On March 31, TrendForce reported that rising costs for wafers, packaging/testing, and materials are pressuring display driver IC (DDIC) suppliers, with some companies already initiating price negotiations with panel makers.
Wafer manufacturing accounts for 60%-70% of DDIC costs. Tight supply of 8-inch high-voltage process capacity, combined with 12-inch orders shifting to Nexchip, is supporting mature process price increases. Backend packaging and testing capacity remains constrained, while surging gold prices are driving up bumping material costs. TrendForce noted that if costs continue to climb, DDIC suppliers are more likely to adjust pricing; the magnitude of increases will depend on product mix, with changes potentially cascading gradually to end products including TVs, monitors, notebooks, and smartphones.
On April 2, semiconductor media outlet SemiMedia reported that DRAM prices stabilized in March after 11 consecutive months of gains, with 8Gb DDR4 contract prices holding at approximately $13, as Q1 prices were largely locked in earlier. However, Samsung has raised its expected Q2 PC DRAM (including DDR4/DDR5) price increase to 40%-45%.
On the NAND, 128Gb MLC NAND average prices rose nearly 34% month-over-month in March, marking 15 consecutive months of gains. This is primarily driven by manufacturers shifting capacity toward high-density 3D NAND, reducing supply of legacy products, and prioritizing high-margin AI server products, keeping legacy supply tight.
On March 30, Commercial Times reported that Broadcom unveiled a comprehensive portfolio at OFC 2026 covering switches, optical DSPs, AI NICs, and advanced packaging, targeting gigawatt-scale AI cluster demands.
Broadcom is simultaneously advancing 102.4Tbps switches and CPO platforms, introducing the Taurus optical DSP toward its 200T roadmap, while also deploying 800G AI NICs and 3.5D advanced packaging. The company highlighted that TSMC capacity has become a supply chain bottleneck, reinforcing its critical position.
On April 2, Economic Daily News reported that Taiwan’s “AI New Ten Major Constructions” initiative showed results in Q1, with Micron having invested NT$1.4 trillion to date, positioning Taiwan as its largest global DRAM and HBM production base, becoming the industry’s strongest AI transformation backer.
The National Development Council noted the initiative focuses on “government AI transformation, industry AI transformation, and lifestyle AI transformation,” having already assisted NVIDIA, AMD, and Micron in establishing R&D centers or production bases in Taiwan. On the government AI front, the “AI Application Special Award” was established for the first time; on the lifestyle AI front, the “AI Innovation Application Building” was launched, with plans to promote the all-photonics network (IOWN) to accelerate AI commercialization.
On April 1, Commercial Times reported that design adjustments for NVIDIA’s next-generation Rubin Ultra are concentrated at the chip and packaging level, with limited impact on downstream system integration, leaving shipment schedules unchanged for ODMs including Foxconn, Quanta, and Wistron.
Per NVIDIA’s roadmap, the Rubin platform will take over in H2, with mass production in Q3 and volume ramp in Q4; the Ultra version launches in 2027. AI servers remain this year’s operational focus:
Foxconn: Chairman Young Liu noted unprecedented expansion in CSP capex. Q1 AI rack shipments grew high double-digits quarter-over-quarter, with full-year multiple-fold growth. AI server revenue share will exceed 50% this year.
Quanta: AI server revenue will grow triple-digits this year, reaching 80% of total revenue. Capex approximately NT$30 billion; capacity to more than double by end of 2026.
Wistron: U.S. facility shipments began late Q1 to early Q2, with Q3 marking new/old product transition. Capex surged to approximately NT$60 billion.
On April 1, Economic Daily News reported that TrendForce research shows CSPs continued GPU purchases and self-developed ASIC deployments in 2025, driving combined revenue for the world’s top 10 fabless IC design houses to exceed $359.4 billion, up 44% year-over-year.
Ranking Highlights:
NVIDIA retained the top position with full-year revenue of $205.7 billion, up 65% YoY. Data center contributed 90% of growth, with revenue share rising to 57%. The company recently announced a $2 billion investment in Marvell to collaborate on custom XPUs and NVLink Fusion interconnect architecture, extending competition to interconnect standards and platform integration capabilities.
Broadcom rose to second place with revenue of $39.7 billion, up 30% YoY, benefiting from custom chips and AI networking products, reflecting the shift in AI semiconductor value from GPUs to overall network architecture.
Qualcomm dropped to third with revenue of $38.9 billion, up 12% YoY. High-end smartphone business supported growth, but momentum lagged AI-focused peers.
AMD ranked fourth with revenue of $34.6 billion, up 34% YoY. Data center revenue grew over 30%, establishing the company as the second source beyond NVIDIA.
MediaTek ranked fifth with revenue of $19.1 billion, up 16% YoY, with Dimensity 9500 volume shipments hitting record highs.
Marvell ranked sixth, with revenue exceeding $8 billion, up 43% YoY—the highest growth rate after NVIDIA.
