for Stargate, weighing their access to water, power and telecom networks.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2025
Foxconn to operate SoftBank’s Stargate AI server site in Ohio
SoftBank will supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies will make AI data center-related equipment.
Tokyo Electron's Kyushu head office in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture. Chip industry veterans say they see no clear reason for Tokyo Electron to engage in an act of intellectual property theft and risk its relationship with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chipmaker.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 8, 2025
TSMC trade secrets leak puts Tokyo Electron in hot seat
The Japanese supplier of chipmaking tools is struggling to address the potential fallout after a former employee was implicated in the case.
Taiwan has arrested six people on suspicions of stealing trade secrets from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. after the chipmaker reported a number of former and current staff to authorities.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 6, 2025
Taiwan arrests six in probe of TSMC chip technology leak
The chipmaker had reported a number of former and current staff to authorities on suspicion they illegally obtained core technology.
Pierre Chen, founder and chairman of Taiwan's Yageo, says his company would keep Shibaura Electronics’s most advanced technology in Japan if it successfully buys the Japanese firm.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2025
Taiwan’s Yageo plans to keep Shibaura’s AI technology in Japan
Yageo is facing off against Nintendo supplier Minebea Mitsumi in its bid for Shibaura and is offering ¥6,200 for each Shibaura share.
TSMC’s plan to build a second factory in Kumamoto Prefecture is key to Japan’s ambitions to regain leadership in semiconductors.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 4, 2025
TSMC flags delays in Japan expansion while U.S. plans advance
The sudden influx of workers from TSMC’s first plant is already bogging down rural infrastructure in Japan.
A Huawei Ascend AI chip. The U.S. Commerce Department had said in a statement last week that it was issuing guidance to make clear that the use of the Huawei chips is a breach of the U.S. government’s export controls.
WORLD / Politics
May 20, 2025
China says U.S. warnings on Huawei chips undermine their recent trade talks
The U.S. Commerce Department's warnings specify that the use of Huawei Ascend chips amounts to a breach of the U.S. government’s export controls.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with C.C. Wei, chief executive of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., at a news conference in Washington on March 3.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 19, 2025
Tariff threats spur TSMC’s Taiwan peers to seek U.S. expansion
Taiwanese electronic firms' migration of manufacturing to the U.S. has accelerated from previous years as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens more trade barriers.
Chief among the worries surrounding DeepSeek is the fact that it collects and stores data in servers in China.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 31, 2025
DeepSeek’s AI restricted by ‘hundreds’ of companies in days
Companies have worked to block access due to concerns about potential data leaks to the Chinese government and what they view as weak privacy safeguards.
The French headquarters of Huawei Technologies in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris in 2020. Companies that maintain business ties with Huawei could lose access to work for the Pentagon, which committed nearly $460 billion on contracts in fiscal 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 10, 2024
Huawei suppliers to face further U.S. limits under defense bill
The bill's language effectively bars Pentagon contractors from selling chips and the equipment for making or designing them to Huawei or its affiliates.
Huawei’s struggles reflect how years of U.S. sanctions have scored initial success at freezing Chinese technology advancements at current levels, and deprived its national champions of the chance to graduate to the next level.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 20, 2024
China’s chip advances stall as U.S. curbs hit Huawei AI product
Huawei's hurdle has implications for China's broader ambitions, suggesting the country will lag further behind the U.S. in 2025 when newer chips emerge.
Taiwanese chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has halted shipments to a client after discovering semiconductors delivered to them found their way into Huawei products.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 24, 2024
TSMC cuts off client after discovering chips sent to Huawei
It’s unclear whether the TSMC client was acting on Huawei’s behalf, or where it’s based.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. campus in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on July 16. The incessant demand for electricity that the artificial boom is placing on chipmakers such as TSMC has made opposition to nuclear power harder to maintain.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 21, 2024
Taiwan signals openness to new nuclear tech amid surging AI power demand
Premier Cho Jung-tai's comments underscore what appears to be a shift by a government that has opposed using nuclear power for safety reasons.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has pledged to build three advanced plants in the U.S. state of Arizona with total investments exceeding $65 billion.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 27, 2024
TSMC’s foreign investments are good for Taiwan, official says
TSMC is the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, with Apple and Nvidia relying on it for their most important products.
TSMC had said it would make 3nm chips at the second factory, which is expected to be more advanced than the first in Arizona, but on Thursday, it said that incentives from the U.S. government would help determine how advanced the tech inside will be.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 19, 2024
TSMC’s second factory in Arizona delayed as U.S. grants remain in flux
Site will start operations only in 2027 or 2028, instead of the chipmaker's earlier guidance of 2026.
Huawei caused a stir in the U.S. and China last August when it released a smartphone with a 7nm processor made by Shanghai-based SMIC.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 5, 2024
Huawei teardown shows 5nm laptop chip made in Taiwan, not China
The firm caused a stir last August when it released a smartphone with a processor that was only a few years behind the cutting edge.
Washington is taking steps to prevent U.S. chipmakers from circumventing government rules in order to sell to China.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 16, 2023
U.S. to tighten rules aimed at keeping advanced chips out of China
The Biden administration is aiming to close loopholes that might help its geopolitical rival gain cutting-edge technologies.
A specialist removes a Kirin 9000s chip fabricated in China by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. from a Huawei Mate X5 foldable smartphone in Ottawa on Sept. 19.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 5, 2023
Taiwan to probe suppliers helping Huawei with China chip plants
A news report this week identified four firms working on chip plants backed by Huawei in China.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. facility in Phoenix, Arizona
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 20, 2023
TSMC weighs advanced chip packaging in U.S. to ease bottleneck
The U.S. is talking to TSMC about research and development for the first time, in an effort to bring more of the contract chipmaker’s technology onshore.
Former Foxconn founder Terry Gou gestures during a news conference in Taipei on Monday. Gou announced that he will run for president of Taiwan as an independent candidate.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 28, 2023
Foxconn founder Terry Gou announces Taiwan presidential bid
Trailing his competition, he will must secure signatures from around 290,000 voters for his bid to become official.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2023
Taiwan quietly urges U.S. to calm rhetoric on China chip dangers
In quiet conversations and back-channel warnings, Taiwanese officials have urged their American counterparts to tone down their rhetoric about the dangers of relying on chips made by TSMC.
Winning warship bid gives Japan confidence boost as Tokyo eyes more exports
Australia’s decision to select Japan's upgraded Mogami-class warship, seen in this computer-generated image, has been “well received across Japanese industry," a Defense Ministry official said.
Two Japanese nationals shot dead in Manila
Commuters cross the street through traffic in Manila.
Osaka fire kills two firefighters and leaves four injured
Firefighters work at the scene of a fire in the Dotonbori district in the city of Osaka on Monday.
Trump’s peace-deal demands leave Ukraine's Zelenskyy with only bad options
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint news conference with the European Commission president in Brussels on Sunday.
Japan watches nervously as Trump ramps up pressure on Zelenskyy
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba takes part in an online meeting focused on Ukraine, with leaders from the "coalition of the willing," a group of nations that have pledged support for Kyiv against Russian aggression, late Sunday.
Winning warship bid gives Japan confidence boost as Tokyo eyes more exports
Australia’s decision to select Japan's upgraded Mogami-class warship, seen in this computer-generated image, has been “well received across Japanese industry," a Defense Ministry official said.
In Paris, chefs Chizuko Kimura and Kei Kobayashi make their mark
Chef Kei Kobayashi is France's only Japanese chef with three Michelin stars.
Top MLB prospect Rintaro Sasaki is committed to doing it 'the hard way'
Rintaro Sasaki hits a home run during a game against Duke at Stanford's Sunken Diamond on March 16.
In preserving Japanese hospitality, ‘details are everything’
Beniya Mukayu, a traditional "ryokan" inn located in Ishikawa Prefecture, considers itself at "the heart of onsen towns, local residents, farmers, fishermen, sake brewers and artisans" — all of which need new, sustainable methods of serving visitors to survive into the future.
A seaside hotel built on competitive Japanese cycling
In a region more associated with art, Keirin Hotel 10 takes a decidedly more athletic approach to attracting tourists.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers
By Tomoko Otake

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