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May 26
Let there be limits—Pope Leo invokes scripture on AI's moral peril, Anthropic in tow
Pope Leo XIV released a major document on May 25, warning about the dangers of AI, from autonomous weapons to what he claims is its relation to "new forms of slavery" arising from the industry. An unexpected attendee of the pope's Vatican event announcing the document's release was Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, a presence that signals the AI developer's relationship with the Catholic Church as it seeks to bolster its image as an AI company concerned with ethics.
Dreame Technology, a Chinese consumer electronics maker, has formed nearly 1,000 affiliated companies in its ecosystem since the end of 2024. This breakneck pace of expansion signals the ambitions of its leadership to unearth growth opportunities across the broader Chinese tech sector, although some media outlets question the sustainability of the business model.
Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics is moving quickly toward an initial public offering, but its latest prospectus points to the commercial challenges still facing the sector.
First Micron, then SK Hynix, join the trillion-dollar club, capping an extraordinary repricing of an industry once dismissed as a commodity play. The milestone is more than a valuation story: it crystallizes a structural debate about whether AI has permanently transformed memory's earnings profile, a bubble concern as Chinese rivals ramp capacity, and a sharpening geopolitical contest over who controls the bandwidth backbone of artificial intelligence.
As humanoid robots move closer to mass production, thermal management is emerging as a critical bottleneck. Component efficiency, cramped joint architectures, and limited heat-dissipation space are all making system design harder and shaping the next wave of humanoid robot development.
Computex 2026 is set to officially open in Taipei, and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) Chairman James C.F. Huang has stated that the combined market capitalization of foreign companies participating in forums and keynote sessions at this year's event exceeds US$10 trillion. He also said that TAITRA has allocated the entire Taipei International Convention Center (TICC) exclusively to Nvidia for GTC Taipei 2026.
The agreement between Qualcomm and ByteDance positions the former for large-scale AI ASIC demand from the latter, as reported by Bloomberg, but market viability remains uncertain amid intense AI chip competition, evolving China procurement preferences, and regulatory pressures affecting cross-border semiconductor adoption.
IREN Limited has signed a purchase agreement with Dell Technologies for air-cooled Blackwell-based systems intended to support its previously announced five-year US$3.4bn managed services AI cloud contract. The deal forms part of its broader effort to expand AI compute capacity and shorten deployment timelines for large-scale GPU infrastructure.
Acer chairman and CEO Jason Chen said the current PC supply bottleneck is most severe in CPUs rather than memory, while the company can still meet demand due to long-term supply agreements. He said full-year PC shipments in 2026 are expected to decline 6-9%, with a sharper drop in the second half than in the first half.
Industrial computer maker ICP DAS held an investor briefing on May 26 to outline a 2026 strategy focused on two main priorities: expanding semiconductor equipment controller operations and accelerating a shift into medical-grade thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) semi-finished products. Executives said the moves aim to capture growing measurement and control-module demand from semiconductor-equipment customers and to open new TPU accounts in Japan, China, Europe, and the US.
Taiwan-based Daxin Materials posted stronger revenue and profitability in 2025 as rapid growth in semiconductor materials offset a still-cautious display market recovery, with AI- and HPC-driven demand emerging as the company's primary growth engine.
Nvidia held an "employee town hall" on the morning of May 27 at the T17 and T18 sites in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (BSTP), where CEO Jensen Huang met staff, gave away Dom Pérignon, and framed Taiwan as central to the company's AI expansion. Taipei Mayor Wayne Chiang attended only as a "guest."