Huawei has joined more than 20 Chinese technology companies and research bodies to launch OPEN NPO, the country's first multi-source agreement for near-packaged optics, in an effort to standardise high-speed optical interconnects for AI supernodes and large-scale computing clusters.
Reports have emerged that Apple may have managed to avoid 100% tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, partly by agreeing to partner with Intel to manufacture its chips. While Apple could benefit from expanding its chip suppliers, the episode also shows the power of Intel's government backing as the US seeks to reshore its semiconductor industry.
Tencent is in talks to become the largest shareholder in Manus, leading a proposed buyback of the AI agent startup after Chinese regulators ordered Meta Platforms to unwind its US$2 billion acquisition.
Chip industry sources said Meta's cloud AI chip procurement could soon catch up with Google or Amazon AWS among the four major cloud service providers. Qualcomm and Broadcom are expected to remain key partners and beneficiaries, while Arm is also involved, and MediaTek is described as a clear partner among Taiwanese IC design houses.
Trans-Sun Materials Technology posted record revenue for June, the second quarter and the first half of 2026, supported by rising demand for AI servers and high-performance computing (HPC) applications. June consolidated revenue rose 40.83% year on year to NT$163 million (US$5.43 million), second-quarter revenue increased 28.22% to NT$441 million, and first-half revenue climbed 28.43% to NT$820 million, all record highs for their respective periods.
Notebook ODMs enjoyed stronger-than-seasonal demand in the first half of 2026, but the traditional peak season is losing momentum. Shipments are expected to decline sequentially from the third quarter, while component suppliers increasingly view 2026 as a turning point in the global notebook supply chain.
Apple is reshaping its Mac chip roadmap to prioritize AI, accelerating development of future processors as the company seeks to strengthen its position in the AI era.
AI demand is still outrunning advanced semiconductor capacity, putting foundry output, HBM supply, packaging and server infrastructure at the centre of this week's tech agenda.
China is preparing to allow a limited number of Nvidia H200 AI accelerators into the country, giving Alibaba, ByteDance, and DeepSeek access to advanced computing power while preserving Beijing's broader campaign for semiconductor self-reliance.
As generative AI fuels rapid growth in demand for high-performance computing (HPC), the semiconductor industry is shifting from a process race to a materials race. Geckos chairman Shen Tsung-huan says that as chip manufacturing moves to 2nm and even more advanced nodes, gains in AI computing power are no longer just a chip design issue, but are increasingly constrained by the thermal conductivity and high-frequency signal transmission capabilities of materials.
