Zero One Investment Research Daily Intelligence Brief, October 8, 2026

Micron's union wins the right to strike as Broadcom arranges over US$50bn for OpenAI

Top Market Signals

Micron's Taoyuan union wins the right to strike

Micron's (MU US) Taoyuan union in Taiwan has won the legal right to strike and set up picket lines, with 1,994 of its 2,258 members, or 88.3%, voting in favor. Taiwan holds more than 60% of Micron's production capacity, and Micron is the world's third-largest DRAM maker with about 25% of the market, Economic Daily News reported.

The vote ran from 1 to 6 Oct, after mediation failed, and cleared the legal threshold of 1,130 votes by 864. The union said it may call strikes at short notice, possibly by text message, if Micron's board produces no concrete result, and it plans to ask members to take leave for a rally in Taipei on 19 Oct. A second union at the Taichung site holds its second round of mediation on 22 Oct and could also vote on a strike after that.

Industry sources told the paper that a stoppage at Micron's Taiwan lines would touch at least 15% of global memory supply, since both the Taichung and Taoyuan sites make Micron's most advanced products. Micron said it respects the legal process and will keep talking with both unions.

The timing matters because the supply is already spoken for. Our 3 Oct Blade reported that Micron's customers had posted US$32bn of financial commitments, mostly cash deposits, and committed to more than 75% of fiscal 2027 output. Industry sources expect Nanya (2408 TT) and Winbond (2344 TT) to see stronger demand for older DRAM if a strike hits deliveries, as customers look for compatible parts elsewhere.

Linked stocks: MU US, 2408 TT, 2344 TT

Musk rules out TSMC running Terafab

Elon Musk said on 7 Oct that Tesla (TSLA US) and SpaceX will build and operate Terafab, their planned Texas chip plant, themselves, and that TSMC (2330 TT) might at most sublease part of the site. Four days earlier he had confirmed talks with TSMC, which had led to reports that TSMC could own and run the fab.

Musk was replying on X to a post suggesting TSMC would own and run the plant while SpaceX invested or committed to buy chips. He wrote that Tesla and SpaceX would build and operate the fab, and that TSMC could sublease part of it if it wanted, but nothing more. Terafab has an initial budget of US$16.8bn and plans to hire at least 3,000 people. Its chips are meant for Tesla's cars and robots and for SpaceX.

Intel (INTC US) chief executive Lip-Bu Tan said in Tokyo the same day that Intel will stay in the project. Musk said in April that Terafab planned to use Intel's 14A process, and Intel is helping develop the technology for the plant. Separately, TSMC is reported to be considering a new Texas campus, apart from the US$265bn it has committed in Arizona; the plan is at an early stage and TSMC declined to comment.

Linked stocks: TSLA US, 2330 TT, INTC US

Broadcom arranges over US$50bn for OpenAI's chips

Broadcom (AVGO US) is arranging more than US$50bn of financing for the custom AI chips it is developing with OpenAI, with Apollo Global Management (APO US) and Blackstone (BX US) in talks to take part, the Wall Street Journal reported. Talks are early, the size may change, and the deal is aimed to close by year end.

Broadcom set up a financing platform in June, with Apollo and Blackstone as the main investors, to help Anthropic and OpenAI secure more than 20GW of computing capacity by the end of 2028. Its first round raised US$35bn. Our 3 Oct Blade reported Broadcom's separate agreement to lend Anthropic up to US$42bn, and Bloomberg reported in August that Broadcom and lenders were discussing more than US$60bn of debt for a chip financing that benefits Anthropic.

Oracle (ORCL US) is in talks with Apollo and Goldman Sachs on a different structure: investors would fund a separate company that buys the chips and leases them to Oracle. That would spare Oracle more borrowing to cover the gap between paying for equipment and collecting cloud revenue. OpenAI and Anthropic also want to own more of their equipment to cut costs and reduce reliance on cloud providers, according to the report.

Linked stocks: AVGO US, ORCL US, APO US

Quanta's 3Q revenue rises 125% as notebooks shrink

Quanta Computer (2382 TT) reported 3Q26 revenue of NT$1.12tn, up 125% YoY and 7.6% QoQ, its second quarter above NT$1tn. Notebooks are now heading to the low teens, about 11% to 13%, of full-year revenue, the company told Central News Agency, while server revenue is set to grow by triple digits.

Quanta shipped 9.6m notebooks in 3Q26, down 16.5% QoQ and 24.4% YoY. September shipments jumped to 4.2m, but Quanta said that came from customers adjusting inventory because component supply is unstable, not from end demand, and it still expects full-year notebook shipments to fall by a double-digit percentage. Revenue for the first nine months reached NT$2.96tn, up 99.4% YoY, and customer outlooks for AI servers are unchanged.

Quanta also gave its timing for NVIDIA's (NVDA US) next platform: Vera Rubin products ship in small volume in 4Q26 and ramp in 1Q27, while GB300 shipments stay stable and drive 4Q revenue. Our 7 Oct Blade reported King Slide's (2059 TT) 30.9% MoM revenue drop as customers change over to Vera Rubin. Quanta's schedule puts the volume step-up for that changeover in the first quarter of next year, and the company said higher Vera Rubin unit prices support revenue even at low 4Q volumes.

Linked stocks: 2382 TT, NVDA US, 2059 TT

Solidigm adds Taiwan makers for data center drives

Solidigm, SK Hynix's (000660 KS) NAND flash and SSD (solid-state drive) business, has told customers it is adding a Taiwan contract manufacturing site for data center SSDs, with Taiwan-made drives arriving from 24 Dec on unchanged specifications. Economic Daily News reported that the work goes to Powertech Technology (6239 TT) and Pegatron (4938 TT), with orders that industry sources estimate at tens of billions to NT$100bn a year.

Solidigm has no NAND fab in Taiwan, so the new site adds assembly capacity close to the server makers that put its drives into finished systems, such as Foxconn, Quanta and Wiwynn. TrendForce expects enterprise SSD bit demand to rise more than 80% this year, with most new supply already booked by customers and price increases speeding up in 4Q26.

Bloomberg reported on 7 Oct that Solidigm has picked lead banks for a US initial public offering next year. Supply chain sources said Powertech already works with Solidigm and will seek more orders.

Linked stocks: 000660 KS, 6239 TT, 4938 TT

Samsung's profit rises 783% as HBM4 helps its foundry

Samsung Electronics (005930 KS) reported preliminary 3Q26 profit up 783% YoY, nearly nine times the year-earlier level, on demand for AI memory, Reuters reported. Before the release, TrendForce said the market expected memory margins could top 80%.

The less visible part is outside memory. HBM4 (high-bandwidth memory, the stacked DRAM placed beside AI processors) orders are raising utilization on Samsung's 4nm foundry lines, and losses at the non-memory businesses, foundry and System LSI, are estimated to shrink by nearly half in 3Q26, DigiTimes reported. Those businesses have lost money for years and weighed on group earnings.

Samsung is also cutting where the returns are weakest: System LSI reportedly plans to stop developing its Exynos Auto processors for cars and refocus on image sensors and phone chips, according to DigiTimes. Full 3Q26 results with segment detail will show how much of the foundry improvement comes from Samsung's own HBM4 orders.

Linked stocks: 005930 KS, 000660 KS, MU US

先聲 First Word: Exclusives from Chinese-Language Sources

Macronix passes its best-ever year in nine months

Macronix (2337 TT) reported nine-month revenue of NT$53.83bn, up 154.5% YoY and above its previous full-year record of NT$50.57bn set in 2021, after a sixth straight monthly record in September of NT$8.37bn, up 188.2%. The NOR and NAND maker says eMMC price increases should continue and that new capacity from its NT$37.8bn capex budget arrives mainly from 2027. (07 Oct 2026) Source: 旺宏營收連六月攀峰 後市旺

Pegatron's partner Systech wins back US networking orders

Pegatron (4938 TT) has used the Texas plant of Systech (5309 TT), in which it bought about 9.6% this year, to win back US networking customers that require US-made products, with shipments from 1Q27, Systech said. Systech also expects its battery backup business for AI data centers to grow three to five times in 2027, with three cloud customers lined up. (07 Oct 2026) Source: 和碩入主系統電成功奪回網通大單！2027年 BBU 出貨放量喊5倍成長

Investigators search AVC and Fositek's Xinzhuang site

Taiwan's Investigation Bureau searched the Xinzhuang site of cooling maker AVC (3017 TT) and its hinge-making unit Fositek (6805 TT) on 7 Oct and questioned certain employees about Fositek's 2023 listing application; both companies said operations are unaffected. The search came the same day AVC reported its first month above NT$20bn of revenue, NT$21.02bn, up 44.9% YoY. (07 Oct 2026) Source: 奇鋐、富世達新莊廠區遭調查局搜索 與富世達2023年申請上市有關