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Oct 6
Notebook downturn splits supply chain: ODMs lean on servers, component makers seek new growth
Notebook shipments performed better than expected in the first half of 2026, but the market entered a sharp downturn beginning in September, in stark contrast to previous years, when the month typically marked the start of the peak season.
TSMC will hold its third-quarter earnings call on October 15 this year.
India is joining the top tier of Asia Pacific data center markets with a stock of facilities designed for a fraction of the power AI hardware draws. That gap is turning the country's build-out into a race for liquid cooling, power equipment, and high-density designs, not just floor space.
Huawei is backing near-packaged optics (NPO) rather than co-packaged optics (CPO) for its next-generation AI infrastructure, arguing that NPO offers a better balance of cost, manufacturability, reliability and serviceability as optical interconnects move deeper into large-scale AI clusters.
Chicony Electronics said it has entered the supply chain of a US robotics startup, expanding into embodied AI and physical AI as it seeks higher-value markets. The move could strengthen global robot development by improving the data and vision systems that help machines perceive, interpret, and act in real-world settings.
The global race to build data centers for artificial intelligence is entering a more difficult phase. Demand for computing capacity remains strong, but new projects increasingly face limits on land, electricity, water, and local acceptance, turning infrastructure expansion into a broader political and social contest.
The global household cleaning robot market grew by double digits in 2025, making it a key area for smart home development and intense competition in smart home devices. After filing for bankruptcy at the end of 2025 and completing its restructuring in January 2026, US-based robot vacuum maker iRobot is targeting the Taiwanese market.
The traditional market divide between the third-generation semiconductors gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) is seeing greater overlap in 2026, with SiC increasingly encroaching on GaN's territory.
Thailand's industrial landscape may shift further toward China as global supply chains continue to move across Southeast Asia. More broadly, the trend highlights how lower costs, trade realignment, and investment incentives are reshaping manufacturing networks, while also raising questions about local supply chains, land use, and economic dependency.
Marvell Technology is betting that the next phase of AI infrastructure growth will require substantially more networking and optical connectivity, raising its fiscal 2028 revenue outlook to approximately US$20 billion and setting a fiscal 2031 target of US$70 billion to US$90 billion. The company's strategy centers on extending existing hyperscaler relationships across switches, optics, and custom chips surrounding AI processors.

Seagate Technology and Toshiba are reportedly competing to acquire TDK's hard-disk-drive magnetic-head business, a deal that could reshape one of the most concentrated supply chains in AI data-center storage.

AI server supply chains are accelerating their shift toward regional manufacturing. However, the labor access, wage costs, and capacity expansion constraints of US manufacturing are forcing manufacturers to raise automation levels to balance delivery speed and production efficiency. That has pushed Foxconn and Nvidia to jointly invest in precision assembly automation research, with an eye toward reducing manual handling.