Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs, Ming-hsin Kung, joined senior US State Department officials on January 27, 2026, in the US to conclude the sixth US-Taiwan Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD). The two sides signed a joint statement on the Pax Silica Declaration and US-Taiwan Cooperation on Economic Security.
Apple has long built its brand around a tightly integrated hardware and services ecosystem. In AI and high-performance computing (HPC), however, the platform has been limited by the absence of support for Nvidia's CUDA ecosystem. The open-source AI agent Moltbot, formerly known as Clawdbot, is now breaking that barrier, driving renewed developer interest in the Mac mini.
OpenAI is pursuing a landmark funding round, potentially reaching US$100 billion to fuel its escalating AI infrastructure needs amid intense competition. Major tech giants and existing backers are advancing discussions, aiming to bolster the company's position against rivals.
Meta is outlining an AI monetization roadmap that extends beyond advertising, signaling plans to layer subscriptions, business tools, and commerce features on top of its core platforms as new models are deployed, while maintaining ads as the primary growth engine in the near term.
Meta is sharpening its AI device strategy, redirecting investment toward smart glasses and wearables as management signals urgency in shaping the next consumer computing platform, with implications for hardware ecosystems, AI deployment, and the long-term role of virtual and augmented reality.
As artificial intelligence (AI) development accelerates, power consumption across computing platforms is climbing sharply. Competition among data and computing centers is no longer limited to server specifications or the efficiency of individual power supply units. Instead, it is moving toward rack-level integration of power distribution, cooling, energy storage, and monitoring, with implications extending into broader infrastructure design.
Meta is preparing for a steep increase in capital spending in 2026 as it scales AI infrastructure to support "personal superintelligence," signaling a longer-term roadmap centered on silicon, energy and compute efficiency that could reshape its cost structure and competitive positioning.
Celestica, a global supplier of data center infrastructure and advanced technology manufacturing, reported sharply higher revenue and earnings in the fourth quarter of 2025, a performance that reflects the accelerating demand for artificial intelligence–driven computing systems and the company's growing role in the global AI supply chain.
Microsoft's earnings conference call for the fiscal second quarter of 2026 underscored a company accelerating into an AI-first era—while also confronting investor scrutiny over the scale of its infrastructure spending.
Following the signing of the Taiwan-US investment cooperation memorandum of understanding (MOU), the next step is to finalize the agreement on reciprocal trade (ART) between the two countries. As Taiwanese supply chains pursue strategies of making collective moves in the US, some companies express willingness to follow the lead of TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker who is investing enormous sums in building wafer fabs in the US. However, upstream players admit that with high production costs in the US, investments may not be profitable unless their gross margins exceed 50%.
China's optical industry is confronting significant challenges as several lens module manufacturers reportedly plan layoffs early in 2026, prompted by sluggish smartphone sales and intense price competition. Industry sources indicate that the sector's difficulties are unlikely to abate in the coming year due to persistent market and macroeconomic pressures.
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