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.
OnePlus is exiting the North American and European markets for its future product launches, while sales of new Realme products will be suspended within its home market of China. The changes to both Oppo sub-brands signal the challenges low- to mid-tier brands face amid rising component costs and a tough global smartphone market this year.
Powertech Technology is deepening its panel-level packaging (FOPLP) strategy after its board approved a joint venture with Broadcom in Singapore to build panel-level advanced packaging (PLP) manufacturing capacity, with the planned investment totaling US$400 million.
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).
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.
Australia has escalated a two-year campaign to force Chinese investors out of Northern Minerals Ltd., barring three China-linked shareholders that defied divestment orders from voting or exercising other rights in the heavy rare-earths developer — a signal that Canberra now intends to police foreign ownership on an ongoing basis, not just at the point of a transaction.
AI technologies and applications have matured rapidly in recent years. That has driven trends such as edge AI and physical AI. The shift has also affected industrial computer (IPC) makers, which have long focused on end-point applications on the factory floor and at other field sites.
Nvidia unveiled a series of new partnerships in Japan on July 16, 2026, highlighting the growing adoption of AI across manufacturing, robotics, automotive, healthcare and data center infrastructure. The announcements coincided with CEO Jensen Huang's visit to Japan, where the company showcased its latest physical AI technologies and deepened collaborations with several of the country's leading industrial groups.
Foxconn Technology Group is stepping up energy-saving measures, green-power procurement, and supply chain decarbonization, with its factories in Taiwan targeting RE50 by 2030. The move comes as global brands such as Apple and Google increase pressure on suppliers to use renewable energy and cut emissions.
Apple's MacBook Neo is selling briskly, lifting the company's notebook brand shipments by more than 10% year on year in the second quarter of 2026, but supply shortages are emerging as a major risk. Supply-chain sources had expected MacBook Neo shipments to reach 10 million units in 2026, but a key component bottleneck could weigh on sales.
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between India and the UK came into force on July 15, 2026. While the immediate headlines belong to cheaper Scotch and luxury cars, the deal's more consequential legacy may be structural: it is the first Indian trade treaty to write labour, environment, gender, and anti-corruption obligations directly into the treaty text—a shift trade watchers describe as the "source code" for the country's future agreements.
AI data-center buildouts are driving global demand for high-speed optical interconnects and triggering a new round of capacity expansion in China's fiber-optic industry. Since the fourth quarter of 2025, fiber prices have continued rising alongside demand for higher-end products, prompting incumbents such as FiberHome to expand preform and specialty fiber capacity, while attracting cross-sector players including Lingyi iTech, Han's Laser, and Hoshine.
Apple is reportedly evaluating AI model compression technology from Silicon Valley startup PrismML as it seeks to run more capable AI models directly on iPhones, a move that could improve performance while reducing reliance on cloud computing.
