China's AI server vendors are accelerating their shift toward self-developed architectures, bringing RISC-V from edge devices into data-center workloads. StarFive Technology has entered this space with the Lion Rock chip, its first RISC-V–based data-center management processor and one of the earliest large-scale commercial deployments of the ISA in China's server market.
Silicon Valley venture firm Playground recently showcased seven semiconductor startups at a media event in Taiwan. Beyond the well-known Ayar Labs, d-Matrix, and NextSilicon, two HPC power component startups—PowerLattice and Vertical Semiconductor—stood out.
The 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium opened in Taipei on November 17, with experts highlighting that Taiwan's future economic growth faces challenges from extreme climate events, geopolitical conflicts, US tariff uncertainties, and constraints on critical material supplies. Among these, extreme drought poses the most severe threat to Taiwan's industries, especially the water-intensive semiconductor sector.
DFI is sharpening its focus on edge AI and long-lifecycle industrial markets as global supply chains shift and AI deployments accelerate. At the company's investor briefing on November 17, DFI president Claire Tien said the Taiwanese industrial computer supplier plans to build its next phase of growth around manufacturing strength, localized production and long-term project stability.
AMD CEO Lisa Su revealed at a recent Financial Analyst Day in New York that the company expects to generate about US$34 billion in revenue in 2025, with approximately US$16 billion coming from its data center segment.
Silicon Valley venture firm Playground recently held a media event in Taiwan featuring a fireside chat with Ayar Labs, a silicon photonics startup backed by leading chipmakers including Nvidia and AMD. Founder and CEO Mark Wade and former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger discussed the future of silicon photonics.
Three AI giants have formed a strategic partnership that will once again reshape the AI industry. Announced just before Microsoft Ignite 2025, Microsoft and Nvidia have committed to investing US$5 billion and US$10 billion, respectively, into Anthropic. In turn, Anthropic will purchase US$30 billion in computing capacity on Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform. This deal will deepen Microsoft's shift toward a multi-model strategy, strengthen Nvidia's competitiveness against rival OpenAI, and provide Anthropic with the computing scale needed to leverage next-generation AI systems.
Pat Gelsinger, after stepping down as Intel's CEO, continues to influence the semiconductor sector through his role as a venture capitalist. On November 18, he led seven portfolio companies on a tour of Taiwan, presenting advanced technologies and reflecting on his four-decade-long relationship with the island's semiconductor industry.
After resigning as CEO of Intel in December 2024, Pat Gelsinger has maintained an active presence in the global AI and semiconductor industries. In March 2025, he joined Silicon Valley venture firm Playground Global as a partner and took on the role of executive chairman at US-based tech platform Gloo, which connects religious faith ecosystems.
The global semiconductor sector is at a critical juncture as demand for AI servers and high-performance computing (HPC) accelerates. A structural memory shortage is emerging across the supply chain, pushing SMIC back into a prominent role as a foundry.
Two newly constructed data centers in Santa Clara, California, have yet to begin operations because of insufficient power supply from the local grid. The facilities, developed by Digital Realty and Stack Infrastructure, offer a combined capacity of approximately 100MW but remain largely unused, highlighting ongoing energy constraints in the region.
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