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Jul 14
Google reportedly ramps up TPU push to court Nvidia-backed cloud providers

Google is intensifying its effort to expand adoption of its in-house Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), taking direct aim at Nvidia's dominance in AI infrastructure by courting "neocloud" providers that have traditionally built their businesses around Nvidia GPUs.

China's smartphone market is being reordered by the cost of the parts inside the phone rather than by any loss of appetite for the devices, and the second quarter of 2026 showed that shift rewards. Shipments fell to roughly 66 million units, down 4.3% year over year, according to IDC's Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker released on July 14, the fifth consecutive quarter of decline, leaving first-half shipments at about 134 million units, down 4.2%. Yet within that shrinking pool, Huawei and Apple both grew by around 20% or more, pulling further ahead of an Android field that spent the quarter raising prices.
India's antitrust regulator has penalized HP India and 16 of its resellers for rigging bids in the sale of printer consumables, in one of two orders that together impose the country's largest cartel penalty yet on a single technology vendor.
Arthur Mensch, CEO of French AI startup Mistral AI, said France should prioritize low-cost nuclear electricity for domestic and European AI companies as US technology groups expand their demand for power. The warning came during the G7 summit, where the startup argued that Europe could lose its energy advantage within two years if policymakers do not act.

AI data-center buildouts are driving global demand for high-speed optical interconnects and triggering a new round of capacity expansion in China's fiber-optic industry. Since the fourth quarter of 2025, fiber prices have continued rising alongside demand for higher-end products, prompting incumbents such as FiberHome to expand preform and specialty fiber capacity, while attracting cross-sector players including Lingyi iTech, Han's Laser, and Hoshine.

Apple is reportedly evaluating AI model compression technology from Silicon Valley startup PrismML as it seeks to run more capable AI models directly on iPhones, a move that could improve performance while reducing reliance on cloud computing.

Taiwan and Japan expand all-photonic network ties for AI and research
Jul 15, 09:48
Taiwan and Japan are expanding deployment of the IOWN all-photonic network to improve research connectivity and provide backup AI computing capacity. The effort comes as Taiwan promotes digital resilience and sovereign AI infrastructure, while NTT extends APN links through Kumamoto to tighten industry connections between the two markets.

CATL is rapidly expanding into AI infrastructure. Through strategic investments in DeepSeek, data centres and power systems, the company is positioning itself at the energy layer of the AI computing value chain, extending its business well beyond electric vehicle batteries.

The 2026 Taiwan Expo Japan opened in Tokyo on July 15, giving Taiwanese companies a platform to pursue business in AI, smart technology, robotics and the silver economy. Taiwan's trade promotion delegation had arrived in Japan a day earlier for the expo and a separate Taiwan-Japan AI technology forum.
Microsoft has announced an expanded 3,200-job cut at its Xbox division and is evaluating whether to split off or sell certain game studios. Analysts say the move is more than a routine gaming restructure and instead reflects how AI investment is reshaping capital allocation across the tech industry.
Nvidia and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are weighing a partnership under which the Japanese industrial group would supply cooling systems and energy management equipment for the artificial-intelligence data centers Nvidia is building with partners worldwide, Nikkei reported. The talks point to where the AI buildout is now bottlenecked: not chips, but the power and heat they generate.

Huawei will publicly display its Atlas 950 SuperPoD AI computing system for the first time at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, placing domestic computing infrastructure at the centre of China's flagship AI gathering.