Qualcomm's Auto and IoT Growth Offsets Handset Weakness

On September 19, GalaxyCore disclosed its 2026 plan for an A-share private placement to specific investors, proposing to issue up to 390 million shares to no more than 35 qualified investors, representing no more than 15 percent of the company's total share capital before the issuance, with total proceeds capped at 4.2 billion yuan. Of the funds raised, 3 billion yuan will go toward a 12-inch CIS integrated circuit specialty process expansion project, 500 million yuan toward a high-performance, high-resolution image sensor research and industrialization project, and the remaining 700 million yuan to replenish working capital. The 12-inch CIS integrated circuit specialty process expansion project has a total investment of 6.132 billion yuan, a construction period of three years, and will be carried out by GalaxyCore Semiconductor Shanghai, located in the Lingang industrial zone in Shanghai, adding monthly production capacity of 10,000 CIS image sensor wafers. The high-performance, high-resolution image sensor research and industrialization project has a total investment of 577 million yuan and a construction period of four years, focusing on the development and industrialization of 100-megapixel and 200-megapixel high-performance CIS products. The company said that by building part of a 12-inch CIS wafer specialty process line, its operating model has shifted from fabless to fab-lite, and this expansion will secure 12-inch wafer capacity supply and achieve independent control over key manufacturing steps.

China Micro Semicon has established a wholly owned subsidiary, China Micro Changxin Hunan Technology Company, with a business scope covering the sales of integrated circuit chips and products, integrated circuit chip design and services, integrated circuit sales, as well as artificial intelligence foundational software development and artificial intelligence application software development. Corporate registry data shows the company is wholly owned by China Micro Semicon.

The direction of the debate over slowing down artificial intelligence development could throw cold water on the AI boom that has been driving US stock prices higher. When Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called in mid-September for slowing AI development, markets reacted sharply, and shares of AI and semiconductor-related companies briefly plunged in the United States, heightening fears that a slower pace of cutting-edge model development would make it hard to recoup massive investments. Adrian, head of the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets Department, pointed out that when it comes to AI investment, "the biggest potential risk is that future profitability falls short of expectations," signaling a view that while AI investment remains solid for now, the AI boom carries the risk of going into reverse. Meanwhile, both the United States and China regard AI as a source of national power and show no sign of easing their development efforts. US President Donald Trump argued that "a pathological conspiracy against AI and data centers is underway, and only China is happy about it," while China's Foreign Ministry pushed back against the narrative linking the slowdown argument to wariness toward China, saying it "only hinders the creation of international rules." As the tug-of-war between the development race and safety measures intensifies, a series of talks and meetings between the United States and China as they vie for supremacy are likely to shape the future of the AI boom.