People look at a Unitree Robotics R1 humanoid robot on display at the Embodied Intelligent Robot Industry Exhibition in Shanghai, China yesterday. The highly anticipated initial public offering of Unitree Robotics drew huge demand from retail investors as China’s leading humanoid robot maker opened books for an offering that is set to give it a market valuation of US$9 billion.

South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc is considering options for its Chongqing, China-based facility, including bringing in an investor to help accelerate growth, people with knowledge of the matter said. The company, a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips to Nvidia Corp, is speaking with prospective advisers to help review the business, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. A potential stake sale could value the facility at about US$3 billion, the people said. The Chongqing facility provides a large scale semiconductor packaging and testing base, helping boost the company’s NAND flash back-end production to grow globally. Suitors may include

WELL MATCHED: The joint venture would lower Sony’s spending burden to stay relevant in chips, while TSMC secures steady revenue, said an analyst, calling it ‘virtually risk-free’ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Sony Group Corp are in talks to spend a combined ¥1 trillion (US$6.3 billion) on their planned image sensor factory in Japan, a person familiar with the matter said. The companies are seeking to begin production in 2029, the person said, asking not to be named because the talks are private. No time frame was given for the investment under discussion, they said. TSMC and the Japanese company’s chip arm, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp, are eyeing demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-wielding robots and self-driving vehicles, which are expected to require more sensors to