Huawei has launched the Mate 80 flagship series, with the Kirin 9030 once again capturing domestic and international attention. As the United States continues restricting China’s access to sub-14nm tools, industry debate now centres on how the Kirin 9030 reaches “near-7nm” performance and what this means for China’s broader push toward semiconductor self-reliance

Dutch lithography leader ASML is facing an unprecedented wave of scrutiny after the publication of a new book, De belangrijkste machine ter wereld ("The Most Important Machine in the World"). The release has thrust the company into a debate unlike any it has previously encountered, sharply contrasting with the cooperative, ASML-endorsed narrative presented a year earlier in Focus – The ASML Way

TSMC has sued former SVP, Wei-Jen Lo, for allegedly violating non-compete agreements after joining Intel, but industry insiders believe the case may be quietly dropped given the geopolitical sensitivity. Lo is likely a US citizen beyond Taiwan's reach; no formal extradition treaty exists, and escalating tensions could damage carefully maintained US-Taiwan semiconductor relations

The global memory market is once again nearing an inflection point. With AI workloads spreading across end devices, DRAM has turned into the central bottleneck dictating shipment rhythms for PCs, servers, and AI PCs. Korean suppliers continue to curb production and keep the market tight, prompting rising expectations for new, credible sources of supply

Bloomberg reports that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has closed its antitrust review of SoftBank Group's planned US$6.5 billion acquisition of US chip designer Ampere Computing, clearing the final obstacle to the transaction

Taiwan's energy storage industry struggles with internal policy and structural issues, while the US faces supply chain disruptions and tariff uncertainties. Both markets encounter unique hurdles limiting the growth of lithium battery-based large-scale energy storage projects, which are essential for power grid stability

With the advent of 5G-Advanced (5.5G) in 2024, the journey toward 6G is swiftly approaching. Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) have become a key transformative force in the future of communications. By expanding network coverage from terrestrial to aerial and space domains, NTN not only paves the way for "ubiquitous connectivity," a central objective of 6G, but also signifies a crucial milestone in the convergence of the telecommunications and aerospace sectors

SpaceX continues to dominate the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications market, but other US companies are advancing with distinct strategies aimed at capturing emerging opportunities in the rapidly evolving space connectivity sector

Luxgen, the homegrown automotive brand under Taiwan's Yulon Motor, holds a unique place in the island's industrial history. Recent reports that Foxtron—a subsidiary of Foxconn—may acquire Luxgen have stirred significant discussion in Taiwan's automotive circles

The development of the hydrogen energy industry has been driven by demand from application sectors, including scenarios ranging from hydrogen vehicles to power usage. Although global hydrogen vehicle sales have declined over the past two years, Japan has remained committed to promoting hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles and even expanding trials of natural gas-hydrogen blended combustion power generation

As 2025 nears its close, the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom is again prompting debate over whether the sector is entering speculative territory. From Silicon Valley to Wall Street and across China's tech and investment circles, comparisons with the 2000 dot-com bubble have intensified. With China now a central participant in the AI landscape rather than an observer, the debate has gained broader industry attention

The US satellite industry has evolved over nearly seven decades through sustained investment from NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD). Early NASA commercial resupply and launch contracts also enabled SpaceX to build its technological and financial foundation, setting the stage for its dominance in the New Space era

As low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite networks move from development into full commercial deployment, major operators are racing to expand and secure their global supply chains. Among them, Eutelsat OneWeb is deepening its footprint in Taiwan, now treating the island as an essential pillar of its worldwide ecosystem

SoftBank Group's agreement to acquire the robotics division of Switzerland's ABB for approximately US$5.4 billion is a significant strategic move. The deal highlights Japan's increasing dominance in industrial automation and simultaneously marks a substantial withdrawal for Europe from the rapidly evolving, AI-driven robotics race

The surge in generative AI has intensified demand for AI servers and chips, shifting the focus from pure computational power to data transmission speed. This transition has accelerated the adoption of high-bandwidth memory (HBM). At GTC 2025, Nvidia introduced its Spectrum-X and Quantum-X silicon photonics network switches, positioning silicon photonics and co-packaged optics (CPO) as new frontiers in AI infrastructure. Consequently, AI innovation is extending beyond chip performance to encompass communication and transmission technologies