On a recent podcast, DIGITIMES analyst Luke Lin spotlighted Elon Musk's Terafab as a retro IDM bet with major funding questions, while arguing CPUs are resurging in the AI era as inference demand tightens supply and reshapes semiconductor priorities.
Amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) convened an electricity price review committee on March 27. Taking into account the need to stabilize consumer prices, the committee decided not to adjust electricity rates, keeping the average price at NT$3.78 (approx. US$0.12) per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are expected to post record first-quarter profits as surging artificial intelligence demand drives memory prices higher, with suppliers pushing to expand multi-year supply agreements to stabilize earnings.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently appeared on the popular Lex Fridman Podcast for a deep, over two-hour discussion covering AI scaling laws, compute and power bottlenecks, AI factories, and the future impact of AI on society. Among the topics drawing strong attention from Taiwan's market was Huang's revisit of his 2013 decision to decline an offer from TSMC founder Morris Chang to become CEO. He further analyzed the core factors enabling TSMC's sustained leadership in the semiconductor industry.
As global semiconductor supply chain prices continue to rise, China's analog chip industry is undergoing a structural shift. Several domestic players have recently raised product prices, aligning with international giants like Texas Instruments (TI) and Analog Devices in reflecting cost pressures, with some products seeing hikes as high as 85%.
While the barriers to entry in cloud AI ASICs remain out of reach for many chip designers, demand for specialized chips at the edge is rising sharply. Across a widening range of applications, customers are seeking greater control at the silicon level, aiming to reduce their reliance on traditional chip giants.
Sources in the passive component supply chain report that Nvidia's next-generation platform architecture, Vera Rubin, is scheduled to enter mass production in the third quarter of 2026 and has drawn significant attention from the global AI computing market. However, the design of the GPU compute tray has yet to be finalized, which could cause slight delays in actual shipment timelines.
The Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC) held the "2026 Metal Bipolar Plate Drives New Generation of Hydrogen Energy Symposium" on March 27, focusing on fuel cell and metal bipolar plate (BP) market developments and analyzing global supply chain dynamics.
Taiwan inductor maker Tai-Tech has begun mass production at its Malaysia plant, targeting customers shifting supply chains away from China. The facility has secured a qualification from a US networking equipment provider, supporting new AI-related orders and expected volume growth from 2026.
As generative AI (GenAI) shifts from large-model training to large-scale inference, Japanese NAND giant Kioxia forecasts continued price increases for NAND and SSD products. Despite planned capacity expansions by various NAND manufacturers in 2027, Kioxia expects no risk of oversupply imbalance due to the rapid growth in AI demand.
China's Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) launched next-generation chip and operating system co-development alongside the debut of the Xiangshan open-source processor and Ruyi native OS at the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum.
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