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China's rare earth supply chain faced renewed uncertainty after a deadly explosion at a steel plate plant operated by Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Union, compounding market concerns driven by falling exports and tighter trade controls....

Geopolitics has become an unavoidable force shaping business decisions in 2026. Shifting tariff policies under President Donald Trump have pushed global supply chains away from pure globalization and toward regional and localized production. While Washington has repeatedly called for manufacturing to return to the United States, executives across the industry say the economic and structural obstacles remain formidable....

With shipments of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and XPUs expected to rise sharply in 2026, AI accelerators are set to continue relying on fifth-generation high-bandwidth memory, or HBM3E. Micron said at a recent earnings call that while demand for sixth-generation HBM4 is strong, it is also responding to additional growth in HBM3E demand....

Following the conclusion of the Taiwan-US tariff framework, industry attention centers on how Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision), a leading electronics manufacturer, will recalibrate its operations and strategy. Despite Foxconn's lack of an official statement, experts note that the company typically maintains a cautious stance on major trade policy changes, awaiting comprehensive details and execution guidelines before announcing its corporate responses....

The recent US-Taiwan tariff agreement has minimal effect on servers' original design manufacturers (ODMs), as server products were excluded from both previous reciprocal tariffs and the semiconductor-related Section 232 tariffs. Industry insiders say that rather than tariffs, customer preferences drive production decisions, with most companies now manufacturing in the US primarily to meet customer requirements....

Eutelsat, the satellite operator backed by the French and British governments, announced this week that it has placed an additional order for 340 next-generation OneWeb satellites with Airbus Defence and Space. Combined with a previous order of 100 satellites placed in December 2024, the total procurement now stands at 440 low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites, with deliveries expected to begin in late 2026....

The global AI boom is pushing electronics supply chains to their limits. While shortages of advanced chips and memory have drawn most attention, a less visible constraint is emerging: high-end electronic-grade glass fiber cloth, a core reinforcement material used in chip substrates and printed circuit boards (PCBs)....

Server ODM Quanta Computer is aggressively expanding production, with the expectation that capacity will double again by the end of 2026. Quanta's Executive Vice President and Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT) General Manager Mike Yang said that not only will manufacturing capacity increase, but the engineering staff responsible for R&D will also expand from nearly 3,000 people to an additional 500-800 employees....

Speaking at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week, President Trump delivered a set of remarks that startled both policymakers and industry executives. He openly questioned the long-term value of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) and, in an unexpected turn, extended what appeared to be an olive branch to Chinese automakers....

After months of negotiation, the United States and Taiwan have reached a provisional breakthrough in their tariff talks, signing a memorandum of understanding on investment cooperation. Li-chun Cheng, Taiwan's vice premier, said the agreement makes Taiwan the first economy worldwide to secure a relatively comprehensive and most-favored set of terms in anticipation of potential future tariffs imposed by the United States under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act....

Even as end-market demand shows little sign of a sustained recovery, China's LED display industry has begun a fresh round of price increases, underscoring mounting cost pressures across the supply chain....

The escalating global energy transition and intensifying industrial rivalry have elevated power infrastructure security to a national defense-level strategic concern, with a focus on energy transmission efficiency rather than mere generation capacity. Experts warn that bottlenecks in ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission, particularly in 345 kV cables, are now decisive factors shaping industrial competitiveness and the global digital economy landscape....

Apple and Google have entered an AI technology partnership reportedly worth as much as US$5 billion, according to industry sources cited by the Financial Times. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that Apple may pay roughly US$1 billion annually to use a customized Gemini model developed by Google, which runs on Apple's own servers to maintain user privacy....

The US and Taiwan have reached a trade breakthrough that lowers reciprocal tariffs to 15% and applies most-favored-nation treatment without stacking, creating new momentum for Taiwanese technology companies to expand manufacturing and supply chain operations in the US. The agreement also formalizes a strategy known as the "Taiwan model," aimed at building localized industrial clusters rather than isolated overseas factories....

Industry speculation about collaboration between optics manufacturers and semiconductor companies to bolster their silicon photonics (SiPh) capabilities is gaining ground. Following Largan Technology chairman Enping Lin's comments during a recent earnings call, Asia Optical chairman I-Jen Lai confirmed that Asia Optical is also a potential participant in this trend....

Yageo, a major Taiwanese manufacturer of passive components, has informed customers it will raise prices on specific chip resistors (R-Chip) products starting February 1, citing escalating costs of silver, ruthenium, and palladium. The increase follows prior hikes in related components by Yageo subsidiaries KEMET and Pulse....

As AI smartphones and AI PCs surge, end devices demand unprecedented memory bandwidth. Recently, Chinese interface IP provider Innosilicon announced that its self-developed LPDDR6/5X combo IP has successfully shipped to major customers....

After securing a 15% tariff cap, the next step is to examine future directions of US-Taiwan bilateral cooperation. Aside from establishing models to help Taiwanese companies enter US supply chains and form industrial clusters, the US is also committed to expanding investment in Taiwan's five trusted industries. The defense industry will be the most important to observe as both countries deepen cooperation....

After months of trade negotiations, Taiwan and the US have finalized a reciprocal tariff agreement that lowers rates to 15% without stacking most-favored-nation (MFN) tariffs. The deal grants semiconductor products under Section 232 preferential treatment, expands supply chain investment cooperation, and establishes a credit guarantee fund totaling US$500 billion....

Despite significant jumps in memory costs threatening smartphone affordability, Oppo has chosen to enhance rather than downgrade its latest A6 mid- to low-end models. The company retained standard memory sizes while improving battery capacity, display quality, and other key features, aiming to boost value for consumers....