China's export controls on the key semiconductor material indium phosphide (InP), imposed since February 2025, are threatening global AI data-center buildouts and squeezing the optical supply chain across the US and Taiwan. The restrictions have triggered shortages and delayed export licenses, while sending prices soaring for a material with no substitute in photonics. InP is a core material for high-speed optical chips and is irreplaceable in photonics technologies that transmit signals over fiber, making it a potent "materials choke point" weapon in Beijing's US-China trade war.

Robotics has progressed rapidly in the past few years, but major obstacles — including data collection and trust infrastructure — remain barriers to widespread deployment. This was the takeaway from a recent panel of robotics experts at SuperAI Singapore, where they discussed the present and future of the industry.

Taiwan's drone supply chain is notching fresh wins, with downstream players such as Thunder Tiger and Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) continuing to secure orders while upstream suppliers, especially chipmakers, are quietly expanding their deployments and market share. For military and commercial drones in particular, Taiwanese chip vendors are now working closely with local customers as well as customers in Europe and the US to integrate a range of on-board image-processing and AI recognition modules, plus applications such as flight control and ground control stations.

While marketing initiatives promote an ultra-fast transition to wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductors, fully automated smart factories, and an all-electric automotive future, the sentiment across the PCIM Europe 2026 exhibition floor is more pragmatic. The industry has reached a transitional maturity wall where the realities of material physics, fragmented design silos, and macroeconomic supply shocks are clashing with marketing hype cycles.