The trade environment for US businesses operating in or trading with China deteriorated sharply between 2025 and 2026, according to a comparative analysis of the latest National Trade Estimate (NTE) Reports, underscoring a widening gap between high-level diplomacy and on-the-ground economic realities.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics has raised prices for its high-end flip-chip ball grid array (FC-BGA) substrates as demand from artificial intelligence (AI) servers and high-performance computing (HPC) applications continues to outpace supply, according to South Korean media reports and industry sources.

Taiwan sits at a rare intersection of economic momentum and political gridlock. The island’s economy expanded 8.68% in 2025, exports hit a record US$640.75 billion, and per capita GDP is closing in on the US$40,000 threshold — largely on the back of booming global demand for AI chips and semiconductor capacity. Yet while Taiwan’s technology industry is firing on all cylinders, its legislature remains deadlocked over the government’s spending plan.

Google Research’s TurboQuant memory-compression algorithm has raised concerns that demand for AI-related memory could weaken, but South Korean experts and analysts say the market reaction may be overblown.