And there’s also Taiwan’s exports to the US exceeding those of China for the first time, and ASML developing a 1000W light source to increase the throughput of its high-NA EUV machine…
As always, let’s take them in reverse order as according to Google Analytics:
5. Kioxia sampling UFS 5.0 NAND
Kioxia is sampling UFS 5.0 NAND which is currently being standardised by JEDEC. UFS 5.0 is designed to meet the performance requirements of smartphones equipped with on-device AI functions. It uses MIPI M-PHY version 6.0 for the physical layer and UniPro version 3.0 for the protocol.
4. Wayve raises $1.5bn to roll out robotaxis in London
Wayve, the UK driverless car startup, has raised $1.5bn at an $8.6bn valuation to fund its robotaxi roll-out, which starts this year in London. Baillie Gifford, Balderton Capital. the British Business Bank, Eclipse Ventures, Microsoft, Nvidia, Ontario Teachers Pension Fund and Uber provided $1.2bn. Uber will kick in another $300m if certain milestones are met. In 2024 Wayve raised $1.05bn from investors including Microsoft, Nvidia and Softbank.
3. Apple No.1 in Europe
Q4 European smartphone shipments were up 2% y-o-y, according to Counterpoint Research’s Q4 2025 Smartphone Market Monitor. Apple took the top spot, increasing its share y-o-y with shipments growing 7% y-o-y. Samsung took second place, with its shipments growing 4% y-o-y and share also increasing y-o-y to 29%. Apple’s strong growth in Eastern Europe and increased competition in Western Europe ate into Xiaomi’s market share, causing a 6% y-o-y decline.
2. For first time in 40+ years Taiwan’s exports to US are more than China’s
In December, Taiwan exported more goods to the US than China as the effect of US tariffs started to kick in. US imports from Taiwan were nearly $24.7 billion, up from about $20.3 billion in November, data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis showed. US imports from China reached $21.1 billion in December, slightly higher than the previous month. For 2025, China remained the largest Asian exporter to the US, shipping more than US$308 billion in goods.
1. ASML 1000W light source to deliver 330wph EUV processing by 2030
ASML has developed a 1000W light source which should increase the throughput of its high-NA EUV machine from 220wph to 330wph by 2030. The advance has been achieved by doubling the rate at which the molten tin drops in an EUV machine are exposed to a CO₂ laser beam to create plasma that emits EUV radiation. By doubling the droplet rate to 100,000 per second and using a two-pulse laser shaping approach instead of single pulse, the light source was boosted from 600W to 1000W.