On February 9, several senior figures from Europe's chip industry and policymakers attended the inauguration ceremony of a new €2.5 billion chip research center in Leuven. They stated that the global semiconductor industry, including the United States, is highly dependent on Europe for critical technologies.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Apollo Global Management, a Wall Street private credit giant, is close to finalizing a deal to provide approximately $3.4 billion in loans to an investment vehicle that will be used to purchase Nvidia chips and lease them to Elon Musk's xAI company. This marks Apollo's second major investment in such a vehicle, following a $3.5 billion loan in November. Additionally, Apollo plans to make an equity investment in the new investment vehicle, which aims to raise $5.3 billion in equity and debt funding. The investment could be finalized as soon as this week, aiming to ease financial pressure on xAI. Financial documents reveal that xAI burned through over $1 billion per month in the first nine months of 2025, spending $7.8 billion on property and equipment purchases during the period.

On February 9, Eoptolink stated that its 1.6T optical modules have been delivered in bulk, with production capacity continuously increasing. Currently, it has sufficient orders on hand, and industry demand is showing high growth and sustainability.

On February 9, reports surfaced indicating that, since the year's onset, the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund's ongoing reductions of stakes in semiconductor companies have continued to capture market interest. On the evening of February 8, Anlogic revealed that its shareholder, Phase I of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, intends to divest no more than 2% of the company's total share capital over the next three months. This represents the third instance Anlogic has been notified of a stake reduction plan by the Fund since 2025. Concurrently, semiconductor firms like Shanghai Simgui Technology, Telink Semiconductor, and Smarter Microelectronics have also recently disclosed the status or plans regarding stake reductions by the Fund. According to the information released, both Phase I and Phase II of the Fund have undertaken stake reductions, predominantly involving well-established companies within the semiconductor industry chain. Despite the flurry of stake reductions in the near term, the industry largely perceives this as a standard withdrawal move for the Fund, functioning as an industrial investment entity, with its enduring strategic focus on bolstering industry growth and facilitating domestic substitution remaining steadfast.

Wingtech Technology has publicly disclosed that a dispute has arisen with Luxshare-ICT concerning the execution of the agreement for the Indian business asset package. Consequently, Luxshare-ICT has brought the matter before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre for resolution. In response, Wingtech India has presented its defense and filed a counterclaim. Presently, both parties are engaged in discussions regarding the procedures for forming the arbitration tribunal panel. It's important to note that this arbitration is specifically focused on the Indian business asset package. Meanwhile, Wingtech Technology has commenced legal response procedures. Regarding other underlying assets, the transfer of ownership has been smoothly finalized without any legal disputes. Given the intricate cross-border legal dimensions of this arbitration, both the timeline and the final outcome of the proceedings are uncertain. As a result, it is currently not feasible to accurately assess the specific financial ramifications for the company.

On February 9, the European Commission announced that the EU has launched the largest pilot production line NanoIC under the Chips Act at the Belgian Microelectronics Research Center (IMEC). With a total investment of €2.5 billion, the facility has received €700 million in funding from the EU, €700 million in investments from national and regional governments, and the remaining funds injected by industry partners such as ASML. As Europe's first facility to deploy the most advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment, NanoIC focuses on the design and manufacturing of chips below 2 nanometers.

On February 9, MGL made an announcement that it is set to invest 929 million yuan in the construction of a project designed to produce 30,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery cathode materials per year. This project will be implemented in two distinct phases. The initial phase will require an investment of 737 million yuan, while the subsequent phase will necessitate an additional 192 million yuan. Once fully operational, the project is projected to yield an annual output of 5,000 tonnes of high-voltage lithium cobalt oxide, 10,000 tonnes of NCA (Nickel-Cobalt-Aluminum) materials, and 15,000 tonnes of ultra-high nickel ternary materials. The financial resources for this endeavor will be a blend of the company's self-financing and funds raised from external sources, with a total construction timeline spanning 36 months.

On February 9th, during an investor relations event, Minde Electronics disclosed that Guangxin Microelectronics' planned monthly production capacity for Phase I is set at 100,000 units of 6-inch silicon-based power devices. The company is making steady progress in ramping up production, with an anticipated monthly capacity of 6,000 wafers by early 2025, projected to surge to 40,000 wafers by the year's end. Presently, the products undergoing mass production encompass MOS Field Effect Rectifiers (MFER, with a voltage range spanning from 45V to 200V) and Vertical Double-Diffused Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (VDMOS, covering a voltage range from 60V to 2,000V). The monthly production output stands at roughly 12,000 wafers for MFER and 26,000 wafers for VDMOS.

Samsung Electronics is expected to commence mass delivery of HBM4 high-bandwidth memory chips to NVIDIA in the latter half of this month, following the Lunar New Year holiday (February 17th marks the first day of the holiday). This move signifies the world's first large-scale mass production and shipment of HBM4 chips.

In February 2026, industrial and commercial information revealed that Huajin Semiconductor has completed equity financing exceeding 1.2 billion yuan, with all funds fully paid in. This financing has strengthened the company's capital strength, laid a solid foundation for the industrialization of its Phase III project, and reflected the capital market's recognition of its technological and industrial value, as well as its development prospects.

Recently, amidst an institutional research tour, Kunheng Shunwei announced its strategic plans for 2026. The company intends to not only uphold the strengths of its current core test instrument offerings but also vigorously pursue the development of numerous new products. Through relentless product innovation, Kunheng Shunwei aims to consistently bolster its core competitiveness within the realm of high-end radio test and simulation instruments. (In the English-speaking business world, "announced its strategic plans" is a more formal and commonly used expression than simply "stated". And "vigorously pursue the development" better conveys the proactive attitude compared to "actively develop". Also, "realm" is a more literary and appropriate word than "field" in this context to describe the specific business area.)

On February 9, 2026, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) unveiled a set of to solicit public feedback, with the deadline for responses set for February 16, 2026. These guidelines are designed to bolster technological innovation and foster the high-quality development of listed companies by introducing fresh benchmarks for classifying 'asset-light' and 'high R&D investment' firms among those listed on the main board. Specifically, the 'asset-light' criterion mandates that physical assets should constitute no more than 20% of a company's total assets. Meanwhile, the 'high R&D investment' criterion stipulates that a company's average R&D investment over the past three years should represent no less than 15% of its operating revenue. Alternatively, the cumulative R&D investment over the same period should be no less than RMB 300 million, with an average proportion of no less than 5%. Moreover, the guidelines outline negative conditions, explicitly stating that for listed companies whose stocks are under delisting risk warnings or other risk alerts, the proportion of refinancing funds allocated for supplementing working capital and repaying debts must not exceed 30% of the total funds raised.

On February 9, STMicroelectronics announced the deepening of its strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), entering into a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar commercial partnership spanning multiple product categories. According to the collaboration, STMicroelectronics will become a strategic supplier of AWS's advanced semiconductor technologies and products, with these technologies to be integrated into AWS's computing infrastructure. STMicroelectronics stated that this collaboration is broad in scope, offering a variety of semiconductor solutions, including exclusive technical capabilities for high-bandwidth connectivity. These solutions encompass advanced microcontrollers for high-performance mixed-signal processing and intelligent infrastructure management, as well as analog and power integrated circuits that meet the energy efficiency requirements of hyperscale data centers.

Hygon Information stated on an interactive platform that as a computing chip dedicated to specific fields, the company continues to pay attention to the technology and market demand for TPU chips. Currently, the company's business remains focused on core strategic products and has not yet ventured into the field of TPU chips.

On February 9, Yuanjie Technology (688498.SH) made an announcement revealing that the company intends to allocate approximately 1.251 billion yuan towards the construction of the Phase II project of its R&D and production base for optoelectronic communication semiconductor chips and devices. The funding for this ambitious endeavor will be sourced from the company's own reserves and self-raised capital. This project has already received the green light from the board of directors, though it still awaits the final approval of the shareholders' meeting.

Centered on the cutting-edge field of high-speed optical chips, the project is slated to span a construction period of 18 months and is currently in the preliminary preparation phase. Yuanjie Technology clarified that the execution of this project will not disrupt its existing core business operations. However, it acknowledged the presence of potential risks, including those associated with fundraising efforts, macroeconomic fluctuations, shifts in industry policies, and changes in the market environment.

News on February 9th: Recently, Hardware Canucks, with authorization from ASUS, carried out benchmark tests on the Zenbook notebook, which is powered by the Snapdragon X2 Elite. The test results showed that, operating at a power consumption of 31W, the Snapdragon X2 Elite emerged victorious in three out of five benchmark tests when pitted against the Apple M5. Moreover, it comprehensively outperformed its forerunner, the Snapdragon X Elite. Here are the specific test results:

In the Cinebench 2024 single-core test, the Snapdragon X2 Elite achieved a score of 146. This score represents a 35.2% improvement over its predecessor. However, it still lags behind the M5 by 37%. Moving on to the multi-core test, the Snapdragon X2 Elite scored an impressive 1432. This score not only surpasses the M5 by 24.2% but also outperforms its predecessor by a significant 48.7%.

When it comes to the Blender 5.01 test, the Snapdragon X2 Elite demonstrated its prowess by completing the task in just 3 minutes and 31 seconds. This performance is notably better than its predecessor's 5 minutes and 24 seconds and even outpaces the M5's 5 minutes and 33 seconds. In the Handbrake test, the Snapdragon X2 Elite continued its winning streak, taking only 3 minutes and 29 seconds. This is superior to both its predecessor's 5 minutes and 32 seconds and the M5's 5 minutes and 14 seconds.

Lastly, in the DaVinci Resolve 20.3 test, the Snapdragon X2 Elite completed the task in 22 minutes and 6 seconds. This time is significantly less than its predecessor's 33 minutes and 16 seconds, further highlighting its superior performance. It's important to note that the tested model is a pre-production sample. As the drivers and firmware are still in their early stages, the performance of the final retail version may exhibit some variations.

On February 9th, Coherent (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. made a significant announcement regarding the successful closure of its Pre-A funding round, amassing an impressive sum exceeding 100 million yuan. This round was co-led by the esteemed Skyline Capital and Puhua Capital, with notable contributions from other prominent investors including Beijing Venture Capital, Bi'an Times, Infotech, Qifu Capital, and Binfu Capital. Index Capital played a pivotal role as the financial advisor in this transaction. The freshly acquired funds are earmarked primarily for the advancement of quantum computing system development and the recruitment of top-tier talent to bolster the company's growth trajectory.

Recently, a research team helmed by Professor Xiao Yunfeng and Associate Researcher Cao Qitao from Peking University's School of Physics has, for the first time, experimentally elucidated the critical dynamics underlying state transitions in an optical microcavity laser system boasting an ultra-high-quality factor. Their study revealed that when external control parameters traverse the critical point at varying speeds, the duration needed for the laser to switch between nearly-degenerate standing-wave supermodes adheres to a universal square-root power-law scaling relationship. This breakthrough not only establishes a temporal benchmark for the high-speed, reconfigurable control of microcavity lasers but also furnishes empirical evidence crucial for investigating critical dynamics in non-equilibrium, driven-dissipative photonic systems.

Recently, the Hefei National Laboratory, in concert with research teams from the University of Science and Technology of China, the Jinan Institute of Quantum Technology, the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (which is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), the University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University, and other esteemed institutions, has achieved a groundbreaking feat. They have successfully constructed, for the first time on the international stage, a fundamental scalable quantum repeater module, paving the way for the realization of long-distance quantum networks.

This innovative module leverages a long-lived trapped-ion quantum memory, a high-efficiency ion-photon communication interface, and a high-fidelity single-photon entanglement protocol. These components work in tandem to achieve deterministic entanglement between two calcium-ion memories, spanning a 10-kilometer optical fiber link. Notably, both the entanglement storage time and coherence time surpass the average entanglement establishment time. This achievement fundamentally fulfills the physical prerequisites for multi-level entanglement swapping and entanglement purification in quantum repeaters, thereby providing indispensable technological support for the development of scalable quantum networks.

Professor Liao Zhimin and Distinguished Associate Researcher Wang Anqi from the Institute of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Physics at the School of Physics, Peking University, along with their collaborators, have achieved a significant breakthrough in the field of electrically regulated spin polarization. The research team innovatively proposed and implemented a spin regulation method based on surface engineering: by introducing gold atoms onto the surface of the topological semimetal Cd3As2, they successfully realized a field-effect switch for spin-polarized currents and observed a bilinear magnetoresistance effect that can be tuned by gate voltage.