ARPlanet Digital Technology, founded in 2010 as an AR startup, provides a full range of virtual and physical realities integration solutions. The company is now one of few startups in Taiwan able to export its AR PaaS (Platform as a Service) solutions.

Lagging far behind the maket leaders, China's semiconfuctor foundry sector has been keen to learn the trade from their Taiwan peers. Shang-yi Chiang, a former top executive overseeing R&D at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), will join a new foundry house in China...

The semiconductor supply chain sees high inventory levels. Silicon wafer supplier GlobalWafers has turned conservative about its sales growth in 2019 although its long-term contract agreements with clients will prevent it from seeing major price falls. In the memoy sector, Micron has already decided to cut its NAND flash output for the year...

In efforts to accelerate Chinese-language AI development in Taiwan, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) will release 400 hours of data from its AI voice databank set up in collaboration with local radio stations, with the data to be licensed free of charge to related government, industry, academic and research sectors, according to ministry sources.

Taiwan's flexible PCB makers are reporting low order visibility in the wake of the US ban on Huawei, whose impact is rippling across the smatphone market, with Apple probably also taking a hit. The memory sector is also being hit by low demand partly resulting from the ban, sending suppliers bracing for a weak third quarter...

IOTA Foundation, a German blockchain NPO, announced on May 17 that it is setting aside US$2 million to set up an IOTA Ecosystem Fund to support developers. The announcement has caught much attention in the blockchain community, but not too many are aware that IOTA Foundation is also building its first Asia outpost in Taiwan.

SoftBank Group chairman Masayoshi Son believes artificial intelligence (AI) will bring the biggest paradigm shift in human history, revolutionizing all industries. Son was speaking for the first time in public in Taiwan at the G2 and Beyond forum that Digitimes organized in Taipei on June 22 to shed light on the changes to the global supply chain in the wake of the US-China trade war...

Intel CPU shortages have given room for AMD to expand its presence in the market, but Intel is now keen to keep the rival at bay by resorting to a pricing campaign. In the EMS sector, Foxconn has elected a new chairman to succeed Terry Gou, who, after years of efforts turning the company into the a multibillion dollar firm, is now turning to politics...

Inventec's AI R&D center, set up in 2018, has developed AI-based computer vision solutions for testing pre-installed notebook software, double-checking AOI (automatic optiacl inspection)-detected product defects, and detecting scratches on surfaces of notebook chassis, according to the ODM.

Despite the prospect of the US-China trade tensions further driving down DRAM pricing in the second half of the year, vendors continue to advance their technology for the memory...