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Wednesday 17 June 2026
Commentary: US delays DeepSeek blacklist, exposing AI export-control dilemma
The US has held back from adding Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, memory chipmaker CXMT, and more than 100 other entities to a key trade blacklist, underscoring Washington's struggle to balance national security controls with a broader effort to contain tensions with Beijing.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
US AI export crackdown on Anthropic sparks global push for sovereign AI
A letter dated June 12 from US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei marked the most aggressive federal regulatory intervention targeting a leading generative AI firm to date, as Bloomberg confirmed.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
Snap unveils Specs AR glasses as AI wearables market expands

Snap unveiled its new Specs augmented reality (AR) glasses at the Augmented World Expo on June 16. Its offering comes at a time when electronics and AI companies are delving into the competitive smart wearables market, with some at very affordable price points.

Wednesday 17 June 2026
WinWay buys California property to support US expansion in AI and HPC
WinWay Technologies has bought real estate in California for US$2.28 million to create a local manufacturing and office base, a move that underscores how Asian suppliers are expanding closer to US customers as demand rises for AI, high-performance computing, and chip testing services worldwide.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
Inside DeepSeek's US$7.4 billion funding raise: China's AI champion keeps investors close and control closer
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has closed its first external funding round, raising more than CNY50 billion (approx. US$7.4 billion) in a deal that values the large-language model developer at more than US$50 billion and makes it China's most valuable AI startup.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
Bull and Foxconn to build Nvidia's latest AI servers in Europe

Bull, the French computing company, and Foxconn announced Tuesday that they will manufacture systems based on Nvidia's Vera Rubin NVL72 platform in Europe — the first concrete output of a partnership the two companies unveiled just two weeks ago.

Wednesday 17 June 2026
Li Auto's new automotive chip and what it says about China's EV market

Li Auto announced details of its new Mach M100 chip, a self-developed 5nm chip focused on autonomous driving, on June 15. This development marks the latest entry among Chinese automakers into designing in-house chips as they compete on cost and smart-driving features.

Wednesday 17 June 2026
Alibaba moves Qwen AI into robotics with first embodied intelligence suite
Alibaba Group has unveiled its first suite of artificial intelligence (AI) models for robots, taking its Qwen family beyond chatbots and software agents into machines that can navigate, simulate, and manipulate the physical world.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
SpaceX to acquire Cursor in US$60 billion stock deal after blockbuster IPO
SpaceX has agreed to acquire Anysphere, the San Francisco company behind AI coding agent Cursor, in an all-stock deal valuing the startup at US$60 billion, giving Elon Musk's newly public company a stronger foothold in enterprise AI tools and software development.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
PCIM 2026: How high-voltage infrastructure is unifying AI and e-mobility sectors
Semiconductor manufacturers, market analysts, and engineering departments have long tracked the clean energy transition through siloed vertical markets. For example, they will calculate individual EV sales on one spreadsheet while tracking hyperscale data center deployments on another. However, during PCIM Europe 2026 in Nuremberg, Germany, industry leaders and experts discussed and dismantled this flawed strategy.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
Nvidia highlights role of optical networking as Coherent breaks ground on Texas AI chip facility
AI infrastructure is increasingly dependent on light, and more of that technology is being built in Texas. Coherent's new Sherman expansion, backed by public and private funding, could strengthen global supply chains for the lasers and optical components that connect data centers, chips, and servers worldwide.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
China cuts AI compute prices, revealing pressure to fill supercomputing capacity
China's state-backed National Supercomputing Internet has launched a 618 computing-power promotion, offering low-priced token packages, free tokens, and discounts on optical character recognition (OCR) services in an effort to draw more enterprises and developers to its AI services.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
AI PC design wins, drone business to boost Elan in 2H26
In light of tensions concerning non-China supply chains, microcontroller unit (MCU) supplier Elan Microelectronics expects stronger performance in the second half of 2026 as new AI PC programs enter production following the newly established drone business.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
Acer E-Enabling posts nearly 20% revenue growth as AI agent demand boosts cloud and security services
Acer E-Enabling Service Business said enterprise adoption of AI Agent applications has driven stronger demand for cloud services, cybersecurity, and AI solutions, lifting its revenue in January to May 2026 by nearly 20% year on year. The firm reported consolidated revenue of NT$575 million (US$18.22 million) in May 2026, a 30.5% increase from May 2025, and cumulative revenue of NT$4.416 billion for the first five months of 2026, up 19.7% year on year.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
Space data centers face cooling hurdles and cost barriers
As SpaceX's listing has sparked discussion of space data centers, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the concept requires no magic and is simpler than existing Starlink systems. But supply chain sources say that cooling remains a major hurdle, while DIGITIMES Research shows that the timing is another key problem: launch costs have yet to reach commercial viability.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
Research Insight: Japanese automakers pivot to HEV profits, AI, and SDV

Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are accelerating strategy shifts as Chinese automakers rise rapidly, global EV competition intensifies, and software-defined vehicles (SDV) and AI advance, according to DIGITIMES Research. The research firm noted that Japanese automakers are moving away from scale expansion and toward profitability and smart-vehicle development, with hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) remaining the near-term growth anchor.

Wednesday 17 June 2026
Huawei raises end-consumer product prices from July
Huawei has notified partners and channel distributors that it will raise end-customer prices across its Intelligent Collaboration product line from July 1 this year, as the AI computing buildout tightens chip and component supply across the global semiconductor chain. The move follows Lenovo's earlier price increase and underscores mounting cost pressure on enterprise devices.
Wednesday 17 June 2026
China's six-network plan signals a long-term infrastructure and technology self-reliance push

China's elevation of six infrastructure categories to national strategic priority status could reshape its industrial base, reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers, and strengthen its position in artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and advanced manufacturing. The framework bundles water, power, compute, communications, urban pipelines, and logistics into a single planning system.

Wednesday 17 June 2026
AI era reshapes power dynamics between software firms and model providers

As companies adapt to the rise of artificial intelligence, technology leaders are increasingly debating how to preserve their competitive advantage while integrating AI into their operations. According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, companies should develop "learning loops" that enable human expertise and AI capabilities to reinforce each other, rather than allowing knowledge to become concentrated among a small number of AI model providers.

Tuesday 16 June 2026
Nvidia sells US$25 billion in bonds as investors seek foothold in AI boom
Nvidia launched a sale of US$25 billion worth of high-grade bonds on June 15, ultimately garnering up to US$85 billion in orders, or more than triple the bond's original size. This is one of several debt offerings this year from tech giants, which are responding to investor excitement and a need for cash to capitalize on the AI boom.
Tuesday 16 June 2026
Exclusive: Synopsys CEO eyes subscription-plus-token model in AI Agentic era

Synopsys celebrated the 35th anniversary of its Taiwan operations and the opening of its new Hsinchu office on June 15. During the event, Synopsys CEO Sassine Ghazi sat down with DIGITIMES to discuss how agentic AI is transforming electronic design automation (EDA), semiconductor development, and the future of engineering work.

Tuesday 16 June 2026
Synopsys celebrates 35 years in Taiwan, pledges continued investment

On June 15, Synopsys celebrated the 35th anniversary of its Taiwan operations and officially opened its new office at Hsinchu Science Park X Software Park.

Tuesday 16 June 2026
Qualcomm weighs Tenstorrent deal that could reach US$10 billion

Qualcomm has been in talks to acquire Tenstorrent, an AI chip startup, The Information reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the deal. The two companies have discussed a price of US$8 billion to US$10 billion, the person said, a significant premium to Tenstorrent's last known valuation.

Tuesday 16 June 2026
Huawei's PanguLM comeback hinges on Richard Yu after credibility hit
Huawei is trying to restore the profile of PanguLM at a time when China's large AI model race is entering a tougher phase.
Tuesday 16 June 2026
ByteDance in talks for Iluvatar, Baidu Kunlunxin AI chips as Doubao demand grows

ByteDance is in talks to buy AI chips from Shanghai-based Iluvatar CoreX and is also considering using Baidu's Kunlunxin chips, as the TikTok parent expands its domestic chip options amid rising inference demand from its AI chatbot Doubao.