Taipei, Feb 7, 2026, 03:20 (GMT+8)
- Wistron chairman Simon Lin says AI “is not a bubble” and expects faster AI-related order growth in 2026 than last year
- Lin says Wistron’s order visibility runs into 2027, with “significant” growth expected this year
- CEO Jeff Lin says volume production at Wistron’s new U.S. facilities will start in the first half of 2026
Wistron Chairman Simon Lin said artificial intelligence is “not a bubble” and that AI-related order growth in 2026 will outpace last year, signalling a long runway for demand at the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, a supplier to Nvidia. Lin said Wistron’s order outlook was “good” into 2027. (Reuters)
His comments come as investors who piled into AI themes are starting to draw sharper lines between winners and losers, with markets focusing on the cost of the build-out and who ends up with the profits. A Reuters analysis this week said the global AI trade is fracturing as soaring capex — capital spending on data centres and equipment — rising debt loads and doubts over payoffs push investors to get picky. “This divergence is not a vote against AI,” Saxo chief investment strategist Charu Chanana wrote, while Liontrust’s Mark Hawtin said: “The market is no longer tolerating spending for spending’s sake.” (Reuters)
That shift has shown up in price action far beyond chip stocks. The S&P 500 software and services index slid 4.6% on Thursday and has shed about $1 trillion in market value since Jan. 28, Reuters reported, as investors worried that fast-advancing AI tools could upend parts of the software sector. “I would classify this as a sell-everything mindset,” said Dave Harrison Smith, chief investment officer and head of technology investing at asset manager Bailard. (Reuters)
“We believe AI really does help all industries, so I don’t think it’s a bubble,” Simon Lin told reporters in Taipei, adding that a “new AI era” was arriving.
Lin said Wistron expected “significant” growth this year compared with the prior year, and described the company’s order situation as solid through 2027.
Wistron said last year its new U.S. manufacturing facilities for Nvidia would be ready in 2026, and that it was in talks with other potential customers.
Wistron CEO Jeff Lin said volume production at the U.S. sites will start in the first half of this year.
Part of the facilities will be used by Nvidia to support its plan to build AI servers worth up to $500 billion in the United States over the next four years, the report said. AI servers are high-powered computers used to train and run AI systems, typically built around specialised chips.
Nvidia said last April it planned to build supercomputer manufacturing plants in Texas, partnering with Foxconn in Houston and Wistron in Dallas, anchoring more of the AI supply chain in the United States.
But the market is getting less forgiving as the bill for AI keeps climbing. Investors are scrutinising the return on big capex plans and, in some pockets of tech, are already pricing in disruption and slower growth, a swing that has dragged down software shares even as demand for AI hardware remains strong.
For Wistron, the near-term test is execution: ramping U.S. output on schedule while keeping pace with customers that are scaling up AI infrastructure and pushing suppliers to deliver more capacity, faster.
