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Thursday 30 April 2026

AGI, Inc. advances on-device agentic AI strategy as it targets cross-platform automation

AGI, Inc., also known as The AGI Company, is a San Francisco–based applied AI startup developing what it describes as "on-device superintelligence" for smartphones, computers and browsers. In the emerging agentic AI era, the company focuses on systems that go beyond generating responses and instead execute real-world tasks on behalf of users.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Google's split TPU chips signal shift from universal to specialized AI accelerators

Google has unveiled its eighth-generation Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) by splitting them into two distinct chips: the training-focused TPU 8t and the inference-optimized TPU 8i. This move goes beyond simply designing two chips; it reflects Google's capability to break down bottlenecks across different stages of the model lifecycle, restructuring chip design, interconnects, memory, scheduling, and software stacks.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Korea's 'father of HBM' sees 1,000x AI memory surge as Google's TurboQuant faces real-world tests

Alphabet's Google has unveiled its KV cache quantization compression technology, TurboQuant, promising dramatic reductions in memory usage for AI inference. While the innovation has captured global attention, South Korea's academic and industrial sectors remain skeptical about its practical feasibility, even as they firmly expect AI inference to continue driving substantial growth in memory demand.

Thursday 30 April 2026

MetaX GPU revenue jumps 75%, losses narrow on AI demand

China-based GPU developer MetaX reported a solid start to 2026, underscoring how domestic high-performance GPUs are beginning to translate technical progress into tangible commercial traction.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Meta's 1Q26 earnings redraw the AI hardware map

Meta Platforms' first-quarter 2026 earnings delivered one of the most consequential procurement signals in recent memory for Asia's technology supply chain.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Microsoft's capex plans draw scrutiny as Azure demand outstrips capacity

Microsoft executives defended the company's rising capital spending after reporting stronger-than-expected fiscal third-quarter results, saying demand for Azure, Copilot, and AI infrastructure continues to exceed available capacity.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Alphabet's AI surge, by the numbers: Cloud, search and subscriptions rewire growth

Alphabet's first-quarter 2026 results point to a company increasingly defined by AI-driven momentum across search, cloud, and subscriptions—with CEO Sundar Pichai framing the quarter as evidence that its "full-stack" AI strategy is beginning to translate into measurable business performance.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Taiwan's AI push awaits legislative green light

Given Taiwan's crucial role in the AI supply chain, Cheng-wen Wu, chairman of the country's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), called on Taiwan's legislature to pass the central government's budget proposal, which remains under review. He emphasized that Taiwan must not only lead in AI hardware production, but also advance AI applications.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Microsoft sales beat estimates as Azure growth eases spending concerns

Microsoft reported stronger-than-expected fiscal third-quarter results, as Azure growth, Microsoft Cloud demand, and rising Copilot adoption helped ease investor concerns over the company's heavy spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Lenovo sets US$100 billion revenue target as AI PCs and GPU servers drive growth

Lenovo Group told suppliers at its 2026 Global Supplier Conference on April 29 in Hefei that it expected surging demand for AI PCs and GPU servers to lift revenues and that the company aimed to exceed US$100 billion in annual revenue within two years. Executives said the company forecast record results for fiscal years 2025 and 2026 as AI workloads expanded across endpoints and infrastructure.

Thursday 30 April 2026

OpenAI accelerates Stargate build, surpasses 10GW US goal, and expands community-focused approach

OpenAI announced it has exceeded its initial Stargate commitment by securing more than 10GW of AI infrastructure in the US ahead of schedule, adding over 3GW in the past 90 days. Stargate was launched to meet rapidly growing demand for AI from consumers, businesses, developers, and governments by bringing new capacity online faster and at scale.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Amazon highlights US$50 billion chip potential and advances LEO satellite plans

On April 29, Amazon told investors on its first-quarter 2026 earnings call that AWS continued to accelerate, while the company doubled down on its custom chip business and pushed forward with plans for the Amazon low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite service, including the planned acquisition of Globalstar. Executives framed the moves as complementary elements of a broader strategy to capture a wave of demand driven by generative AI, even as they flagged memory and storage supply pressures and elevated capital spending tied to cloud and satellite buildouts.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Alphabet's 1Q26 earnings call: AI boom hits capacity ceiling

Alphabet's first-quarter 2026 earnings call was less a victory lap than a capacity warning. Management's message was clear: AI is now lifting Search, Cloud, ads, subscriptions, and developer usage, but the company's next phase of growth may hinge less on product demand than on how quickly it can bring enough compute online.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Qualcomm to ship custom product with hyperscaler in 4Q26

In an earnings call on April 29, Qualcomm told investors it expects initial shipments of a custom silicon engagement with a leading hyperscaler in the December quarter, a milestone executives said will mark the start of a multi‑generation partnership

Thursday 30 April 2026

Amazon posts solid growth as AWS and AI investments drive momentum

ON April 29, Amazon reported first-quarter results that exceeded expectations on key metrics, supported by continued strength in its cloud and advertising businesses. Revenue rose to about US$181.5 billion, while operating income increased to roughly US$23.9 billion, reflecting steady expansion across core segments. Net income also climbed significantly on both a quarterly and annual basis.

Thursday 30 April 2026

AI drives power interconnect surge as BizLink and JPC target high-end markets

The AI wave is driving the rapid expansion of data center infrastructure, fundamentally reshaping server rack power transmission designs amid rising power consumption. This shift is triggering a surge in demand and specification upgrades for power interconnect products.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Samsung SDI narrows loss as General Motors joint venture delay spurs LFP review

Samsung SDI reported a sharply reduced operating loss for the first quarter of 2026 as its US joint venture with General Motors (GM) is reviewing a delay to its production timeline, according to company disclosures, Korean media reports, and industry sources.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Nvidia CEO says Google's TPUs pose no threat as AI chip race heats up

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently stated that Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) do not constitute a real threat to Nvidia. He made the comments during an interview on the Dwarkesh Podcast, where he also addressed the company's rise to a US$4 trillion market value in the large language model (LLM) era and the competitive landscape of AI chips.

Thursday 30 April 2026

Taiwan launches all-photonic network to strengthen data center resilience and AI computing backup

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te has pledged to transform Taiwan into an "AI island," with a key focus on developing an all-photonic network (APN). The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is acquiring APN technology from Japan's NTT and collaborating with Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) and Accton Technology to advance this initiative. Industry experts say the APN is designed to support applications through low latency and enhanced computing resilience, in line with government goals for digital robustness and computing backup.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

BYD Electronics cites currency fluctuations for 1Q26 profit drop as market challenges emerge

Chinese components maker BYD Electronics saw a drop in profits for the first quarter of 2026. The subsidiary of EV maker BYD reported its first-quarter results on April 28, including a 95.5% annual drop in profit attributable to its parent company, hitting CNY27.83 million (US$4.1 million).

Wednesday 29 April 2026

Supermicro opens largest US campus in Silicon Valley, producing AI infrastructure

Supermicro's new 32.8-acre Silicon Valley campus will add hundreds of US positions and expand domestic production of AI infrastructure, signaling increased US capacity for enterprises and cloud providers worldwide. The expansion may affect global AI deployment timelines and supply-chain choices by boosting domestic system design, manufacturing, testing, and distribution capabilities.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

China's GPU IPO wave meets its hardest test: cluster stability

China's GPU startups, including Moore Threads, MetaX, and Biren, are gaining ground in the AI accelerator market. But as demand shifts from training to inference, cluster stability, software maturity, and cost efficiency are emerging as the real constraints.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

Supreme's 1Q26 server revenue surpasses mobile as CSP demand boosts memory prices

Memory distributor Supreme Electronics (Supreme) saw its revenue double in the first quarter of 2026, driven by a sharp rise in memory prices. DRAM and Flash accounted for nearly 90% of total sales, with server revenue share reaching about 40%—surpassing mobile for the first time. Strong demand from cloud service providers (CSPs) is driving server memory prices higher, a trend expected to extend into the second quarter of 2026.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

Commentary: China's chip-model strategy pressures Nvidia's AI economics

The global AI industry is shifting into an inference cost war in 2026, with DeepSeek V4 accelerating changes across China's semiconductor supply chain. By positioning Huawei's Ascend chips as viable alternatives to Nvidia GPUs, DeepSeek reframes competition beyond software versus hardware. The shift cuts deeper, reshaping how AI systems are architected from the ground up.

Wednesday 29 April 2026

The AI funding loop: Cloud giants pour billions into Anthropic to sell it back compute

Google has pledged up to US$40 billion to Anthropic — US$10 billion upfront and US$30 billion contingent — reshaping global AI competition by tying compute access to funding. For international enterprises and policymakers, the deal signals that cloud providers are increasingly using capital to secure AI customers and influence which models dominate the next phase of AI development.

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