Robotics has progressed rapidly in the past few years, but major obstacles — including data collection and trust infrastructure — remain barriers to widespread deployment. This was the takeaway from a recent panel of robotics experts at SuperAI Singapore, where they discussed the present and future of the industry.

Taiwan's drone supply chain is notching fresh wins, with downstream players such as Thunder Tiger and Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) continuing to secure orders while upstream suppliers, especially chipmakers, are quietly expanding their deployments and market share. For military and commercial drones in particular, Taiwanese chip vendors are now working closely with local customers as well as customers in Europe and the US to integrate a range of on-board image-processing and AI recognition modules, plus applications such as flight control and ground control stations.

While marketing initiatives promote an ultra-fast transition to wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductors, fully automated smart factories, and an all-electric automotive future, the sentiment across the PCIM Europe 2026 exhibition floor is more pragmatic. The industry has reached a transitional maturity wall where the realities of material physics, fragmented design silos, and macroeconomic supply shocks are clashing with marketing hype cycles.

Microsoft is laying off hundreds of employees in its Azure cloud division in China, marking the latest step in the company's ongoing restructuring efforts as it navigates increasingly complex regulatory environments in both the US and China.