With a lot of the world’s consideration on the AI race between the US and China, this week’s Computex convention served as a stark reminder of the central function that Taiwan continues to play within the international expertise business.
The 2025 version of Asia’s signature tech gathering did not break as a lot new floor as last year, when Nvidia’s Jensen Huang unveiled a multi-year roadmap for AI chip design. But it surely nonetheless drew the eye of an business parsing the fallout from Washington’s marketing campaign to curb Beijing’s tech ambitions within the aftermath of DeepSeek.
Listed below are the key takeaways from Computex 2025:
Client AI Wants Extra Time
There was scant point out of customers this 12 months. In 2024, Qualcomm devoted its presentation to how AI would make the whole lot higher and we would by no means once more want our laptop computer chargers on the transfer. This time round, it flipped to a script centered on enterprise functions for AI.
Foxconn, often known as Hon Hai Precision Business, used its first keynote handle on the present to go massive on heavy-duty AI, from making cities smarter to bringing robots to manufacturing and making EV design extra environment friendly. The corporate that assembles the majority of the world’s iPhones had nothing to excite customers.
Asustek Laptop supplied a sobering outlook on the prospects of so-called AI PCs.
Samson Hu, co-chief govt officer of the Taiwanese laptop gear maker, mentioned AI PCs will take a 12 months or two earlier than they go mainstream. That is as a result of the software program remains to be immature, plus new tariffs from the US are prone to flatten near-term development. Asus might must hike costs within the US by as a lot as 10 p.c to cope with these levies, Hu mentioned.
DeepSeek Modified AI
The debut of DeepSeek in January modified the character of AI, highlighting China’s advances within the subject whereas dismantling primary assumptions about computing wants.
Huang was among the many few executives who addressed that first brazenly, saying that China is “unimaginable” at software program growth and has the assets to make up for any technological hole.
DeepSeek additionally popularized reasoning fashions, which require extra uncooked computing energy. “And so now the reasoning mannequin isn’t one shot, nevertheless it’s a whole bunch of photographs,” Huang advised reporters this week. “DeepSeek elevated the quantity of computing want by possibly 100 to 1,000 occasions.”
China Looms Giant
Essentially the most-clicked headlines centered round Nvidia’s delicate place because the US pursues chip restrictions meant to curtail China’s tech ascent. That got here to a head Wednesday, when Huang branded that effort a “failure” and referred to as for Washington to back away.
If the US would not enable Nvidia to promote inside China, native corporations like Huawei will fill the void, he warned. “The native corporations are very, very proficient and really decided,” Huang mentioned. “And the export controls gave them the spirit, the vitality and the federal government assist to speed up their growth.”
Whereas key officers in Washington purchase that argument because it applies to the remainder of the world, US President Donald Trump’s administration has doubled down on measures concentrating on Beijing.
Executives in Taiwan little question took observe of two associated developments. Huawei hosted its AI developer gathering the identical week, touting the Ascend chips that Beijing needs to see supplant Nvidia’s silicon. And Xiaomi occurred to announce it is developed its personal superior 3-nanometer cellular chip to compete with Qualcomm.
Taiwan Allure Offensive
Intel new boss labored onerous to fix ties with the Taiwanese companions, after his predecessor Pat Gelsinger raised issues in regards to the island’s dominance in semiconductors.
Lip-Bu Tan praised native provide chain companions throughout an organization occasion in Taipei celebrating its fortieth anniversary on Monday.
Even Nvidia devoted a lot time and flooring house on the convention to lauding its Taiwanese companions. SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son was additionally on the town for the week, although like Tan he was retaining a low public profile.
No Bubble?
There was little public dialogue about one of the crucial urgent questions for tech buyers: have we overestimated the necessity for datacenters? Tech shares from Nvidia to Meta Platforms and Microsoft have gyrated wildly in 2025 partly due to that overarching uncertainty.
To make sure, many of the attendees profit straight from spending on the servers and parts wanted to energy datacenters and AI growth. Nvidia’s CEO echoed the sentiment.
“We’re a number of hundred billion {dollars} into tens of trillions of {dollars} of AI infrastructure buildout,” Huang mentioned.
© 2025 Bloomberg LP
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