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Monday 30 March 2026
Kioxia outlines supply strategy, stresses new 2027 capacity won't disrupt NAND market balance
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.
Monday 30 March 2026
Commentary: US chip security act ends China's special AI chip supply
The US House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed the Chip Security Act, signaling a decisive move to restrict high-performance computing exports amid rising tech tensions with China. Meanwhile, reports from within China indicate a growing consensus to halt imports of US-origin AI chips altogether.
Monday 30 March 2026
Huawei PanguLM lead exits, reviving model controversy

Huawei's AI leadership is facing renewed turnover. Wang Yunhe, director of Huawei Noah's Ark Lab and a key architect behind PanguLM, has left the company after nearly nine years.

Monday 30 March 2026
Phison and Intel go hybrid to keep China's AI lobster craze from burning out
The recent craze for OpenClaw "lobster raising" in China has sparked massive token consumption, with Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) calling it the first killer app of AI agents. In response, Phison teamed up with Intel to introduce a "hybrid lobster solution" that addresses soaring cloud costs and security risks, selling out its initial batch on Chinese e-commerce platforms.
Monday 30 March 2026
SoftBank secures US$40 billion loan to fund OpenAI investment
SoftBank Group Corp. has secured a US$40 billion bridge loan to support its ongoing investment in US artificial intelligence developer OpenAI, marking one of the largest dollar-denominated borrowings in the Japanese conglomerate's history. The unsecured loan, arranged with JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., and MUFG Bank, is set to mature on March 25, 2027, according to Jiji Press, The Japan Times, Reuters, and TechCrunch.
Monday 30 March 2026
Taiwan broadens strategic industry list to include AI, quantum, and SiPh
Taiwan's premier Cho Jung-tai has unveiled a new list of 13 strategic industries. The lineup includes silicon photonics (SiPh), quantum technology, and unmanned vehicles. Quantum technology currently remains confined to academic and research labs, with no established industry or startups in Taiwan. Even so, the announcement signals that industrial support programs may be on the way.
Monday 30 March 2026
Advantech urges industry restructuring as physical AI faces vertical integration limits
Advantech vice president Magic Pao warned at AI EXPO 2026 that edge AI's imminent rapid exponential growth will reshape enterprise computing and safety worldwide. While cloud generative AI currently commands greater attention draws more attention, widespread edge deployment poses different, distinct infrastructural and regulatory challenges that will affect industries from manufacturing to healthcare and safety.
Monday 30 March 2026
Weekly news roundup: AI, supply chains, new entrants intensify global chip race
Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of March 23-27, 2026:
Monday 30 March 2026
Swancor debuts fully recyclable AI robots, leveraging advanced composites for scalable industrial adoption
Swancor Holding's subsidiary, Swancor Robotech, on March 27, opened an intelligent robot application demonstration center in Neihu, Taipei, highlighting progress in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity into its TaiiBot platform. The company aims to manufacture lightweight, 100% recyclable AI robots to accelerate large-scale industrial applications.
Monday 30 March 2026
AI meets reality: why physical data is the real constraint

Artificial intelligence is entering a new phase centered on agentic systems, with momentum shifting from digital environments to real-world applications. Speaking at the DIGITIMES AI Expo on March 26, Aurotek said the industry focus is no longer limited to model capability, but is moving toward enabling AI to operate in physical settings such as factories, logistics and service environments.

Monday 30 March 2026
Apple to open Siri to rival AI services beyond ChatGPT

Apple plans to open its Siri voice assistant to rival artificial intelligence (AI) services, moving beyond its partnership with OpenAI, according to Bloomberg and Reuters.

Monday 30 March 2026
Taiwan’s AI pivot: from chip factory to “silicon innovation island”
Taiwan is moving to cement its status as the "beating heart" of the global technology industry by transitioning from a hardware manufacturing powerhouse into what Acer founder Stan Shih calls a "silicon innovation island". The Taiwanese government plans to do this through a series of infrastructure projects, from power generation to supercomputing.
Monday 30 March 2026
AI compute shifts to inference, reshaping data center bottlenecks

The focus of artificial intelligence computing is set to shift from training to inference beyond 2025, a transition that will also redefine system bottlenecks across data centers, according to DIGITIMES Research.

Monday 30 March 2026
India roundup: India resets FDI policy as rising GPU costs reshape AI strategy
India is recalibrating FDI rules, semiconductor incentives and AI policy while expanding power capacity and attracting global players like Tesla, Keysight and DNP. Data center ambitions are rising amid talks with Meta and Google. However, challenges persist, including rising GPU costs and declining smartphone shipments, highlighting a complex but accelerating industrial transformation.
Monday 30 March 2026
Chipmakers race to secure helium as tensions disrupt supply, prices reportedly up 50%

Semiconductor manufacturers are racing to secure critical materials as Middle East tensions disrupt supply chains, with the risk of production disruption outweighing rising costs.

Monday 30 March 2026
IBM Taiwan CTO: why AI agents stay stuck in pilot mode
Companies are racing ahead do accelerate their productivity by using AI agents, but many run into obstacles that tend to keep these agents from progressing beyond the pilot stage. Although reports have flagged potential risks to the widespread use of AI agents, it remains a question of whether these barriers are mainly technological or organizational.
Sunday 29 March 2026
Innodisk says AI success depends on software-hardware integration, signaling shifts for edge and industry deployments
Innodisk told attendees at the 2026 AI EXPO that effective AI deployment requires more than raw computing power; it depends on tight integration between software and hardware, and on selecting components tailored to specific environments. The company argued that edge AI has progressed from image recognition and language models to autonomous learning and decision-making.
Sunday 29 March 2026
Adata invests US$3 million in KonstTech to boost AI computing infrastructure
Amid the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and large language models (LLM), global demand for high-performance computing (HPC) continues to rise. Memory module maker Adata Technology announced a US$3 million investment in the Series A funding round of artificial intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure provider KonstTech (Konst).
Sunday 29 March 2026
AI race turns into real-time elimination game as advantages fade within months
The global AI is entering a new phase where competitive advantages are increasingly short-lived, often eroding within months or even weeks. Across models, products, and platforms, no single player appears able to maintain a durable lead. Instead, the likely long-term winners will be those that can continuously adapt, integrate capabilities into everyday user workflows, and control distribution at scale—rather than those that simply build the most advanced models.
Sunday 29 March 2026
Semicon China 2026: AI spending nears US$800 billion, IBS flags 2028 chip cycle risk

SEMICON China 2026 spotlighted the scale of the AI investment boom, with Handel Jones, CEO of International Business Strategies (IBS), estimating that global AI and data center capital expenditure has surged from about US$110 billion in 2020 to roughly US$600 billion in 2026.

Sunday 29 March 2026
Musk pushes Terafab as AI chip crunch intensifies

The surge in artificial intelligence demand is pushing the semiconductor industry toward a supply crunch, as Elon Musk outlined a plan to build what he described as the largest chip manufacturing effort in history.

Saturday 28 March 2026
Taiwan pivots toward Europe and global democratic alliances as US-China AI race intensifies
As the global AI arms race intensifies, Taiwan is positioning itself as the primary AI partner for nations besides the US and China. Wedged between these two geopolitical giants, Taiwan is leveraging its dominance in AI servers and semiconductors to foster deeper collaborations with Germany, France, and neighboring nations.
Saturday 28 March 2026
AI Expo Taiwan 2026: NCHC showcases Taiwan's top AI computing power
Amid a growing wave of enterprises adopting GenAI technologies, the National Center for High Performance Computing (NCHC) is showcasing national-level computing resources and AI development platforms at the AI Expo Taiwan 2026, including the Jingchuang 26 supercomputer, currently Taiwan's highest-computing-density supercomputer, and the Taiwan AI RAP platform for accelerating enterprise AI deployment. Held this year from March 25-27 at the Yuanshan Expo Dome in Taipei, the annual AI Expo Taiwan is the premier event for Taiwan's AI industry.
Saturday 28 March 2026
AI tokens emerge as new workplace metric, reshaping productivity and competition
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence is transforming how companies measure productivity and reward employees, with "tokens" — the units that quantify AI model usage — increasingly serving as a new benchmark for workplace performance.
Friday 27 March 2026
Taiwan machine tools emerge as key in US-Taiwan economic 'Golden Era,' says AIT
The 2026 Taiwan International Machine Tool Show (TMTS), an annual machine tool industry exhibition, has returned to Taichung this year, a move seen as particularly significant given the city's role as a central hub for the machine tool industry cluster. Raymond Greene, director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), attended the opening ceremony to show support.