South Korea recently hosted the second annual Social Value Festa, exploring ways to design a sustainable future. The event attracted over 300 major corporations, social enterprises, and venture capital firms, including SK Group, Kakao, and LG Chem. Leading companies showcased solutions leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies to address pressing social challenges.

Government agencies in Taiwan have taken measures to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in recent years, with the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), and National Development Council (NDC) offering subsidies and guidance to foster more US$1 billion unicorns and accelerate industrial transformation into knowledge and applied services. Yet many of these startups have failed to rise out of the doldrums: even though their founders have vanished, these companies still exist in name only without being dissolved.

Taiwan's Value Valves Industry, a leading manufacturer of industrial valves, has reported that recent US tariff impositions and escalating US-China tensions have had minimal impact on its business. According to Chairman Tai Chung Yang, the company has benefited from order transfers from European and American customers, with a major US client planning a visit to Taiwan for cooperation discussions.

Taiwan-based slide manufacturer Nan Juen International (Repon) announced its earnings results for July 2025, reporting continued improvement in gross margin driven by the rising proportion of server shipments. The company achieved a gross margin of 33.62%, marking the second-highest level in its history.

The Trump administration has revoked long-standing exemptions that allowed Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to use US equipment freely at their chip plants in China, a move that has jolted South Korea's semiconductor industry. Analysts warn the decision could prevent the companies from migrating to advanced nodes and undermine their ability to expand or upgrade local operations.

In response to the threat of tariffs from the Trump administration, Taiwan's electronics contract manufacturing industry has been expanding into the US, adding to its already vast footprint across China, ASEAN countries, India, and Mexico. Since contract manufacturing often generates revenues in the trillions of New Taiwan Dollars, companies in this industry have usually overlooked startups that have capital in the mere millions, or even just several hundred thousand New Taiwan Dollars.

China's drive for self-sufficiency in AI has taken a new turn with Huawei's launch of AI solid-state drives (SSDs), aimed at easing severe shortages of high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Industry analysts describe the shift as "storage-driven computing," where SSDs move beyond passive data storage to play an active role in AI workloads.

On July 31, 2025, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing new tariffs—ranging from 10% to 41%—on imports from 68 countries and the European Union (EU). While many trade partners faced updated rates, tariffs on Vietnamese goods remained unchanged: a 20% duty on direct imports and a 40% levy on transshipped goods. In exchange, Vietnam has agreed to fully open its market and eliminate all tariffs on American imports.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have long evolved on separate tracks, but the lines are now blurring. Miller Chang, president of Advantech's Embedded Sector, said the two fields are converging as technologies mature and market demand grows. The rise of edge AI, he added, is making robots more practical and boosting the profile of the broader robotics industry. Advantech is positioning itself as a key enabler by integrating hardware and software ecosystems.

Microsoft Corporation's newly formed AI division recently announced two self-developed models, signaling a major push to enhance its in-house artificial intelligence capabilities. The announcement by Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI (MAI), underlined the company's strategy to expand large-scale computing power and attract top talent to its AI projects.

China's top economic planner has pledged to prevent excess competition in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, signaling Beijing's intent to balance rapid innovation with the risks of overcapacity. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said provinces should pursue AI development in a coordinated and complementary way, leveraging their distinctive strengths rather than duplicating efforts.