A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar on Friday, March 28, rocking neighboring Thailand and prompting emergency measures in Bangkok. Despite the significant tremor, Taiwan-based tech manufacturers operating in Thailand reported minimal disruption to their supply chains and production lines.

Nearly 20 Chinese AI chip companies have announced compatibility with the DeepSeek distilled model, but only a handful—including Huawei, Cambricon Technologies, Moore Threads, and Baidu Kunlun—are capable of running the 671-billion parameters version. The disparity highlights the current state of China's AI chip sector, with many firms still focusing on smaller, less computationally intensive models.

Every spring, Apple convenes its top 100 executives in an offsite meeting to chart the company's strategic direction. The 2025 meeting was focused on a critical issue—Siri, Apple's voice assistant, and its lagging performance in the rapidly advancing world of artificial intelligence (AI). Unlike many of its tech rivals, Apple has been slow to build out AI-focused data centers, but recent moves suggest the company is finally positioning itself to compete in the generative AI (GenAI) space.

Amid uncertainties regarding US tariff policy, Taiwanese server manufacturers are adapting for the future. DIGITIMES analyst Yen Chou noted that servers produced in the US will be expensive, particularly affecting cloud service providers (CSPs) like AWS and Microsoft.

In November 2022, ChatGPT's launch marked the beginning of a global surge in generative AI (GenAI) development. However, since then, several GenAI companies have faced lawsuits, and global rights organizations such as CISAC, IFPI, and MPA have ramped up efforts to lobby governments against establishing "fair use" provisions for GenAI.

With the White House soliciting industry input for its "Artificial Intelligence Action Plan" until March 15, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic have unveiled detailed proposals to shape US AI policy. These firms, identified by 01.AI CEO Kai-Fu Lee as future AI market leaders, emphasize the need to balance innovation, national security, and global competitiveness.

The widespread market adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) has prompted various industries to seek AI applications for transformation and efficiency enhancement. In particular, the integration of large language models (LLM) with edge AI/edge computing is gradually becoming a focal point in market discussions.

At Nvidia GTC 2025, the discussion surrounding advanced autonomous driving heated up, with US automotive alliances and tech industry groups joining forces to urge President Donald Trump to take action. Their goal: to expedite the deployment of self-driving cars by overcoming current regulatory hurdles before China takes the lead in this emerging sector.

On March 27, the National Development Council (NDC) of Taiwan released its economic outlook for February 2025, revealing a positive momentum in the country's economic activities, fueled by global investments in technology sectors. The report highlighted a substantial increase in capex by global tech giants in artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers, while Taiwan's strategic position in the semiconductor supply chain continues to bolster its export capabilities.

On March 27, Taiwan's Executive Yuan approved the establishment of the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) as an independent regulatory body to enhance personal data protection and support the robust development of the digital economy in the era of widespread AI applications.