CONNECT WITH US
Thursday 2 July 2026
OpenAI's 5% stake pitch pulls AI deeper into Washington

OpenAI has discussed giving the US government a 5% stake in the company, according to the Financial Times, as the AI developer seeks to ease political pressure over model risks and whether Americans should share in the industry's profits. Reuters said it could not independently verify the report.

Thursday 2 July 2026
AUO pushes AI-era transformation with executive reshuffle, launch of innovation institute
Taiwanese optoelectronics specialist AUO announced organizational adjustments and senior executive appointments on July 1 as it continues to advance its business transformation. The company is aiming for balanced development across its businesses and accelerating its transition into a key solutions provider centered on display technologies for its long-term growth momentum. The company also unveiled its new Institute of Innovation and New Venture.
Thursday 2 July 2026
Singapore files additional fraud and money laundering charges in Nvidia-linked server case

Singapore authorities have filed additional fraud and money laundering charges against four individuals and brought fresh charges against four companies, as part of an investigation linked to the movement of servers that may have contained Nvidia artificial intelligence chips subject to US export controls. The case has been reported by multiple outlets, including CNA, The Straits Times, and Reuters.

Thursday 2 July 2026
Nvidia and nuclear energy startup Valar test microreactor to power AI data center
Nuclear energy startup Valar Atomics said on July 1 it is partnering with Nvidia to develop a small data center in Utah, an effort the companies say will demonstrate how computing facilities needed for artificial intelligence can conserve water.
Thursday 2 July 2026
AI server probe pulls back the curtain on the evolving journey of Taiwan's motherboard industry

An ongoing investigation into alleged AI server smuggling has once again put Taiwan's motherboard industry under the spotlight. Veteran motherboard maker Albatron Technology has become a focal point after its general manager, Alex Lu, and an employee of Super Micro Computer (Supermicro) were detained without visitation rights as part of the investigation.

Thursday 2 July 2026
LG Electronics moves into ASIC design services as TSMC ties draw attention
LG Electronics has begun offering application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design services to outside chip companies, drawing on system-on-chip (SoC) development work the company has done for its own products since the early 2000s, according to industry sources cited by ZDNet Korea. LG declined to confirm the report when contacted.
Thursday 2 July 2026
Taiwan automotive LED maker EOI readies Mexico ramp for humanoid robots and silicon photonics

Excellence Optoelectronics Inc. (EOI) expects double-digit growth in 2026 from a strong 2025 base, supported by robust automotive lighting module shipments to North American automakers, new Mexico capacity, and a planned expansion into AI humanoid robot supply chains.

Thursday 2 July 2026
Socionext to develop TSMC A14 chiplet for AI data center SoCs

Socionext announced that it would develop a high-performance compute chiplet using TSMC's A14 process technology, positioning the project as a platform for next-generation custom silicon aimed at AI data center infrastructure.

Thursday 2 July 2026
South Korea plans CIA-style fund to build its own Palantir

South Korea plans to set up a government-backed venture fund modeled on the CIA's In-Q-Tel, betting that direct state investment can help produce homegrown security-technology companies in fields such as AI, drones, cyber defense and aerospace.

Thursday 2 July 2026
Techman Robot upgrades automotive production lines at Quanta Computer Germany plant with AI cobots
Techman Robot announced its artificial intelligence (AI) collaborative robots (cobots) have been successfully deployed at parent company Quanta Computer's automotive computer and automotive electronics manufacturing facility in Germany.
Thursday 2 July 2026
SoftBank leads Japan's sovereign AI push, with Foxconn eyeing the compute backbone

Japan's sovereign AI push is moving from policy ambition to industrial buildout, with SoftBank-backed Noetra at the center, and Foxconn emerging as a likely infrastructure partner. Backed by substantial public funding, the program signals Tokyo's intent to treat compute capacity, data centers, and domestic control over AI systems as strategic priorities.

Thursday 2 July 2026
Meta's alleged turn from AI buyer to seller raises new questions about AI spending, returns, and competition
Meta Platforms' reported interest in selling excess AI computing capacity has stirred debate over whether the company is seeking a new way to monetize heavy infrastructure spending or signaling a larger shift in competition across cloud computing and AI services. The Bloomberg report pressured several AI infrastructure stocks and raised fresh questions about supply, demand, and valuation.
Thursday 2 July 2026
LG Electronics creates robot business center to scale physical AI and robotics supply chain
LG Electronics announced the creation of a robot business center to accelerate its physical AI and robotics efforts, the company said. The new organization will consolidate development, supply chain and manufacturing resources and will report directly to the chief executive, signaling that robotics is a core growth area following the unveiling of the CLOiD home robot at CES 2026.
Thursday 2 July 2026
GaAs and InP price hikes hit Taiwan supply chain
Compound semiconductor epitaxy makers are raising prices again for gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium phosphide (InP) epi wafers, as persistent raw material cost increases, supply chain shortages, and inflation continue to weigh on the industry. Taiwanese suppliers warn that output in the second half of the year remains tied to material restrictions.
Thursday 2 July 2026
AI server demand drives MiTAC to expand in Taiwan, Vietnam, and California
MiTAC Holdings' subsidiary, MiTAC Computing Technology, has won strong demand from US cloud customers, driving a sharp rise in orders and a global expansion plan from Asia to North America starting in 2025. With new capacity set to come online in 2026 and additional North American output in the second half of the year, the company expects a clear uplift in operations.
Thursday 2 July 2026
General-purpose server shipments surge, boosting Taiwanese connector makers
Agentic AI demand is driving major US cloud providers such as Google and Amazon to expand data centers, lifting global server shipments and triggering a new wave of orders for Taiwan connector makers. DIGITIMES Research expects worldwide server shipments to grow more than 19% in 2026, approaching 20 million units.
Thursday 2 July 2026
IBM's 0.7nm chip claim revives debate over semiconductor node naming

As semiconductor manufacturing enters the 2nm era, conventional transistor scaling is approaching its physical limits. On June 25, 2026, IBM unveiled what it described as the world's first sub-1-nanometer chip technology, featuring a 0.7nm (7-angstrom) process node. The research chip integrates nearly 100 billion transistors into an area roughly the size of a fingernail, marking a significant milestone in semiconductor scaling.

Wednesday 1 July 2026
Nvidia GPU-network ecosystem tops data center Ethernet switches
According to IDC's latest data, Nvidia's networking business has surged to the top, with the company becoming the revenue leader in the global data center Ethernet switch market for the first time in the first quarter of 2026. This is an arena traditionally contested by network equipment vendors such as Arista Networks, Cisco, Huawei, and HPE, with switch chip suppliers such as Broadcom deeply involved.
Wednesday 1 July 2026
OpenAI engineers claim to discover way to cut inference costs in half
OpenAI engineers claim to have figured out a way to halve the costs of inference using its models, according to The Information. The development comes as AI model developers are seeking to raise their models' token efficiency during a time when enterprise users are being saddled with enormous AI-usage bills.
Wednesday 1 July 2026
Tenstorrent's Jim Keller says startup will outpace Cerebras as AI chip competition intensifies

AI chip competition is widening beyond raw performance, a shift that matters for global cloud providers, device makers, and investors. Tenstorrent chief executive Jim Keller says the startup can outdo Cerebras, while also courting Intel, Qualcomm, and hyperscalers for licensing deals, acquisitions, and future chip deployments.

Wednesday 1 July 2026
China's humanoid robot boom turns physical AI from prototype to production

China's humanoid robot sector is moving faster than expected, with new unicorns, policy support and maturing supply chains pushing physical AI from lab validation toward early deployment.

Wednesday 1 July 2026
Amazon's new US$1 billion division aims to embed AI engineers in clients' teams

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is rolling out a new engineering division aimed at helping companies move beyond experimenting with artificial intelligence and start running it at the core of their operations.

Wednesday 1 July 2026
AI chip startup Rebellions' acquisition of SqueezeBits signals push beyond hardware

South Korean AI chip designer Rebellions said on June 30 that it is acquiring AI inference optimization company SqueezeBits, as part of an effort to become a full-stack AI infrastructure provider rather than a chip designer alone.

Wednesday 1 July 2026
Taiwan outpaces world in AI adoption, but firms lack strategy, Microsoft finds

Artificial intelligence is moving from a personal productivity aid into core business operations, and Taiwan is among the global leaders in adoption. Microsoft says local workers are advancing faster than corporate strategy, a gap that could shape how companies worldwide compete, reorganize work, and capture AI-driven gains.

Wednesday 1 July 2026
Schneider Electric to acquire industrial AI firm Cognite for US$3.1B

Schneider Electric, the French energy management and automation giant, announced that it has agreed to acquire Cognite, a Norwegian industrial data and AI software company, in an all-cash deal valued at US$3.1 billion. The deal is meant to reinforce the former's software line-up as it positions itself for a future of AI-powered industrial automation.