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Facing rising costs for memory and other components driven by AI infrastructure investment, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that price increases are now unavoidable. As competition for components intensifies between data centers and consumer devices, the burden of the AI boom is expected to spread to standard capacities and pricing structures for products like the iPhone.
Using Anthropic's unreleased AI model "Mythos," security firm Calif discovered two unknown vulnerabilities in macOS. These vulnerabilities bypass Apple's latest hardware protection technology, Memory Integrity Enforcement, enabling privilege escalation—suggesting that hybrid attack methods combining AI and human expertise may become the dominant cyber threat going forward.
The A20 Pro chip for the iPhone 18 Pro adopts TSMC's 2nm process and the new WMCM packaging technology, dramatically improving AI processing and power efficiency. Due to a DRAM supply shortage, the base model iPhone 18 will forgo WMCM, but Apple will boost memory to 12GB and split the release cycle to spread the load across the supply chain.
Sony Semiconductor Solutions and TSMC have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a joint venture for the development and manufacturing of next-generation image sensors. Sony will hold a majority stake and build production lines at its new Kumamoto plant, leveraging Japanese government subsidies as well, with the aim of maintaining dominance in the physical AI market spanning autonomous driving and robotics.
Against the backdrop of geopolitical risk in Taiwan, Apple has reached a preliminary agreement to bring Intel on board as a second manufacturing base for its AI-oriented advanced chips, reducing its reliance on TSMC. This agreement represents a strategic move by Apple to secure multiple domestic supply sources for its self-designed chips and stabilize its supply chain.
Google has released Multi-Token Prediction-enabled draft models that accelerate Gemma 4 inference by up to 3x. By leveraging speculative decoding technology to separate token generation from verification, these models eliminate the VRAM bandwidth bottleneck, dramatically improving inference performance on edge devices and local PCs without any degradation in output quality.
Numbers showing more than 18% power reduction and more than 9% performance improvement are pushing Intel Foundry back into the center of the leading-edge process race. Intel 18A-P, unveiled at VLSI 2026, is a refined version of 18A built on the foundation of RibbonFET and PowerVia. Meanwhile, TSMC N2 surpasses Intel 18A in transistor density, holding the lead in advanced manufacturing. On top of this, reports of Apple evaluating an entry-level M-series chip and Google considering advanced packaging are converging, and the axis of competition is beginning to expand from "the finest process" to "sufficient efficiency and supply diversification."
A report has emerged suggesting that OpenAI is working with MediaTek and Qualcomm to develop AI agent-centric smartphone processors, with Luxshare as an exclusive partner, aiming for mass production in 2028. This suggests that discussions about dedicated AI hardware have expanded from screenless devices to a redesign of the smartphone itself, potentially disrupting the existing smartphone market. OpenAI has integrated Jony Ive's team, signaling a direction toward designing its own device experiences for the AI era, though no concrete product plans have been announced.
As the overall notebook PC market contracts, Apple is sidestepping the impact of rising DRAM costs thanks to its unified memory architecture, and is projected to grow 21.7% in 2026—overtaking Dell to claim the world's No. 3 spot. Windows machines, by contrast, are passing soaring DRAM prices on to consumers, eroding their competitiveness in the market.
Apple announced Tim Cook's retirement as CEO and John Ternus's appointment as his successor, but simultaneously promoted Johny Srouji to chief hardware officer, moving ahead with a reorganization of the hardware division. This signals a shift toward a structure that strengthens vertical integration of product implementation, unifying component-level technology development with hardware implementation in final products. As Cook shifts his focus toward policy engagement and other matters as executive chairman, Ternus—the cross-product hardware executive—takes over as the new CEO, allowing Apple to build its next-generation product execution structure while continuing its existing strategy.
