Global Wi-Fi router shipments are increasingly driven by telecom operators' upgrade cycles and tender deployments rather than consumer demand, with traditional seasonality continuing to weaken. Since 2025, the market has shown a pattern of weaker peak seasons and firmer off-seasons.
South Korea's three leading telecom operators—SK Telecom (SKT), KT, and LG U+—signaled a decisive shift beyond connectivity at the World IT Show (WIS) 2026, held April 22–24 in Seoul, unveiling AI-centric strategies spanning agents, applications, and infrastructure as they position themselves as full-stack AI platform providers.
Samsung Electronics executive chairman Lee Jae-yong's bold acquisition of premium audio brand Harman for KRW9.4 trillion (approx. US$6.3 billion) a decade ago has paid off, with the American subsidiary of Samsung posting historic highs in both revenue and operating profit.
The surge in optical module stocks reflects a deeper shift in AI infrastructure: the bottleneck is no longer computing power alone, but how that power is connected.
Largan Precision and Sunny Optical have recently announced plans to enter the fiber array unit (FAU) market, positioning it as a priority development area. Industry sources say the timing reflects the core requirements of FAU manufacturing — ultra-precision processing and sub-micron alignment — which closely match the technical strengths both companies developed in smartphone lens production. This overlap in capabilities offers significant value potential in the optical communications sector.
Rising upstream component costs and weak retail promotions in China, combined with traditional off-season demand overseas, are denting global smartphone supply and pricing. Consumers and suppliers worldwide may face higher prices and reduced availability as Chinese manufacturers trim shipments and prioritize higher-margin models, with implications for emerging markets and device ecosystems.
Shenzhen has brought online what project materials describe as China's first 14,000P, 10,000-card AI computing cluster built around a fully domestic technology stack, marking a new stage in the country's push to reduce reliance on foreign hardware and software in large-scale model training.
Benefiting from strong AI high-frequency, high-speed transmission and communications infrastructure demand, TXC reported robust AI optical communication orders in the first quarter of 2026, driving its highest-ever quarterly revenue. The company's March 2026 revenue reached NT$1.1 billion (approx. US$35.3 million), up 2.7% year-over-year; cumulative revenue for the first three months of 2026 hit NT$3.3 billion, a 5.5% annual increase and a record for this period.
Apple has officially confirmed long-rumored news that Tim Cook will step down as CEO in September 2026, handing over leadership of the US$4 trillion tech giant to senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus. Unlike Cook, known for his supply chain mastery, Ternus is well-known as a pure "product person" and engineer.
Starting in the second half of 2026, all flagship smartphone SoCs will transition to the 2nm process node. While this promises enhanced performance for flagship devices, it also triggers a rapid rise in production costs.
Huawei's Pura X Max launch marks a shift in the foldable smartphone market, with competition moving from a Samsung-Huawei duopoly toward a three-way race that includes Apple's expected foldable iPhone. Huawei's early move signals a push to shape the next phase of high-end market leadership rather than simply extend its premium lineup.
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