At CES 2026 in the US, Nvidia unveiled its open-source vision-language-action (VLA) model series, Alpamayo, signaling a new phase in the development of autonomous driving technologies. The launch has intensified competition among global automakers, which are now ramping up investment and racing to secure computing power centered on VLA architectures.

Apple Inc., Qualcomm Inc., and MediaTek are all set to advance their smartphone system-on-chip (SoC) offerings to the 2nm process node in 2026. This coordinated move signals the three giants’ determination to maintain technological leadership, even as the incremental benefits of process improvements come under scrutiny.

NAND flash prices have increased dramatically. Supply and demand are unlikely to ease this year as AI technology giants and large cloud service providers (CSPs) aggressively purchase high-capacity SSDs. At the same time, a severe shortage of fiberglass cloth has also emerged, which is expected to push SSD controller prices upward as well. The NAND shortage will be severe enough to set new record highs for market prices, potentially creating five major challenges for controller manufacturers, who must accelerate their strategies to compete in AI and enterprise server markets.