February 6, 2026

Alphabet Plans Record Spending in Race to Win AI Customers Alphabet beat revenue and profit forecasts and unveiled a US$185 billion spending plan to accelerate AI leadership, citing surging cloud growth, rising Gemini adoption and record search usage, while defending unprecedented investment in data centers, chips and infrastructure. Taipei Times

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VIEWPOINT 2026: Greg Norton, COO, ProEx As the electronics industry enters 2026, speed, flexibility, and execution will continue to differentiate trusted partners from transactional providers. Product complexity continues to rise, supply chains remain fluid, and expectations for responsiveness have never been higher. ProEx

The "Fried Egg" Effect in Soldering Burnt-on flux residue that is visible on the solder mask of PCBs after improper reflow settings produces significant challenges to the reliability of finished boards. Technical Paper

Hon Hai posts record January revenue, expects stronger-than-usual Q1 Hon Hai posted record January revenue and forecast a stronger-than-usual first quarter, driven by robust shipments of AI products. Sales surged 35.5% year on year despite a monthly dip, reflecting strong AI cloud and server demand. Taipei Times

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Amazon cloud unit beats on revenue and profit as parent company ramps up AI spending Amazon said AWS revenue jumped nearly 24% in the fourth quarter to $35.6 billion, beating estimates and driving most profits. Operating margin widened as the cloud leader ramps AI infrastructure spending amid accelerating competition from Google and Microsoft. CNBC

Investigation Into the Durability of Stencil Coating Technologies Paper addresses durability of coatings in relation to the number of print cycles and underside wipe cycles and materials used on the underside wipe process. Technical Paper

Technical Papers ■ Engineering ESD-Safe PCB Assembly for High-Reliability IoT and Industrial Electronics ■ The Analysis of Variance: Drawing Conclusions from Data That Are Correct, Unambiguous, and Defensible ■ PCB Rework Evolves, With X-ray a Constant Support ■ How pH Cleaning Agents Affect Production Performance ■ A Universal AI-Powered Segmentation Model for PCBA & Semiconductor ■ RAIG Minimizes Corrosion, Allows Higher Gold on ENEPIG ■ High Reliability Lead-Free Solder Paste with Rosin and Anti-Crack Resin ■ Understanding Solder Dross: Causes and Control Strategies ■ Optimizing BGA Rework: Challenges, Techniques and Quality Control ■ Maintenance: The Basics of Cleaning Series Part 4 MORE TECHNICAL PAPERS

Sponsor New SELECT Synchro soldering system A multi-station selective soldering system that uses a unique, synchronous motion to increase throughput, improve cost-of-ownership, and provide flexibility for electronics manufacturers. Nordson Electronics Solutions

AI may be ready for the mainstream, the economics aren't As AI adoption accelerates in 2026, agentic tools and heavy investment fuel optimism, but fragile monetization models persist. Rising costs, uneven usage, and trust concerns are intensifying fears of an AI bubble, underscoring the need for sustainable, value-based business models. TechSpot

Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI Elon Musk confirmed a SpaceX–xAI merger, uniting rocket launches and AI ambitions to pursue space-based data centers. Analysts say Tesla could join within 12–18 months, forming a powerful "Musk Trinity" spanning autonomous vehicles, satellites, and advanced AI. Teslarati

Can High Particle Concentrations Impact PCB Assembly? At our SMT facility we currently control ambient temperature, relative humidity and particle count. Is particle count a good parameter to control? The Assembly Brothers, Phil Zarrow and Jim Hall, discuss this question. Board Talk

Sponsor X-ray Rentals & Rent-to-Own Rent any of our machine models, with up to 3 months of rental costs applied toward purchasing X-ray equipment. Our flexible plan lets you test the system before committing to purchase. Glenbrook Technologies

AI Is Devouring Website Traffic — But I Hit Record Leads Last Year Anyway. Here's How. Google's AI Overviews now appear on roughly 21% of searches, cutting clicks to websites and slashing news traffic. As AI reshapes search, businesses must publish focused, authoritative content to win AI citations and replace lost clicks with brand authority. Entrepreneur

Taiwan-US relations 'rock solid': Lai Taiwan President William Lai said ties with Washington are rock solid and arms cooperation unchanged after Xi Jinping urged Donald Trump to act prudently on Taiwan. US officials reaffirmed policy, while Taipei dismissed fears of a US-China bargain. Taipei Times

Conformal Coatings in Preventing Resistor Silver Sulfide Corrosion The evaluation of conformal coatings to mitigate silver sulfide corrosion of thick film resistors is discussed. Technical Paper

Sponsor Highly Thermally & Electrically Conductive TLPS via Filing Paste New filing highlights advanced sintered metal paste enabling faster installation, superior heat dissipation, higher conductivity, and reliable thermal drain performance without long processing cycles. Ormet TLPS

Big Changes Are Coming To Apple In 2026 Apple's 2026 roadmap largely follows its familiar launch calendar but adds surprises, including an AI-powered Siri overhaul, new smart home devices, possible smart glasses, OLED touchscreen MacBook Pros, a foldable iPhone, and questions around CEO Tim Cook's future leadership. BGR

"Quantum Twins" Simulate What Supercomputers Can't Silicon Quantum Computing launched Quantum Twins, a silicon-based analog quantum simulator now available to customers, demonstrating a 15,000-quantum-dot device that models classically intractable material transitions and shows practical quantum simulation is ready today. IEEE Spectrum

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Amazon's push to make AI cheaper — and why it matters to reigniting the stock Amazon's cloud business and near-term stock direction hinge on whether AWS growth reaccelerates. To spark momentum, Amazon is leaning on custom AI chips to boost performance, cut costs, attract enterprise customers, and sharpen its competitive edge against rivals. CNBC

Improve SMT Yields Using Root Cause Analysis in Stencil Design Paper covers SMT challenges including practical stencil design recommendations to eliminate defects and improve yields during the printing process. Technical Paper

The U.S. calls for trade bloc to counter China's leverage in critical minerals The U.S. launched initiatives to rally allies into a preferential critical-minerals trade bloc, signing dozens of supply agreements, proposing price floors and creating the FORGE partnership to counter China's dominance and stabilize markets vital to technology and defense. CNBC

IBM, Synopsys Move Toward 1.4-nm Node With Heat-Modeling Tech IBM is targeting the 1.4-nm node using machine-learning heat modeling developed with Synopsys and backed by DARPA, sharing it with partners as 2-nm ramps. The atomic-level tool predicts temperatures within 1°C, 50,000× faster, boosting AI-era chip performance. EE Times

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Alexa+, Amazon's AI assistant, is now available to everyone in the US Amazon rolled out Alexa+, its generative AI assistant, to all U.S. customers, giving Prime members free access. The model-agnostic upgrade enables natural chats, planning and third-party integrations, and most users stick with it despite beta bugs. TechCrunch