Merck presented integrated materials and inspection tools at Touch Taiwan 2026 as the panel industry pivots toward chip-on-panel (CPO) and advanced packaging. The company emphasized solutions to improve yield, resolution, energy efficiency, and inspection speed to support next-generation optoelectronic semiconductor integration.

Oracle's surge in AI infrastructure spending is prompting global supply chains to expand capacity, with partners ramping factories in Taiwan, Vietnam and the US to serve hyperscale cloud clients. The move signals sustained order growth, shifts manufacturing closer to Asian markets, and could affect server and data center supply dynamics.

As the smart glasses market grows rapidly, the adoption of Micro LED in AI-powered eyewear is accelerating. PlayNitride has partnered with AR glasses maker ChaseWind to develop a full-color, high-resolution Micro LED AI smart glasses product, which is expected to be deployed in industrial control and drone applications. Meanwhile, its Tantium chips targeting wearable devices and automotive displays, launched in 2025, have entered the mass production phase and are set to begin order-based production in 2026.

The robotics market has been gaining attention since 2025, prompting active supply chain development. Within the chip industry, Taiwanese IC design firms generally believe that current robot applications have yet to reach a significant scale. As a result, players are quietly building capabilities to secure strong positions in the emerging industry. Notably, more collaboration opportunities from the US have recently surfaced.

In response to strong demand for data security and on-premises AI deployment within South Korea's manufacturing and semiconductor sectors, Taiwanese AI company Spingence Technology is aggressively expanding into the South Korean market starting this year through its enterprise edge large language model (LLM) platform, Edgestar.

MetaOptics' alliance with Taiwanese partner Pinjie Nano-Optics shifts advanced optical manufacturing to Taiwan, leveraging the island's semiconductor supply chain to enable metalens mass production and potentially reshape global optics supply, testing, and scale for customers demanding higher consistency and functional validation across consumer, data center, and telecommunications markets.

Taiwan and the United States have rapidly advanced industrial technology cooperation across sectors, from drones to robotics, in recent years. The GeoAsia Foundation recently announced a strategic alliance with Curiosity Lab, an innovation park in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, to establish the Taiwan Robotics Hub in the US city. This initiative aims to leverage bilateral industry strengths to advance AI and robotics technologies and foster a robust Taiwan-US robotics ecosystem.

Amid rising chip prices, the industry generally anticipates a downturn in the mobile phone and notebook markets in 2026. For South Korea's panel industry, however, optimism continues to emerge. Analysts have pointed out that as demand for lower-end products continues to shrink, the overall end-user market is gradually consolidating toward high-end products. This puts South Korean manufacturers, which have long cultivated the high-end panel market, on a path to robust performance and resilience.

A newly expanded collaboration between Intel and Google signals a key shift in AI infrastructure: CPUs are back at the center of the conversation. Both companies emphasized that the partnership spans multiple generations of Intel's Xeon processors and includes co-development of custom infrastructure silicon. Financial terms and deployment timelines were not disclosed, but the scope points to a long-term alignment, not a one-off supply deal.

Amazon's custom chip business has surpassed an annual revenue run rate of more than US$20 billion, CEO Andy Jassy said in his annual shareholder letter, according to The Information. The figure reflects the rapid adoption of Amazon Web Services' (AWS) in-house silicon portfolio, including Graviton CPUs and Trainium AI accelerators, which are currently sold exclusively through AWS cloud services.

Blaize and Nokia expanded their partnership to validate and build a hybrid AI infrastructure across Asia-Pacific, promising enterprises more efficient edge-to-cloud AI deployment, scalable production-ready frameworks, and tighter integration of AI inference with network operations, potentially reshaping where intelligence is processed and how real-world systems act on data and delivering measurable outcomes.