Global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company has released its "Global Banking Annual Review" and "The State of AI: Global Survey 2025," based on a survey of 2,000 companies across finance, technology, retail, and other sectors.

As generative AI advances, applications are shifting from simple content creation to autonomous action. AI agents have become central, focusing on understanding goals, making independent decisions, and completing tasks with minimal human input. This marks AI's evolution from a tool to an intelligent system that works autonomously.

Apple Inc. has unveiled an AI imaging technology called DarkDiff, designed to improve photo clarity in low-light conditions by integrating generative diffusion models into the camera's image signal processor (ISP). While effective in reducing blur and enhancing detail, the technology's high computational demands currently limit its deployment on consumer devices.

OpenAI launched its AI browser, ChatGPT Atlas, allowing AI agents to access web pages and assist users with tasks such as editing emails. However, this innovation comes with heightened cybersecurity threats from prompt injection attacks, which OpenAI concedes are challenging to fully eradicate.

Taiwan's economy saw outstanding growth in 2025, emerging as an outlier not just in Asia but also worldwide. In its recently released forecast for 2026, the Institute of Economics at Academia Sinica sharply revised its estimate for GDP growth to 7.41% for 2025, up 4.48pp from its previous estimate of 2.93%. Although growth in 2026 is likely to slow down due to the high baseline in 2025, AI-related industries will continue to prop up external demand and investments in Taiwan.

As 2025 draws to a close, the US-China AI compute market is entering a phase of guarded competition and selective cooperation. While the US government has launched an inter-agency review of Nvidia's H200 exports to China—and Nvidia is reportedly planning deliveries ahead of the Lunar New Year—Huawei has already set a clear timetable. Its next-generation AI chip, the Ascend 950PR, is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2026.

McKinsey Taipei recently released its "Global Banking Annual Review 2025" and "The State of AI: Global Survey 2025," surveying 2,000 companies across finance, technology, and retail sectors worldwide. Senior adviser Victor Kuan and senior partner Violet Chung at McKinsey & Company noted that Taiwan's financial industry faces multiple pressures from geopolitical tensions, macroeconomic volatility, and intensifying competition.

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are drawing significant attention because of their flexible and rapid deployment capabilities as AI's electricity demand continues to skyrocket. Kaori Thermal Technology, a key supplier to SOFC fuel cell leader Bloom Energy, stated that customer demand remains strong, enabling both capital and workforce expansion. The company said its 2026 capex will be the largest since its founding, and its headcount is set to increase by more than 40%.

Eric Wu, founder of Shinkong InnovHUB, announced on December 23, 2025, that the facility is scheduled to open in 2027, offering a dedicated testing and demonstration site for autonomous vehicles. Wu simultaneously revealed the formal launch of Gaia Capital, a NT$5 billion (US$158 million) fund designed to help Taiwanese startups in the autonomous vehicle sector expand into global markets.

Nvidia has agreed to buy key assets from AI accelerator startup Groq in the company's largest acquisition to date, a move that underscores how the battle in artificial intelligence is increasingly shifting from training dominance toward inference efficiency and cost control.

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) is expanding its AI and infrastructure footprint by establishing a shared AI exhibition space and research and development office at Kaohsiung's Pier F on December 22, 2025. The company will also assist Kaohsiung in building Taiwan's first city-level generative sovereign AI demonstration base.