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Saturday 18 July 2026
China positions AI weather-warning system MAZU as a public good for the Global South, targeting 30 countries in five years
China used the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai to reframe its AI-driven weather early-warning system, MAZU, from a domestic meteorological tool into an exportable public good aimed at developing countries.
Saturday 18 July 2026
As AI expands nanotech, Samsung fortifies ecosystem and LG pivots to chip equipment
Nanotechnology is increasingly seen as a key enabler in the AI era, with competition broadening from semiconductors, manufacturing to home appliances. At Nano Korea 2026 held in Goyang, South Korea, Samsung Electronics again highlighted its integrated semiconductor solutions, while the LG Group moved beyond home appliances to showcase its deployment in semiconductor equipment and materials.
Saturday 18 July 2026
JNTC-TOPPAN glass substrate push signals AI packaging supply-chain shift
As AI accelerators and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) packages grow larger and more complex, substrate technology is becoming a new constraint in advanced packaging. Organic substrates remain widely used, but rising demand for high-density interconnects, lower signal loss, and better dimensional stability is pushing glass substrates closer to commercial adoption.
Saturday 18 July 2026
Anthropic: AI's edge now lies in delivery, not just model strength

AI development is moving so quickly that companies and regulators worldwide have far less time to adapt, Anthropic said at the 2026 AWS Summit Taipei. For global readers, the shift could shape how businesses deploy automation, compete, and manage risk across finance, healthcare, and other regulated sectors.

Saturday 18 July 2026
China's AI sector pivots to system-level "super-nodes" as chip curbs bite at WAIC 2026
The largest World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) to date opened in Shanghai on July 17, and its dominant signal was strategic: China's answer to US limits on advanced chips is shifting from chasing single-chip performance toward lashing thousands of domestic processors together into system-level "super-nodes."
Friday 17 July 2026
Exclusive: SiPearl turns to Taiwan ODMs to bring Rhea-based servers to market

SiPearl has powered on and begun validating Rhea1, its first-generation server CPU designed in Europe. Its next challenge is convincing Taiwan's server manufacturers to turn the chip into systems that data centers can order and deploy.

Friday 17 July 2026
Foxlink opens first US AI demonstration factory in Texas

Foxlink Texas (FTI), a subsidiary of Cheng Uei Precision Industry (Foxlink), officially opened its first artificial intelligence (AI) demonstration factory at AllianceTexas in Fort Worth, Texas, on July 14, marking the group's first such facility in the US. The opening marks a key step in Foxlink's transformation from a traditional electronic manufacturing services (EMS) provider to an AI factory operating model.

Friday 17 July 2026
Taiwan's 2027 tech budget rises 6.2% to NT$176.8 billion, targeting AI and space

Taiwan plans to increase its technology budget by 6.2% in 2027 to accelerate investment in artificial intelligence (AI), space technology and net-zero innovation. The move is also meant to strengthen long-term industrial competitiveness through closer collaboration with the private sector.

Friday 17 July 2026
TSMC's CoWoS capacity remains 'extremely tight' as OSAT partners ramp expansion

During its July 16 earnings conference, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) offered an upbeat outlook on AI demand. Responding to competition from Intel's EMIB advanced packaging technology, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said TSMC's CoWoS capacity remains "extremely tight" and welcomed the emergence of additional advanced packaging solutions to help customers alleviate backend manufacturing bottlenecks.

Friday 17 July 2026
Taiwan-Japan AI tech forum seeks closer partnerships

A Taiwan-Japan AI technology forum held at Taiwan Expo Japan brought together government, industry, academia and research representatives to discuss AI applications, semiconductor supply chains, smart manufacturing and innovation. Terry Tsao, SEMI's global marketing chief and head of the organization's operations in Taiwan, told DIGITIMES before the event that IBM has already demonstrated 2nm chip manufacturing capability in the lab, but the biggest challenge for its licensed partner, Japanese chipmaker Rapidus, to achieve mass production in Hokkaido will be yield.

Friday 17 July 2026
AI server tracker: Taiwan's testing and design service leaders surge on global chip demand

The surge in AI and high-performance computing (HPC) technologies continues to reshape the semiconductor landscape, as demonstrated by the June 2026 financial performances of key supply chain players in Taiwan. Within this thriving ecosystem, IC testing and design services have emerged as pivotal backbones ensuring the physical viability and operational efficiency of next-generation silicon.

Friday 17 July 2026
Laser Tek says AI demand is driving orders, but parts shortages are delaying shipments
Taiwanese laser processing equipment maker Laser Tek said that artificial intelligence(AI)-led investment in advanced packaging, testing, and passive components is boosting orders worldwide, but a persistent parts shortage is stretching delivery schedules and delaying some shipments. The company warned that tight supply could keep pressure on revenue in the near term.
Friday 17 July 2026
WAIC 2026 puts China's AI race on supernodes, domestic chips, and real-world deployment

China's AI industry is shifting from model scale to the infrastructure needed to train, deploy and commercialize AI, with supernodes, high-speed interconnects, and computing efficiency dominating WAIC 2026.

Friday 17 July 2026
WST targets AI optical boom as high-power CW laser shipments begin in 4Q26
Buoyed by robust shipments of optical communications products, Taiwanese optical communications company WaveSplitter Technologies (WST) nearly doubled its first-quarter revenue in 2026. Chairman and President Sheau Chen said surging AI computing demand will continue to drive the transition from 400G to 800G and 1.6T optical interconnects, with the company positioning its high-power continuous-wave (CW) laser portfolio as its next growth engine.
Friday 17 July 2026
Google's Gemini 3.5 Pro delay deepens doubts over its standing in AI coding race
Google's months-long delay in shipping Gemini 3.5 Pro is hardening a view among investors and its own researchers that the company is slipping behind Anthropic and OpenAI in the contest that increasingly defines frontier AI: writing software. The setback has renewed questions about whether the search giant's sprawling structure is now a liability in a fast-moving race.
Friday 17 July 2026
China moves to institutionalize its vision for global AI governance as Xi launches cooperation body
China used the opening of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai to institutionalize its bid to shape global governance of artificial intelligence (AI), with President Xi Jinping unveiling a package of measures aimed at the developing world and endorsing a new Shanghai-based intergovernmental body. The push positions Beijing as a self-styled champion of the "Global South" on AI at a moment of intensifying rivalry with the US over who writes the rules for the technology.
Friday 17 July 2026
Power component prices keep rising as supply tightens

Power semiconductor makers say prices are still being adjusted as upstream raw material costs rise and AI-driven high-margin products crowd out capacity. With supply tight across the chain, customers are now focusing on securing shipments first, even as new price-hike notices arrive in the third quarter of 2026.

Friday 17 July 2026
Nvidia unveils Thor-based modules for robots and edge AI

Nvidia has introduced new Thor-based modules aimed at powering robots and autonomous machines as they move into broader commercial use. The launch reflects rising global demand for compact, efficient AI hardware that can run advanced foundation models on-device, helping businesses deploy smarter systems with lower latency and reduced reliance on the cloud.

Friday 17 July 2026
TSMC's US$100 billion bet: AI growth, US pressure and the cost of staying ahead
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) posted record second-quarter earnings for 2026, issued third-quarter revenue guidance above market expectations, and raised its full-year US dollar revenue growth forecast to more than 40%. The company also increased its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to US$60-64 billion. However, investors focused more closely on its softer gross margin outlook for the third quarter, the additional US$100 billion investment planned for Arizona, and the company's evolving global manufacturing strategy.
Friday 17 July 2026
EU orders Google to open Android AI features, share Search data with rivals under DMA

The European Commission has issued binding measures requiring Alphabet's Google to open key Android features to competing AI assistants and share parts of its Google Search data with rival search engines, marking one of the bloc's most significant efforts yet to curb the market power of Big Tech under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Friday 17 July 2026
Microsoft reportedly readies AI-powered security tool to automate bug hunting and remediation

Microsoft is reportedly preparing to launch a new AI cybersecurity product designed to identify software vulnerabilities and automatically fix them, as the company expands its push into AI-driven enterprise security.

Friday 17 July 2026
Japan steps up sovereign AI ambitions as Noetra launches multimodal AI project, plans infrastructure of 27,500 Nvidia Rubin GPUs
Noetra has launched full-scale R&D for a Japan-developed multimodal foundation model, a move that could shape the future of AI robots, industrial automation, and so-called physical AI worldwide. The project highlights Japan's push for sovereign AI, with implications for how countries build and control advanced AI infrastructure and data.
Friday 17 July 2026
Moonshot's free Kimi K3 matches Anthropic's Opus 4.8, closing the gap between open and proprietary AI
Chinese AI developer Moonshot AI released Kimi K3 on July 16, a 2.8-trillion-parameter model the company bills as the first open model in the roughly 3-trillion-parameter class, pushing the distance between freely downloadable systems and the industry's top proprietary models to its narrowest point yet. Moonshot said it will publish the full model weights by July 27.
Friday 17 July 2026
CPU demand rebounds in AI data centers as TSMC stands to benefit across architectures

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) held its second-quarter 2026 earnings conference on July 16, where chairman and CEO C.C. Wei discussed the latest developments in AI demand, saying the market continues to evolve at a rapid pace.

Friday 17 July 2026
Hotai Leasing sees Taiwan auto market stabilizing as leasing demand grows
Hotai Leasing said on July 15 that Taiwan's auto market is expected to return gradually to normal growth in 2026 after tariff uncertainty, vehicle shortages, and tight financing pressured demand in 2025. The company also said younger consumers are increasingly shifting from car ownership to on-demand rental models, signaling a broader change in how vehicles are used in Taiwan.