On September 25, 2025, as the U.S. stock market commenced trading, the three major indices—the Nasdaq, the S&P 500, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average—all opened with a downward trajectory. The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped by around 0.9%, the S&P 500 Index experienced a 0.59% decline, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average registered a 0.25% drop.

Among individual stocks, Tesla witnessed a significant slide, with its share price plummeting by over 3%. This downturn was partly attributed to a notable year-on-year decrease of over 36% in new vehicle registrations in the European Union during August. Conversely, Intel saw a modest uptick of 1.5%. Reports surfaced indicating that Intel had approached Apple for potential investment opportunities. Additionally, Intel was planning to implement a price hike of over 10% for its 'Raptor Lake' processor in the fourth quarter.

Oracle, on the other hand, faced a sharp decline of over 4% as it embarked on a substantial $18 billion bond issuance. In contrast, IBM experienced a notable surge of over 2% following the launch of the world's first quantum-enabled algorithmic trading system, developed in collaboration with HSBC.

TSMC has recently disclosed the latest technical specifics of its A14 semiconductor fabrication process. This process is anticipated to outperform the current 2-nanometer platform in both performance and energy efficiency. Analyst Ray Wang reports that the A14 process development has surpassed initial projections, with trial production yields outpacing the internal timeline. The A14 process incorporates second-generation GAA (Gate-All-Around) nanosheet transistors along with the NanoFlex Pro architecture. When compared to the N2 process, it delivers a 15% increase in speed at equivalent power consumption levels, or alternatively, a 30% reduction in power consumption while maintaining the same speed. Additionally, there is an over 20% increase in logic density. Production of this process is slated to commence in 2028, with a focus on serving the AI-powered high-performance computing and smartphone sectors.

Intel's Arrow Lake processor has already been on the market for a year, and it's set to receive a significant upgrade by the end of this year. This upgrade will leverage the advanced 18A manufacturing process and introduce a brand-new architecture. Looking further ahead, Intel has unveiled its product plans stretching to the end of 2029, with a comprehensive summary provided by the 3Dcenter website.

Among the upcoming releases, the Panther Lake mobile platform processor is poised to make its grand debut by the end of this year. Following closely, Nova Lake is scheduled to launch before the end of next year, catering to both mobile and desktop platforms with its cutting-edge technology.

The Razor Lake processor, slated for release at the end of 2027, will feature enhanced P and E core architectures, promising improved performance and efficiency. Meanwhile, the Titan Lake processor, set to debut at the end of 2028, will boast a unified core architecture, with the potential to house up to 100 cores, a milestone that was once considered a distant dream.

Lastly, the Hammer Lake processor, expected in 2029, will take integration to the next level by incorporating NVIDIA's RTX GPU into its GPU lineup, offering users an unparalleled graphics experience.

On September 25, 2025, ST Huatong stated on an interactive platform that the company, through an industrial fund invested in by its second-tier wholly-owned subsidiary Shanghai Shengqu Digital Alliance Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., indirectly holds approximately 0.35806% of the shares in Moore Threads Intelligent Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. The investment proportion is relatively small and has no significant impact on the company's performance.

The reach of artificial intelligence (AI) is all-encompassing. In the present era, a multitude of programmers harbor concerns about being supplanted by AI, and hardware engineers are not immune to such risks either. TSMC has already embraced AI technology for chip design, attaining a level of efficiency that far surpasses that of human engineers.
At present, AI chips come with exceptionally stringent performance demands, and as a result, power consumption has witnessed a corresponding sharp increase. It is no longer a rare sight to see the power consumption of new-generation GPUs soar past the 1000-watt mark. TSMC is wholeheartedly devoted to enhancing the energy efficiency of AI chips by a factor of ten.

At the 2025 Lei Jun Annual Speech event held today, Lei Jun, the Chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, delved into the company's journey in developing its own chip business. He mentioned that Xiaomi has long nurtured a dream in the chip sector. In 2014, the company fully established Pinecone Electronics and, in 2017, rolled out the Xiaomi Surge S1. Nevertheless, Lei Jun candidly acknowledged that Pinecone Electronics' development hasn't been a smooth ride. The self-developed SoC project came to a halt in 2018, and only a small-scale chip team remained.

At the Snapdragon Summit held in Hawaii, Qualcomm showcased its application of advanced packaging technology in this generation of products. On-site photos revealed that the top-tier model, X2E-96-100, features an on-chip LPDDR5X memory array arranged around an 18-core Oryon 3 core cluster.

Intel has announced its intention to implement a price increase of around 10% on select 13th-generation 'Raptor Lake' desktop processors. This adjustment will be executed via contractual modifications in the fourth quarter. Owing to constrained inventory levels and escalating upstream expenses associated with sustaining an older product lineup, the trading prices for standard RPL-S stock-keeping units (SKUs) are projected to surge from the range of $150-$160 to $170-$180.

At 7 p.m. tonight, Lei Jun, Chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, delivered his sixth annual speech titled 'Change'. During the speech, Lei Jun revealed that a peer company had unexpectedly dissolved its chip team of over 3,000 members without any prior notice, causing his phone to be instantly inundated with inquiries via calls and messages, with many asking whether Xiaomi's chip team would also be dissolved.

TSMC has just announced the latest strides in its cutting-edge process development roadmap. The company has confirmed that the development of its next-generation A14 (1.4 - nanometer) process is on track and proceeding seamlessly. Impressively, the yields have already surpassed internal projections well ahead of the anticipated timeline.

When compared to the N2 (2 - nanometer) process, the A14 process brings about remarkable enhancements across multiple key metrics. In terms of performance, it achieves a 15% uptick in operating speed while maintaining the same level of power consumption. Regarding power efficiency, it cuts power consumption by 30% when operating at the same speed. Additionally, it boasts a 20% increase in transistor density.

These significant advancements are primarily due to the integration of the second - generation GAAFET nanosheet transistor technology and the adoption of the new NanoFlex Pro standard cell architecture.

TSMC has set its sights on initiating A14 process production in 2028. This move is poised to offer robust technological upgrade support to clients, including industry giants like Apple.

Xingsen Technology has officially declared that its controlling shareholder, who is also the actual controller, chairman, and general manager, Qiu Xingya, has successfully executed his share reduction strategy. Over the period spanning from August 5 to September 22, Qiu Xingya divested a cumulative total of 9,963,900 shares via centralized bidding transactions. This reduction represents 0.5871% of the company's total share capital, calculated after excluding the shares held in the company's dedicated account for share repurchases, a practice that aligns with standard English financial reporting conventions for clarity. Post-reduction, Qiu Xingya's remaining stake in the company stands at 234,412,652 shares, constituting 13.8111% of the total share capital. This adjustment reflects strategic financial maneuvering common in global markets, ensuring transparency and adherence to regulatory standards.

During his 2025 annual speech, Lei Jun stated that chips are an essential path for Xiaomi to achieve success. The company must persist in developing its own smartphone SoCs for at least a decade, with an investment of at least 50 billion yuan.

On September 25, Kingsemi disclosed that Wang Mingbo, a senior executive at the company, intends to divest himself of no more than 26,976 shares, equating to no more than 0.0134% of the company's total share capital. This move, driven by personal financial requirements, will be executed through centralized bidding within a three-month period starting 15 trading days after the announcement's release. (In the context of stock trading in English-speaking countries, "reduce holdings" is more commonly and naturally expressed as "divest shares" or "sell shares". And "personal financial needs" is more idiomatically rendered as "personal financial requirements".)

In a recent notice, Li'an Micro revealed that its stock price has experienced a notable surge. Specifically, from September 23 to 25, 2025, the stock closed at the daily limit for three consecutive trading days. Such a sharp short - term spike might be a sign of irrational market speculation, and it also brings with it potential downside risks.

Looking at the company's financial performance, its semiconductor wafer business faced a challenging situation in 2024, with a gross profit margin of -1.82%. Moreover, the financial results for 2024 were far from satisfactory. The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company reached -265.7571 million yuan, and when non - recurring gains and losses were deducted, the net profit stood at -265.9586 million yuan.

The first half of 2025 also brought no respite. During this period, the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was -127.0252 million yuan, and after deducting non - recurring gains and losses, it amounted to -126.1087 million yuan.

Back in 2020, the American semiconductor behemoth Intel unveiled its plan to pour $28 billion into the construction of two cutting-edge semiconductor fabrication plants in New Albany, Ohio. This ambitious project was anticipated to generate 7,000 construction - related jobs and 3,000 permanent positions. Nevertheless, the project has been inching along at a snail's pace, and its future remains shrouded in uncertainty. The initially projected start - of - production date, which was set for 2025, has now been pushed back to at least 2030.

On September 25, analysts from Morningstar highlighted that Baidu's (09888.HK) artificial intelligence chips may still underperform compared to NVIDIA's H20, suggesting that a hybrid approach may be necessary to achieve optimal computational efficiency. Over the past month, the market has maintained a bullish sentiment toward Baidu's AI chip advancements, propelling its stock price up by nearly 50% this month alone. However, it is worth noting that Baidu's chips could trail NVIDIA's H20 by one to two generations, with the Kunlun P800 fabricated using a 7-nanometer process, while NVIDIA's H20 leverages a more advanced 4-nanometer process. While Baidu's ability to achieve self-sufficiency and reduce reliance on NVIDIA's H20 could lead to lower capital expenditures, the true performance and long-term viability of its chips remain to be thoroughly tested and proven.

The economic department of Taiwan, China, announced on Thursday that it had decided to suspend the notice on export controls for 47 chip products to South Africa, which was issued two days ago and was originally scheduled to take effect after a 60-day public notice period.

From September 24 to 25, Beijing played host to the 2025 Snapdragon Summit China. At this summit, Kingsoft Office made a significant announcement: the introduction of an AI PC-compatible iteration of WPS Office, specifically tailored for the Snapdragon X series platform. By harnessing the remarkable performance and computational prowess of the Snapdragon X series platform, this newly launched version of WPS Office not only witnesses a 20% surge in startup speed but also manages to cut down latency by 10% when handling 15MB spreadsheet files and 10MB presentation files.

Recently, Aibei Technology, a prominent domestic supplier of Micro-LED inspection equipment, proudly announced the successful closure of its A+ round financing, raising hundreds of millions of yuan. This financing round saw joint investments from a consortium of investors including Guozhong Capital, Anxin Investment, Prosper Capital, Xiamen Innovation, and the Siming Technology Innovation Fund. Notably, early investor Houlang Capital continued its support by participating in this round and also served as the financial advisor. The funds raised will be strategically allocated towards market expansion, product development, and ensuring timely product delivery.

Since its inception in 2020, Aibei Technology has impressively completed five rounds of financing. The cumulative amount raised positions it as the leader among newly established equipment manufacturers in the Micro-LED sector. Its diverse shareholder base comprises leading domestic financial investment institutions, industrial capital, and government funds, reflecting the capital market's strong confidence in the future prospects of the Micro-LED industry and recognition of Aibei Technology's technological prowess.

As the first and only domestic manufacturer to achieve mass production of Micro-LED luminous performance defect inspection equipment, Aibei Technology's products have gained widespread adoption. They now serve all major domestic chip manufacturers, mass transfer companies, panel makers, and select microdisplay manufacturers. The company has also successfully penetrated overseas markets, including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Europe, and the United States. Its equipment offers non-contact, non-destructive inspection capabilities for critical indicators such as chip luminous brightness and spectral distribution. With a remarkable wafer inspection speed of up to 15 wafers per hour and a die inspection speed exceeding tens of millions of dies per hour, it meets the production demands of both upstream and downstream manufacturers.

Addressing the key challenges of yield and cost during mass production, Aibei Technology has introduced specialized inspection equipment for substrates and epitaxial layers. This enables ultra-fast detection of subsurface defects and provides solutions tailored for high-end applications, such as AR microdisplays below 5μm. Its AOI chip defect inspection equipment overcomes the limitations of traditional technology, enabling sub-micron defect and displacement inspection. It completes a comprehensive inspection of tens of millions of dies within minutes, effectively controlling the yield of the mass transfer process.

The technical team at Aibei Technology hails from the physics and materials departments of esteemed universities, including The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Nanjing University. Core members boast over 15 years of experience in the fields of optics and semiconductor materials, rapidly establishing Aibei Technology as a domestic benchmark in the Micro-LED inspection equipment sector.

Yuexiu Capital stated on an interactive platform that Moore Threads is one of the investment projects of the fund managed by its holding subsidiary Yuexiu Industrial Fund, and this investment has no significant impact on the company's current operating performance.