Evergreen Marine Corp. said rising international oil prices driven by Middle East hostilities are expected to push up fuel cost ratios in the second quarter of 2026, complicating voyage planning and clouding demand into the fourth quarter. Pre-peak season ordering is supporting operations into the middle of the year, but elevated fuel costs and geopolitical spillovers have heightened full-year uncertainty.
OpenAI's expanding push into consumer hardware is drawing attention to potential supply chain shifts, after industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the company could "redefine" the smartphone with an AI agent-driven device and identified MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Luxshare Precision Industry as potential key suppliers, though the plans have not been independently confirmed.
Apple's incoming chief executive confronts a web of diplomatic, political, and regulatory challenges that will test the company's ability to manage relationships with world leaders and regulators, and could influence decisions on trade and antitrust disputes.
Global cloud service providers (CSPs) continue to expand their procurement of AI servers from Taiwan, while high-end GPUs and TPUs manufactured by TSMC are in short supply. Analysts say AI will become as ubiquitous as electricity and the Internet, extending beyond cloud computing into appliances, automobiles, and robotics.
South Korea's Naver Cloud and construction project management firm HanmiGlobal have formed a strategic alliance to jointly pursue large-scale data center projects overseas, with a particular focus on Saudi Arabia and other emerging markets.
Quanta Computer is doubling down on speed, scale, and execution as it heads into 2026, with leadership expressing strong confidence that surging AI server demand will drive another year of record growth, even amid global uncertainty. At Quanta's 38th anniversary celebration, Vice Chairman C.C. Leung emphasized the company's ability to meet increasingly demanding customer expectations. Orders are not only growing in volume, he noted, but also require faster delivery and lower costs. Despite operating at full capacity, he stressed that the company continues to seek even more orders and growth opportunities.
The 2026 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition opened on April 24 with a new focal point: the rapid ascent of large language models (LLMs) into the smart cockpit.
DeepSeek's 90% cut to fees for input cache hit, which occurs when the model reuses previously computed results for identical or similar inputs instead of recomputing them, across its API lineup could lower operational costs for global developers and enterprises, especially for long-text and high-frequency applications, potentially accelerating the adoption of locally developed large language models, intensifying price competition with international providers, and reducing barriers to AI-powered services worldwide.
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.
India is accelerating its semiconductor ambitions, from Micron Technology's Sanand ramp to new fabrication and advanced packaging projects, while expanding design partnerships. At the same time, regulatory pressure on Apple, weakening smartphone demand, and solar policy tensions highlight challenges alongside growing global supply-chain integration.
More coverage
