Taiwan's outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) industry closed December 2025 with a pattern that investors have increasingly come to expect: revenue growth was widespread on a year-on-year basis, but performance gaps between end markets widened. Demand tied to AI servers and high-performance computing (HPC) continued to concentrate the strongest momentum in advanced testing and select advanced packaging programs, while more mature consumer-facing segments remained choppy.

The global AI boom is pushing the memory industry to its limits. Demand for DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) continues to rise, while supply remains constrained, with Micron warning that meaningful relief is still years away.

Nvidia and Eli Lilly and Company have announced the formation of a joint AI co-innovation lab to apply artificial intelligence to drug discovery, development, and manufacturing, as pharmaceutical companies increasingly turn to advanced computing to improve research productivity and reduce development timelines.

Nvidia said it does not require customers to make upfront payments for its H200 artificial intelligence chips. The statement pushes back against a Reuters report claiming the company had imposed unusually strict commercial terms on Chinese buyers amid regulatory uncertainty.

The global race to build AI data centers has triggered an unexpected casualty: the memory supply that powers everyday consumer electronics.

Because of slower customer orders and process optimization at its Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) facility, Greenfiltec's consolidated revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 was NT$17.5 billion (approx. US$552.5 million), down 11.75% from the third quarter. However, full-year 2025 consolidated revenue reached NT$63.5 billion, a significant 42.15% increase over 2024, driven by a rise in market share for AMC filters used in semiconductors.

Taiwan dominates advanced semiconductor manufacturing, but mounting competition in emerging technologies is exposing structural gaps. To secure its position in the AI and data-center era, the government is accelerating a national push into silicon photonics and co-packaged optics, an area it sees as critical to the next wave of computing.

MediaTek recently announced its December 2025 and full-year revenue results. December revenue reached NT$51.266 billion (approx. US$1.6 billion), up 9.32% month-over-month and 22.99% year-over-year, while the full-year revenue totaled NT$595.966 billion, marking a 12.32% year-over-year increase. The strong rebound in December not only pushed annual revenue close to the NT$600 billion mark but also surpassed the company's high-end fourth quarter financial forecast.

Market sources say Xiaomi is expanding its in-house XRing chip lineup. Beyond developing the next-generation XRing O2 on TSMC's N3P process, the company also plans to extend these processors into "non-smartphone" products to further raise its level of self-reliance.

The passive component industry is facing price increases because of upstream metal price fluctuations. Taiwanese manufacturers have started raising prices on tantalum capacitors, with increases now spreading to bead inductors, varistors, and NTC thermistors. Companies including Yageo, Walsin Technology, Tai-Tech, and Viking Tech have all followed suit.

The Trump administration is nearing completion of a major trade agreement with Taiwan that would reduce US tariffs on Taiwanese goods while securing the expansion of semiconductor manufacturing by TSMC. Under the deal, which has been under discussion for months and could be announced soon, US tariffs on Taiwanese imports would drop from 20% to about 15%, aligning Taiwan with Japan and South Korea. In return, Taiwan would commit to more than US$300 billion in foreign direct investment and related spending in the US, significantly expanding on the US$165 billion investment plan TSMC outlined last year.