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Monday 6 July 2026
Anthropic's reported chip plans with Samsung could ease inference costs, not chase top-end performance
Anthropic's reported move into in-house chip development could matter well beyond Silicon Valley if it helps lower the cost of running AI services worldwide. By prioritizing cheaper inference rather than elite performance, the startup may be signaling a more pragmatic path that could influence how global AI systems are built and priced.
Monday 6 July 2026
Taiwan drone makers gain as Europe focuses on trust and supply chain resilience
Global drone demand continues to heat up, and Taiwanese manufacturers are aggressively expanding overseas. Industry players say the market's most urgent focus has shifted from price and delivery time to competition among trusted supply chains.
Monday 6 July 2026
Foxconn posts NT$821.8 billion June revenue as AI momentum stays strong
Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) reported consolidated revenue for June 2026 on July 5, with continued demand for AI servers and cloud networking products driving record performance. Revenue for June, the second quarter, and the first half of 2026 all reached record highs for the corresponding periods.
Monday 6 July 2026
Kingboard raises CCL prices again as AI demand tightens PCB material supply
Rising demand for AI servers and high-performance computing (HPC) continues to drive price increases across the upstream PCB materials supply chain.
Monday 6 July 2026
South Korea lines up US$204 billion Yeongnam manufacturing push

South Korean conglomerates will invest a combined KRW312 trillion (approx. US$203.6 billion) in the Yeongnam region, as the government moves to turn the country's southeast into a hub for advanced manufacturing, AI infrastructure, semiconductors, aerospace, defense, and energy.

Monday 6 July 2026
SEMI warns Trump admin against meddling in memory market

SEMI has warned the Trump administration that intervening in memory-chip pricing or production capacity could worsen a historic supply shortage driven by the artificial intelligence boom.

Monday 6 July 2026
Exclusive: AWS's ASIC shipment hike drives demand upside for Taiwan suppliers

Amazon Web Services has told its server supply chain partners to raise shipment volumes for the third quarter of 2026, according to sources in the AI server supply chain.

Monday 6 July 2026
Alibaba reportedly bans Claude Code for employees, citing security concerns as China shifts toward domestic AI coding tools
Alibaba has instructed employees to stop using Anthropic's Claude Code for work and remove Claude models from company computers, according to respective sources cited by Yicai, The Information, and Reuters. The move comes after concerns emerged over features in Claude Code that developers said could identify whether users were located in China or affiliated with Chinese research labs.
Monday 6 July 2026
Meta's AI cloud idea underscores a search for returns, not an AI retreat
Meta is reportedly exploring a new AI cloud infrastructure business that would let enterprises use its AI models and some unused GPU capacity, a move that could lift hardware utilization and create a new revenue stream from its heavy artificial intelligence spending. The proposal has revived talk of an AI bubble, but key industry barometers Nvidia and TSMC still show no sign of a broad demand slowdown.
Monday 6 July 2026
AI supercycle could drive semiconductor market beyond US$2 trillion by 2030
The global semiconductor market is entering a historically significant growth phase. According to WSTS's latest June forecast, global semiconductor revenue is projected to grow by nearly 90% in 2026, reaching approximately US$1.5 trillion. Growth is expected to remain exceptionally strong in 2027, with year-on-year expansion of around 27%, pushing total market revenue close to US$1.9 trillion.
Sunday 5 July 2026
From Bloomberg to DIGITIMES: building a media model for the AI era
Manhattan is where financial giants gather. By the weekend, the crowds become so dense that near Times Square, even moving through the streets can be difficult. At moments like this, a walk through Central Park becomes the best choice. With its forests, streams, and seemingly natural ecology, and with plane trees, pines, and olive trees arranged in irregular patterns, Central Park truly is the best place for New Yorkers to rest in the heart of the city.
Sunday 5 July 2026
AI PCs, AR glasses, and robots reshape display tech

The rapid expansion of AI applications is redefining what device makers need from display technology.

Sunday 5 July 2026
Component inflation weighs on manufacturing momentum as Taiwan PMI growth moderates
Surging demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI servers has driven shortages and sharp price increases for conventional memory, while microcontroller (MCU) suppliers have also begun passing higher costs on to customers. Apple raised prices for certain Mac and iPad models in late June, and market rumors suggest the upcoming iPhone 18 could see price increases of as much as 30%.
Sunday 5 July 2026
AI, HPC test interface demand drives CHPT June revenue to new monthly high

Test interface supplier Chunghwa Precision Test Tech. Co., Ltd. (CHPT) reported its June 2026 revenue, marking its sixth consecutive monthly revenue record as demand from the market remained strong. The company also posted record quarterly revenue in both the first and second quarters of 2026, underscoring its sustained growth momentum.

Sunday 5 July 2026
Why enterprise AI in manufacturing is stuck at the pilot stage

At a late-June industry forum, experts from Taiwan's TPIsoftware, the Institute for Information Industry (III), and Phison Electronics agreed that although AI is now indispensable for manufacturing, scaling it up depends less on raw model capability than on whether companies can actually trust it in operation. Fragmented data, weak governance, and cybersecurity concerns remain the primary hurdles keeping companies from moving past pilot projects into full adoption.

Saturday 4 July 2026
Machvision's June revenue hits another record due to AI demand
Machvision posted another record monthly revenue in June 2026, as surging demand for AI servers, high-performance computing (HPC), and advanced packaging continued to lift orders for the semiconductor and PCB inspection equipment maker. The company said the biggest challenge has now shifted from winning orders to managing supply chains and expanding capacity.
Saturday 4 July 2026
SoftBank targets AI cloud market with 10GW US rental plan

SoftBank Group (SBG) and telecom subsidiary SoftBank said they will set up a new company in the US in July 2026 to rent out AI computing resources, aiming to challenge CoreWeave and Nebius in the fast-growing AI cloud market. The new unit, SB Neo, is scheduled to begin operations in fiscal 2027 (April 2027 to March 2028).

Saturday 4 July 2026
Anthropic tightens controls as Chinese firms route around Claude restrictions
Anthropic is stepping up efforts to block unauthorized access to Claude after reports that Chinese companies, including Ant Group and ByteDance, have used overseas entities, cloud services, and VPNs to work around its restrictions. Financial Times reported that the company has increased detection measures as it tries to prevent users in China from reaching its AI tools through indirect channels.
Friday 3 July 2026
Ubtech's U1 companion robots test whether China is ready for AI intimacy

Ubtech has launched the U1 series, its first mass-produced full-size bionic humanoid robot line, under the U World sub-brand, testing China's market for AI companion robots beyond industrial and service uses.

Friday 3 July 2026
Apple plans five iPhone launches to capture market share amid component shortages

Apple is reportedly planning to launch at least five new models by this time next year, with the company expanding its foldables' production. Amid surging component prices and a weakening smartphone market, these moves may be a bid to gain market share while rivals are on the back foot.

Friday 3 July 2026
Turn Cloud shifts to AI infrastructure

Turn Cloud Technology is accelerating its transformation from a solution as a service (SolaaS) provider into an AI infrastructure provider for physical spaces, as demand for digital transformation across real-world venues continues to rise. The company says its new Tomorrow Space (TSpace) architecture will anchor its next phase of growth.

Friday 3 July 2026
China's Z.ai ramps up AI rivalry with Anthropic, OpenAI via GLM-5.2

Chinese AI company Z.ai, also known as Zhipu AI, is escalating its challenge to US leaders Anthropic and OpenAI with the release of its open-weight GLM-5.2 model and a new AI coding assistant, underscoring China's growing competitiveness in frontier AI.

Friday 3 July 2026
South Korea bets on southwest semiconductor cluster, but key hurdles remain
South Korea on June 29 unveiled a large-scale investment plan for the country's Honam region in the southwest, which mainly covers the city of Gwangju and North and South Jeolla provinces, including semiconductor clusters for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, AI data centers, and regional infrastructure. The plan is seen as a key move by the South Korean government to respond to surging AI chip demand, excessive industrial concentration in the Seoul capital area, and pressure for balanced regional development.
Friday 3 July 2026
Microsoft launches US$2.5 B unit to guide enterprise AI adoption using embedded engineers
Microsoft unveiled plans for a new business unit called "Microsoft Frontier Company," which is aimed at helping large organizations move beyond pilot projects and turn AI investments into measurable business results. The initiative echoes new services offered by other AI firms like OpenAI and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to embed engineers within enterprises and guide their AI adoption.
Friday 3 July 2026
Wistron chair urges Taiwan to shift beyond manufacturing mindset in AI era

Wistron chairman Simon Lin said artificial intelligence (AI) is improving the quality of professional talent, noting that tasks that previously required 100 people may now be completed by as few as four or five. As a result, AI can help address labor shortages caused by declining birth rates, while also creating value at different levels.

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