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Monday 13 July 2026
Europe, UK, and US financial sectors respond differently as advanced AI reshapes industry and regulation
Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a growing focus for financial regulators and technology companies across Europe, the UK, and the US, with authorities placing increasing attention on cybersecurity, consumer protection, and industry expansion.
Monday 13 July 2026
AI buildouts accelerate MLCC shortages; Taiwan firms eye 2H26 spillover orders
As AI server supply chains move into the component stocking phase, the market for high-end passive components has heated up sharply, with tight supply of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) drawing close attention across the industry. Taiwan passive-component makers posted strong revenue in the second quarter of 2026, and with order backlogs at major MLCC suppliers in Japan and South Korea rising rapidly, Taiwan firms are expected to capture spillover orders from AI server applications in the second half of the year.
Monday 13 July 2026
SK Hynix hybrid bonding push signals next phase of HBM packaging race
SK Hynix is moving early to prepare hybrid bonding technology for next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM), as competition in AI memory shifts from stacking capacity toward packaging density, thermal control, and tighter integration with AI accelerators.
Monday 13 July 2026
AI shifts toward 'slow thinking' as agent era approaches, says Google DeepMind's VP of research
Ed Chi, vice president of research at Google DeepMind, said AI's next milestone will be its evolution from the fast, pattern-recognition-oriented thinking associated with System 1 toward the deeper reasoning capabilities of System 2. As large language models evolve into large reasoning models, the industry is now entering a new era of AI agents.
Monday 13 July 2026
Arm CEO: AI agents to drive CPU demand as infrastructure shifts beyond GPUs
GPUs have dominated AI infrastructure discussions over the past two years, powering everything from large language model (LLM) training and inference clusters to high-bandwidth memory (HBM), advanced packaging, and liquid-cooled server racks. As the industry races to expand computing capacity, GPUs have largely defined the conversation. That dynamic, however, may be beginning to change as CPUs diverge from the rims of AI narration, and increasingly emerge as a critical component of AI infrastructure.
Monday 13 July 2026
Egis sells part of iCatch stake as ASMedia becomes largest shareholder
Egis Technology on July 9 said it sold part of its stake in iCatch Technology as part of a routine adjustment to its group equity holdings. The IC design company said the move was intended to improve capital efficiency and optimize its ownership structure, while Egis remained an important shareholder with about 12% of iCatch after the transaction.
Monday 13 July 2026
AI era accelerates Foxconn's shift to global 24-hour cybersecurity coverage

Foxconn is using AI and coordinated security teams across Asia, Europe and the Americas to defend against cyberattacks as enterprises increasingly adopt AI. Chief Information Security Officer Wei-Bin Lee said that the company's global footprint makes it a prime target.

Monday 13 July 2026
AI's new gatekeepers: US and China tighten grip on frontier models

The world's most powerful AI models are encountering a new constraint beyond chips, data and engineering talent: governments increasingly want a say in when frontier systems are released, who may access them and which capabilities should remain restricted.

Monday 13 July 2026
MA-tek hits record June revenue on rising AI chip testing demand, CPO complexity
Semiconductor testing company Materials Analysis Technology (MA-tek) reported June 2026 revenue of NT$558 million (approx. US$17.41 million), up 2.56% from May and 11.01% year over year, marking a record high for four consecutive months. Second-quarter 2026 revenue reached NT$1.64 billion, a record high for a single quarter, while first-half 2026 revenue totaled NT$3.07 billion, an increase of 17.47% from the same period in 2025.
Sunday 12 July 2026
Column: Compute is no longer the AI bottleneck. Memory is — and suppliers know it
After the semiconductor index nearly doubled in the first half of 2026 before a sharp pullback, the central question is whether the industry's AI-driven growth cycle has already peaked. This analysis examines the sustainability of the AI semiconductor boom, the outlook for memory and ASICs, and the geopolitical risks reshaping global supply chains.
Sunday 12 July 2026
Palo Alto Networks says AI agents are driving demand for identity security
AI agents are changing enterprise operations and raising new cybersecurity risks, with identity authentication emerging as a key concern for IT teams. According to Palo Alto Networks, 99% of companies are now using autonomous, conversational and generative AI tools, while machine identities in corporate networks have already outnumbered human employees.
Sunday 12 July 2026
SmartSens targets 2027 commercialization of Micro LED optical interconnects for AI infrastructure
The rapid expansion of AI servers and large language models (LLMs) is driving unprecedented demand for data center computing, making high-speed interconnect technologies one of the next major battlegrounds in AI infrastructure.
Sunday 12 July 2026
Hermes Testing's June revenue more than doubles as advanced chip test demand surges
Hermes Testing Solutions said that its June 2026 revenue jumped sharply as rising demand for advanced chip testing lifted sales of its custom products, cleaning materials, and engineering services. The test interface supplier said the growth was driven by continued strength in high-end semiconductor testing activity.
Sunday 12 July 2026
South Korean startup CSO eyes global Earth observation market as optical payload heads for orbit
South Korean space optics startup CSO is preparing to launch its high-resolution optical payload aboard DaejeonSat, a domestically developed CubeSat scheduled to lift off on South Korea's Nuri launch vehicle in the second half of 2026. The mission is expected to serve as a key in-orbit validation milestone as the company expands beyond its Kazakhstan Satellite Constellation program into the European and North American Earth observation markets.
Saturday 11 July 2026
Record chip profits mask a widening divide inside Samsung
Samsung Electronics' preliminary results for the second quarter of 2026 again underscore a striking split inside the company: surging semiconductor profits driven by AI server demand are lifting overall earnings, while TVs, home appliances, and other end-device businesses remain under pressure.
Saturday 11 July 2026
Mobilint touts NPU for physical AI, with CEO urging South Korea to accelerate development
South Korean AI semiconductor startup Mobilint is gaining traction in physical AI with its neural processing units (NPU) for edge devices, as the AI boom spreads from cloud computing into robots, autonomous vehicles and drones. Mobilint CEO Shin Dong-joo (transliterated from Korean) and other industry figures say the next two to three years will be a crucial window for South Korea to capture the physical AI market through NPU technology.
Saturday 11 July 2026
Apple sues OpenAI as its own suppliers Foxconn and Luxshare line up behind a rival device
Apple's decision to sue OpenAI for trade-secret theft does more than escalate a soured partnership between two of technology's most influential companies. It injects legal uncertainty into OpenAI's push to build its own consumer hardware — an effort a growing roster of Asian suppliers has already begun to serve, and it lands just as the AI developer approaches a closely watched initial public offering.
Friday 10 July 2026
Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max BOM could jump US$300 as memory costs soar

New figures from Counterpoint Research estimate that the bill of materials (BOM) for the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro Max could rise nearly US$300 compared with the iPhone 17 Pro Max released in September last year. Ballooning memory costs largely account for this increase, although Apple may be better placed than most other smartphone brands to weather such price hikes.

Friday 10 July 2026
SK AI Summit postponed as SK eyes closer alignment with Nvidia GTC
SK Group, which hosts the annual SK AI Summit as its flagship technology event to showcase its latest AI and semiconductor developments, is reportedly postponing the 2026 edition. Originally scheduled for the second half of 2026, the event is now expected to take place in the first half of 2027. Industry sources believe the move is intended to better align the summit with Nvidia GTC, which is held each March.
Friday 10 July 2026
Asus June revenue tops NT$100 billion as AI servers drive growth outlook
Asus reported June 2026 group revenue of NT$106.72 billion (US$3.3 billion), crossing the NT$100 billion threshold for the first time, as strong demand for AI servers continued to lift results. The company said June and the second quarter both set record highs for group and brand revenue, underscoring how it has turned market volatility into growth.
Friday 10 July 2026
Taiwan firms race ahead on AI agents, raising governance stakes
Taiwanese companies are adopting AI agents faster than expected, according to a new IDC survey that found 57% have already deployed them, well above the 36% Asia-Pacific average. For global readers, the pace signals how quickly agentic AI may reshape business operations, governance, and competition worldwide.
Friday 10 July 2026
Google Cloud says Taiwan's AI shift to production could shape global enterprise use
Taiwan's move from AI trials to production systems signals a broader shift that could affect how companies worldwide adopt automation, data governance, and digital security. As more firms deploy AI agents at scale, the challenge is shifting from experimentation to control, reliability, and measurable returns.
Friday 10 July 2026
Meta bets on price to crack AI model market, testing whether frontier intelligence stays premium good
Meta Platforms' decision to start charging developers for its most advanced AI model is less a product launch than a wager on where the economics of artificial intelligence (AI) are heading — and it arrives at a time when investors are already questioning whether the industry has built more computing power than it can profitably use.
Friday 10 July 2026
Apple drives 70% surge in edge AI smartwatch sales as health features gain traction

Shipments of smartwatches with edge AI features leaped 70% in the first quarter of 2026, with Apple overwhelmingly leading the charge, according to Counterpoint Research. This market is taking off as health-focused users gain access to deeper insights through AI advancements, and as brands lean on wearables to offset weak smartphone sales.