CONNECT WITH US
Aug 7, 12:44
US optical transceiver ban risks slowing AI data center build-out
A proposed US ban on new Chinese optical transceivers could disrupt the build-out of AI data centers before Western suppliers have enough capacity to replace Chinese production, raising the risk of higher costs, delayed cluster deployments and stranded GPU capacity.
WinWay Technologies said orders from AI customers and stronger demand for advanced testing products lifted shipments in the second quarter of 2026, with revenue rising for a fourth straight quarter on a sequential basis. The semiconductor test interface maker said it expects momentum to continue into the third quarter of 2026 as order visibility improves and new capacity comes online.

Wistron expects stronger AI server growth in August 2026 after reporting July revenue of NT$308.22 billion (approx. US$9.53 billion), down 4.2% month-over-month but up 60.8% year-over-year. Revenue for the first seven months reached NT$2.05 trillion, up 88.2% from a year earlier. The company expects AI server shipments to grow sequentially throughout the second half of 2026.

Ibiden said on August 4 that it raised its fiscal 2026 outlook after stronger-than-expected demand from generative AI and a recovery in the general-purpose server market lifted results in the first quarter. The Japan-based IC substrate maker now expects full-year net profit to rise, reversing an earlier forecast for a decline.
The global automobile industry has been at the cusp of a critical transition into electrification and smart technologies, and the focus of future competition in the industry will move beyond mere performance to software-hardware integration, smart applications, and the building of cross-industry ecosystems, according to Larry Chang, director of planning and research and head of automobile electrification outreach at the Mechanical and Mechatronics Systems Research Labs (MMSL) of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

The United Arab Emirates is considering investing as much as JPY1 trillion (approx. US$6.3 billion) in a 500MW artificial intelligence data center in Akita Prefecture, according to Bloomberg. Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment is expected to lead the investment in a project that could become Japan's largest data center.

China's cyberspace authority said it has begun to scrutinize products sold by US cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks within the country, citing risks to national security and critical infrastructure in its decision. This takes place during a time of heightened tensions between the US and China over technology supply chains and AI advancements.
MP Materials' second quarter is best read as a status report on an industrial contest. On the one hand, China has tightened its grip on the parts of the rare earth chain that matter most for defense and high-performance motors. On the other hand, the US is paying to stand up a parallel supply chain inside a single company.

Elon Musk's ambitions across AI, robotics and space infrastructure are moving into a new phase following the unveiling of Terafab, an ambitious semiconductor manufacturing complex designed to secure the compute capacity required by Tesla, SpaceX and xAI.

AI-driven demand for advanced packaging is giving old-generation panel fabs and equipment new value. As Taiwan's panel makers accelerate the phaseout of LCD capacity at the 5.5 generation and below, they are splitting into two tracks: selling factories to foundries and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers, or keeping lines in-house to develop fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP), through-glass via (TGV), redistribution layer (RDL), and glass core technologies.

Microsoft has opened its India South Central cloud region in Hyderabad, expanding local capacity for customers in one of the world's fastest-growing digital markets. The move could matter well beyond India, giving global enterprises more options for sovereign-ready AI, regulated workloads, and lower-latency cloud services in Asia's second-largest internet economy.

The government-organized 2026 Taiwan Innotech Expo (TIE) will open in Taipei on September 17, with the National Science and Technology Council's (NSTC) Future Tech Pavilion set to showcase the latest research achievements that are ready for proof-of-concept validation and technology licensing. This year's exhibition will spotlight six priority areas: AI applications, semiconductors, precision health, space technology, disaster prevention technology, and net-zero technology.