The global race for AI computing power continues to intensify, beyond ongoing GPU shortages. CPUs, long viewed as secondary components in servers, are once again becoming critical parts of data center infrastructure due to the rapid rise of AI inference and AI agent applications.

Taiwan's ASIC and design services sector is showing sharply diverging fortunes in 2026, with new monthly revenue data highlighting strong momentum for GUC while rivals Faraday and Alchip face a slower start to the year.

AI infrastructure demand is reshaping the electronics manufacturing sector, pushing component makers to move up the value chain into module production and system integration. Delta Electronics has emerged as a prominent example, with its aggressive global expansion plans also accelerating capacity investments by suppliers, including rack maker JPP Holding and battery module supplier Dynapack International Technology in Thailand.

LG Innotek is seeking to enter Tesla's AI semiconductor supply chain by targeting ABF-based FC-BGA substrate orders for the automaker's AI4 chips, intensifying its competition with Samsung Electro-Mechanics (Semco) across both autonomous driving and humanoid robotics hardware.

Google's effort to expand its tensor processing units (TPU) beyond its own cloud is meeting resistance from some of the AI infrastructure companies best positioned to distribute alternative chips, with executives from Nebius, Lambda, and CoreWeave saying they do not plan to adopt TPUs anytime soon, according to The Information.