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Aug 17
Record orders, yet profits squeezed: Asia-Pacific electronics supply chain caught in cost crunch

Global Electronics Association survey data show that demand across the global electronics manufacturing industry maintained steady expansion in the first half of 2026, with orders, shipments, and capacity utilization strengthening in most months. Capacity utilization, in particular, reached an all-time high since the survey began in June.

Nvidia has reached a deal with OpenAI to provide up to US$105 billion in credit guarantees for the AI startup's upcoming 8GW data center campus in Ohio. The support will help OpenAI to secure a lease from SB Energy, while Nvidia will be the facility's exclusive chip supplier.

Nvidia has unveiled a US$500 billion artificial intelligence (AI) compute financing plan with six Wall Street giants—Goldman Sachs Group, Blackstone, Apollo Global Management, KKR, BlackRock, and Brookfield—highlighting its push to win new startup customers and the growing complexity of its financing structure. The plan also underscores its strategic split from rival Broadcom and rising concerns over a possible industry bubble.

LED packaging manufacturer Everlight Electronics stated that due to higher raw material costs, gross margin fell to 24.16% in the second quarter of 2026, down 7.93pp year-over-year and 0.5pp from the first quarter, mainly due to fluctuations in the Chinese yuan exchange rate.
The cloud AI data center boom is not close to bursting, according to chip supply-chain players. They say that analog ICs, including power semiconductors, will stay tight for years. They also expect price hikes to continue, with more than one round likely ahead.

India is moving into the next phase of its electronics manufacturing strategy, using its progress in downstream assembly as a base to build domestic capabilities in components, materials, and manufacturing equipment.

AI server supply chain ramps up capital, talent, and capacity
Aug 18, 10:19
The AI server supply chain continues to expand capital expenditures, pouring in cash, building factories, and hiring aggressively, to heighten barriers to entry. On top of rapid product iterations and increasingly complex designs, the competitive gap between players is widening. Multiple supply chain sources note that the AI server ecosystem will become more concentrated: top players will continue to secure large orders while gaining leverage to negotiate better commercial terms with customers.
Elon Musk has made SpaceX's AI hardware strategy unusually clear: future infrastructure will rely exclusively on Nvidia chips and technology. Yet AMD, Nvidia's largest rival in AI accelerators, still owns roughly 3.3 million SpaceX shares worth more than US$565 million.

Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is preparing the second-phase quantum research program, known as the "Quantum Leap Project," for 2027 to 2031, while a Request for Proposal for the National Center for High-Performance Computing's (NCHC) quantum computing (QC) host is expected soon. The move has raised questions over whether NSTC Minister Wu Cheng-wen's recent US trip could include talks with leading quantum computing companies on potential Taiwan-US cooperation.

ByteDance and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) have reached an agreement to strengthen copyright safeguards for the Chinese tech giant's AI video and image-generation models, marking a notable shift from confrontation toward cooperation over generative AI and intellectual property.
A new joint venture between South Korean and Indian chemical firms is betting that semiconductor materials can be made without touching China at any stage, positioning itself as an alternative supply route just as the US-China conflict pushes chipmakers to rethink where their raw materials come from.
As the AI race increasingly evolves around who can secure the most compute, develop the strongest models and convert them into commercially viable applications, SpaceX has moved another step toward controlling all three layers under one expanding ecosystem.