Sandisk is recruiting engineers in South Korea for NAND system architecture, NAND core design, VLSI design and mask design, with HBM, LPDDR and GDDR experience among the qualifications, marking a shift from its historically sales-and-marketing-focused Korean operations. Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said Google's overall AI server payback period is under two years, and under one year for servers using in-house silicon such as TPUs, strengthening the case for larger custom-silicon investments and creating upside for ASIC partners including MediaTek and Broadcom. At a Deloitte Taiwan seminar in Taichung, speakers said Taiwan's Physical AI opportunity depends less on individual robot parts than on integrating hardware, software, sensing and control into deployable systems. Semiconductor equipment makers are facing longer waits for critical parts as fab investment accelerates, with some component lead times more than doubling, including a four-month delivery stretching to 10 months, waits of up to 40 months for certain Japanese parts, and local components taking about 50% longer.