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Apr 2
South Korea's market volatility hands Taiwan a rare edge in AI
During a lecture hosted by the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC), DIGITIMES Chairman Colley Hwang analyzed the East Asian industrial landscape. While headlines often focus on the chip wars between the US and China, Hwang shed light on a quieter, more structural divergence: the widening "resilience gap" between Taiwan and South Korea, as manifested through the lens of currency.
Amid soaring memory prices, manufacturers have repeatedly lowered 2026 shipment targets for smartphones, PCs, and other consumer electronics, triggering a ripple effect across the supply chain. Recently, reports emerged that major Chinese smartphone brands are scaling back purchases of processors, forcing MediaTek and Qualcomm to reduce their subsequent orders with TSMC, with estimated cuts of 10-15% in wafer starts on 4/3nm processes.
Foxconn reported a robust consolidated revenue of NT$803.7 billion (approx. US$25.1 billion) in March 2026, driven by sustained demand for AI cloud products and restocking across all major product lines after the Lunar New Year. The company's four key categories showed month-over-month gains, with AI cloud servers continuing to be the primary growth engine, while the company's consumer smart device and computer terminal businesses benefited from new product launches and renewed momentum.
Industry sources reveal that in response to geopolitical risks, major brands have increasingly diversified their manufacturing outside China. Apple has already transferred more than 40% of its MacBook production capacity to Vietnam, incorporating the recently launched MacBook Neo into local assembly lines.
Open-source AI agent project OpenClaw, colloquially referred to as "raising lobsters," is gaining momentum in China. The launch of its official China mirror on April 1 is pushing activity beyond developer circles into cloud platforms and major tech firms, turning the project into a focal point for platform competition.
Samsung Electronics reported a record-shattering eight-fold leap in quarterly profit, as insatiable demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips outweighed growing concerns over geopolitical instability in the Middle East.

Anthropic, Google, and Broadcom today announced a massive expansion of their strategic partnership, unveiling a multi-year roadmap that secures approximately 3.5 gigawatts (GW) of next-generation AI computing capacity for Anthropic.

In September 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a rare joint livestream appearance with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger to announce a US$5 billion equity investment in Intel. In March 2026, Nvidia followed up with a US$2 billion investment in Marvell Technology. Why Huang is investing in potential competitors so aggressively remains a question.
iKala co-founder and chairman Sega Cheng made a bold declaration at "iKala Connection Day" on March 30: AI is now the world's third essential infrastructure, ranking alongside water and electricity. Computing costs are halving every six months, he said, fueling a wave of adoption unlike anything seen before.
Industrial touch panel maker Apex Material Technology (AMT), whose core business spans industrial control and medical applications, accounting for up to 90% of its operations, will continue to deepen its presence in the medical and energy-efficient e-paper sectors in 2026. Following shipments of over 10,000 e-paper units in 2025, volumes are expected to grow further in 2026, contributing to tangible revenue and profit gains. The company noted that despite headwinds such as geopolitical conflicts and rising material costs, both revenue and operating margin in 2026 are expected to remain in line with 2025 performance.
Acer's smart mobility strategy is beginning to show results. The company expects the overall industry to rebound in 2026 and anticipates its smart mobility to expand, with full-year growth likely reaching double digits. Key growth markets will be the US and Canada, while opportunities in electric motorcycles and e-bikes are also promising in the Asia-Pacific region. However, despite being a large e-bike market, China is not a current target due to intense competition.
Since artificial general intelligence (AGI) depends heavily on the CPU, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang aims to build the most efficient "AI factory" by tightly controlling CPU development. At GTC 2026, Nvidia aggressively promoted its next-generation self-developed Arm-based CPU designed specifically for agentic AI.