DIGITIMES observed that as AI systems continued to scale, interconnect requirements inside AI data centers had expanded from chips, packages, and boards to racks, clusters, and eventually inter-data-center connections.
Anthropic has reportedly signed a cloud-computing contract worth US$35 billion with Lambda, an Nvidia-backed cloud provider, under which Nvidia itself holds the data center lease, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the deal. The site is being developed by Hut 8, a bitcoin miner turned data-center builder, in Nueces County, Texas, and Nvidia signed an agreement with Hut 8 a few weeks ago to secure capacity, according to the Journal.
For global cloud operators and network vendors, Cisco said co-packaged optics (CPO) is moving from lab promise to commercial necessity as AI data centers strain power budgets and bandwidth limits. The company said pluggable modules, near-packaged optics, and co-packaged optics will coexist, but the shift could reshape how hyperscale infrastructure is built worldwide.
Humanoid robot scaling is still constrained by price, and Chinese humanoid robots — which command the largest global market share — show a sharp gap between consumer and industrial models. Industrial versions demand high load, high precision, and strong stability, making several precision transmission parts a key battleground for Chinese players and Taiwan suppliers.
Nvidia's US$3.5 billion investment in MediaTek's overseas convertible bonds marks more than a financial bet. It underscores how the chip leader is trying to anchor its AI infrastructure strategy as cloud giants and model developers expand their use of custom silicon and rack-scale systems.
Nvidia and MediaTek are widening a global AI partnership that could reshape data center, edge, and PC hardware markets. MediaTek's US$3.9 billion overseas convertible bond sale, largely bought by Nvidia, signals a deeper strategic tie that may affect supply chains, customer choices, and competition worldwide.
Nidec Chaun-Choung Technology plans to establish a dedicated liquid-cooling team and deepen cooperation with major cloud service providers, citing rising thermal-management demand from AI servers. The company also plans to expand cooling capacity beyond its existing operations in Kunshan, China, to Hanoi, Vietnam, with mass production and shipments expected to begin in 2028.
Capex by the world's nine largest cloud service providers (CSPs) is expected to rise about 90% year over year in 2026, while AI servers are growing faster than conventional servers, increasing demand for power and energy-management solutions.
AI-driven demand for optical transceiver modules is rising rapidly, and LuxNet said its business in the second half of 2026 will grow sharply from the first half. With capacity coming online in 2027, revenue from data center interconnect (DCI) products is expected to multiply, driving a leap in overall operations, while 1.6T optical modules are slated to enter mass production in the second half of 2027.
Kaimei Electronics, a Yageo Group company, said order visibility remains strong for the second half of 2026 as AI server demand continues to ramp and automotive and industrial-control markets recover. Across its three major product lines, the average book-to-bill (B/B) ratio reached 1.2 in June and July, while pricing pressure has eased significantly, supporting a more optimistic operating outlook.
Silergy said at a recent earnings call that most of its applications, excluding its computing product line, posted quarter-over-quarter growth of more than 20% in the second quarter of 2026. Automotive revenue rose about 50% year-over-year, industrial revenue increased 49.7%, and data center-related applications grew nearly 90% year-over-year.
Apple's AI hardware momentum is forcing an enterprise question it did not plan for. Mac mini and Mac Studio are increasingly being used as local AI infrastructure, but Apple's business remains built primarily around consumer devices and services.
The industrial PC (IPC) industry is entering a new AI-driven recovery cycle as artificial intelligence moves into a broader range of real-world applications. Market research estimates put global IPC output at about US$6.1 billion in 2025, rising to US$8.91 billion by 2030 — a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9% that outpaces the broader PC industry.
US restrictions on China's access to advanced computing could expand beyond physical chip shipments to the remote use of computing resources, potentially increasing compliance requirements for cloud providers and data center operators in Southeast Asia.
OpenAI announced that it will end its contract allowing its models to be used on Cursor due to the latter's acquisition by SpaceX. The development indicates the tense personal relationship between AI leaders Sam Altman and Elon Musk months after an acrimonious lawsuit between the two and as both companies pursue the lucrative enterprise market.
Asustek Computer (Asus) is accelerating its artificial intelligence (AI) transformation plan, announcing the rebranding of its AIoT Business Group into the Physical AI Solutions Business Group (PAS BG), with humanoid robots positioned as an important strategic market for the future. The move underscores the company's push beyond AI servers into agentic AI, edge AI, and physical AI under the chairman Jonney Shih's AI strategy.
SiFive has introduced its BigSky SF-2U870 development server, positioning the 2U rack system as a platform for hyperscalers, software vendors and SoC developers to port server workloads to RISC-V, tune software and validate production-oriented data center designs.
A move by SpaceX to manufacture turbine blades in-house could ease a global bottleneck in AI infrastructure, where power equipment is now as constrained as chips. If successful, the plan could speed data center buildouts, shift supply chains, and strengthen Musk's control over the timing of new energy capacity.
India's semiconductor ambitions are expanding from packaging and testing to chip design, materials, mobile devices and data centers. New investments by CG Power, Infineon, Foxconn, Samsung and LG highlight rising industrial activity, while skills shortages, environmental constraints and import dependence remain challenges. Government incentives increasingly seek deeper domestic capabilities and higher value creation.
Universal Scientific Industrial (USI), part of ASE Technology Holding, is expanding its optical interconnect footprint for AI data centers. EugenLight Technologies, in which USI holds a controlling stake, has launched its ultra-high-power (UHP) external laser source form-factor pluggable (ELSFP) module series, targeting high-speed optical interconnect demand in next-generation AI compute clusters, high-performance computing (HPC), and high-density data centers, with mass production scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
Server rail maker Repon began shipping Nvidia's Vera Rubin rack products in August 2026, with ASIC server rack rails set for mass production in September. The higher average selling price of Vera Rubin rack rails, along with a growing number of end customers, is expected to lift the company's second-half performance.
AI infrastructure is entering a phase in which GPUs are no longer the only constraint. Nvidia's Vera Rubin generation is pushing rack power high enough to force parallel changes in cooling, power delivery and data center design.
As society ushers in the agentic AI era, the AI infrastructure space is simultaneously undergoing intense competition that increasingly tests the limits of technology, as industry players vie for top-tier compute.
As artificial intelligence (AI) chips continue to scale up in physical size, semiconductor competition is rapidly extending beyond front-end node scaling into advanced packaging. The South Korean semiconductor industry is eyeing glass substrates as its next major breakthrough, aiming to shore up its lagging packaging ecosystem and secure greater influence in AI accelerators, high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and system-on-chip integration markets.
