Nvidia's effort to make its autonomous-vehicle stack the default foundation for heavy freight gained a partner with paying customers on September 21, while Einride gained the compute platform it needs to expand autonomous operations across its electric freight network — a transition the Swedish company must fund through a period of heavy cash burn and a going-concern warning.
US President Donald Trump used his September 22 address to the United Nations General Assembly to reject international efforts to control artificial intelligence, argue that the US must maintain its lead over China, and urge officials to call the technology "superintelligence." The remarks sharpen a policy divide over whether rapid development can be reconciled with safeguards—and whether Washington and Beijing can cooperate on risks even as they compete.
Taiwan's export orders topped US$100 billion in August 2026, reaching US$102.96 billion, up US$5.02 billion from the previous month, according to statistics released by Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on September 22. Export orders for September are forecast to be between US$106 billion and US$109.1 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 50.7% to 55.1%.
China's leading AI developers are scaling revenue rapidly, but the gap with their US rivals remains substantial — and the cost of keeping pace is rising even faster. Rhodium Group estimates that seven major Chinese AI companies had combined annualized recurring revenue (ARR) of about US$10.7 billion, based on estimates dated between March and August 2026, roughly one-tenth of the more than US$100 billion attributed to OpenAI and Anthropic combined.
Meta's new AI agent, Muse, has leapt to the top of app charts roughly two weeks after its release. Its popularity has helped push up chip stocks by focusing attention on the importance of CPUs for agentic AI.
DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng said during a call with investors that he aims to rely on Huawei chips to train the startup's models in the future, and that a batch of training chips from Huawei are set to begin arriving at his company as early as the fourth quarter of 2026.
Chinese labs have spent the year arguing that reinforcement learning, not pre-training, holds the next gains. Xiaomi has now put a price on that argument. The company released and open-sourced its MiMo-V2.6 series on September 22, after livestreaming the reinforcement learning post-training run that produced it — publishing step counts, token consumption, and a running cost meter on a public page as the models trained.
As artificial intelligence advances toward greater autonomy, balancing capabilities with safety has become a central challenge for industry leaders. Emerging model behaviors and high-profile security incidents have prompted a continuous evolution of safety initiatives, internal engineering adjustments, and proposed joint testing efforts between major AI developers.
Google has opened preorders for the first Googlebook models, with prices starting at US$899, as it pushes Gemini AI deeper into the notebook experience and links phones, apps, and desktop workflows through a new operating system that blends Android and ChromeOS elements. The launch targets Android users, developers, and the premium notebook market.
Meta Connect 2026 is set to begin on September 23, with the next generation of AI smart glasses expected to be a key focus. Among the products drawing particular industry attention is a device internally code-named "Luna," which is reportedly being designed without a camera.
Demand from high-tech companies for new research and manufacturing sites remains strong, prompting Taiwan to advance plans to expand Longtan Science Park by 104 hectares as the government seeks to accommodate continued growth in AI and semiconductor industries.
Apple is reportedly developing an enterprise AI inference server powered by its in-house M8 Ultra chips. This move could mark its return to the enterprise server market after more than a decade. If the project reaches market, it may also reshape Apple's infrastructure strategy, supplier relationships, and place in AI computing.
Microsoft is expanding its data center footprint in Taiwan from two facilities to four as global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) computing power continues to surge and industry players step up data center expansion. Microsoft Taiwan general manager Sean Pien said the new facilities will prioritize Taiwan customers.
