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Aug 14
US report puts China-linked tariff evasion through Asia under the spotlight

A new US government-linked report says American tariff revenue is being drained by tens of billions of dollars a year through illegal transshipment, with exporters routing China-origin goods through more than 40 third countries — many of them in Asia — to dodge higher US duties. The report, titled "The Great Transshipment Scam," traces the practice to Chinese exporters' response to the Section 301 tariffs imposed in 2018 and estimates current annual illegal transshipment flows at US$40 billion to US$303 billion, depending on methodology.

Taiwan's AI server supply chain continued to show strong growth in July 2026, with revenue rising across copper-clad laminate (CCL), design services, substrates, and testing. All four segments recorded year-over-year growth, while design services posted the strongest monthly increase.

India's electronics and AI infrastructure ambitions are accelerating, but mounting environmental opposition, tighter Chinese visa curbs, and intensifying competition for semiconductor investment are exposing new challenges. As Google advances a US$15 billion AI data center, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) restructures its cloud business, and Dixon Technologies expands its smartphone OEM business, states are sweetening incentives to strengthen India's position in global technology supply chains.

Industrial PC (IPC) maker DFI held its second-quarter 2026 earnings conference on August 14, reporting a sharp improvement in profitability as its embedded, intelligent automation and network security businesses all gained momentum. Revenue growth accelerated further in July, strengthening the company's confidence in the second-half outlook.
FS said it plans to begin trial production and shipments of high-end MLPC stacked solid-state capacitors by the end of 2026 as it expands beyond plastic injection molding machines into passive components. The move was outlined alongside the company's second-quarter 2026 financial update and marks a new growth line tied to AI and GPU supply chains.
Fu Chun Shin Machinery said rising investment in smart manufacturing and AI infrastructure lifted demand for high-precision, high-efficiency, and intelligent equipment across ICT, semiconductor, and electronics supply chains. The plastic injection molding machine maker reported higher gross margin and operating margin in the second quarter, with both measures improving year-on-year.
AI vision specialist Solomon Technology Corporation reported strong financial results for the second quarter of 2026, with quarterly profit reaching a record high. Solomon chairman Cheng-Lung Chen said orders related to AI vision and robotics have surged since the beginning of the year, setting the stage for substantial growth in 2026.
AI-driven electricity demand is prompting Century Group to broaden its energy ambitions beyond offshore wind. The group plans to enter the small modular reactor (SMR) supply chain through reactor peripheral equipment and aims to obtain TÜV Rheinland technical and safety certification within three years, positioning itself for what it sees as a major wave of low-carbon power investment tied to AI data centers.
Appier, an agentic AI-as-a-service provider, reported record second-quarter 2026 revenue of JPY12.9 billion and raised its fiscal 2026 outlook on the back of stronger growth and higher profitability. The results, announced on the 13th, showed revenue up 24.6% year-on-year and gross margin reaching 60.1% for the first time, with both revenue and operating profit beating the company's guidance.

As physical AI and robotics draw unprecedented market attention, a key bottleneck is clogging the deployment pipeline: quality, real-world physical data. To move applications from the lab to real-world deployment, companies are getting creative in overcoming this obstacle while balancing affordability, stability, and data volumes.

China is accelerating construction of its national computing network, and a growing share of new capacity is likely to use supernodes. With domestic AI accelerators still trailing leading global chips in single-card performance, Chinese vendors are increasingly relying on larger card counts, high-speed interconnects and system-level optimisation to close the gap.

Edgecore Networks said distributed AI infrastructure will become more important as data centers run into limits on power, space, and cooling. Speaking at the 2026 OCP APAC Summit, the company outlined an all-optical networking approach designed to connect GPUs, servers, and storage across multiple sites and regions.