China's JCET expects stronger first-half earnings as global demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure lifts semiconductor activity. The outlook signals continued momentum in chip packaging and testing, a sector closely watched by investors because it reflects broader technology spending trends that affect supply chains across Asia, the US, and Europe.
Lenovo, responding to recent reporting that its ThinkBook 14 G9 IPL business notebook uses solid-state drives (SSDs) from Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), stressed that the unit dismantled and tested in the report was a German-spec model, not a US version. The company said all notebooks shipped to the US market do not contain SSDs from YMTC, refuting claims that the Chinese supplier had entered the US PC supply chain.
Taiwan's AI server component suppliers generally maintained healthy revenue momentum in June, with power supply, thermal solution and baseboard management controller (BMC) vendors continuing to benefit from strong AI infrastructure demand. Optical module suppliers, meanwhile, delivered a more mixed performance, with several companies posting triple-digit or strong double-digit annual growth while others remained under pressure.
LimX Dynamics Technology, a general-purpose humanoid robot and embodied AI company, has announced the completion of its pre-IPO round of financing, raising nearly US$200 million. The company may soon see a public listing at a time when China's robotics market has grown to include hundreds of companies.
AI-driven demand for memory, power management chips, and advanced packaging has continued to tighten supply and demand in the foundry market. Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing (PSMC) reported second quarter 2026 revenue of NT$17.291 billion (approx. US$537.8 million), up 27% quarter-over-quarter and 53% year-over-year, while gross margin jumped to 28%, up 18pp from the first quarter; operating margin reached 21%, turning positive from the same period in 2025, and net profit after tax came to NT$3.291 billion, an EPS of NT$0.76.
Formosa Plastics Group said it will keep its annual salary increase tradition in 2026, approving an overall pay raise of 4.5% through its management center. The move comes as the Taiwanese industrial conglomerate continues a shift toward higher-value products, business transformation and new-energy investment while managing recent pressure from geopolitics, oversupply, oil price swings and foreign exchange losses.
Global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment are on pace to reach an unprecedented US$165.9 billion in 2026, a 23.2% jump from the previous year, according to industry association SEMI's mid-year forecast. This growth is expected to continue in the coming years as AI reshapes the chip industry's investment landscape.
OpenAI's first consumer device is shaping up as a direct bid for the center of the home, a move that would pit the ChatGPT maker against Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet's Google just as it prepares to go public — and while it fights an Apple lawsuit that could delay the launch.
The European Commission has exempted a swathe of connected consumer and industrial products from its rule requiring that portable batteries be removable and replaceable by users. This change removes one of the clearest regulatory obstacles to selling devices such as Meta's smart glasses in the bloc.
After an eight-day trip through Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, Linux Foundation Global AI CTO Matt White published a detailed account of his trip titled "Eight Days in China: What I Learned from AI Labs, Robotics Startups, and Academia." He has since elaborated on those observations in subsequent interviews.
On July 14, 2026, the White House launched Gold Eagle, a federal cybersecurity clearinghouse meant to coordinate how software vulnerabilities are detected and patched across open-source code and critical infrastructure using artificial intelligence (AI). The central question analysts are already raising is not whether the initiative can find more flaws, but whether it can actually get them fixed.
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