Samsung memory workers call off strike and may score six-figure bonuses

Systems

PLUS: Huawei says it’s replaced Moore’s Law; Chinese mobile plans add token allowances; Singtel slinging Optus; And more!

ASIA IN BRIEF Workers at Samsung Electronics may score bonuses of well over $100,000 after calling off a planned strike.

Samsung’s profits recently shot into the stratosphere along with the price of memory and solid-state storage. Staff threatened to strike if the company did not share some of the largesse.

Last-minute talks saw the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) agree not to strike, after Samsung agreed to create a fund that will share profits with workers. A Bloomberg report suggests some workers could be in line for payments of $340,000 under the scheme.

The Union is now running a vote on whether to approve the plan.

Workers appear to have mixed feelings about the plan, as on Sunday the Union published a post in which it tries to justify the settlement as benefiting workers from all divisions of Samsung Electronics, and its plan to create a fund that would see all employees granted around $17,000.

“Your anger must be directed not at us, but at the company,” wrote NSEU Acting Representative Woo Ha-kyung. “It must be directed at the company that is dividing us. I earnestly hope that workers will not thrust arrows of blame and criticism at other workers, but instead unite our strength to move forward.”

Huawei claims it’s leapfrogged Moore’s Law

Huawei on Monday proposed a new scaling law to replace Moore’s Law – which isn’t a law at all and postulates that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles about every two years.

Speaking at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2026 International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, the president of Huawei’s semiconductor division He Tingbo proposed the Tau (τ) Scaling Law.

According to Huawei’s announcement, “This law proposes replacing geometric scaling with time (τ) scaling as a new guiding principle for the evolution of both semiconductors and electronic systems.”

This “law” seems to be tangled up with a technology Huawei calls the “LogicFolding architecture” which apparently represents an alternative to traditional semiconductor design by “significantly shortening critical-path wiring, effectively reducing the resistive and capacitive load of signal propagation, and ultimately boosting transistor density and circuit performance.”

Huawei will debut LogicFolding chips later this year and says “By 2031, the high-end chips Huawei designs based on the τ Scaling Law are expected to feature a transistor density that is equivalent to 1.4 nm processes.”

If accurate, that would mean Huawei is five years away from a manufacturing process that will be comparable to the most advanced tech offered by the likes of TSMC and Intel.

Chinese mobile phone plans now come with token allowances

Some mobile phone subscriptions in China now include a quota of tokens to use on AI services.

In the last ten days at least two Chinese telcos – China Telecom and Shanghai Telecom –launched plans that include a token allowance.

State media hailed the plans as representing “a shift in how China’s telecom sector hopes to profit from generative AI, as operators attempt to transform computing power and AI model access into a utility-like service resembling traditional mobile data packages.”

Telcos around the world have historically struggled to create new revenue streams from technology innovations – Google, Meta, and Apple have scooped most of the profits flowing from mass adoption of smartphones, leaving carriers to operate low-margin connectivity services.

APAC bit barn boom peaks in Australia, Malaysia

Commercial real estate outfit CBRE last week reported that datacenter investment in the Asia Pacific region hit a record US$11.6 billion in 2025, much of it going on neoclouds.

“For neocloud providers, access to power is increasingly outweighing traditional location advantages,” said Matt Madden, CBRE’s senior managing director for data center solutions in the region. “This is directing demand toward markets that can support high-density campuses at scale, particularly across India, Malaysia, and parts of Southeast Asia.”

Malaysia’s Johor saw a 53 percent year-on-year increase in live capacity last year, ahead of 37 percent growth in the Australian city of Melbourne.

“This underscores strong expansion momentum outside mature markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong SAR, with around 6-8 percent growth,” CBRE said.

$11.5 billion is a tiny fraction of the giant sums Big Tech is spending on datacenters and infrastructure. Last year we spotted $142 billion of spending in Q3 alone. The world’s most populous region clearly isn’t getting much of that.

In related news, IBM Cloud last week flicked the switch on a new region in the Indian city of Mumbai.

Singtel ready to sling Optus

Singtel last week published a filing [PDF] that declares it is open to offloading a substantial stake in its Australian telco operation, Optus.

Readers may recall that Optus has a long history of trouble, including failing to notice a breakdown of its emergency calling service that is thought to have cost at least two lives, a massive outage, and a major data breach.

Singtel hopes to court “potential Australian partners that align with its objectives of ensuring that Optus continues to be a strong alternative operator in the industry, providing a reliable and trusted critical service to all Australians. Singtel contemplates a like-minded long-term local partner owning a meaningful minority stake in Optus.” ®