Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) reported on January 20, 2026, that strong demand for IC manufacturing and AI servers propelled export orders to new heights in December 2025. With most IC manufacturing and AI server shipments originating from Taiwan, overseas production by Taiwanese firms—in China, Vietnam, Mexico, and elsewhere—has declined to 46.5%.
Following the easing of US reciprocal tariffs to 15%, Taiwan's Fortune Electric is seeing meaningful relief in cost pressures while accelerating growth driven by robust demand from AI data centers and US infrastructure investment.
Sequoia Capital is reportedly set to participate in a major funding round for AI startup Anthropic, marking a departure from its traditional practice of avoiding investments in direct competitors.
Asus announced on January 2, 2026, that it will not launch new smartphones in 2026, marking a strategic retreat from the mobile phone segment after more than two decades. Chairman Jonney Shih emphasized that Asus will continue to support existing smartphone users while reallocating resources toward longer-term strategic areas.
The US urgently needs to upgrade its aging grid infrastructure amid surging demand from large-scale AI computing, yet its domestic production capacity for heavy electrical equipment has struggled to keep up with demand, and imports still account for the vast majority of the supply for transformers and switchgear. Under this backdrop, market sources suggest that US customers may award bonuses if Taiwanese heavy electrical equipment suppliers can deliver ahead of schedule.
AI technology company Bravo iDeas announced on January 20 that it is entering the AI toy market with an emotional AI toy that combines AI chips with large language models (LLMs). The toy features a character-driven AI architecture that enhances interaction by delivering intelligent conversations and emotional engagement aligned with each character's persona.
Supply chain sources report that Chromebook shipments have stabilized under Google's support. Despite facing a memory market turmoil, Google has set a full-year shipment target of 19.5 million units for 2026, matching 2025 levels. Intel, Qualcomm, and MediaTek remain optimistic about Chromebook demand and continue launching new platforms to expand their market share.
As trends in autonomous driving and edge computing continue to evolve, oToBrite Electronics is upgrading its core competitiveness from automotive sensing hardware to full-domain visual AI solutions. Through a product lineup of automotive-grade camera modules ranging from 1 to 8MP, oToBrite is not only strengthening its position in the commercial and passenger vehicle markets but also crossing over into the unmanned vehicle and robotics sectors, building a multi-dimensional sensing moat.
Asia Optical is positioning itself for what its chairman believes could be the next major consumer technology wave: humanoid robots. I-Jen Lai, the company's chairman, said Asia Optical has already entered the supply chains of humanoid robot makers in the US, Japan, and Europe, betting that the technology could eventually become as commonplace as household appliances.
The Financial Times reported that Apple's decision to partner with Google to integrate Gemini technology into the next generation of Siri was driven in part by OpenAI's ambition to develop AI products that could eventually compete with the iPhone. As potential conflicts of interest between the two companies became more pronounced, Apple opted to work with Google instead of OpenAI.
Intel has poached Eric Demers, a veteran GPU architect, known for developing Qualcomm's proprietary Adreno GPU architecture. Demers will become Intel's senior vice president of GPU engineering. This suggests that even though Intel has long been unable to compete with Nvidia and AMD in the GPU market, it still hopes to strengthen its own GPU capabilities.
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