Taiwan's original equipment manufacturer/electronics manufacturing services (OEM/EMS) sector is witnessing a structural split between explosive demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and softening demand for legacy consumer device assembly in 2026. Monthly revenue data highlight how suppliers anchored to high-density compute racks, GPU-based servers, and high-speed network switches are delivering massive year-over-year gains, whereas manufacturers more reliant on standard notebooks face component supply bottlenecks.

At this year's China International Optoelectronic Expo (CIOE), Sivers Semiconductor brought two products to its booth that trace the trajectory of the optical networking industry: a 1.6T pluggable optical transceiver currently ramping toward mainstream adoption, and a prototype module built for external light source (ELS) architectures, a technology that could define the next generation of data center interconnects.

As US AI executives warn that artificial intelligence development may need to slow down, Chinese companies are pressing ahead with open source tools and large-scale deployment. The gap matters far beyond China, because the next phase of AI competition may be shaped as much by collaboration and standards as by chips and model size.

OpenAI has acquired Glass Imaging, a startup developing artificial-intelligence (AI) technology designed to improve smartphone camera performance, in a deal valued at more than US$300 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. The acquisition adds imaging expertise to OpenAI as it expands beyond software and into consumer hardware.