SK Hynix Might Pay Only 0.5% Underwriting Fee for One of the Biggest Stock Listings Ever
On July 5, word got out that South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix is thinking about paying banks a mere 0.5% underwriting fee for its US listing, a deal that could rank among the largest stock offerings ever. The company says the offering might go up to 2.5% of its outstanding shares, though the final number isn’t nailed down yet. Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan are leading the charge.
Insiders say that on top of the base fee, the company might also hand out discretionary bonuses to the banks involved. Based on its current market cap of around $1.1 trillion, the offering could raise up to about $26.5 billion. At a 0.5% fee, the banks could pocket more than $130 million altogether.
Zhongji Innolight Shoots Down Rumor That Its Upstream Glare Sheet Supply Is Blocked
On the evening of July 5, Zhongji Innolight took to an investor platform to say that the market rumor about its upstream glare sheet supply being blocked is simply not true.
More specifically, when asked about the rumor that its upstream glare sheet supply was blocked and that the company is just a midstream assembler facing pressure from both ends, Zhongji Innolight flatly denied it. The company said it has normal procurement channels for all key materials, with suppliers actively supporting it—no blockade going on. While optical modules do involve assembly (one of dozens of steps), you can’t just lump them into the assembly industry. High-end optical modules rely on core technologies like silicon photonics, coherence, optical simulation modeling, high-frequency and high-speed circuits, precision optical coupling, dispersion compensation algorithms, high-speed bit error testing, as well as thermal management and heat dissipation. Plus, they require long-term reliability testing and strict customer qualification certifications.
Multiple Cities Roll Out “One Car, One Code” for Ride-Hailing to Crack Down on Illegal Ops
According to NUPIAO, multiple cities this year have been pushing forward with “One Car, One Code” for ride-hailing vehicles, a move that could put an end to forged operation badges, impersonation, and illegal taxi services.
For example, the Jinan Municipal Bureau of Urban and Rural Transportation announced that by July 15, all compliant ride-hailing cars in the city will have their official stickers posted, achieving full coverage. When passengers hop in, they can verify the vehicle’s legitimate operating credentials on the spot by scanning the QR code on the interior or exterior sticker via the “Jinan Traffic” WeChat public account’s “ride-hailing compliance check” link or the “Jinan TAXI” account’s “One Car, One Code” link.
Hongzhun’s June Revenue Up 10.66% Year-on-Year
Hongzhun reported on July 5 that its consolidated revenue for June 2026 reached NT$15.055 billion, a 10.66% increase from NT$13.605 billion a year ago. But looking at the first half of 2026, cumulative revenue hit NT$55.622 billion, down 21.90% from NT$71.222 billion in the same period last year, showing an overall year-on-year decline for the first six months.
Micron Pours About $9.3 Billion into HBM Chip Capacity
On July 4 local time, Micron Technology officially kicked off the expansion of its fab in Hiroshima, Japan, with a total investment of about 1.5 trillion yen (roughly $9.3 billion). The plan is to produce advanced memory chips like high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to feed AI processor demand, with shipments expected to start around summer 2028. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will provide up to about 500 billion yen in subsidies. This project is part of Micron’s global AI memory capacity expansion, as the company is also pushing forward with major advanced process investments in Idaho and New York in the US to boost DRAM and HBM supply.
Huawei’s He Tingbo Releases V2 of “Tao’s Law” Paper with Added Engineering Details and Real-World Data
On July 4, according to a newly posted paper on ChinaXiv, the preprint platform of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huawei’s semiconductor head He Tingbo published the V2 version of “Time Micro-Scaling Theory for Multi-Level Electronic Systems” (also known as “Tao’s Law”) on July 3. Compared to the V1 released on May 25, the new version adds a lot of engineering implementation details, real-world quantitative data, and a product evolution roadmap, further refining the post-Moore’s Law scaling theory centered around the time constant τ.
Indian Government Investigating Apple iPhone Data Leak
According to NUPIAO, India’s Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Krishnan, said on July 2 that the government is investigating a massive data breach at Tata Electronics. This is the first time the Indian government has spoken about the incident. Krishnan stated, “We are investigating.” He added that the matter has been reported to the country’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which handles cybersecurity.
Tata Electronics is a component supplier for Apple and one of the main iPhone assemblers in India. According to NUPIAO, a group recently stole a large amount of unpublished confidential data from Tata Electronics and uploaded it to the dark web, including unreleased iPhone 18 Pro component supply chain information and model testing materials.
Samsung Plans 20% DRAM Price Hike for Q3, Manufacturers Say They’ve Been Told Verbally
Recently, word has it that Samsung Electronics plans to raise the average selling price of DRAM by 20% quarter-on-quarter in Q3 this year. On July 4, a consumer electronics manufacturer head told NUPIAO, “It’s true.” Samsung had already discussed this with them in June, and they have now received a verbal notice of the DRAM price hike. “A significant price increase for upstream components will be passed on to the retail price of finished products, which could curb some demand. But since consumer electronics prices are generally not high right now, even a price increase likely won’t stop users from buying,” the person said. Another industry veteran also told NUPIAO that the rumor of Samsung’s 20% Q3 DRAM price hike is real, and Samsung has already notified some customers through verbal quotes.
