Amid the rapid advancement of generative AI and the simultaneous rise of autonomous vehicles and robotics, industry competition is shifting away from pure computing power and hardware scaling toward deeper control of “perception capabilities” and “real-world data.”

China is reportedly planning targeted export rules for heterojunction (HJT) solar equipment. The move has sparked broad industry debate in 2026, as energy transition and aerospace development grow increasingly intertwined. More than a trade measure, it reflects a cross-domain effort to protect technological sovereignty and keep core R&D value within China.

Samsung Electronics is reportedly restarting its silicon carbide (SiC) wafer foundry business, aiming to tap into the fast-growing next-generation power semiconductor market, reinforce its market position, and improve utilization rates at its existing 8-inch foundry lines. Industry estimates suggest Samsung could enter mass production of SiC chips by 2028.

As power constraints and tighter policy controls in Singapore limit expansion, Malaysia is rapidly emerging as Southeast Asia’s most important data center hub. A DIGITIMES research report finds that Chinese cloud service providers (CSPs), including ByteDance and Alibaba, are accelerating their shift southward, using Malaysia’s unique supply chain pathways to deploy high-end AI computing power locally, including Nvidia’s B200 systems.

As AI reshapes industries from healthcare to finance, companies far beyond Silicon Valley are racing to stake their claim — and some of the most ambitious bets are coming from unexpected corners. Sun Yad Construction, a Taiwan-based firm best known for real estate development, is one of them.

The AI chip race is increasingly running into a different kind of limit — not compute, but packaging, as supply constraints around advanced technologies such as CoWoS begin to tighten.