Overview: This Foundry Monthly Intelligence Report provides timely, always-on market intelligence to keep you aligned with the latest developments in the foundry ecosystem. It includes ad hoc deep dives into emerging trends and market shifts, along with concise analyst takeaways that deliver real-time, decision-ready insights to support strategic planning and execution.

Table of Contents

1. Major Foundries Raised 8" Wafer Price Since Q1 2026, with Further Increase Scheduled in Q2 & Q3

• The 8" wafer market is experiencing a structural change, with leading foundries in Taiwan, China, and Korea implementing price increases since Q1 2026, likely extending through Q3.
• Reasons for the wafer price rise vary across foundries, while the key point is still the imbalanced Supply/Demand situation.

2. NVIDIA's Rubin Ultra and Feynman Chip Structure and the Future Advanced Packaging Technology Forecast

• Rubin Ultra packaging shifts to a more manufacturable design, moving from 4 dies on one interposer approach to 2 dies per interposer with MCM integration, primarily driven by reticle size limits, yield concerns of warpage, and CoWoS cost consideration and capacity limitation.
• Feynman is likely to stay on CoWoS in 2028 without adopting CoPoS and SoIC, due to longer CoPoS development timelines and lower SoIC yield, which would create significant cost risks for large monolithic GPU dies.
• Advanced packaging (CoPoS and SoIC) remains a long-term trend with development taking a longer time, leading customers to pursue dual-track development strategies and continue relying on mature technologies (e.g., CoWoS) as a near-term solution.

3. CPU Shortage and Price Hike: AI Is Reshaping The Role of CPU

• Agentic AI is reshaping compute architecture and driving a structural shift in CPU demand. As a result, we expect the CPU-to-GPU ratio in AI deployments to rebalance from roughly 1:4 or 1:8 toward a much tighter range of 1:1 or 1:2.
• Looking ahead to 2026 and 2027, the server CPU market is poised for a robust expansion, with global server CPU unit shipments to reach 27.9 million and 33.2 million respectively, representing 15% and 19% YoY growth.

4. MediaTek to Capture 26% AI Server Compute ASICs Share by 2028 as Google Disaggregates Custom Silicon Supply Chain

• Driven by the production ramp of Google's TPU v8t (Zebrafish) scaling to 2.5M units in 2027, and the succeeding TPU v8e (Humufish), MediaTek is establishing a strong structural foothold in the global AI server compute ASIC market.
• Google's disaggregated ASIC model eliminates the 15–20% HBM markup embedded in the Broadcom turnkey model, with the cost advantage widening as deployment scales.
• Marvell is engaging with Google on two custom silicon projects: Project TIA, an inference-optimized TPU variant, and an MPU (Memory Processing Unit) designed to accelerate decoding workloads.

Major Foundries Raised 8" Wafer Price Since Q1 2026, with Further Increase Scheduled in Q2 & Q3

• The 8" wafer market is experiencing a structural change, with leading foundries in Taiwan, China, and Korea implementing price increases since Q1 2026, likely extending through Q3.
• Reasons for the wafer price rise vary across foundries, while the key point is still the imbalanced Supply/Demand situation.
• Since Q1 2026, as most leading foundries have raised prices for 8" wafer, we believe the market has tilted toward the supply side. Reasons for the price change vary across foundries, but we believe two factors contribute most: capacity reduction and overwhelming demand.

TSMC & Samsung Foundry: Price Rise for Capacity Reduction

Driven by the AI boom, TSMC and Samsung Foundry are seeking to expand capacity for advanced process nodes and advanced packaging. As a result, we believe cutting the 8" capacity becomes an attractive option from both financial and engineering perspectives. On one hand, selling 8" WFE (Wafer Fabrication Equipment) could help recover funds and free up factory space for future expansion on other processes. Also, experienced 8" engineers can be redeployed to 12" production lines, helping reduce both hiring needs and training time.

1.  TSMC

TSMC raised the 8" wafer price for small clients by 3~5% in Q1 2026, while the price for big clients remained unchanged. This strategy aims to encourage these small clients to source other foundries, so that TSMC could gradually cut the 8" capacity, especially in Fab 5.

2.  Samsung Foundry

Compared with TSMC, Samsung Foundry conducted a more aggressive strategy to achieve the same goal. Specifically, in Q1 2026, it raised 8" wafer prices by 5~10% for small clients and stopped accepting orders from new clients.

VIS & China Foundry: Price Rise due to Strong Demand

VIS and China's foundries, such as SMIC, HHG (Hua Hong Grace), and Nexchip, also raised 8" wafer prices in Q1 2026, and some have already scheduled another price increase in Q2. Unlike TSMC and Samsung Foundry, we believe their price change mainly stems from strong demand for their 8" wafers.

1.  VIS

VIS raised its 8" wafer-in price by 5~10% in Jan. 2026, only for small clients. In April, we believe another 5~10% increase will be added for both small and large clients. This reflects VIS's tight capacity in 8" wafers, which we mainly attribute to strong PMIC demand. For instance, at VIS, Renesas's MOSFET orders, which are widely used in SPS (Smart Power Stage) systems in datacenters, sustain a 35~45KWPM wafer demand, while Qualcomm's PMIC also requires 20~25KWPM.

2. China Foundry

As capacity constraints have emerged at the aforementioned foundries, China's foundries have the opportunity to capture more overflow orders from overseas by offering relatively lower wafer prices. They are also well-positioned to benefit from strong local demand. As a result, based on our channel checks, SMIC and HHG have raised their 8" wafer price by 5~10% in Q1 2026, while SMIC is expected to add another 5~10% increase for the BCD process in Q2.

Nexchip will also increase the wafer price for 90~150nm (12") in Q2 2026. The strong demand for DDIC mainly supports this trend, as Taiwan foundries are gradually reducing capacity or raising wafer prices for the HV process.

Others: Trend Follower Pursuing Higher Profit

Other foundries, like UMC and PSMC, also plan to increase their 8" wafer prices in the following months. We believe the main factor here is not the Supply/Demand situation, since their 8" UT rate is not very high, but rather offsetting the cost increase in raw materials (blank wafers, metal, chemicals, etc.) and energy cost to maintain their profitability.

1. UMC

UMC is planning to increase its 8" wafer price by 5~10% in Q3 2026. We have heard that some of UMC's clients, such as Silergy, have placed additional orders to minimize the impact of future cost increases. MediaTek, whose smartphone SoC business is heavily affected by the memory shortage in 2026, has cut scheduled orders for PMICs bundled with its smartphone SoCs and shifted its focus to clearing inventory.

2.PSMC

PSMC has increased the wafer price by 5~10% for specific processes, like 8" CIS and HV, mainly due to its thinner profit margin compared to its BCD orders. According to our channel checks, PSMC started this adjustment in March, with another consecutive ~10% price rise for both 8" and 12" wafers scheduled in June.

Summary by Region