Alphabet Inc. has executed a financial maneuver that fundamentally alters the landscape of the AI arms race.

Japan’s latest election is being read by global markets as a turning point in industrial policy, capital flows, and technology sovereignty across Asia — not a routine political cycle. Following the February 2026 lower house election, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party secured 316 seats, crossing the two-thirds threshold and delivering one of the strongest mandates in postwar Japan. The broader ruling bloc with the Japan Innovation Party reached about 352 seats, giving the coalition effective legislative control in the 464-seat chamber.

SK Hynix is expected to begin shipments this month of its sixth-generation high-bandwidth memory, HBM4, a high-performance, low-power semiconductor designed for Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence accelerator, Vera Rubin.

With China’s solar products set to lose a 9% export tax rebate in April 2026, compounded by raw material inflation, a wave of pre-rebate-cancellation stockpiling should theoretically emerge. Instead, this buying momentum has mainly come from overseas players. Meanwhile, many other foreign customers, faced with being passed on higher raw material costs, have ultimately chosen to stay on the sidelines. Survival in the industry is increasingly dependent on cash reserves rather than technological superiority.