Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of April 20-27, 2026:

South Korea and Vietnam have expanded cooperation across technology, energy, and infrastructure, signing dozens of agreements during Korean President Lee Jae-Myung's visit to Hanoi, as both countries seek to reinforce supply chain resilience amid global volatility.

Across both sides of the Pacific, robot startups and leading laboratories have reached a consensus over the past year that model architecture is no longer the sole focus. Data has become the core competitive resource. Regardless of how technical approaches evolve, most teams eventually encounter the same problem: the shortage of training data.

S-Tech Corp's shift toward titanium alloys and entry into the US market could reshape global supply for the aerospace and defense sectors, reducing reliance on nickel-based products and mitigating raw-material price risks while influencing inventory cycles and production utilization worldwide.

As AI infrastructure and industrial electricity use rise, Taiwan's shifting power landscape has far-reaching global implications for supply reliability, corporate competitiveness, and carbon-cost exposure. Companies worldwide with local operations or supply chains tied to Taiwanese manufacturing may face higher energy prices, tighter grid constraints, and increased demand for behind-the-meter energy storage and power-quality solutions.

While humanoid robots application remains a topic of debate, initial deployment is expected to be in structured environmental environments. However, there is large potential in the home and/or commercial market. According to DIGITIMES Research, home environments impose significantly higher requirements on humanoid robots, with dexterous hands being a critical development factor.

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.

Cerebras Systems filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on April 17, 2026, aiming to list on the Nasdaq. The company reversed its fortunes with US$510 million in revenue and a net profit of US$87.9 million in 2025, compared to US$290 million revenue and a net loss of US$484.8 million in 2024.

The rise of generative AI has blurred the boundaries between the social media and e-commerce industries, driving a shift in their business models that has been exemplified by recent strategic initiatives from Meta and Alibaba. With competition now expanding horizontally across various sectors, industry observers highlight that Meta's plans to strengthen its physical retail presence may become a key focus for the company. Conversely, it is now increasingly likely that Alibaba will one day venture into social media.

E-paper manufacturer E Ink stated that the BMW iX3 Flow Edition equipped with E Ink Prism technology was officially released at the Auto China 2026. This represents a major breakthrough in automotive surface innovation technology. The BMW iX3 Flow Edition has become the world's first vehicle to adopt E Ink Prism electronic paper technology and move toward mass production, marking a new stage in which electronic paper vehicle-body technology has officially transitioned from concept demonstrations to practical applications.