Benefiting from the global labor shortage, Aurotek Corp. has accelerated its second growth curve through AI-driven intelligent robots, with orders on hand continuing to climb. Expanding demand for advanced processes and smart manufacturing has pushed Aurotek's cumulative revenue for the first eight months of 2025 to rise more than 50%.

Wiwynn chair and chief strategy officer Emily Hong said that the company is collaborating with silicon photonics companies to address the rapid increase in AI computing power. As computing power surges, energy consumption has become a major challenge, with industry players working to tackle this issue through cooling and other technologies. Hong believes that quantum computing could serve as a potential solution to the energy consumption problem.

Panasonic Group's subsidiary, Panasonic Industry, announced plans to construct a new factory in central Thailand with an investment of JPY17 billion (approx. US$115 million). The facility will produce multilayer circuit board materials specifically designed for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, addressing the surging global demand driven by generative AI technologies.

Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of September 8–September 14.

Nvidia has reportedly abandoned its initial SOCAMM1 low-power DRAM module for AI workloads, shifting focus to SOCAMM2 with faster speeds and broader supplier collaboration, including Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix. This move signals a strategic push to address technical challenges and advance AI memory solutions ahead of mass production in 2026.

Shanghai-based Ant Lingbo Technology, a subsidiary of Ant Group, has introduced its first humanoid robot, the R1, at the Inclusion Conference in Shanghai. The robot demonstrated its ability to guide visitors, sort medicines, and cook meals during the event.

Ever since Academia Sinica announced a 5-qubit superconducting quantum computer in January 2024, and National Tsing Hua University unveiled a photonic quantum computer capable of integer factorization using just one photon in October 2024, Taiwan has seen no major breakthroughs in quantum computing research. in addition, no clear results have been obtained from the quantum computer purchased from the Finnish company IQM, and National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) officials have stated that they will soon conduct an on-site inspection of the IQM Spark in Taiwan.

At the recent Hot Chips 2025 conference, Nvidia detailed its latest GB10 system-on-chip (SoC) architecture, representing a miniaturized application of the Blackwell GPU architecture. Through collaboration with MediaTek, Nvidia integrated 20 Arm v9.2 CPU cores with a high-performance GPU into a single 2.5D package, creating a compact version of the Grace Blackwell platform.

Quantum computing developer Rigetti Computing has projected that the technology will become commercially viable when it is integrated into existing data centers, delivering clear advantages over current CPU and GPU systems. The company expects this milestone to occur within three to five years, signaling a critical phase for quantum computing beyond research and development.

Google's cloud computing service, Google Cloud, has become its most important growth engine. CEO Thomas Kurian recently stated at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference held in San Francisco that the business had generated billions of dollars in revenue through artificial intelligence (AI) services and established diversified business models. Currently, it holds a backlog exceeding US$106 billion, with approximately 55% of these orders expected to convert into revenue within the next two years—about US$58 billion.

As generative AI matures, the traditional division of labor within enterprises is undergoing a profound transformation. At Taiwan Mobile's D.E.E.P. Tech Day 2025 on September 9, 2025, Chief Information Officer Rock Tsai introduced the concept of "reversing specialization," arguing that AI is not merely a productivity upgrade but a force that will redistribute corporate roles, reshape value chains, and accelerate the rise of an "AI agent" ecosystem in external markets.

Oracle is rapidly shaking off its reputation as a laggard in cloud computing, with new AI contracts and a strong outlook pushing its growth plans into overdrive.

Generative AI has moved beyond the "model arms race" into practical deployment, and Taiwan Mobile (TWM) is moving quickly to capitalize on the momentum. Company president Jamie Lin announced that the company will invest NT$930 million (approx. US$30.7 million) in 2025 on R&D to create solutions that support enterprises in AI adoption and deployment.

On September 11, 2025, the Taiwan Quantum Computing and Information Technology Association held a forum at SEMICON Taiwan, where CEOs from top international quantum computing companies attended in person. The event highlighted proprietary quantum computers and underscored the industry's growing maturity and global reach.

At a SEMICON Taiwan forum on Quantum computing, IBM Japan CTO and Vice President Norishige Morimoto detailed how AI's growing complexity—estimated to have surged by more than 100 million times over 15 years due to LLM advancements—has outpaced the evolution of GPU hardware. This mismatch leads to exponentially higher energy usage, with one study forecasting that data center energy needs could rise 90-fold by 2050. To address this, IBM is advancing hybrid computing systems that combine classical semiconductors, neuromorphic chips, and qubits.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expressed optimism on September 11, 2025, that a significant trade deal with Taiwan is within reach, raising hopes that temporary tariffs on Taiwanese goods could soon be lifted.

Nvidia's grip on the AI surge is forcing a rethink of server design, with thermal management at the forefront. Sources indicate that cooling is shifting rapidly from air to liquid systems, and suppliers are now betting on a breakthrough: the microchannel lid. This design could replace traditional cold plates to handle the soaring heat of Nvidia's upcoming Rubin GPUs. Leading Taiwanese cooling specialists have already delivered samples, with Nvidia expected to decide on adoption as early as the fourth quarter of 2025.

Hiwin Technologies is strengthening its presence across major global markets, including China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Europe, Israel, Russia, and the US. This broad expansion seeks to position the company closer to its key customers in the semiconductor and robotics sectors, particularly emphasizing China's emerging "low-altitude economy" as a strategic area.

Texas Instruments (TI) CEO Haviv Ilan stated at the 2025 Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference that the data center market is the fastest recovering among all sectors, with the company's revenue from this segment growing over 50% annually. He projects that in 2025, data center operations will generate US$1-1.2 billion in revenue.

Since the beginning of 2025, despite disruptions from US President Donald Trump's trade protectionism, the AI wave has driven American cloud service providers (CSPs) to continuously purchase AI servers and high-end graphics cards manufactured in Taiwan. This surge has boosted Taiwan's exports to the US by 55%, with information and communication technology (ICT) product exports—primarily servers—increasing by 100%.

OpenAI has reportedly signed a contract with Oracle to purchase roughly US$300 billion in computing power over the next five years, according to people familiar with the matter, a commitment that far exceeds the startup's current revenue and signals the surging demand for AI infrastructure.

Apple is preparing to debut vapor chamber (VC) cooling in the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro, with Taiwan's Asia Vital Components (AVC) and China's Suzhou Tianmai Thermal Technology reportedly tapped as suppliers. The technology is hardly groundbreaking; Android brands have deployed VC since 2019, when 5G devices demanded slimmer designs with advanced thermal solutions. For suppliers, the delay highlights a familiar lesson: winning Apple's business requires stamina and long-term commitment.

The global robotics sector continues to grow as Taiwanese transmission component manufacturer Chieftek Precision announces a strategic focus on robot development, moving beyond humanoid forms to offer modular solutions. The company aims to provide customers with integrated system modules such as joints and arms, facilitating faster robot design cycles.

Competition among major US cloud service providers (CSPs) and AI firms is intensifying, with Google currently perceived as holding a leading position in the overall AI market. Its advancements in AI foundational models, applications, cloud infrastructure, and especially its proprietary Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips distinguish it from competitors.