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Thursday 28 May 2026
Commentary: China's AI chip certification becomes new market gatekeeper
China has brought AI chips into its national security and reliability evaluation framework for the first time, turning what looks like a product certification process into something more consequential: an emerging gatekeeping system for AI computing infrastructure.
Thursday 28 May 2026
China's LLM price war puts DeepSeek, Xiaomi on a collision course with OpenAI
China's large language model (LLM) market is coming under mounting pricing pressure, as domestic AI model developers cut fees closer to cost, while the gap with international model pricing widens to dozens of times.
Thursday 28 May 2026
ByteDance's chip ambition grows with US$70 billion capex plan
ByteDance is considering a sharp increase in capital spending this year as the TikTok owner pushes deeper into artificial intelligence infrastructure — a move that could make it one of China's most aggressive investors in data centers, servers, and custom chips.
Thursday 28 May 2026
Qualcomm wins ASIC customers beyond ByteDance
Qualcomm has reportedly landed more than one ASIC customer, with a separate project for a US cloud service provider also taking shape, according to industry sources. The development follows reports from Bloomberg and other media that ByteDance, the developer of TikTok, is Qualcomm's first major client for its custom chip push.
Thursday 28 May 2026
Formosa Chemicals maps turnaround through hydrogen, AI, and semiconductor materials
Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corporation said it is accelerating restructuring and diversification efforts after posting losses in 2025, as the petrochemical major pivots toward higher-value materials, including semiconductor-related products such as polyimide (PI) and silicon carbide (SiC), with early results expected by 2027.
Thursday 28 May 2026
Nvidia's move into Beitou-Shilin Tech Park raises AI power demand; Taipower uses dual-track strategy to push substation development
Nvidia's new Taiwan headquarters is expected to begin construction by the end of 2026 and officially open in 2030, and CEO Jensen Huang is propagating that Taiwan "needs more electricity" to fund projects. With the AI cluster revolving around Nvidia, Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) estimates that power demand in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (BSTP) area will reach approximately 180MW.
Thursday 28 May 2026
Yageo signals possible price hikes as Japanese and Korean passive component makers raise prices
Passive component manufacturer Yageo held its 2026 annual shareholders meeting on May 27. In a post-meeting interview, chairman Pierre Chen confirmed that the world's two largest multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) makers, Japan's Murata Manufacturing and South Korea's Samsung Electro-Mechanics (Semco), have recently issued price increase notices to customers and distributors.
Thursday 28 May 2026
China tightens travel bans on private-sector AI to stem tech leaks
China has expanded its state travel controls into the private technology sector, deliberately blocking top AI talent from leaving the country without explicit government authorization.
Thursday 28 May 2026
China Airlines rides Taiwan's AI boom to record cargo profits

China Airlines said demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and semiconductor shipments is helping fuel a strong rebound in air cargo, underscoring Taiwan's growing importance at the center of the global technology supply chain.

Thursday 28 May 2026
Asia Optical bets on robot lenses and AR/VR push for 2026 growth

Asia Optical reported 2025 consolidated revenue of about NT$26.44 billion and net profit attributable to the parent of NT$1.843 billion, producing earnings per share of NT$6.6, the company announced at its shareholders' meeting on May 27.

Thursday 28 May 2026
Hotai Motor expects semiconductor and AI demand to lift Taiwan auto market in 2026
Hotai Motor Co. told shareholders on May 27 that Taiwan's auto market was expected to strengthen in 2026 as demand for semiconductors and AI applications supported exports and the broader economy. The company forecast the full-year vehicle market could reach 440,000 units, attributing the outlook to a stabilizing global economy, policy continuity and a pickup in replacement demand.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
Dreame's 941-company ecosystem targets growth far beyond robot vacuum cleaners
Dreame Technology, a Chinese consumer electronics maker, has formed nearly 1,000 affiliated companies in its ecosystem since the end of 2024. This breakneck pace of expansion signals the ambitions of its leadership to unearth growth opportunities across the broader Chinese tech sector, although some media outlets question the sustainability of the business model.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
Unitree sprints toward IPO as profits crumble under rising costs
Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics is moving quickly toward an initial public offering, but its latest prospectus points to the commercial challenges still facing the sector.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
From boom-bust to structural growth? Memory's US$1 trillion moment puts AI thesis to the test
First Micron, then SK Hynix, join the trillion-dollar club, capping an extraordinary repricing of an industry once dismissed as a commodity play. The milestone is more than a valuation story: it crystallizes a structural debate about whether AI has permanently transformed memory's earnings profile, a bubble concern as Chinese rivals ramp capacity, and a sharpening geopolitical contest over who controls the bandwidth backbone of artificial intelligence.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
Qualcomm and ByteDance's rumored AI ASIC deal signals potential shift in China's data center chip supply
The agreement between Qualcomm and ByteDance positions the former for large-scale AI ASIC demand from the latter, as reported by Bloomberg, but market viability remains uncertain amid intense AI chip competition, evolving China procurement preferences, and regulatory pressures affecting cross-border semiconductor adoption.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
IREN signs US$1.6bn Dell deal for Blackwell AI systems to expand Texas data center capacity
IREN Limited has signed a purchase agreement with Dell Technologies for air-cooled Blackwell-based systems intended to support its previously announced five-year US$3.4bn managed services AI cloud contract. The deal forms part of its broader effort to expand AI compute capacity and shorten deployment timelines for large-scale GPU infrastructure.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
Daxin Materials advances into Low Dk and Low Df market for booming AI server and LEO satellite applications
Taiwan-based Daxin Materials posted stronger revenue and profitability in 2025 as rapid growth in semiconductor materials offset a still-cautious display market recovery, with AI- and HPC-driven demand emerging as the company's primary growth engine.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
Jensen Huang: Taiwan is center of AI revolution, with US$150 billion in capex powering local ecosystem
Nvidia held an "employee town hall" on the morning of May 27 at the T17 and T18 sites in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (BSTP), where CEO Jensen Huang met staff, gave away Dom Pérignon, and framed Taiwan as central to the company's AI expansion. Taipei Mayor Wayne Chiang attended only as a "guest."
Wednesday 27 May 2026
Nvidia CEO says Taiwan needs more electricity, ministry confirms 5.2 GW of gas capacity to be added
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who is visiting Taiwan for two weeks, stated that the island's manufacturing sector is developing rapidly and needs more electricity.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
OpenAI targets smaller advertisers in push to make ChatGPT ads pay off
OpenAI is widening its ChatGPT advertising business beyond large brands, adding tools aimed at smaller marketers as it seeks to turn one of the world's most widely used AI products into a more measurable ad platform.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
China-based SmartSens, Unisoc team up on Micro LED optical interconnects for AI clusters
SmartSens and Unisoc have formed a strategic partnership to develop Micro LED high-speed optical interconnects, aiming to deliver domestic, low-power, high-bandwidth solutions for short-reach AI cluster links. The collaboration could accelerate the commercialization of Micro LED co-packaged optics (CPO) technology and strengthen China's role in global AI infrastructure supply chains, according to a press release.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
Taiwan robotics supply chain posts strong 1Q26 gains on AI demand upcycle
Accelerating the adoption of smart manufacturing, AI-driven automation, and humanoid robot applications in 2026 is driving robust growth across Taiwan's robotics supply chain. Systems integrators and key transmission-component suppliers posted strong first-quarter 2026 results, with many reporting double-digit increases in both revenue and profit amid expanding demand from traditional industrial automation and emerging AI robotics applications.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
Microsoft flattens leadership to speed AI decision-making across businesses
Microsoft overhauled its long-standing senior leadership structure as Chief Executive reorganized the company to accelerate AI development and cut decision-making time, executives said. The firm replaced its Senior Leadership Team with a new corporate governance group that includes the CEO, the president, the chief financial officer, the chief human resources officer and the business chief, and said the group will meet at least once a week.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
Former Tencent AI lead says Chinese firms are trailing US on core LLM innovation
A former Tencent large-model technical chief warned that Chinese artificial intelligence companies lack independent paradigm-level breakthroughs and are trailing US rivals, according to an interview with the South China Morning Post. He said the gap in large language model technology was about three months and could widen to six months by year-end as OpenAI prepares to launch GPT 5.6, and that US chip export controls had reduced China's available computing power for training advanced models.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
AI infrastructure spending lifts Taiwan electronics sector outlook
Cloud providers' large-scale investments in AI infrastructure have strengthened demand for Taiwan's electronics supply chain, boosting optimism among local manufacturers, according to a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) survey. The survey noted that nearly 40% of Taiwan's electronics and machinery makers were optimistic about business conditions over the next six months as cloud service providers planned massive capital outlays in 2026 to meet surging AI compute needs.