As 2024 came to a close, major companies unveiled their preliminary financial reports. Simultaneously, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang toured Taiwan, hosting key industry leaders. With the rapid growth of Taiwan's AI server sector and a surge in industry optimism, analysts are bullish on Taiwan's outlook for 2025.

The rise of generative AI has elevated Taiwan's global standing, as it plays a crucial role in providing the hardware for AI computing. In the last two years, Taiwan has experienced a surge in data centers and supercomputing facilities. However, the government faces challenges in energy policy, as cloud providers demand carbon-free and nuclear energy for AI data centers.

In recent years, Cambricon has been the most notable player in China's IC industry. Cambrian's founder and chairman, Tianshi Chen, not only became the richest person from Jiangxi but also surpassed Renrong Yu, the founder of China's largest IC design company, OmniVision, to become the new-generation chip industry tycoon in China. However, now Chen is facing concerns about capital bubbles and the high risks of market volatility, especially with the company's ongoing losses, which may make it difficult to sustain the market's high expectations.

Amid uncertainties in the Chinese market and reduced spending by automotive chip and power semiconductor manufacturers, Japanese semiconductor equipment makers have revised their sales forecast for fiscal year 2025 (April 2025 - March 2026). Nevertheless, demand for advanced process chips, especially those needed for artificial intelligence (AI), is anticipated to lead to a 5% year-over-year sales growth in 2025.

DeepLearning.AI founder Andrew Ng recently stated that with the decreasing criteria for software development, the role of deciding what to develop becomes more crucial, making AI product management (AI PM) talent highly sought after. He predicts that engineers who traditionally focused on programming may shift towards more product management responsibilities

SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son has made a strategic pivot toward the US market, appearing alongside President Donald Trump twice since his November election victory to unveil major investment plans. Previously, nearly half of SoftBank's investments were concentrated in Asia, with a significant focus on China, where Son achieved remarkable success with his early investment in Alibaba in 2000.

Acer continues its transformation into a "lifestyle brand," with its subsidiary playing a crucial role in this shift. Acerpure is making strides into the large appliance market, having already introduced televisions in India, with air conditioning products set to follow.

Taiwan-based Global PMX, a major manufacturer of automotive powertrain and safety components, has successfully expanded its presence in AI-powered digital healthcare and other sectors while maintaining steady growth in the traditional automotive industry.

Japanese semiconductor cleaning equipment manufacturer Screen plans to increase its semiconductor manufacturing equipment production capacity to 120% of the 2023 level by fiscal year 2026 (April 2026–March 2027), aiming for annual revenue of approximately JPY600 billion (approx. US$3.9 billion) to meet growing demand in semiconductor manufacturing.

President Trump has unveiled the Stargate program, a US$500 billion initiative to secure the US's position as a leader in AI. However, analysts suggest that China will persist in its aggressive investment in AI infrastructure, despite US efforts.

Global server shipments are projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4% from 2024 to 2029. However, in 2025, the recovery momentum for servers is expected to be suppressed due to an unstable macroeconomic environment, the new tariff policies implemented during Trump's administration, and ongoing US-China geopolitical competition. This will result in a low shipment growth rate of just 3.9% for the year, according to DIGITIMES.