TSMC’s Cliff Hou calls for a stronger Taiwan chip ecosystem to turn crisis into advantage

The Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) held its annual meeting on October 23. Chairman and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) senior vice president and co-COO Cliff Hou emphasized that despite the challenges and changes in 2025, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry continues to demonstrate strong resilience, adding that Taiwan’s manufacturing sector remains a global leader, while its IC design output holds steady as the world’s second largest.

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As Huawei stumbles, ByteDance quietly rewrites China’s AI cloud order

Huawei Cloud CEO Zhang Ping’an and several top executives were recently demoted and had their salaries reduced, officially due to “performance falsification.” The punishment, however, reflects a broader shift in the AI era: the inseparable link between large models, AI applications, and AI infrastructure. ByteDance’s Volcengine has emerged as a key disruptor representing this integrated vision in China’s cloud ecosystem.

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LINE Taiwan reveals AI agent plans for 2026

After a three-year hiatus, LINE Taiwan held LINE CONVERGE 2025 on October 22 to outline upcoming operational priorities and outlook. With all industries slowly adopting AI, AI agents are anticipated to be the next major focus following generative AI. LINE, with 22 million users in Taiwan, has the potential to leverage its ecosystem to secure a spot in the AI agent market.

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Taiwan’s secret: A century of elite talent driving chips, electronics, and healthcare

Taiwan currently shines on the global stage with three standout industries: its healthcare system, electronics manufacturing services (EMS), and semiconductors. Though each sector’s competitive edge stems from unique factors, they all share one crucial—and arguably most important—common denominator: the sustained, multi-generational commitment of the nation’s social elites. This commitment is measured not in years, but in cycles of sixty years, known as a jiazi in the traditional Chinese calendar.

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