Taiwan's HTC Corporation is rapidly expanding its AI glasses ecosystem following the debut of its first AI eyewear, Vive Eagle, as it scales distribution, deepens AI partnerships, and prepares for an AR-enabled next generation of smart glasses.
Nvidia Corporation's market value has surged to US$4.5 trillion amid the expansion of the AI industry, overtaking Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corporation, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) reached a market capitalization of NT$46 trillion (US$1.45 trillion). Taiwan's information electronics sector is forecast to contribute over 6% to the nation's GDP by 2025, supported by strong chip manufacturing and AI server assembly.
As AI chip generations advance rapidly, power demands in data and compute centers are driving a fundamental shift in power supply design from single power supply units (PSUs) to system-level power racks. This shift entails highly modular, standardized power architectures, transforming power supplies into critical subsystems that ensure operational stability and efficiency.
Foxconn has established a joint venture, Henan Hongchuang Technology, in Zhengzhou, China, to enhance its manufacturing capabilities and supply chain resilience, with production set to begin in the second quarter of 2026.
Nvidia is expanding its data center business while advancing personal and edge AI computing platforms, outlining a product roadmap that spans the current N1 and N1X series through the next-generation N2 and N2X platforms.
China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has tightened export controls on dual-use items to Japan, underscoring the growing strategic role of rare earth elements amid complex geopolitical and resource considerations. Concurrently, two leading Chinese rare earth producers, China Northern Rare Earth High-Tech Group and Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Union, announced a 2.4% price increase for rare earth concentrates in the first quarter of 2026, marking the sixth consecutive quarterly hike since the third quarter of 2024.
Elon Musk's xAI division has achieved a milestone by bringing online Colossus 2, the world's first gigawatt-scale artificial intelligence (AI) training cluster, a development praised by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang despite Musk's ongoing legal disputes with OpenAI. Announced on January 17 via Musk's X platform, Colossus 2 currently operates at 1GW with plans to reach 1.5GW by April 2026, marking a significant leap in AI compute capacity that surpasses the peak electricity usage of a major city like San Francisco.
PixVerse, a platform operated by Alibaba-backed Aishi Technology, has launched a real-time, interactive artificial intelligence (AI) video-generation tool that lets users control character actions during video creation. The new feature potentially enables novel business models by offering an unprecedented level of user engagement, according to reports from CNBC and Forbes.
Based on the results of the first phase of South Korea's independent AI foundation model selection, LG AI Research, SK Telecom, and Upstage have advanced to the next stage. However, Naver Cloud and NC failed to pass the evaluation. Naver was judged as insufficiently autonomous because of controversy that it uses a Chinese-made vision encoder.
Cloud service providers (CSPs) are significantly increasing capital expenditures, continuously investing in high-end AI servers and deploying cloud AI computing projects. This surge is driving demand for high-power hardware testing services, accelerating business for specialized electronic testing firms.
AUO Corporation has transformed its Suzhou manufacturing facility into what it calls a "Talent Lighthouse Factory," a first for the global display industry. The designation underscores how AI has become central not only to the company's digital transformation, but also to a parallel reinvention of how talent is recruited, managed, and retained.
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