DIGITIMES ICT: AI news

Home Tech ICT AI

Friday 26 December 2025

Huawei details Ascend AI chip roadmap built around in-house HBM, massive clusters

Huawei is clarifying how it intends to compete in global AI computing despite being cut off from leading-edge foundries and US-origin GPUs. Instead of chasing rivals on single-chip performance, the company is leaning into scale, systems engineering, and vertical integration—a strategy it is now preparing to test outside China, beginning with South Korea.

Friday 26 December 2025

From satellites to solar power: How space became the next strategic battleground2025

The space industry is undergoing a profound transformation. What was once the domain of government agencies has become a strategic battleground. Commercial innovation, military priorities, and economic competition now converge beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Friday 26 December 2025

Huawei sets Ascend 950 launch for 1H26; China hedges ahead of Nvidia H200

As 2025 draws to a close, the US-China AI compute market is entering a phase of guarded competition and selective cooperation. While the US government has launched an inter-agency review of Nvidia's H200 exports to China—and Nvidia is reportedly planning deliveries ahead of the Lunar New Year—Huawei has already set a clear timetable. Its next-generation AI chip, the Ascend 950PR, is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2026.

Friday 26 December 2025

Nvidia Groq partnership signals shift toward specialized inference chips as AI workloads scale

Nvidia is set to include innovations from Groq, an AI inference chip startup, into its product ecosystem by the end of 2025, responding to an expected surge in AI inference demand. CEO Jensen Huang estimated in early 2025 that AI inference workload could grow by up to one billion times in the coming years, driving the company's strategic pivot.

Friday 26 December 2025

Taiwan financial sector limits AI adoption to individual departments; AI agents key to transformation

McKinsey Taipei recently released its "Global Banking Annual Review 2025" and "The State of AI: Global Survey 2025," surveying 2,000 companies across finance, technology, and retail sectors worldwide. Senior adviser Victor Kuan and senior partner Violet Chung at McKinsey & Company noted that Taiwan's financial industry faces multiple pressures from geopolitical tensions, macroeconomic volatility, and intensifying competition.

Friday 26 December 2025

Fuel cells ramp up to meet surging AI power demand

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are drawing significant attention because of their flexible and rapid deployment capabilities as AI's electricity demand continues to skyrocket. Kaori Thermal Technology, a key supplier to SOFC fuel cell leader Bloom Energy, stated that customer demand remains strong, enabling both capital and workforce expansion. The company said its 2026 capex will be the largest since its founding, and its headcount is set to increase by more than 40%.

Friday 26 December 2025

Hygon outlines dual-chip roadmap for system-level AI computing

At the Hygon-initiated HAIC 2025 Artificial Intelligence Innovation Conference in Kunshan from December 17 to 19, Hygon Information Technology unveiled a "dual-chip strategy," positioning its DCU accelerator and CPU as a tightly integrated foundation for China's next phase of AI infrastructure.

Friday 26 December 2025

AI drives high-speed optics shift as LuxNet, TrueLight scale 800G and CW lasers by 2026

As AI workloads intensify and data centre architectures evolve, optical communications vendors are positioning co-packaged optics (CPO) and silicon photonics (SiPh) as core mid- to long-term growth markets. LuxNet expects 800G products to surpass 400G as the market mainstream in 2026, with 1.6T products entering initial shipments and supporting growth over the next two to three years. TrueLight is moving into the AI high-performance computing (HPC) supply chain via continuous-wave (CW) laser foundry services and expects the foundry revenue share in 2026 to exceed 2025 levels.

Thursday 25 December 2025

Taiwan's Shinkong to open autonomous vehicle innovation hub in 2027

Eric Wu, founder of Shinkong InnovHUB, announced on December 23, 2025, that the facility is scheduled to open in 2027, offering a dedicated testing and demonstration site for autonomous vehicles. Wu simultaneously revealed the formal launch of Gaia Capital, a NT$5 billion (US$158 million) fund designed to help Taiwanese startups in the autonomous vehicle sector expand into global markets.

Thursday 25 December 2025

Nvidia's Groq deal signals a strategic push to defend its AI inference turf

Nvidia has agreed to buy key assets from AI accelerator startup Groq in the company's largest acquisition to date, a move that underscores how the battle in artificial intelligence is increasingly shifting from training dominance toward inference efficiency and cost control.

Wednesday 24 December 2025

CHT builds AI base with Kaohsiung, all-optical backbone network set for 2026

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) is expanding its AI and infrastructure footprint by establishing a shared AI exhibition space and research and development office at Kaohsiung's Pier F on December 22, 2025. The company will also assist Kaohsiung in building Taiwan's first city-level generative sovereign AI demonstration base.

Wednesday 24 December 2025

Taiwan's AI Basic Act passed, but poses further questions about AI regulations

The Legislative Yuan has passed the AI Basic Act in its third reading, designating the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) as the competent authority (CA). However, questions remain over how the executive branch will interpret and implement this law, how the NSTC will shoulder the heavy responsibilities of AI governance, and whether the relevant subordinate regulations should be managed by the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) or the NSTC.

Wednesday 24 December 2025

ByteDance advances AI phone partnerships to secure legal identity system for AI agents

Following ByteDance's early December 2025 launch of the Doubao AI Phone with Nubia, a ZTE subsidiary, Jiemian News and National Business Daily reported that the company is expanding partnerships with smartphone makers. ByteDance has been pushing AI phone collaborations with Vivo, Lenovo, and Transsion. The most direct goal is finding a compliant, stable, and sustainable system identity for AI agents.

Wednesday 24 December 2025

Microsoft CEO reportedly expresses dissatisfaction with Copilot's AI integration with Gmail and Outlook

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has openly criticized the integration performance of the company's AI assistant, Copilot, especially its connection with email platforms such as Gmail and Outlook. According to PYMNTS, which cited a report by The Information, Nadella personally reviewed the product and has demanded accelerated improvements from the engineering team.

Wednesday 24 December 2025

Taiwan remains key AI and semiconductor hub in new digital economy era

Deloitte Taiwan released a report on December 23, 2025, highlighting that AI has moved beyond proof of concept to large-scale commercial deployment, rapidly expanding across core areas such as smart manufacturing, generative content, personalized marketing, and integration with 5G/6G and edge computing. Notably, advances in agentic AI are becoming a major driver of industrial growth. Taiwan continues to hold a critical position as a global node for AI and semiconductors.

Wednesday 24 December 2025

Taiwan's November export orders up nearly 40%, driven by US AI demand

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) announced on December 23, 2025, that export orders from the US reached US$28.45 billion in November 2025, up 12.5% sequentially and 56.1% year-over-year. Orders for information and communications products, focused on artificial intelligence (AI) servers, rose by US$6.43 billion, marking a sharp year-over-year increase of 117.7%.

Wednesday 24 December 2025

China's battery and energy storage firms lead, fueled by AI-driven power demand surge

The rapidly increasing electricity demand from global artificial intelligence (AI) data centers is placing significant pressure on power grids worldwide. Chinese battery, energy storage, and transformer manufacturers are well-positioned to benefit from their technological expertise, cost efficiency, and rapid delivery capabilities. As data center operators seek solutions to upgrade aging power infrastructure, the reliance on Chinese suppliers is growing sharply.

Wednesday 24 December 2025

Quantum reshapes cybersecurity as AI and industrial sectors deploy PQC

Traditional encryption systems are facing challenges as AI and quantum computing advance. In early 2025, international financial institutions and automotive supply chains began adopting post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to prepare for potential threats posed by quantum computers. Now, AI data centers and industrial applications are also integrating PQC.

Wednesday 24 December 2025

Chinese AI models overtake US rivals in developer adoption

A recent report from Stanford University reveals that Chinese open-source artificial intelligence (AI) models are rapidly catching up to, and, in some cases, surpassing their US closed-source counterparts. This shift highlights changes in the global technology landscape, as Chinese models gain popularity among developers worldwide.

Wednesday 24 December 2025

AI chips run too hot: Engineers race to reinvent cooling

The rapid growth of generative AI and large-scale models has significantly increased power consumption in computing chips, pushing thermal management into critical focus. High-end AI accelerators now consume power at kilowatt levels, producing concentrated heat fluxes that challenge existing cooling methods, potentially limiting performance and reliability across data center systems.

Tuesday 23 December 2025

Korean startups spotlight next-gen digital content technologies in global push backed by government

Backed by South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), a new cohort of Korean startups are accelerating their push into global markets, highlighting how "digital content" now extends far beyond traditional games and films into generative AI, extended reality (XR), human-machine interface (HMI), digital healthcare, and educational technology.

Tuesday 23 December 2025

Apple suppliers Lens, Lingyi iTech move into AI server hardware

As demand for AI computing power continues to surge, traditional Apple supply-chain manufacturing heavyweights are accelerating their transformation, extending into higher-margin segments such as AI servers and advanced cooling.

Tuesday 23 December 2025

ByteDance reportedly to increase 2026 capex with major focus on AI chips

ByteDance is preparing to raise its capex to CNY160 billion (approx. US$22.70 billion) in 2026, allocating over half of this amount, CNY85 billion, towards purchasing artificial intelligence chip processors, according to sources cited by the Financial Times. The planned increase from CNY150 billion in 2025 reflects ByteDance's intensified emphasis on AI development.

Tuesday 23 December 2025

EdgeCortix accelerates low-power chip launch to take on Nvidia

Tokyo-based startup EdgeCortix plans to deliver samples of its next-generation Sakura-X artificial intelligence (AI) processor by the end of 2026, accelerating its production timeline to address the growing energy demands of AI infrastructure. The company is positioning the new silicon as a low-power alternative to Nvidia's dominant graphics processing units as data center operators and industrial users face increasing pressure to curb electricity consumption.

Tuesday 23 December 2025

Tech giants battle for AI talent as 'boomerang' hires surge in 2025

Tech giants, including OpenAI, Meta Platforms, and Anthropic PBC, are sparking intense competition for artificial intelligence (AI) talent. Google, in particular, has turned to rehiring former employees to strengthen its workforce. Internal data cited by CNBC shows that about 20% of AI software engineers hired by Google in 2025 are returning employees, a significant increase from previous years.

More AI coverage

BIZ FOCUS

Dec 24, 08:00

InnoPad Taipei to debut in 2026 as Taipei's flagship hub for global startups

MOST-READ
7 DAYS NEWS

Full list

MULTIMEDIA

Forget the Cloud. AI is heading into Orbit.

INDUSTRY GUIDEBOOKS

Geopolitics may bring dramatic shifts in semiconductor industry