Tantalum Capacitors/Memory Report Another Round of Price Increases; Mobile Phone/PC End-Market Price Hikes Begin

NEWS HOTSPOTS IN THE CHIP INDUSTRY

Upstream Dynamics

• KEMET (a subsidiary of Yageo) Raises Prices for Tantalum Capacitors Again
  KEMET, a leading passive component manufacturer under Yageo, sent price increase notices to customers, announcing a price hike for its KO - CAP TS23 series of polymer tantalum capacitors. The adjustment will take effect on April 1. Since the second half of last year, Yageo has raised prices for tantalum capacitor products three times, with the previous two hikes in June 2025 and November 2025 respectively.
• Samsung Raises Q1 DRAM Price Increase from 70% to 100%
  According to Korean media reports, Samsung Electronics completed the final negotiation of Q1 DRAM supply prices with major customers last month. The average price of server, PC, and mobile - used DRAM has risen by about 100% compared to the previous quarter, doubling the price of the fourth quarter of last year. The price increase of some customers and products even exceeds 100%.
• SmartSens Raises Prices for Some Sensor Products
  CMOS image sensor company SmartSens sent price increase notices to customers on February 26, announcing that from March 1, it will uniformly raise the price of intelligent security and AIoT products produced at Samsung's晶圆厂 (wafer fab) by 20% on the original price basis; and uniformly raise the price of intelligent security and AIoT products produced at GigaDevice's wafer fab by 10% on the original price basis.
• HiSilicon Raises Prices for Some Products
  It is reported that HiSilicon, a supplier of analog chips, sent out price increase notices, announcing that from March 1, it will moderately raise the prices of some products to cope with the cost increases in upstream materials and key metal prices, which lead to cost increases in wafer foundry and packaging & testing industries.
• Yangtze Memory Technologies Launches Its First PCIe 5.0 Commercial SSD
  Yangtze Memory Technologies recently launched its first PCIe 5.0 commercial solid - state drive PC550 on its official website. PC550 is a PCIe 5.0 commercial consumer - level solid - state drive specially built for AI PCs, using X4 - 9070 flash memory chips and a four - channel solution. While greatly improving performance, it significantly reduces power consumption and heat generation.
• Nexperia's Ban on Chinese Systems Disrupts Nexperia China's Short - term Operations
  Nexperia Semiconductor released a letter to customers, stating that on March 3, 2025, Nexperia B.V., the Dutch parent company, in batches banned the office accounts of all Nexperia China employees, resulting in a temporary interruption of key business systems such as Office 365 and SAP. Some production processes (such as customer wafer orders) were affected. Nexperia China has activated an emergency plan, and most businesses have now resumed. It stated that it will fully ensure production and delivery.
• Hormuz Strait Crisis May Impact the Global Chip Industry Chain
  According to reports, the escalation of the US - Iran conflict has led to tensions in the situation of the Hormuz Strait, which is causing a potential energy shock to the global chip industry chain. More than half ofrld's DRAM/ the woNAND flash chips are produced in South Korea, and about 70% of advanced logic chips are produced in Chinese Taiwan. These twonuf maacturing centers are highly dependent on Qatar's liquefied natural gas (LNG), and their energy reserves are weak. In addition, photolithography gases such as helium and neon also need to be transported through the Hormuz Strait.

OEM Dynamics

• Denso Is Reported to Plan to Acquire Semiconductor Company ROHM
  According to Japanese media reports, Denso, an automotive Tier 1 supplier, has proposed an acquisition offer to semiconductor company ROHM. ROHM has established a special committee to discuss whether to accept it; if ROHM rejects it, Denso may launch a hostile takeover. The two companies officially established a strategic partnership in the semiconductor field last year, which also strengthened their capital relationship.
• STMicroelectronics Releases a New Generation of Entry - level MCU Products
  STMicroelectronics (ST) recently announced the launch of a new generation of entry - level microcontrollers (MCUs) STM32C5 series. This product is based on ST's proprietary 40nm process, targeting smart thermostats, electronic door locks, industrial smart sensors, robotic actuators, wearable electronic devices, and computer peripherals and other consumer and professional equipment.
• Renesas Launches 28 - nanometer RH850/U2C Automotive MCU
  Renesas announced on March 4 that it has launched a new 32 - bit automotive MCU product RH850/U2C series based on 28 - nanometer process. This MCU can be widely applied to the chassis and safety systems, battery management systems (BMS), lighting, and motor control and other body control fields of passenger vehicles and motorcycles, as well as other general automotive highest functional safety level (ASIL D) application scenarios.
• Broadcom Reports 29% Year - on - Year Revenue Growth in Q1
  Broadcom announced that its revenue in Q1 of FY2025 was $19.311 billion, a year - on - year increase of 29%, setting a new record high. The main reason for Broadcom's revenue reaching a new high is the continuous strong growth of AI semiconductor solutions. AI revenue in the first quarter reached $8.4 billion, a year - on - year increase of 106%, exceeding expectations.
• Marvell Reports Record High Revenue in FY2026
  Marvell announced that its revenue in the fourth quarter of FY2026 (ending January 31) was $2.219 billion, a year - on - year increase of 22%, setting a new record high; data center business revenue was $1.65 billion, accounting for 74.4% of total revenue. The growth mainly came from customized ASICs and optical interconnect products. The full - year revenue for FY2026 was $8.195 billion, a year - on - year increase of 42%, setting a new record high.

Application - end Dynamics

• vivo May Become the First Smartphone Manufacturer to Fully Raise Prices
  It is reported that vivo plans to officially raise the selling price of its entire smartphone product line starting from March 15, and will become the first smartphone manufacturer to fully adjust prices. This price adjustment not only covers the soon - to - be - released new products but also includes previously released old models. This price adjustment is not a unilateral action of a single brand. It is possible that multiple mainstream domestic smartphone brands have reached a certain tacit understanding, and they are all expected to start price adjustments around mid - March.
• Lenovo Is Reported to Raise Prices, with Some Computers Rising by More Than 1,000 Yuan
  It is reported that Lenovo has issued a price adjustment notice to its distributors, deciding to raise the prices of some of its computer products. The price adjustment signal has long been reflected in online channels. This price adjustment notice is mainly aimed at some offline store systems. The terminal retail prices of some computer models have increased by more than 1,000 yuan compared to the highest prices last year.
• Exeed (Chery's High - end Brand) Raises Guideline Price, Becoming the First Automaker to Officially Announce a Price Hike This Year
  Reports show that Exeed, Chery's high - end brand, announced that it will raise the official guide price of Exeed ET5, among which the high - configuration version of the 210 laser radar Zhizun Edition model will be raised by 5,000 yuan. Exeed responded that behind the price adjustment are a series of factors such as chip price increases, but mainly it is the brand's active choice based on a long - term strategic consideration.
• BYD Unveils the World's Highest - Power Charging Pile for Single - gun Charging in Mass Production
  At the second - generation blade battery and flash charging technology launch conference on March 5, BYD officially released the second - generation blade battery, and simultaneously launched a 1500kW - class flash charging pile, flash charging infrastructure planning, and multiple new models equipped with this technology. It also plans to build 20,000 flash charging stations in 2026.
• Texas Instruments Collaborates with NVIDIA to Promote the Real - world Deployment of Humanoid Robots
  Texas Instruments (TI) announced a collaboration with NVIDIA, aiming to accelerate the development of the next - generation physical AI, especially to promote the transition of safer humanoid robots from simulation to real - world deployment. TI will combine its real - time motor control, sensing (including millimeter - wave radar), and power management technologies with NVIDIA's advanced robot computing, Ethernet - based sensing, and simulation technologies.
• MacBook Neo Expected to Ship 5 Million Units This Year
  TrendForce's集邦咨询 (Jibang Consulting) expects that Apple will make a counter - intuitive move to launch a new entry - level notebook MacBook Neo, and expects Apple's notebook shipments to increase by 7.7% year - on - year in 2026, driving the macOS market share to rise to 13.2%. Among them, the shipment volume of MacBook Neo is extedpec to reach 4 million to 5 million units, depending on consumers' acceptance of 8GB of memory.

Data & Outlook

• SIA & WSTS: Global Semiconductor Sales Reached $82.54 Billion in January 2026, a Year - on - Year Increase of 46.1%
  This shows that the rapid development of AI has brought huge chip demand. The Asia - Pacific region and other regions (excluding China and Japan) achieved a year - on - year growth of 82.4%; China, the Americas, and Europe achieved year - on - year growth rates of 47.0%, 34.9%, and 26.1% respectively, while Japan saw a year - on - year decline of 6.2%.
• TrendForce Jibang Consulting: In Q4 2025, the Combined Revenue of the Top Five Global NAND Flash Manufacturers Increased by 23.8% Quarter - on - Quarter, Reaching $21.17 Billion
  Especially, North American cloud service providers are building AI server infrastructure, stimulating the explosive growth of enterprise - level SSD demand. Coupled with the serious shortage and long lead time of HDDs, the overall NAND Flash supply shortage has intensified, pushing up price increases, and supplier revenues have benefited as a result.
• DigiTimes: Overall spot prices of storage products rose in February, with NAND flash wafer prices rising the most
  As the gap between storage demand and supply continues to widen, spot prices are rising rapidly, and purchasing capital pressure is also increasing. The average price of DDR5 16G (2G×8) chips rose to $39, an increase of 7.4% month - on - month; the price of 1Tb TLC flash wafers rose by 25% to $25, becoming the product with the largest price increase in February.
• TrendForce Jibang Consulting: In 2026, the Global Mobile Phone Display Panel Shipment Scale Will Stagnate at Around 2.143 Billion Units, a Year - on - Year Decline of 7.3%
  This ends the continuous growth trend since 2023. Due to the "super cycle" of memory, mainly affecting low - to - mid - range smartphones, and the continuous decline in OLED technology costs, institutions predict that the shipment share of AMOLED is expected to rise from 41.2% last year to 43.2%, LTPS LCD will shrink from 4.4% to 2.5%, and the lowest - end a - Si LCD will remain at 54.4%.
• China Passenger Car Association (CPCA): China's Automotive Market Showed a Distinct "Inventory Game" Feature at the Beginning of 2026
  It is expected that the sales volume of passenger vehicle manufacturers in 2026 will be 29.64 million units, basically flat with 2025. The sales volume of new energy vehicles is expected to increase by 10% significantly, reaching 16.83 million units. This means that more than 50% of the new cars sold in 2026 are expected to be new energy vehicles, and new energy vehicles will become the dominant force in the market for the first time. However, the high penetration rate combined with low growth also truly means that the growth of new energy vehicles mainly comes from the replacement of fuel vehicles, rather than the overall expansion of the market.