Korean semiconductor companies including Samsung Electronics and ABOV Semiconductor will take part in the world’s largest electronic components exhibition in Germany. Messe Muenchen said on Sunday that Electronica 2026 will be held in Munich from Nov. 10 to 13.

A key agenda at this year’s event is microcontroller units (MCUs) equipped with AI functions. As the market shifts to the on-device AI era, MCUs are re-emerging from simple control chips into AI brains. The global MCU market is expected to grow to $51.3 billion in 2028. The IoT MCU market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 12.5 percent, from $6.8 billion last year to $19.8 billion in 2034.

Demand is also surging for high-performance MCUs as smart homes, industrial automation and medical devices require both real-time data processing and low-power operation. Devices equipped with AI MCUs make decisions on their own without external servers. The approach has shifted from sending data to cloud servers for processing to analysing it immediately inside the device.

The possibility of a reshuffle in the global market is also high starting this year. Six global companies — STMicro, NXP, Infineon, Renesas, Texas Instruments and Microchip — control more than 80 percent of the global market. Despite being a manufacturing powerhouse, South Korea relies on mostly foreign products for key industrial and automotive chips. Korean companies see this exhibition as an opportunity to crack the monopoly structure.

Korean semiconductor companies including Samsung Electronics and ABOV Semiconductor have also completed their participation applications. Samsung Electronics plans to accelerate its push to expand in the automotive semiconductor market by highlighting automotive memory and automotive electronics semiconductor solutions. Fabless companies including ABOV Semiconductor are also targeting the European market. The six major global manufacturers, as well as Digi-Key, the world’s top distribution platform, have also completed their participation applications.

A company official said, "It is a venue where automakers and major parts suppliers from around the world gather to check next-generation technologies." The official added, "Securing points of contact with global distribution platforms such as Digi-Key is a strong opportunity for domestic fabless companies to make a practical entry into overseas markets."