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OpenAI has confidentially filed for an initial public offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), setting the stage for closer scrutiny of its related-party transactions and potential conflicts of interest involving CEO Sam Altman's extensive personal investment portfolio.

Rising inflation and higher prices for memory and processors are squeezing smartphone shipments in Taiwan, with the market's recovery likely to remain uneven for many readers worldwide. Vendors and forecasters said demand weakened in the first half of 2026, and that higher handset prices could continue to reshape buying patterns across major markets.

Shuotong, a liquid-cooling solutions provider, said it expects a positive outlook for the second half of 2026 as AI-driven thermal management sustains demand for liquid cooling. The firm, which is listed on the Emerging Stock Board on June 26, announced that it supplies microchannel cold plates, high-reliability manifolds, flexible hose assemblies, and fatigue-resistant metal tube parts to major international Tier 1 liquid-cooling players and several leading thermal module makers in Taiwan and abroad.

Japan's world-renowned Riken institute announced in late March 2026 that its homegrown superconducting quantum computer, "Ei-II," jointly developed with the University of Osaka, had officially gone online with 144 qubits and 99.9% fidelity. Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) said Riken will next work with Taiwan's academic community on research, including next-generation compound semiconductors.
China's LineShine puts Beijing back on top of supercomputer race
Jun 30, 08:39

A name largely absent from the global supercomputing stage for years returned to the spotlight at ISC 2026 in Hamburg, Germany.

Nvidia does not make robots, but it is becoming a key force behind embodied intelligence companies. At Automate 2026, North America's largest industrial automation show, on June 22, Deepu Talla, vice president of Nvidia's robotics business, said on stage that the company hired 18,600 man-years of engineers to bring the safety architecture of autonomous driving to robots.

Hurun Research Institute released its Hurun Global Unicorn List on June 25, a ranking covering 1,603 companies across 52 countries and 299 cities. The number of companies is up 5.3% from the prior year, while total global unicorn value has surged 43% year on year to US$8 trillion, far outpacing growth in the number of companies.

PlayNitride reported revenue of NT$238 million (approx. US$7.5 million) in the first five months of 2026, down 41% year-over-year. The microLED company said stronger custom design orders and a higher mix of high-margin products will lift second-half revenue and gross margin above the first half, while it aims to improve again in the fourth quarter. Large-format TVs, wearables, and transparent displays remain the company's core businesses. Over the medium to long term, it is targeting high-end displays, AI glasses, and AI optical communications as its three growth engines.
Amid the ongoing AI race between the US and China, industry players in South Korea are now focusing on physical AI as a competitive factor, with manufacturing momentum as a core advantage, according to Park Min-woo, head of Hyundai Motor's Advanced Vehicle Platform (AVP) division and CEO of 42dot.

Enterprises are increasingly moving AI deployments from public cloud to on-premises systems as demand rises for data sovereignty, compliance, and local data control. Irene Sun, general manager for Red Hat Taiwan, said the same shift is taking hold in Taiwan, where companies are paying far more attention to who controls critical data, core models, and computing environments.

Taiwanese electronic components manufacturer Yao Sheng Electronic held its 2026 annual shareholders meeting on June 25, noting that its transformation strategy in recent years has focused on optimizing its profit structure, targeting high total wattage, high technological barrier, and high gross margin applications. The company added that prior R&D investments and automation spending have helped incubate four niche product lines: artificial intelligence (AI) high-power power supplies, patented low-temperature heat dissipation materials, semiconductor testing, and medical devices certified by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).