Riding the AI Wave, Advantech Announces 5-Year Vision; K.C. Liu: Will Expand Investment in Taiwan, US, and Japan
Industrial PC giant Advantech has unveiled its five-year vision for 2026 to 2030, with Chairman K.C. Liu announcing expanded investments in Taiwan, the United States, and Japan. The move aims to ride the AI wave, fully digitize the supply chain, and establish a global business headquarters model.
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- 📰 Published: May 14, 2026 at 14:11
- 🔍 Collected: May 14, 2026 at 14:32 (21 min after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: May 15, 2026 at 07:25 (16h 52m after Collected)
(Central News Agency, Taipei, 14th) K.C. Liu, Chairman of industrial computer manufacturer Advantech, today presented the company's five-year corporate vision for 2026 to 2030. The plan involves fully digitizing the supply chain, establishing a global business headquarters model, and he announced that the company will expand its investments in the United States, Japan, and Taiwan in the coming years.
Liu revealed that he has heard NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang might be interested in visiting the Advantech booth during this year's COMPUTEX Taipei, though talks are still ongoing and the visit might be 'a matter of seconds.' If Huang does visit, Liu will tell him that Advantech will continue to work hard on the 'application layer,' the top layer of the 'AI five-layer cake' theory, and hopes that NVIDIA's enterprise-grade AI agent platform, NemoClaw, will continue to evolve.
Earlier this year at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Huang proposed a 'five-layer cake' framework for artificial intelligence (AI). The bottom layer is energy, above which is chips, then infrastructure, followed by the model layer, and the top layer is the application layer.
Advantech held a press conference today to announce that during COMPUTEX, it will deeply integrate its Advantech World-Wide Partner Conference with its exhibition activities for the first time. Under the brand theme 'Edge Computing & AI-Powered WISE Solutions,' it will link three core activities: an international forum, an exhibition, and the global partner conference. Liu shared Advantech's vision for the next five years at today's press conference.
Liu pointed out that within five years, Advantech will fully digitize and intellectualize its supply chain through AI agents, allowing for immediate order visibility. At the same time, it will reduce the number of distribution centers. For example, it can now ship directly from Taiwan to small customers in Japan and South Korea, with costs not significantly different from having a local supply chain.
Advantech will also establish a WWBO (Worldwide Business Organization) model, covering eight major regions, to promote disciplined governance and accelerate regional and industry-specific expansion.
Liu emphasized that Advantech's characteristic is its wide range of products, with 60 business units and over 1,000 product types. The company is also familiar with industry knowledge and has operational bases worldwide. 'We have an advantage in that we can reach customers, and it's not easy for others to replicate this advantage.'
Liu also announced global investment plans for the coming years. First, Advantech is building a new headquarters in Tustin, Southern California, which is expected to open in October this year. The US market accounts for 30% of Advantech's revenue, with particularly strong performance in the semiconductor equipment industry.
Second, Advantech previously acquired a company in Nogata City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, with about 200 to 300 employees. This is its third manufacturing base outside of Taiwan and China. A new building is currently under construction to serve as a manufacturing backup base, expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2028. It will focus on serving the Design and Manufacturing Services (DMS) and Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) needs of Japanese customers.
Additionally, Advantech is constructing a new building in the Hwa Ya Technology Park in Linkou, Taiwan. It will be completed soon, and if production capacity is fully utilized, Taiwan's production capacity is expected to double.
Regarding the fluctuation of Advantech's stock price, Liu admitted that the company cannot control the stock price, but Advantech is clearly positioned in the 'application layer,' the top of the 'AI five-layer cake' theory proposed by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. Advantech has a strong 'moat' in the application layer, with a rich portfolio of hardware products, both hardware and software capabilities, and sales units all over the world. He remains optimistic about Advantech's growth prospects.
Regarding the impact of component shortages, Liu said that there have been recent shortages of DRAM and Flash memory, as well as CPUs. Advantech's advantage is its good gross margin, which allows it to spend a little more to secure orders from the supply chain and ensure supply.
Miller Chang, President of Advantech's Embedded-IoT Group, stated that this year Advantech will focus on automation, smart healthcare, and robotics applications, especially in areas such as Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR), collaborative robots, and humanoid robots. Through Robotic Building Blocks, it integrates robot brains, sensor modules, and software kits to achieve seamless integration from perception to execution. It also supplies drone modules. (Editor: Lin Shu-yuan) 1150514
Liu revealed that he has heard NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang might be interested in visiting the Advantech booth during this year's COMPUTEX Taipei, though talks are still ongoing and the visit might be 'a matter of seconds.' If Huang does visit, Liu will tell him that Advantech will continue to work hard on the 'application layer,' the top layer of the 'AI five-layer cake' theory, and hopes that NVIDIA's enterprise-grade AI agent platform, NemoClaw, will continue to evolve.
Earlier this year at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Huang proposed a 'five-layer cake' framework for artificial intelligence (AI). The bottom layer is energy, above which is chips, then infrastructure, followed by the model layer, and the top layer is the application layer.
Advantech held a press conference today to announce that during COMPUTEX, it will deeply integrate its Advantech World-Wide Partner Conference with its exhibition activities for the first time. Under the brand theme 'Edge Computing & AI-Powered WISE Solutions,' it will link three core activities: an international forum, an exhibition, and the global partner conference. Liu shared Advantech's vision for the next five years at today's press conference.
Liu pointed out that within five years, Advantech will fully digitize and intellectualize its supply chain through AI agents, allowing for immediate order visibility. At the same time, it will reduce the number of distribution centers. For example, it can now ship directly from Taiwan to small customers in Japan and South Korea, with costs not significantly different from having a local supply chain.
Advantech will also establish a WWBO (Worldwide Business Organization) model, covering eight major regions, to promote disciplined governance and accelerate regional and industry-specific expansion.
Liu emphasized that Advantech's characteristic is its wide range of products, with 60 business units and over 1,000 product types. The company is also familiar with industry knowledge and has operational bases worldwide. 'We have an advantage in that we can reach customers, and it's not easy for others to replicate this advantage.'
Liu also announced global investment plans for the coming years. First, Advantech is building a new headquarters in Tustin, Southern California, which is expected to open in October this year. The US market accounts for 30% of Advantech's revenue, with particularly strong performance in the semiconductor equipment industry.
Second, Advantech previously acquired a company in Nogata City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, with about 200 to 300 employees. This is its third manufacturing base outside of Taiwan and China. A new building is currently under construction to serve as a manufacturing backup base, expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2028. It will focus on serving the Design and Manufacturing Services (DMS) and Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) needs of Japanese customers.
Additionally, Advantech is constructing a new building in the Hwa Ya Technology Park in Linkou, Taiwan. It will be completed soon, and if production capacity is fully utilized, Taiwan's production capacity is expected to double.
Regarding the fluctuation of Advantech's stock price, Liu admitted that the company cannot control the stock price, but Advantech is clearly positioned in the 'application layer,' the top of the 'AI five-layer cake' theory proposed by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. Advantech has a strong 'moat' in the application layer, with a rich portfolio of hardware products, both hardware and software capabilities, and sales units all over the world. He remains optimistic about Advantech's growth prospects.
Regarding the impact of component shortages, Liu said that there have been recent shortages of DRAM and Flash memory, as well as CPUs. Advantech's advantage is its good gross margin, which allows it to spend a little more to secure orders from the supply chain and ensure supply.
Miller Chang, President of Advantech's Embedded-IoT Group, stated that this year Advantech will focus on automation, smart healthcare, and robotics applications, especially in areas such as Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR), collaborative robots, and humanoid robots. Through Robotic Building Blocks, it integrates robot brains, sensor modules, and software kits to achieve seamless integration from perception to execution. It also supplies drone modules. (Editor: Lin Shu-yuan) 1150514