South Korea-based JL Standard showcased its AI-driven video services for memorials, events, and digital content at the 2025 Pangyo Global Media Meet-Up. The presentation at Pangyo Techno Valley's startup campus highlighted the district's growing role as a launchpad for AI applications targeting niche markets across Asia.

India has approved a second tranche of 17 projects under the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), authorizing investments worth INR71.72 billion (US$810 million) and projected production of INR651.11 billion. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the new approvals are expected to create 11,808 direct jobs and further expand domestic component manufacturing capacity. This follows an earlier set of seven applications worth INR55.32 billion cleared in the previous phase.

Arm and Nvidia announced new steps to expand their collaboration on AI data center infrastructure, highlighting the growing demand for energy-efficient computing as AI workloads scale. Companies across the sector are prioritizing "intelligence per watt," as power constraints increasingly limit data center capacity and performance.

Amid escalating China-US trade frictions and disrupted global supply chains, Taiwan is advancing efforts to strengthen its domestic production of critical materials like rare earth elements and neon gas; these are essential for high-tech industries, including semiconductors and defense.

Tesla has outlined an aggressive roadmap targeting mass production of its Optimus humanoid robot and expansion of its Robotaxi service, with CEO Elon Musk's trillion-dollar compensation plan directly linked to the success of these ventures. At the center of this push is Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's AI software vice president, who has become a pivotal figure in the company's AI and robotics strategy.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has raised concerns about developing countries adopting Chinese AI models, mostly because of cost. According to Business Insider, Schmidt stated on a podcast that many US AI models are closed-source and expensive, pushing budget-conscious nations toward Chinese AI, which is often free and risks becoming the global standard.

Debate has recently emerged regarding whether the prospects for humanoid robots are more hype than reality, with recent reports from industry insiders in China noting that US investors have visited China-based suppliers for several well-known brands, only to find production capacity expansions despite an absence of materialized orders. These reports follow news that Tesla has delayed mass production of its humanoid robots, further fueling skepticism about the sector's near-term viability.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently stated in an interview that Microsoft can access OpenAI's model research outcomes. System-level innovations developed by OpenAI can also be fully leveraged by Microsoft, which can implement these designs first for OpenAI and then extend or adapt them to its own purposes. Going forward, Microsoft will be able to share OpenAI's proprietary chip-related technologies and use them as a foundation to adjust or expand its own application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip development.

Taiwan's Academia Sinica has unveiled its quantum chip fabrication platform (QC-Fab) and quantum computing test platform (QC-Test), marking a major step in the nation's push into quantum technology. QC-Fab began trial operations in September 2025, while QC-Test is expected to open for trials in 2026. A 10-qubit quantum computer chip under in-house development is slated for deployment in the first half of 2026.

IP provider Ceva held its Technology Symposium this week in Hsinchu, showcasing multiple edge AI technology solutions co-developed with partner IC design houses. Ceva chief strategy officer Iri Trashanski stated that the future potential of the edge AI market is enormous.