Zero One Daily Intelligence Brief — May 12, 2026

SK Hynix lines up Intel EMIB for HBM as TSMC bottleneck migration extends past Apple

Top Market Signals

SK Hynix tests Intel EMIB for HBM as CoWoS sells out

SK Hynix (000660 KS) is jointly developing 2.5D packaging with Intel and evaluating Intel's EMIB (embedded multi-die interconnect bridge) for stacking HBM with GPUs, according to ZDNet Korea cited by Economic Daily News, after TSMC CoWoS capacity ran out of room to absorb its AI memory work.

The move would split SK Hynix's advanced-packaging supply between TSMC, its incumbent CoWoS partner since 2022 under TSMC's 3D Fabric Alliance, and Intel's EMIB-T variant, which uses through-silicon vias to support designs migrating from other packaging technologies. Economic Daily News reports SK Hynix is already sourcing materials and components for production-grade EMIB packaging, even though the program is described as early-stage R&D.

Intel's pitch is that yields on its back-end packaging have crossed 90%, still trailing TSMC but high enough for stable mass production. The company has been actively marketing EMIB to memory vendors and OSATs, framing it as the credible 2.5D alternative while CoWoS capacity is rationed across NVIDIA, AMD, Apple and others.

Our 11 May 2026 Blade flagged Apple's first-foundry win with Intel 18A as the leading edge of customer migration off TSMC. Today's signal is the second leg, in advanced packaging rather than wafer fabrication. The pattern is now structural enough to name: when TSMC is capacity-limited, demand reroutes to Intel in both front-end and back-end, with Trump-administration political support reinforcing the redirect. TSMC closed down 2.4% at NT$2,235 yesterday, shedding more than NT$1 trillion in market cap since the Apple and SK Hynix headlines began.

The financial read-through is mixed for Taiwan. CoWoS sole-suppliers and ABF substrate plays (Kinsus, Nan Ya PCB, Unimicron) are still beneficiaries of the AI packaging cycle. But the marginal new dollar of HBM-to-GPU packaging spend now has a credible second home, which caps TSMC's pricing power on follow-on CoWoS expansion rounds.

Linked stocks: 2330 TT, 000660 KS, INTC US, 3189 TT

Sources: 台積電 CoWoS 供不應求 英特爾再傳分食先進封裝訂單, 台積電產能塞爆 甜蜜的負擔, Google News

Nanya hits limit-up as DRAM pricing breaks above 70%

Nanya Technology (2408 TT) closed limit-up at NT$301 yesterday, +9.86%, after DRAM contract prices rose by more than 70% in 1Q26 and Micron crossed US$800 in New York on Samsung strike fears.

Free Times reports Nanya posted 1Q26 gross margin of 67.9%, a record, on after-tax profit of NT$26.058 billion and EPS of NT$8.41. April revenue was NT$25.491 billion, +40.29% MoM and +717.33% YoY, both single-month highs for the company. Cumulative four-month revenue reached NT$74.578 billion, +623.58% YoY.

The price thesis has further to run. Free Times reports the 2Q26 DRAM contract increase is now modeled at "double-digit percent" with high gross margin sustained through 4Q26, and supply-demand tightness extending into 2027. Foreign investors bought 17,200 lots of Nanya yesterday alongside investment trusts (3,909 lots) and proprietary desks (1,993 lots), a combined three-window net buy of 23,100 lots on heavy turnover of 106,000+ lots.

The market backdrop reinforces the print. Phison and Winbond have each posted three consecutive months of revenue growth, with Economic Daily News flagging memory as the clearest AI-spillover cohort across the April release calendar. Walsin Technology (2492 TT) was also limit-up yesterday on the price-hike narrative, and Yageo joined the historical-high cohort. The risk to monitor is that 70% gross margin in commodity DRAM has historically been a cycle-peak signal; this time it is being driven by AI-server LPDDR/DDR5 demand rather than mobile inventory restock, which is what makes the "structural" framing plausible, though not yet proven.

Linked stocks: 2408 TT, MU US, 005930 KS, 2492 TT

Sources: 熱門股》美光飆漲 南亞科漲停跟進, 南亞科、國巨、創見 飆新高, 群聯、華邦電 業績連三紅

Texas Instruments hikes prices a second time this year

Texas Instruments (TXN US) has issued a second 2026 price-increase notice to customers, effective 1 July, covering all orders and shipments across the analog IC portfolio, per a customer letter reviewed by Economic Daily News.

The first hike landed in April with selective products marked up by as much as 85%. The July round broadens the scope to "all orders and shipments" with the magnitude tied to "specific materials and technologies." TI cites cost pressure from upstream wafer foundry, OSAT, materials and logistics, and Economic Daily News frames the move as evidence that semiconductor inflation remains active rather than rolling over.

The read-through for Taiwan is direct. Silergy (6415 TT) overlaps the most with TI's portfolio across auto, industrial and consumer power management, and is positioned to lift its own prices into a customer base that is now conditioned to absorb higher analog ASPs. Global Mixed-mode Technology (8081 TT) is anchored in panel, notebook and consumer power management; Anpec Electronics (6138 TT) is increasingly weighted to high-end PC, server and thermal-fan controllers, both of which inherit the demand pull from AI server power management. Fitipower (4961 TT) chairman Lin Yung-chieh told the analyst day yesterday that all four product lines will grow this quarter and prices will be raised by product line as upstream cost climbs.

The cycle context is important. After two years of inventory correction and TI's 2023 share-grab via price competition, IDM repricing now restores margin headroom for Taiwanese analog players who had been ASP-takers. Analog IC margins look better in 2H26 than 1H26 on this read.

Linked stocks: 6415 TT, 8081 TT, 6138 TT, 4961 TT

Sources: 半導體通膨蔓延 德儀又漲價 矽力、致新等類比 IC 廠有望受惠

TSMC and Sony form image-sensor JV ahead of Kumamoto Phase 2

TSMC (2330 TT) and Sony Semiconductor Solutions signed a memorandum on 8 May for a next-generation CMOS image sensor (CIS) joint venture, with Sony pivoting deeper into an asset-light strategy on the manufacturing leg, per DigiTimes.

The partnership covers next-generation CIS development and manufacturing, and the two companies are now studying the structure of the joint venture entity. The 8 May date matters, because it places the announcement immediately before Kumamoto Phase 2 reaches operational pace and ahead of TSMC's planned third Japan fab, both of which provide near-term capacity to host CIS production. For Sony, the JV deepens the operating arrangement at TSMC's Japan fabs, where its sensor mix has been on a slow migration since the JASM Phase 1 ramp.

The deeper signal is in the framing on the Sony side. Multiple outlets including Imaging and Machine Vision Europe and No Film School link the JV to Sony's stated push into "Physical AI" sensor stacks, where image sensor co-design with the AI inference chip drives the architecture choice. That is consistent with TSMC's push on 3D stacking for sensor-plus-logic integration, and broadens TSMC's Japan footprint beyond automotive and IoT.

The Taiwan equipment read-through favors Marketech (6196 TT) and other Japan-fab-cap-ex beneficiaries, though specific allocation between Kumamoto Phase 2 and a third TSMC site is not yet disclosed.

Linked stocks: 2330 TT, 6758 JT, 6196 TT

Sources: 與台積電研議成立合資公司　Sony決意邁向輕資產化政策, Google News, Google News

Taiwan listed-company April revenue hits strongest April on record

Taiwan's TWSE and TPEx listed companies posted NT$5.22 trillion in April revenue, +30.3% YoY but -1.4% MoM, the strongest April on record according to the consolidated release reported by Economic Daily News, with broker projections of Q2 revenue 5% to 10% above 1Q26 on AI demand.

Foxconn (2317 TT) held the "revenue king" position. Synnex Technology (2347 TT) printed April revenue of NT$57.336 billion, +83.28% YoY. Kinpo (2312 TT) posted NT$12.123 billion, +2.6% MoM. Nan Ya Tech and Yageo led the historical-high cohort alongside Phison (8299 TT), Winbond (2344 TT), Gigabyte (2376 TT), Taiwan Glass-substrate maker Taiwan Union Technology (台光電) and others.

The composition of the print is what matters. Economic Daily News flags three sectors carrying the growth: memory, PCB, and passive components, each driven by AI server bill-of-materials expansion rather than handset volume recovery. IC design, after a soft 2025, is now showing the first turn-up, with MediaTek (2454 TT) at a fresh historical high. The four-month YoY uplift for the broader index also reflects ASIC pipeline build at Taiwanese designers and AI-server motherboard/cooling unit pull-through at the ODMs.

The forward question is whether Q2 prints validate the +5% to +10% QoQ guide, or whether the April number was front-loaded by customer pre-buying ahead of the next tariff-policy round and the memory-price hike pass-through. Both factors are present in the source set.

Linked stocks: 2317 TT, 2330 TT, 2454 TT, 2408 TT

Sources: 上市櫃營收五大天王出列 鴻海穩居「營收王」台積電維持亞軍, 5月12日 五件財經大事搶先看, 10檔營收躍增 買盤卡位

Nintendo Switch 2 forecast cut drags Macronix, Hon Hai Precision and Weltrend

Nintendo (7974 JT) cut its FY26 Switch 2 unit sales guide by 17% and warned full-year profit could fall by close to 30%, per Economic Daily News, with the Taiwanese supply chain led by exclusive assembler Foxconn Tech (2354 TT) flagged as the immediate-impact cohort.

Nintendo cites memory price inflation and US tariffs as the primary cost drivers, with an estimated JPY 100 billion (US$640 million) profit impact. The company is responding with regional price hikes: Switch 2 up 20% in Japan from 25 May, +11% in the US from 1 September to US$499.99, and +6% in Europe to EUR 499.99. Software sales (combined Switch 1 and 2) are guided to fall 11% in FY26. The Nintendo equity sold off 8.4% in Tokyo on the announcement, intraday low at minus 10%.

The Taiwan exposure list runs through five names. Foxconn Tech (2354 TT, the casing and assembly contractor) is the most exposed, with January revenue at a high of NT$13.3 billion compressing to NT$7.2 billion in February, NT$4.6 billion in March, and NT$6.5 billion in April, a sequence consistent with customer order cuts already in train. Macronix International (2337 TT) is the sole ROM supplier; Weltrend Semiconductor (2436 TT) supplies USB-PD ICs; Genesys Logic (6104 TT) supplies USB controllers; and PixArt Imaging (3227 TT) supplies sensor ICs.

The read-through is consumer-cyclical, not AI. None of these Taiwan suppliers carry meaningful AI-server revenue mix, so the drag is contained to the gaming-hardware franchise. The cost pressure is itself a downstream effect of the memory price spike covered above, which means the same dynamic that lifts Nanya is simultaneously squeezing Macronix's largest customer.

Linked stocks: 7974 JT, 2354 TT, 2337 TT, 2436 TT

Sources: 任天堂下修財測、銷售 鴻準、偉詮電、旺宏等台鏈壓力大

SoftBank turns Sakai LCD plant into AI battery hub with Foxconn read-across

SoftBank Group (9984 JT) announced yesterday that Sharp's former Sakai LCD plant will be repurposed for large-scale battery cell and energy-storage system production, targeting 1 million kWh per year from April 2027 to power its planned AI data centers, per Economic Daily News.

SoftBank will form two new joint ventures to anchor the program: AX Factory for AI data-center operations and hardware, and GX Factory for next-generation batteries, solar panels and adjacencies. Battery development is in partnership with South Korea's Cosmos Lab (zinc-halide chemistry for safety) and DeltaX (high-energy-density designs). SoftBank is targeting JPY 100 billion+ in annual revenue (US$636 million) from the battery business by FY30, with eventual extension to grid, industrial and residential applications and global markets.

The Foxconn (2317 TT) read-across is the operating-level one. SoftBank, NVIDIA and Foxconn have already been in discussions on "made-in-Japan" AI servers as part of SoftBank's medium-term plan, with initial GPU-server assembly using purchased components and a staged transition to in-house manufacturing by 2030. Foxconn separately sold its Ohio site to SoftBank last year and entered into a 50/50 JV there to produce AI servers and modular data centers for the OpenAI Stargate program.

The pattern that emerges across Japan and the US is consistent: SoftBank owns the land, capital and AI-customer relationship; Foxconn brings the manufacturing execution. Sakai battery output is the missing power-supply leg of that stack, and is the gating variable for time-to-power at the AI data-center sites SoftBank is now building. Foxconn revenue exposure to the Sakai initiative is not yet quantified in the source articles.

Linked stocks: 2317 TT, 9984 JT, NVDA US

Sources: 軟銀為 AI 蓄電 堺工廠導入電池製造 助攻鴻海日本布局, 軟銀、鴻海複製經驗 搶美國商機

先聲 First Word — Exclusives from Chinese-Language Sources

Kinsus and Hon Precision Tech ride CoWoS and CPO ramp

Kinsus Interconnect (3189 TT) and Hon Precision Tech (7769 TT, the test-equipment specialist not to be confused with Hon Hai Precision Industry) both posted record 1Q26 results, with Hon Precision Tech April revenue at NT$4.36 billion, +100%+ YoY, and the company raising its 2026 capacity expansion guide to +40% on AI-GPU customer demand. The pair is the cleanest Taiwan read on whether CoWoS sold-out conditions translate into orderbook acceleration at the ABF substrate and test-handler suppliers, with Hon Precision Tech's CPO (co-packaged optics) handler "Insertion 4" already customer-qualified for year-end production. (11 May 2026) Source: 景碩、鴻勁 押逾120天

Taiwan locks 72% share of global EMS/ODM top 20, Wistron stays #2

DigiTimes' proprietary 1Q26 ranking of the global top-20 EMS/ODM names shows Taiwanese players capturing more than 72% of aggregate revenue, with Wistron (3231 TT) holding the second-rank position for a fourth consecutive quarter. Generative-AI capex is the dominant single driver of the reshuffling at the top of the league table, and the share concentration on Taiwan is the cleanest available proxy for which jurisdiction is taking the assembly margin on Hopper-class and Blackwell-class AI servers. (12 May 2026) Source: DigiTimes

Ichia takes NT$74M stake in optical-comm metal-parts supplier

Ichia Technologies (2402 TT), historically a flex-circuit board specialist, will invest up to NT$74 million in cash to take a strategic stake in optical-communication components maker Chieh-Hwa Precision Industry, formalizing Ichia's entry into the optical-comm metal-parts manufacturing segment. The move adds another Taiwan name to the optical-transceiver supply chain build-out tracked through 800G to 1.6T speed transitions, where parts content per module is rising fast. (11 May 2026) Source: 毅嘉策略投資杰華精密工業7400萬元 佈局光通訊零組件

Top Movers

Nanya Technology (2408 TT) rose limit-up 9.86% to NT$301 yesterday, coinciding with Micron crossing US$800 in New York and Nanya's 1Q26 gross margin print of 67.9% on DRAM ASP +70%+. Volume of 106,000+ lots was the heaviest in months, with three-window institutional net buy of 23,100 lots.

Micron (MU US) extended its hot streak to cross US$800 per share, coinciding with continued AI-supercycle commentary and reports of Samsung Pyeongtaek union vote risk that would tighten the HBM market.

MediaTek (2454 TT) climbed 6.8% to NT$3,880, an all-time closing high, alongside Faraday Technology (3035 TT) hitting limit-up. The move runs with the ASIC theme as a discrete category, distinct from Apple-supply or smartphone SoC content.

Hon Precision Tech (7769 TT) went limit-up to break NT$6,000 for the first time, coinciding with its April revenue print at NT$4.36 billion +100%+ YoY and the company raising 2026 capacity-growth guidance to +40%.

Texas Instruments (TXN US) climbed 2.61% to US$295.30, coinciding with the company's customer letter announcing a second 2026 across-the-board price increase effective 1 July.

TSMC (2330 TT) fell 2.4% to NT$2,235, with market cap dropping below NT$58 trillion to NT$57.96 trillion, coinciding with the Apple foundry-deal and SK Hynix advanced-packaging headlines. Cumulative market-cap erosion since the customer-migration narrative began is now flagged at over NT$1 trillion.

Sumco (3436 JT) gained 53.91% over the week to JPY 3,613, with no single company-level catalyst named in today's articles. Context includes broad silicon-wafer reflation read-through from the DRAM/HBM volume pickup.

Everspin Technologies (MRAM US) spiked 47.68% intraday to US$39.86 on reports of a US$40 million Defense Department deal, an isolated MRAM-specific catalyst rather than a sector signal.

Key Themes

• Customer migration off TSMC widens After Apple's 18A foundry agreement (flagged 11 May), SK Hynix is testing Intel EMIB for HBM 2.5D packaging while TSMC market cap drops below NT$58 trillion.
• Taiwan DRAM pricing window deepens Nanya 1Q26 gross margin 67.9% with April revenue +717.33% YoY at NT$25.491 billion, and Q2 DRAM contract price guide now double-digit-percent up.
• Analog IC pricing power restored TI's second 2026 hike (1 July effective, after April's up-to-85% selective hike) widens to all SKUs, with Silergy, GMT, Anpec and Fitipower flagged as direct Taiwan beneficiaries.
• Taiwan owns the AI-server assembly margin DigiTimes 1Q26 top-20 EMS/ODM ranking places Taiwanese players above 72% share with Wistron stable at #2 for four straight quarters.
• AI power and storage become next gating variable SoftBank's Sakai battery JV targets 1 million kWh per year from April 2027 specifically to feed AI data centers, with Foxconn the manufacturing partner.

What to Watch

• Earnings calls today (12 May) Inventec (2356 TT), Asus (2357 TT), Walsin Technology (2492 TT) and Faraday (3035 TT) report; first read on AI-server pull-through and ASIC pipeline after the +30.3% YoY aggregate April number.
• Samsung Pyeongtaek strike vote (21 May) The KCTU-affiliated union is preparing a general strike that Korean media flags as a KRW 40 trillion+ revenue-at-risk event for Samsung Semiconductor, which would channel marginal HBM and DRAM orders to SK Hynix and Micron.
• Nintendo full-year FY26 disclosure cycle Detailed Switch 2 supply-chain guidance from Taiwan ODM and component suppliers (Macronix, Weltrend, PixArt, Genesys Logic, Hon Hai Precision Industry) will quantify the order-cut drag flagged in today's signal.