China has stepped up export scrutiny of solar photovoltaic equipment, extending controls beyond heterojunction tools to most key production equipment and supply-chain sources, sources said. The tightened reviews, tied to preparations for US President Donald Trump's upcoming trip to China, are intended to increase Beijing's leverage in future negotiations, industry sources added.

Ichia Technologies announced on May 11 that it plans to make a cash-based strategic investment in optical communications components maker Evercast Precision, totaling no more than NT$74 million (approx. US$2.36 million).

Arm is preparing to expand beyond its traditional IP licensing business by introducing data center CPUs, positioning itself to compete directly with some of its own customers, including AWS, Google, and Nvidia, while maintaining rapid growth in licensing revenue driven by rising demand for AI infrastructure.

TSMC is facing fierce customer competition and supply shortages as demand surges for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing chips, forcing fabless chipmakers to consider limited shifts in manufacturing partners to ease constraints.

Micron's senior vice president, Jeremy Werner, told The Circuit Podcast that memory has become a strategic bottleneck for data-center inference, warning that insufficient memory can sharply cut GPU utilization while faster, larger memory can theoretically multiply the compute extracted from GPUs. The remarks underscore how storage and memory design could limit AI deployment.

Global memory supply is under severe strain, prompting major cloud service providers to sign multi-year contracts with memory makers and forcing the industry to rethink capacity spending and pricing. The shortage reflects long lead times for new fabs and a strategic shift toward higher-margin memory types.

M31 Technology reported a first-quarter 2026 revenue decline as contract timing disruptions pushed some North American advanced-process projects into the next quarter, but the company said royalties and resumed project activity should underpin a rebound in the second quarter and beyond.

WinWay said April 2026 revenue fell nearly 20% from the previous month due to its customer mix and product profile, but still rose more than 50% from a year earlier as orders for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) applications surged. The test interface maker said its Coaxial Socket high-end test socket capacity kept coming online.

MediaTek announced the opening of a new research and development data center at the Tongluo Science Park in Miaoli, Taiwan, aimed at supporting growing demand for edge AI and cloud AI development.

Advantech reported sharply accelerated first-quarter 2026 order momentum but cautioned that tight component supply and rising material costs will constrain its near-term outlook, even as management remained optimistic about full-year 2026 visibility.

Inventec reported April 2026 revenue of NT$84.786 billion (US$2.68 billion), down 3.17% month on month but up 36.53% year on year, signaling continued momentum in its notebook and server businesses heading into the second quarter of 2026, with broader implications for supply chains and enterprise AI deployments globally.

Fositek said strong demand from artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure is driving rapid growth in its liquid cooling business and will prompt continued capacity expansion to meet customer needs. The company expects server-related revenue to rise quarter by quarter through 2026 and said second-half shipments of a customer's new foldable phones will further lift margins.

Raydium Semiconductor reported first-quarter 2026 revenue and profit figures, signaling demand trends in large displays, automotive, and industrial markets that could affect global display and consumer electronics supply dynamics. International manufacturers and investors may reassess inventory and production plans amid cautious smartphone AMOLED demand and continued large-display stocking by some clients.

Rapid changes in battlefield tactics have made drones central to "economic attrition warfare," shifting the focus from technical performance to cost and scale. The implications are global: military planners, procurement budgets, and civilian supply chains are all under pressure as countries and manufacturers scramble to stockpile, ramp up production, and rethink manufacturing models.

Ukraine is accelerating efforts to reduce its dependence on China's supply chain, while Taiwanese drone makers expand production in Poland and Lithuania, reshaping Eastern Europe's industrial map and affecting global defense supply chains, export controls, and battlefield logistics as European demand rises and Ukraine urgently seeks alternative sourcing channels abroad.

Rising demand for generative AI is prompting major Chinese cloud providers to raise prices for large-scale services and data products, with implications for global AI users and developers, as usage-based billing and efficiency become central to costs and deployment decisions across international markets and could soon influence provider strategies worldwide.

Chicony Power's first-quarter performance signals supply-chain resilience and potential upside for global notebook, server, and satellite power markets, as the company forecasts second-quarter revenue growth driven by inventory pull-ins, rising average selling prices, and expanding satellite and AI power-supply businesses serving international customers.

US President Donald Trump's decision to raise tariffs on European automobiles and parts to 25% is compounding the US car market in the first quarter of 2026, where the absence of subsidies and purchase discounts, and weak purchasing power, are deepening market imbalance. The key variable remains American consumers' real buying power.

Automakers are repositioning advanced driver assistance systems away from optional equipment and toward recurring revenue sources, with a focus on Level 2 and Level 2+ capabilities that can be monetized through feature tiers and subscriptions. These systems are expected to become a central commercial pillar for smart vehicles over the next decade.